Resource Letter:
For Judges and Attorneys Handling Child Protective Services Cases
April 18, 2019
Announcing 2019 Summer Scholarship Opportunities for Child Welfare Judges and Attorneys
The Children’s Commission is offering registration scholarships to qualified attorneys for the State Bar of Texas’ 2019 Advanced Family Law Course’s one-day Child Abuse and Neglect Workshop. Additionally, the Commission is offering scholarships to judges and qualified attorneys for two different trainings from the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC): the NACC’s 42nd Annual National Child Welfare, Juvenile & Family Law Conference and Red Book Training Pre-Conference in Anaheim, California, as well as the NACC’s third round of the Red Book Online Training Course. Please read below for more information on these scholarship opportunities.

The closing date for scholarship applications to both conferences and to the Red Book Online Training Course is midnight on Thursday, May 2, 2019 .
State Bar of Texas' 2019 Advanced Family Law Course's one-day Child Abuse and Neglect Workshop
The 2019 State Bar of Texas Child Abuse and Neglect one-day Workshop will be held on August 14, 2019, in San Antonio, with video replays in Dallas on October 4, 2019; in Houston on October 11, 2019; and in South Padre on October 18, 2019. For more information, please see TexasBarCLE’s publicity for the 2019 one-day Child Abuse and Neglect Workshop CLE . Please note that this link will be updated with an agenda, topics, and speakers in the near future.

This $125 registration scholarship is limited to 100 qualifying attorneys who are only attending the day-long Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) Workshop, which is part of the full 2019 Advanced Family Law Course. This scholarship takes the form of a waived registration fee for the CAN Workshop only. Applicants should note that the Children’s Commission is not able to reimburse attorneys who pay the State Bar of Texas directly for the Advanced Family Law Course or for the CAN Workshop.

Applicants must be currently representing DFPS or taking appointments on the CPS docket, be in good standing with the State Bar of Texas and with their primary judge, and commit to completing a post-event survey from the Children’s Commission.  Judges with applicants from their jurisdiction will be notified by the Children’s Commission and asked to confirm that the applicant is currently representing DFPS or taking appointments on the CPS docket.

Attorneys may apply for a registration scholarship by completing the 2019 Child Abuse and Neglect Workshop Scholarship Application . 

The registration fee is waived for Texas judges by TexasBarCLE.  Judges wishing to attend the 2019 Child Abuse and Neglect Workshop should contact TexasBarCLE directly.

Please note, this scholarship application will close at midnight on May 2, 2019 .
National Association of Counsel for Children's (NACC) 42nd Child Welfare, Juvenile & Family Law Conference and Red Book Training
This year’s NACC Conference will be held on August 26-28, 2019, in Anaheim, California, with a pre-conference Red Book Training held at the same venue on August 25th. The Children’s Commission is offering $1,000 scholarships to 10 qualified attorneys and judges to cover registration costs and conference-related travel expenses.  The funds can be used toward the one-day pre-conference Red Book Training ($200) and/or the three-day 42nd National Child Welfare, Juvenile & Family Law Conference ($400), with any remaining funds available for reimbursement of conference-related travel expenses following the event. Registration fees for the Red Book training and/or Conference will be paid directly to the NACC for each recipient, and the NACC will register all Commission scholarship awardees.

Due to the amount of these scholarships, applying attorneys must be supported by their presiding or appointing judge in order to be considered qualified. Judges with applicants from their jurisdiction will be notified by the Children’s Commission and asked to respond with a statement of support for the scholarship. In addition, attorney applicants must be currently representing DFPS or taking appointments on the CPS docket and be in good standing with the State Bar of Texas. All applicants must commit to completing a post-event survey from the Children’s Commission. Preference will be given to those attorneys who did not receive a Commission scholarship to attend the April 2019 ABA Conferences.

To find out more about the topics and speakers for the NACC 42nd National Conference and optional pre-conference Red Book Training, please see the Conference Brochure .  


Please note, this scholarship application will close at midnight on May 2, 2019 .
National Association of Counsel for Children's (NACC) Red Book Online Training Course
The Children’s Commission will provide 7 total scholarships to judges and qualified attorneys in the form of waived registration fees for the third round of the National Association of Council for Children’s (NACC) Red Book Online Training Course which starts in September. The online course will consist of seven, 60-to-90-minute webinars delivered live between September 18, 2019 and December 4, 2019. Each session is delivered with opportunities for questions and interaction, and is also recorded and available on-demand for viewing at the participant’s convenience throughout the course. This online course is designed to cover the fundamentals of NACC’s legal treatise,  Child Welfare Law and Practice, 3rd Edition  (aka the Red Book) in a convenient and accessible format. This course will assist with preparations for those seeking certification as a Child Welfare Law Specialist (CWLS) as well as provide a useful and practical child welfare law course covering material relevant to child, parent, and agency attorneys as well as judicial officers. More information on the course is available on the NACC website . MCLE for this course has been approved by the State Bar of Texas.

Attorney applicants must be currently representing DFPS or taking appointments on the CPS docket, be in good standing with the State Bar of Texas and with their primary judge, and commit to completing a post-event survey. Judges with applicants from their jurisdiction will be notified by the Children’s Commission and asked to confirm that the applicant is currently representing DFPS or taking appointments on the CPS docket. Preference may be given to applicants who have applied for the NACC’s CWLS exam.


Please note, this scholarship application will close at midnight on May 2, 2019 .

Greater detail about these current and future scholarship opportunities are provided here for judges and here for attorneys on the related scholarships pages of the Children’s Commission website.
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For a complete list of  Jurist in Residence Letters  and  Attorney Resource Letters , please visit the Children's Commission website. Information provided by the Children’s Commission should not be read as a commentary by the Supreme Court of Texas or any other court. For more information about the Children’s Commission, please visit our  website .
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