Dependency

Special Education Rights for Children and Families (2016)
This pamphlet for parents, foster parents, guardians, and people who hold education rights for school-aged children who are struggling in school, describes the process for identifying the need for special education and the services and supports the school can provide.

Caregivers and the Courts (2016)
This is a primer on juvenile dependency proceedings for California foster parents and relative caregivers. Also available in Spanish.

Emancipation Pamphlet (1995)
This pamphlet provides basic information about emancipation proceedings.

Dependency Court: How It Works JV-055 (2001)
Juvenile Court Information for Parents (Dependency) JV-050 (1999)

The Juvenile Dependency Court and You – A Guide for Parents
This guide describes the dependency court process in California. It also includes the story of one parent who went through the dependency system and her advice to you on how to get your children back home. Printable versions in black and white and color are available.

Juvenile Dependency Court Orientation Video (2013)
This 13 minute video explains the dependency court process to parents who have had children removed from their care. It describes detention, jurisdiction, disposition, and review hearings.

Juvenile Dependency Mediation: Permanency Toolkit (2008)
This video highlights the multiple benefits of juvenile dependency mediation through interviews with both California and nationwide judges, attorneys, mediators and other professionals, and it provides the viewer with snapshots of the mediation process.

California Courts Online Self-Help Center
For detailed information on the juvenile dependency court process, forms, and information for parents, visit the Self-Help Guide to Dependency Court.

Together Again: A Day of Celebration (2013)
This book, written from a child’s perspective, seeks to describe the challenges that face children and families going through the dependency process, and celebrate the important accomplishments of parents and the professionals that support them in their efforts toward reunification.
Together Again: A Day of Celebration (for color printing)
Together Again: A Day of Celebration (for b/w printing)
Certificate of Reunification

Voices From Within: Experiences of California Court Employees With the Foster Care System  (2007)
This booklet highlights the experiences, both good and bad, of people working in the courts who have been there and now lead successful lives, as well as those of foster parents and others who have a connection to the foster care system.

What Happens After Your Dependency Case is Dismissed?This brochure provides information on custody, visitation, and child support.
English (8.5" x 14" Format) or 8.5" x 11" Format 
Spanish (8.5' x 14" Format)

Dependency Flow Chart
Nonminor Dependent Flow Chart
This flow chart outlines how a dependency case moves through the court system.

The Court’s Role in Improving Permanency Outcomes for Children & Youth in Foster Care Bench Cards
The following bench cards and appendices are to assist courts on the critical issue of ensuring that foster children end up with a permanent, committed family. Permanency-related statutes, in and of themselves, do not provide the court with needed understanding of effective permanency philosophy and practice implementation. These appendices provide the court with probing questions to be asked at disposition, status review, permanency, and post-permanency hearings to help county agencies and social workers understand what is expected of them and to help the court determine findings required by law.

• The Court’s Role in Improving Permanency Outcomes for Children & Youth in Foster Care: Appendix Companion to Permanency Bench Card Charts
• Bench Card: 366.26 Hearing - Select and Implement Permanent Plan
• Bench Card: Permanency Plan Options for Child Continuing in Foster Care (366.26(b))
• Bench Card: 366.26 Hearing: Termination of Parental Rights

The Dependency Quick Guide: A Dogbook for Attorneys Representing Children and Parents (Third Edition)
A practice guide, legal primer and process resource for dependency attorneys. Includes descriptions of each hearing type, fact sheets on key dependency concepts such as education law, ICWA and parentage, and summaries of seminal cases. Also included are checklists, black letter discussion, and tips to assist attorneys in their practice.

Juvenile Dependency Mediation Curriculum
Pursuant to California Rule of Court 5.518, dependency mediators in California must complete at least 40 hours of initial dependency mediation training before or within 12 months of starting dependency mediation work and receive 12 hours of continuing education each year. This curriculum has been developed specifically for training juvenile dependency mediators. It covers the subject areas referenced in the rule of court and contains training plans, power points, handouts and other references.

Juvenile Dependency Mediation: Permanency Toolkit
This video highlights the multiple benefits of juvenile dependency mediation through interviews with both California and nationwide judges, attorneys, mediators and other professionals, and it provides the viewer with snapshots of the mediation process.

