Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices

The Children’s Commission began the next phase of the work related to trauma informed care in August 2024, by launching a new initiative called the Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices. The Consortium provides a statewide network for judges to have a forum for discussion, education, and training.

Chaired by Hon. Carlos Villalon Jr., Judge of the Child Protection Court of the Rio Grande Valley West, the Consortium is guided by the four mentor judges who participated in the year-long pilot on Trauma-Informed Courts:

Hon. Linda Dunson, Judge of the 309th Family District Court, Houston;
Hon. Angela Graves-Harrington, Judge of the 246th Family District Court, Houston;
Hon. Andrea James, Associate Judge of the Second Region Child Protection Court Number 2, Bryan; and
Hon. Cheryl Vaughan, Associate Judge of the Child Protection Court Eighth Region North, Gainesville.

Designed for judges hearing civil child welfare cases, the Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices meets bimonthly in a virtual forum. Please read below to learn more about the SCTIC and access related resources including the Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices Trauma Informed Practice Strategies (TIPS). While these TIPS are geared towards judges who handle child welfare cases, attorneys and other child welfare stakeholders may also find the TIPS to be informative and helpful.

For questions about the Consortium, please email ChildrensCommissionRSVP@txcourts.gov.

2021 Judicial Trauma Institute

The Judicial Trauma Institute was presented live on April 22-23, 2021 via webcast. The content was designed by Commission staff in partnership with the Statewide Collaborative on Trauma-Informed Care (SCTIC) Training Workgroup and hosted by the Texas Center for the Judiciary. The goal of the conference was for judicial teams to gain information and discover practical tools and resources about how to become a trauma-informed and trauma-responsive court in child welfare cases. Judicial teams were composed by judges who invited the following members from their jurisdictions: a court coordinator; a prosecutor; an attorney who takes appointments for parents and for children in CPS cases; a senior-level Caseworker or Supervisor at DFPS; and a CASA Executive Director or Program Director. Due to the virtual format, additional child welfare stakeholders and single registrant judges also attended.

Video replays and conference materials can be accessed on the Judicial Trauma Institute webpage.