December
2018
NACC HAPPENINGS
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NACC Celebrates its 40th Anniversary at Loyola University Chicago!
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NACC thanks Loyola University Chicago Law School Civitas ChildLaw Center for hosting a Symposium in honor of NACC's 40th Anniversary. Symposium speakers Don Duquette, Leslie Starr Heimov, Erik Pitchal, and Marty Guggenheim gave presentations and engaged the audience of students and practitioners in lively discussion. Stay tuned for the coming edition of the Children's Legal Rights Journal in January--our deep thanks to the Journal executive committee (pictured above) for coordinating this event.
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NACC's Kim Dvorchak Featured on the Colorado Business Roundtable
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Kim Dvorchak, Executive Director of
NACC
,
and Betsy Fordyce, Director of Youth Empowerment of
Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center
discussed the importance of advocating for children’s rights in the foster care system during nonprofit week at Colorado Business Roundtable's Connect & Collaborate Radio Program and Podcast. You can watch the discussion
here
.
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NACC's 42nd National Child Welfare Law Conference will be held in Anaheim August 26-28, 2019.
Now Accepting Conference Abstracts!
Abstracts are open for the National Child Welfare Law Conference. Take this opportunity to share your thoughts, research, and outcomes with hundreds of child welfare law professionals.
National Child Welfare Law Conference is a unique event 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. NACC is grateful for the contributions of our national conference faculty, who provide their time, talent, and treasure to produce a high-quality training event which inspires attendees to do their best work for children and families in courtroom and policy advocacy. Faculty of selected and confirmed abstracts receive complimentary conference registration.
Please click
here
for more information or to submit now. Final deadline is
February 3, 2019.
Please join us as we support a national community of attorneys, judges, social workers, CASAs, health professionals, and other children’s advocates at our 42nd National Child Welfare Law Conference. For three days, this special community gathers to continue their education, improve their skills, and find inspiration and renewed commitment to their work. Over 700 professionals from across the country attend NACC’s conference and our goal is to provide attendees a high-quality experience that motivates effective advocacy for children and families.
Click
here
to take advantage of early-registration rates, and for sponsorship, advertising, and exhibiting information.
The conference will be held August 26 - 28, 2019 at the
Anaheim Marriott Hotel
(just down the street from Disneyland!). A full-day pre-conference live
Red Book Training
will be held on August 25, 2019, and NACC's hotel rate begins Friday, August 23.
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MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNT ENDING!
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During the final month of this campaign, NACC is offering all Bronze, Silver, and Gold members the opportunity to
extend
or
renew
their membership for one year at a
40% discount.
Whether their membership expires this month or next year, we will add 12 months of membership during the final weeks of our
40 for 40 Celebration!
And this promotion is for everyone! The NACC is also offering new and former members this
40%
discount when they
join
or
rejoin.
This is an excellent time to join at the Silver level for $120 and receive a hard copy of the Red Book, as well as the Bronze level for $60.
Giving a Gift Membership is just one more way you can utilize this offer!
Give
a colleague, friend, or family member a Bronze, Silver, or Gold membership or extend/renew their existing one during this very special campaign!
Join NACC as we launch our new
2019-2023 Strategic Plan
offering our members MORE - more webinars, more resources and practice tips, and more networking opportunities! Together we can #PromoteExcellence #BuildCommunity and #AdvanceJustice. You may also consider making the commitment to become a Platinum Lifetime Member at $2,500 in this special year.
Extend/Renew/Join/Rejoin/Give
now!
Use code
NACC40
at
checkout
,
click
here t
o send via mail, or click
here
for the gift membership form.
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Congratulations to our Newest Certified Child Welfare Law Specialists!
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Barry LaCour, JD, CWLS
State of Louisiana –
Mental Health Advocacy Service/Child Advocacy Program
Lafayette, LA
Jessica Long, JD, CWLS
Jessica Long Law, LLC
Holly Springs, GA
Maranda Stevens, JD, CWLS
Catawba County Department of Social Services
Newton, NC
Last Chance to Take Advantage of Our Reduced CWLS Application Fee!
In January 2019, the CWLS certification application fee will be increased. Now is the time to apply!
If you submit your application and payment by December 31, 2018, the fee is only $350
(which includes the exam and a copy of the Red Book).
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Spring Red Book Training Course
We are proud to announce the spring session of our online Red Book Training Course. This course is designed to assist attendees in preparing for the Child Welfare Law Specialist (CWLS) examination. It can also serve as an overall review of dependency competency areas. The course will consist of seven webinars delivered over a period of 13 weeks, and all webinars are available for up to 6 months to watch and re-watch at your leisure.
