Please mark your calendars for a new webinar series covering Fostering Connections and highlighting specific provisions and guidance around education and family-finding, designed for Model Courts and their teams (but open to others who are interested in the topics.)  While we hope that you will be able to join us for the live discussion and Q&A, we will be archiving the series for you to view later.

Fostering Connections 101:  A Guide to the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
October 6, 2011  9:00am-11am/12:00-2:00 EST Presented by:  Heidi Redlich Epstein, American Bar Association
This webinar will provide an overview of the Act and its provisions, highlighted in the recently released Judicial Guide to Implementing the Fostering Connections Act.  The webinar will be interactive, with opportunities for questions and info-sharing.

Click Fostering Connections 101 to watch the webinar that was presented on October 6th.

Additional Resources from Fostering Connections 101 

Click HERE to download the  Judicial Guide to Fostering Connections

Click HERE to download Grandfamilies State Law and Policy Resource Center Flyer

Unpacking the Education Provisions in Fostering Connections
October 20, 2011  9:00am-10:30am PST/12:00pm-1:30pm EST
Presented by:  Kathleen McNaught, American Bar Association
This webinar will delve into the details of the education provisions of the Act, with opportunities for questions and info-sharing. Please click the following link to enter the webinar.

Click Unpacking the Education Provisions in Fostering Connections to watch the webinar that was presented on October 20th.

Finding Families, Finding Home
November 8, 2011 9:00-10:30 PST/12:00-1:30 EST
Presented by:  Kelly Lynn Beck, Seneca Center and the National Institute for Permanent Family Connectedness
Join us for an interactive session and learn how family-finding can assist children, youth and families in your jurisdiction.

Click Finding Families, Finding Home to watch the webinar that was presented on November 8th.

We will also be scheduling a post-series Q&A/information-sharing session online with all presenters at a later date.  Additional information is forthcoming.  We hope you can join us!

Family Reunification Website

Los Angeles County Creates Website to Celebrate Family Reunification CLICK HERE for more details.

The web site provides information on Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) programs that help facilitate family reunification, including highlighting information on  court, non-profit, and community partners. The web site also has a list of scheduled  events at DCFS regional offices during Family Reunification Week.

National Adoption Day

National Adoption Day 2011 will be held on Saturday, November 19.   National Adoption Day is a collective national effort to raise awareness of the more than 107,000 children in foster care waiting to find permanent, loving families.  This one day has made the dreams of thousands of children and youth come true by bringing together courts, judges, lawyers, social workers, adoption advocates, and policymakers to finalize adoptions and work to find permanent, loving homes for children in foster care.

On November 18, 2000, the first National Adoption Day was observed and included nine participating cities: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Omaha, and Columbus.  Since 2000, the goal of National Adoption Day has been that every community in the U.S. will have an annual, self-driven celebration of National Adoption Day on or near the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  By 2010, over 375 communities in all 50 states have participated and over 35,000 children have been adopted from foster care as part of National Adoption Day celebrations.  Each year, the President has issued a Proclamation, along with all 50 governors and numerous mayors declaring National Adoption Day.  The U.S. Congress has passed Resolutions in support of this cause, as well as legislatures and other governing bodies across the country.  

A coalition of national partners – The Alliance for Children’s Rights, Children’s Action Network, Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and Freddie Mac Foundation – sponsor National Adoption Day to draw special attention to foster children waiting for permanent families and to celebrate all loving families that adopt.  National Adoption Day events are organized locally in each community by the court, child welfare agency and private agencies and other community partners such as CASA and bar associations.  This year the National Adoption Day Coalition expects over 4,000 foster children to be adopted during National Adoption Day ceremonies on or near November 19, 2011.

The goals of National Adoption Day are to:
o Finalize adoptions from foster care in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam
o Celebrate and honor all families who adopt
o Raise awareness about the 107,000 children in foster care waiting for adoption
o Encourage others to adopt children from foster care
o Build collaboration among local child welfare and adoption agencies, courts and advocacy organizations

For more information, visit the National Adoption Day Web site at www.nationaladoptionday.org.  On the Website, all the tools and resources you need to plan a National Adoption Day event in your court and community are available.  In addition, you can register your National Adoption Day event at www.nationaladoptionday.org/get-involved and be a part of a national movement to celebrate adoption from foster care and raise awareness about the 107,000 children waiting for adoption.

