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Tool Kits for Attorneys

2024 Tool Kit for Attorneys Representing the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services in Child Welfare Cases

 

2024 Tool Kit for Attorneys Representing Parents and Children in Child Welfare Cases

Online and Interactive; also available by downloading the mobile application, LawBox:

Brochures

Attorney’s Role

Parents and Children in a Child Welfare Case

These brochures explain the responsibilities of an attorney for a parent or child towards their client and how to resolve issues between the attorney and the client. The brochures are intended to be shared with parents and foster parents in child welfare cases and may be helpful for judges to have available in the courtroom and/or a courthouse library or information center.

Fathers' Rights in CPS Cases: What You Need to Know 

The Children’s Commission Legal Representation Committee has completed a resource pamphlet highlighting fathers’ rights when involved in a CPS case. Modeled after the Commission’s What Does a Parent’s Attorney do in a CPS Case? pamphlet, Fathers' Rights in CPS Cases: What You Need To Know uses accessible language to inform fathers of their basic rights in child welfare legal proceedings and explains the different legal statuses for fathers. The pamphlet is available for PDF download below.

Rights of Incarcerated Parents in CPS Cases

The Children’s Commission Legal Representation Committee developed a poster as a resource highlighting the rights of incarcerated parents in a CPS case. This resource identifies basic rights in child welfare legal proceedings and explains how parents can participate in the case and in their child’s life, subject to the rules of the institution where they are incarcerated. The poster is available for PDF download below:

 

Video Series: Youth Voice Videos Explaining the Attorney-Client Relationship

“Your Lawyer Works for You” is a two-part video series designed for youth to explain the attorney-client relationship. The videos are a collaboration between the Children’s Commission and the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS) Young Adult Leadership Council (YALC) and features young adults formerly in foster care discussing their experiences with their attorneys, articulating basics about the attorney-client relationship, and helping youth understand how to resolve problems with their attorneys. The videos are available on the Children’s Commission's YouTube Youth Voice Playlist and the TNOYS YouTube Channel.

 

 

Coloring Book: Sam and the Search for Spots - How Your Lawyer Can Help You

The Children’s Commission Legal Representation Committee created a coloring book designed to help children ages 6-12 understand the role of an attorney ad litem for a child and the attorney-client relationship in a child welfare case. The coloring book was developed by a workgroup which included law professors, board-certified child welfare law experts, and youth with lived experience in foster care and is designed to help children and caregivers discuss what makes an attorney ad litem for the child different from other people in the child’s case and how the attorney can help the child during the case through counseling and advocacy.

This publication is available in two formats at the links below: to print on a personal device, and for commercial print.

English:

Spanish:

Publications:

Judicial Guide:

Standards of Practice: