Working With the Courts for Permanency

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 safe and stable permanent families for children. The following are resources that provide information to help child welfare agencies and courts collaborate to achieve permanency for children, including court issues related to youth.

• State and local examples

By the Numbers: SBCT Permanency
ZERO TO THREE (2018)
Features an infographic that examines ZERO TO THREE's Safe Babies Court Team (SBCT) approach to increasing permanency in the child welfare system. The webpage links to the SBCT implementation guide, which outlines best practices and gives advice on launching the approach.

Child Welfare Courts During a Public Health Crisis: Access to Justice and Advocacy Are Critical Anchors During Uncertain Times (PDF - 261 KB)
Children’s Advocacy Institute, Children's Rights, National Center for Youth Law, Juvenile Law Center, Youth Law Center, & National Association of Counsel for Children (2020)
Provides guidance on safeguarding the needs and rights of every young person and family member experiencing dependency court involvement during a public health crisis.

Court Improvement Program (CIP) Talks
National Center for State Courts
Presents several videos on how the legal community can partner with stakeholders to better serve vulnerable families and improve child welfare outcomes. The topics discussed include how legal professionals can help strengthen families, high quality legal representation, and more.

Dependency Courts Resource Guide
National Center for State Courts (2019)
Offers resources related to the collaboration of child welfare agencies and dependency courts, including information about dependency court reforms, involving children and parents, judicial checklists and tools, permanency for older youth, reducing the number of children in foster care, and more.

How Judges and Attorneys Help Strengthen Families [Video]
National Center for State Courts (2018)
Identifies how the legal community can work with partners to better serve children and families and achieve overall better outcomes for them. Additional talks that explore how those in the legal community can strengthen families are also available.

Implementing the Older Youth Permanency Provisions of the Strengthening Families Act: The Court's Role
Pokempner (2016)
Child Law Practice Today
Discusses the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act and the court's role in overseeing the new provisions of the law that impact youth permanency. The article reviews the goals of the new provisions, how they will work to improve outcomes, how the courts can implement the provisions, and the court's role in policy development.

Judicial Tip Sheet: Kin First
American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law (2016)
Child Law Practice Today
Describes the importance of kin for youth in foster care and how kinship caregivers can maintain and preserve family relationships, reinforce a child's sense of identity and culture, and serve as the most suitable permanent home when reunification cannot be achieved. The article reviews the role of the court in working to identify and locate kin, making kinship placements, engaging kinship caregivers, and more.

Permanency Barriers Project
American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law
Presents an initiative that helps youth in foster care find permanent and safe homes and assists States in identifying and addressing barriers to permanency.

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Court issues related to youth permanency

How Adolescent Brain Science Supports Youth Engagement in Court Hearings and Case Planning
American Bar Association Youth Engagement Project (2019)
Child Law Practice Today
Describes how adolescent brain science confirms that meaningfully engaging youth in their case planning and court hearings is important for their healthy growth and development and for successful child welfare cases.

Informing the Court: What Permanency Means for Young People
FosterClub (2018)
Shares how the Permanency Pact can be used to support young people in foster care by helping to strengthen connections they may already have. Courts can provide opportunities for the pact to be discussed at different points during case planning and hearings.

Permanency in the Court: A Youth-Driven Perspective [Video] 
Baber, Rideout, Kelly, & Keane (2017)
Voice for Adoption
Outlines steps judges and court professionals can take to promote permanency for youth. These include promoting positive attitudes toward permanency, ensuring youth participation, limiting group care and supporting family-based placements, and prioritizing successful permanency planning.

Unadoptable Is Unacceptable: Removing Legal Barriers to Permanency for Older Youth (PDF - 2,363 KB)
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (2019)
Provides insight into the systemic barriers and most common legal challenges that Wendy’s Wonderful Kids adoption recruiters in all 50 States encounter as they move children out of foster care and into a permanent home.

Youth Voices for Permanency: Courtroom Guide on How Courts and Judges Can Make a Difference (PDF - 456 KB)
Voice for Adoption (2016)
Identifies significant barriers to permanency and presents action steps to help courts and judges ensure timely permanency.

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