For more information and to register your event CLICK HERE  

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges recently released a report titled, Right from the Start: The Courts Catalyzing Change Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard Study Report -- Testing a Tool for Judicial Decision-Making. The report details positive qualitative and quantitative results when using the guidelines outlined in the Benchcard. Development of this Benchcard grew out of a national initiative, Courts Catalyzing Change: Achieving Equity and Fairness in Foster Care (CCC). This report shows that children who are removed from their parents for abuse or neglect allegations experience better outcomes when judges follow a set of decision-making guidelines during the initial removal hearing. 

Judicial Guide to Implementing the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008

The American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law (ABA), National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and National Center for State Courts (NCSC) are pleased to announce a new publication, Judicial Guide to Implementing the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.

The role of the court in effectively implementing Fostering Connections is critical. This practical guide contains an analysis of the barriers faced by courts as well as implementation strategies to overcome these barriers.

For each section of Fostering Connections, the guide provides:

· An overview of the law

· Judicial considerations for successful implementation

· Questions to ask from the bench to help ensure compliance with the law and best practice

· Resources from national experts to direct further reflection and analysis

 Click HERE to download a copy of the publication!

Technical Assistance Bulletin

Right from the Start : The CCC Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard, A Tool for Judicial Decision-Making

The Courts Catalyzing Change: Achieving Equity and Fairness in Foster Care Initiative (CCC) brings together judicial officers and other systems’ experts to set a national agenda for court-based training, research, and reform initiatives to reduce the disproportionate representation of children of color in dependency court systems. As part of the initial research of the initiative, the CCC Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard was developed.

This technical assistance bulletin was built by the CCC Steering Committee and Call to Action workgroup through their lively discussions guiding the development of the CCC Benchcard. Each section of the Benchcard is explained in detail and preliminary research results as to its effectiveness are presented. (September 2010) CAN-67

Click HERE to download the technical assistance bulletin.
Click HERE to download the PPH benchcards.

Click this link to view the bulletin online http://issuu.com/ncjfcj/docs/ccc_bench_card_bulletinfinal

Click this link to view the PPH benchcards online  http://issuu.com/ncjfcj/docs/ccc_bench_card_insertsfinal

Technical Assistance Brief, Creating Judicial - Academic Partnerships: An Efficient Way to Leverage Resources for Evaluation

Courts may not have the time or expertise necessary to carry out evaluations, formulate research questions, assess data, or interpret results. Turning to external partners can help courts meet evaluation needs. Judicial - academic partnerships are an especially effective way to leverage resources to enhance the evaluation capacity of the court. Collaborating with an academic researcher can provide courts with mutually beneficial evaluation opportunities. This Technical Assistance Brief provides systematic guidelines for developing judicial-academic partnerships. Available by download only. (September 2010) CAN-66

Click HERE to download the brief.

Technical Assistance Brief, Model Court Protocol:  Leadership, Innovation, and Accountability

This Technical Assistance Brief outlines the level of participation, expectations, and processes involved in being in the Model Courts Project. It details the responsibilities of the Lead Judge and PPCD staff in assessing goals and objectives of each Model Court. (September 2010) CAN-65 

Click HERE to download the brief.

Revised Active Efforts Principles and Expectations Publication

This publication was developed in consultation with the nine federally recognized Tribes of Oregon by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Citizen Review Board (CRB) to create a tool to implement the active efforts mandate of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The following guidelines are offered for use by courts, DHS staff and local CRBs in evaluating whether active efforts have been made in ICWA cases.

Please click HERE to download the publication.

COMING SOON!!
Designing Effective Training Evaluations: An Implementation Guide and Toolbox for Dependency Court Systems

With funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau, the Permanency Planning for Children Department (PPCD), in collaboration with the National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues, has developed an Implementation Guide and Toolbox for dependency court systems to use as they design and evaluate their training programs. The Guide is designed to provide strategies and evaluation tools to training coordinators about how to identify training needs, develop training methodologies, and assess training outcomes.

Click HERE to view the Fact Sheet.

New PPCD Technical Assistance Brief!

Court Reform and American Indian and Alaskan Native Children:
Increasing Protections and Improving Outcomes

This Technical Assistance Brief, a joint publication of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, has found that additional improvements in data collection and collaboration between courts and public agencies are required to better meet the unique needs of American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) children in court dependency cases, and offers additional recommendations to strengthen the foster care system's response to the needs of AI/AN children. Partially funded by OJJDP, the report provides a preliminary examination of recommendations made in a 2004 study by the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, focusing on State and Tribal Court involvement in Indian child welfare matters and opportunities for enhancing court systems for AI/AN children.

Please click Here to download the publication. Hard copies can be obtained by contacting caninfo@ncjfcj.org