NACC Welcomes New Board Members
Thank you for participating in NACC's 2019 Board of Directors election. We are pleased to report the election of NACC's new and renewing board members:
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Candi Mayes, JD, CWLS
Board President (renewing)
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H
onorable Karen Braxton, JD, CWLS
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Come meet
NACC's Board
at our 43rd National Child Welfare Law Conference in Baltimore!
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UPCOMING MEMBERS-ONLY WEBINAR
Webinars now monthly!
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Tuesday, February 4, 2:30-3:30pm ET
What Do Foster Youth and Other Stakeholders Want From Their Lawyer?
Presented by:
J. Jay Miller
, PHD, MSW, CSW,
Jessica Donohoue-Dioh,
PHD, MSW, LISW
Nationwide, high-quality legal representation for children is in the spotlight. Yet most policy conversations focus on how
professionals
envision the legal advocate’s work. How do foster youth define effective representation? How should current empirical research of their perspectives shape our work? This interactive webinar will synthesize several new studies examining stakeholder (e.g., foster youth, foster parent, child welfare workers, attorney guardians ad litem) perspectives about the quality of legal representation for youth in care.
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NACC to Revise Child Representation Recommendations
The development and dissemination of standards of practice and recommendations for children’s legal representation is essential to ensuring the highest quality advocacy and providing guidance to the field of child welfare law. In 2001, NACC adopted
Recommendations for Representation of Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases
(Recommendations). The Recommendations cover various standards and best practices, including attorney competency, caseloads, duties of children’s counsel, and models of representation.
NACC is soliciting comments from members and youth with lived experience in foster care as we revise this critical guidance for the field. Comments are welcome on any section of the Recommendations, or in their entirety
. #
ChildRep2020
Comments due February 18.
Click
here
for more information.
NACC Submits Formal Comments to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regarding Proposed Rule Change Permitting Discrimination
In November 2019, the federal Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule stripping non-discrimination protections from over $500 billion grant programs, jeopardizing important protections for young people and families experiencing child welfare system involvement. NACC submitted formal comments strongly opposing these changes which put young people’s safety, permanency, and well-being in harm’s way. Read NACC's comments
here
.
NACC Launches Organizational Membership Program
NACC’s newly updated organizational membership program is designed to bolster the national NACC community by engaging child welfare offices and agencies from small teams to large agencies. An organizational membership provides Bronze-level membership benefits and discounts to your entire office, law firm or agency. Click
here
for more information and to become an organizational member.
e
NACC to present at National Conference on Juvenile Justice
NACC's Executive Director Kim Dvorchak will present with Naomi Smoot, Executive Director of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice on
A Dual System Strategy for Dual-Status Youth: Leveraging the Family First Prevention Services Act and the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act for Youth and Families
at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judge's National Conference on Juvenile Justice.
Click
here
for more information about this conference to be held in Pittsburgh this March.
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CERTIFICATION NEWS
Child Welfare Law Specialist (CWLS) certification is a professional achievement that signifies an attorney's specialized knowledge, skill, and verified expertise in the field of child welfare law.
CWLS certification is for children's attorneys, parent's attorneys, agency attorneys, judges, and policy advocates/professors. #ChildWelfareLawSpecialist
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Congratulations to Our Newest Child Welfare Law Specialists!
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Matthew Felder, JD, CWLS
Children’s Law Center of California
Monterey Park, CA
M. Cecilia Hellrung, JD, CWLS
Law Office of Cecilia Hellrung
San Antonio, TX
Jodie Wasson, JD, CWLS
Fulton County Office of the Child Attorney
Atlanta, GA
Hon. Christopher Willis, CWLS
Juvenile Court of Forsyth County
Cumming, GA
Ref. Mona Youssef, CWLS
Third Judicial Circuit of Michigan
Detroit, MI
CWLS Salary Survey Coming Soon!
NACC is advocating on behalf of the CWLS community in order to avoid fee increases and highlight disparities in compensation between CWLS and other legal specialists certified by ABA-accredited organizations. Keep an eye out for a short CWLS salary survey to be released soon. Make your voice heard by participating in this anonymous survey.
Make 2020 the Year You Achieve CWLS Certification!
2020 Application Fee: Members $375 (Non-Members $500)
This application fee includes the exam and a hard copy of
Child Welfare Law and Practice, 3rd Edition.
The exam can now be taken online at a time and place convenient to you.