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) and an electronic copy of the Red Book is included. The course will assist attendees in breaking the material down, focusing on important concepts, and guiding you through the material in the Red Book.
NACC will be offering the Red Book Training Course twice annually, in the spring and the fall. Please consider including this course or a Red Book live training into your regular training schedule. Contact our team for information on discount packages for the Red Book Training Course, hard copy Red Books, and/or CWLS Certification.
Call for Topics for Upcoming Webinars
Have you ever thought – “this” would be a great topic for a webinar? Well you are in luck. Starting in 2019 NACC is planning on hosting a series of webinars for our members and we want to hear from you. Share your great ideas and thoughts about webinar topics you would either like to deliver or view. For more information please contact Brooke Silverthorn at
brooke.silverthorn@naccchildlaw.org
.
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- The NACC Every Kid Needs a Family workgroup is looking at various licensing requirements for family placements. If you live and work in a state which you think has a good system for allowing children to be placed with relatives that is not overly burdensome and/or arbitrary we would love to hear from you about what your state is doing. Please contact eknfworkgroup@naccchildlaw.org.
- The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is up for reauthorization. NACC is advocating for an addition to the GAL provision that would include children’s right to legal representation, in addition to a lay GAL or CASA. We expect a vote from Congress in the first quarter of 2019. Stay tuned for opportunities to get involved in supporting NACC’s efforts to include legal representation for children in CAPTA.
- NACC is also drafting an amicus brief in a New York case in support of the mother and the two oldest children in appealing a termination of parental rights order. In this case, the mother’s parental rights were terminated as to all of her children. However, the two oldest children, both teenagers, are objecting to being adopted and are not in an adoptive placement. The mother is currently parenting the youngest child, who was not removed from her care at birth a little over a year ago due to the mother’s progress and lack of evidence to support a removal at that time. Stay tuned for more information about this case after the brief is filed.
- Congress reauthorizes JJDPA! On December 13, 2018, Congress passed H.R. 6964, reauthorizing the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Act. This marks the first time the act has been reauthorized in 16 years. H.R. 6964 updates and reauthorizes the country's primary federal legislation on juvenile justice and strengthens the JJDPA's four core protections for youth. It changes the long-standing Disproportionate Minority Contact requirement to ensure that states address Racial and Ethnic Disparities within the justice system. It also ensures that young people awaiting trial in adult court will not be housed in adult facilities, and requires that credits earned while in detention transfer back to the student's community school. Click here to learn more. H.R. 6964 will be sent to the President for signature before becoming law.
- Children's Bureau Express Spotlight on the Role of the Legal and Judicial Community in Improving Outcomes for Children and Families. This month's issue of CBX highlights the important partnership between the legal and judicial systems and child welfare. Because this topic is so important, the Children's Bureau dedicated the entire issue and not just the Spotlight section. Read a message from the Children’s Bureau’s David Kelly, as well as featured guest articles from Vivek Sankaran, Director, Child Advocacy Law Clinic, University of Michigan Law School; Judge Derek C. Swope, West Virginia Circuit Court; and Allison Green, Special Assistant Professional & Foster America Fellow, Missouri Children's Division. This issue also includes a variety of resources on the essential collaboration between attorneys, judges, and child welfare agencies.
- RESEARCH REQUEST: Please considering responding to the request for information about findings, measures, and data sources from your research and program evaluations examining hearing quality and judicial decision-making in child welfare cases. The information you share will inform the Understanding Judicial Decision-Making and Hearing Quality in Child Welfare project funded by the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in partnership with the Children’s Bureau. This project will examine judicial decision-making during the life of a child welfare case as well as the quality of child welfare court proceedings, the factors associated with decision-making and hearing quality, and the influence that decision-making and hearing quality may have on case planning and child and family outcomes. Click here to review this request and send all materials or inquires, along with your contact information, to cwhearingquality@acf.hhs.gov by January 31, 2019.
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GIVE TO NACC: HELP US MEET OUR MATCH!
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To support the launch of NACC's Strategic Plan, a group of donors established a matching fund of $10,000. You can help us double this gift! When NACC raises $10,000 this year we will receive $20,000 in donations! Thank you for helping NACC meet this challenge.
And there's more! The
Anaheim Marriott Hotel has donated two nights stay for NACC's 42nd Annual Conference. NACC is reserving this special prize for NACC members/CWLS who make a donation of
$40
or more before the end of the year! Drawing to be held on January 3, 2019.
Consider giving back to NACC your 40% discount on membership this year and
click here to give
.
To make 2018 the year you become a lifetime Platinum Member,
click here
.
Thank you!
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Did you know your purchases can make a difference?
National Association of Counsel for Children |
www.NACCchildlaw.org
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