Juvenile Dependency: The Video Game
Designed to provide attorneys with a virtual idea of what it is like to function as an attorney who represents parents and children in juvenile dependency cases. This day-in-the-life experience takes the user through three levels: the Interview room, the Courtroom and the Office. At each level, the attorney is met with challenges typically faced by attorneys each day. Depending upon a player's answers and choices, the player can earn points, be promoted or burn out and quit. Playing the entire game will earn an attorney two (2) hours of MCLE credit. To receive a copy of the video game, email dependencyguide@jud.ca.gov or call (415) 865-7601.

The Child Welfare County Data Profiles for the Courts are a series of county-level reports that provide relevant information on the juvenile dependency caseload in California. The data contained in these reports are drawn primarily from publicly available data stored in California's child welfare data system (CWS/CMS). The reports have been designed to meet the data needs of judicial officers, court managers and court executives. Following a high-level data dashboard, these reports contain information on court caseloads, voluntary caseloads, juvenile dependency filings, family maintenance cases, numbers of children in foster care, foster care entries and exits, foster care placement types, in-care rates by race and ethnicity, reentries into foster care, time to adoption, permanent placement outcomes, and youth aging out of foster care.

CFCC staff are involved in many projects aimed at improving the child welfare system. Links to those projects can be found below:

The California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care  was a multidisciplinary body charged with improving California’s juvenile dependency courts and foster care system and more recently began to address truancy and school discipline.  

The California Child Welfare Council (CWC) is a state advisory body working to improve outcomes for children and youth in California's child welfare system through increased collaboration and coordination among the programs, services, and processes administered by the multiple agencies and courts that serve them.

The Judicial Council’s Court Appointed Special Advocates Grants Program provides funding, technical assistance, evaluation, and training for CASA programs in California. For more information, see the CASA publications.

Federally Funded Dependency Representation Program
A recent change in the federal government's Child Welfare Policy Manual now permits claiming federal foster care dollars (title IV-E funds) for attorneys providing legal representation to a title IV-E–eligible child in foster care or to the child’s parents. The Judicial Council has been working with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to develop a program through which court appointed dependency counsel in California can access these additional federal funds.

Dependency Representation, Administration, Funding, and Training Program (DRAFT)
The DRAFT program addresses critical trial court needs with respect to attorney quality, availability, and cost through the establishment of partnerships between participating courts and the Judicial Council.

Judicial Resources and Technical Assistance (JRTA) 
The JRTA project is designed to improve the lives of foster children and their families by focusing on child safety, legal permanency, and child and family well-being when conducting juvenile court case file reviews and courtroom observations for compliance with state and federal laws.

California Juvenile Dependency Court Improvement Program Reassessment, Full Report(2005)

California Juvenile Dependency Court Improvement Program Reassessment, Summary (2005)

California's Children: Their California's Children: Their Story in Numbers (2003)

Dependency Counsel Caseload Standards: A Report to the California Legislature(2008)

Draft Model Local Rules of Court

Dual-Status Children: Protocols for Implementing Assembly Bill 129 – A Report to the California Legislature (2007)

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Fact Sheet (2011)

Implementation Guide to Juvenile Dependency Court Performance Measures (2009)

Sharing Information About Children in Foster Care - Message From the Chair (2010)

Statement on Data Sharing, California's Child Welfare Council (2009)

Sharing Information About Children in Foster Care: Health Care (2019)

Sharing Information About Children in Foster Care: Education (2019)

Sharing Information About Children in Foster Care: Mental Health Care (2019)

Sharing Information About Children in Foster Care: Substance Abuse Treatment  (2019)

Sharing Information About Children in Foster Care: Child Welfare Agency Files (2019)

Stat Sheet: Court-Based Juvenile Dependency Mediation(2003)

Research Update: Background of Judicial Officers in Juvenile Dependency (2005)

Research Update: California Juvenile Dependency Data (2005)

Research Update: California Juvenile Dependency Data (2003)

Research Update: Court-Based Juvenile Dependency Mediation (2003)

Research Update: Juvenile Dependency Mediation in California: An Overview (February 2012)

Research Update: STAR Court Study: Initial Results (January 2020)