Courts play a key role within the child welfare system in achieving permanency for children. Judges, attorneys, child welfare professionals, and others must understand and implement the laws and work together to ensure timely, safe, and stable permanent families for children. Find resources that provide information to help child welfare agencies and courts collaborate to achieve permanency for children.
Achieving Permanency (PDF - 481 KB)
Klain, Pilnik, Talati, Maze, Diamond-Berry, & Hudson (2009)
In Healthy Beginnings, Healthy Futures: A Judge's Guide
Explains the role judges can play in ensuring very young children achieve timely permanency, decreasing foster care reentries, and enhancing overall well-being outcomes.
| Series Title | State Statutes |
| Author(s) | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Availability | View Download (PDF - 1,155KB) |
| Year Published | 2016 |
Forever Families: Improving Outcomes by Achieving Permanency for Legal Orphans (PDF - 504 KB)
McCully & Whitney Barnes (2013)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Offers policy and practice recommendations to reduce the number of children in foster care whose parents' rights have been terminated and who have no legal permanent connection to a family.
Key Principles for Permanency Planning for Children (PDF - 27 KB)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (2011)
Outlines the key principles for juvenile court judges to support permanency for children. The brief discusses the importance of judges' efforts to keep families together, foster cultural responsiveness, engage families, provide judicial oversight, and more.
Permanency Barriers Project
American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law
Describes an initiative that helps youth in foster care find permanent and safe homes and assists States in identifying and addressing barriers to permanency.
Special Calendaring (PDF - 261 KB)
Corinne Wolfe Children's Law Center, Advocacy, Inc.; New Mexico CASA Network; New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department; New Mexico Citizens Review Board; & New Mexico Children's Court Improvement Commission (2011)
Reviews issues regarding special calendaring, including when it is required, current practices, and best practices for scheduling hearings to improve permanency for children.
| Series Title | Factsheets for Families |
| Author(s) | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Availability | View Download (PDF - 544KB) Order (Free) |
| Year Published | 2016 |
Young Children Involved in the Dependency Court
Lewis (Ed.) (2012)
Judges' Page Newsletter, March 2012
Includes articles by judges, professors, psychologists, parents, and others about creating permanency, safety, and well-being for children involved in the dependency system.
Court issues related to youth permanency
Promising Court Practices: Strategies to Achieve Timely Permanency (PDF - 480 KB)
Casey Family Programs (2009)
Highlights promising court practices from 10 States and 1 county and summarizes these jurisdictions' efforts to improve outcomes for foster youth and increase permanency. The report addresses strategies such as interdisciplinary teams, increased youth participation in hearings, permanency roundtables, revision of jurisdictional statutes and policies, judicial leadership, and more.
Supporting LGBTQ Youth: A Judicial Bench Card (PDF - 55 KB)
American Bar Association (2009)
Lists ways judges can support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, including strategies that support reunification, adoption, and guardianship or relative placement.