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NACC's RED BOOK TRAINING COURSE
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NACC's online Red Book Training Course is designed to assist you in preparing for the Child Welfare Law Specialist (CWLS) examination, and serves as an excellent review of core dependency competency areas. The material covered in the course is drawn from
Child Welfare Law and Practice: Representing Children, Parents, and State Agencies in Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency Cases
(3rd Edition "Red Book"). The course consists of seven weekly webinars. Participants can join the course live or watch/listen to recordings for a six-month period.
Spring Course: March 4th, 2020 through April 15, 2020.
Individuals register through NACC at the link below. Applying for
CWLS Certification
is not required to take the Red Book Training--but why not take your practice to the next level and obtain this important credential?
To register a group of attorneys from your office, please contact NACC at
Training@NACCchildlaw.org
.
We can also create custom packages to include hard copy Red Books and/or CWLS certification applications.
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Join the NACC Community August 24 – 26, 2020 at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott.
NACC's conference is a unique opportunity for child and family legal and policy professionals from across the country to gather to continue their legal education, exchange new ideas, build skills, and network with colleagues and friends.
Pre-conference sessions on August 23 will include NACC’s Red Book Training and Children’s Law Office Convening.
Visit our
conference page
for the latest details.
#NACC2020
Abstracts Open through February 2nd
NACC is grateful for the contributions of our national conference faculty, who provide their time and talent to produce a high-quality training event which inspires attendees to do their best work for children and families in courtroom and policy advocacy. In addition to hot topics in child welfare law and practice this year's theme is
Cross-Sector Advocacy
. Click
here
for information and to submit.
Deadline: February 2, 2020
Early Registration is Open
It’s Early Registration Season.
Register before 4/30/2020 to receive the lowest registration rates of 2020:
$400 for Child Welfare Law Specialists (CWLS), $425 for NACC Members. Click
here to register.
NACC also offers easy registration to law offices, agencies, and groups. Email
Conference@NACCchildlaw.org
for our Group Registration Form.
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The
Juvenile Law Center
,
The Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University,
the Rutgers Youth and Criminal Justice Clinic, and The Brimley Group are hosting a
SORNA State Strategy Session
in the spring for jurisdictional teams interested in eliminating the harmful practice of placing youth on sex offender registries. Please see the attachment and announcement below.
Applications are due February 1, 2020
and can be found
here
.
The
Georgetown Center for Juvenile Justice Reform
is now accepting applications through February 7, 2020, for the
Supporting the Well-Being of System-Involved LGBTQ Youth Certificate Program
,
which will be held April 20-24, 2020 at Georgetown University. CJJR has partnered again with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Ceres Policy Research to provide a weeklong training focused on effective policy and practice reforms that promote positive youth development and take a holistic approach to addressing the needs of LGBTQ youth in child-serving systems. As part of the Certificate Program, participants will develop and implement a Capstone Project that applies the learning from the particular training to a local reform effort that is designed to improve outcomes for system-involved LGBTQ youth in their jurisdictions. View the
curriculum
and
apply
to the LGBTQ Youth Certificate Program by
February 7, 2020
.
2020 CIP Talks
The
Capacity Building Center for Courts
is excited to bring you an all new series of engaging, and inspiring recorded talks by nationally recognized child welfare experts. The talks focus on different aspects of the court's role in providing high quality representation and multi-disciplinary support to families, that can help to prevent removal whenever possible. A new CIP Talk will premiere the first Monday of each month in 2020 followed by a virtual Q&A with the speaker.
- Monday, February 3, Angela Vigil "Why Every Child in Foster Care Would Benefit from High Quality Legal Representation"
- Monday, March 2, Sheldon Spotted Elk "Family Justice in Indian County"
- Monday, April 6, Monique Mitchell "What Every Judge and Attorney Needs to Know about the Trauma of Removal"
All talks will be posted here
, where you can now see prior speakers, including Jey Rajaraman, Chief Counsel, Family Representation Project Legal Services of New Jersey who spoke earlier this month on "How Parent Attorneys Can Help Promote Parent and Child Well-Being through Family Time and Work with Resource Parents."
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Join the conversation on social media!
#ChildRep2020
#NACC2020
#ChildWelfareLawSpecialist
#PromotingExcellence #BuildingCommunity #AdvancingJustice
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National Association of Counsel for Children | www.NACCchildlaw.org
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