March Webinar: Representing Deaf Clients in Child Welfare Cases

The Children’s Commission will host a webinar on Tuesday, March 31, 2026 from 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. entitled “Representing Deaf Clients in Child Welfare Cases.”

The presentation will feature best practices for representing deaf clients throughout a child welfare case. Topics covered will include legal requirements, utilizing interpreters, effective client communication and support, and courtroom dynamics.

The presentation will include the following panelists:

• Hon. Aurora Martinez Jones, Judge of the 126th District Court, moderator;
• Meredith Shytles Parekh, Supervising Attorney for Foster Care Matters at Disability Rights Texas, and
• Teresa Dell, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program Specialist at the Department of Family and Protective Services.

MCLE credit and TBLS credit are pending. This presentation will be archived, and materials will be available on the Children’s Commission website following the live webinar.

Now Available:
Trial Skills for Child Welfare Cases:

Developing a Successful Case Theme and Theory

A recording of the recent Children’s Commission webinar entitled “Trial Skills for Child Welfare Cases: Developing a Successful Case Theme and Theory” is now available on the Children’s Commission On-Demand Training and MCLE webpage.

Rob Galvin, an Attorney at Rob Galvin, P.C., and Michele Surratt, a Managing Attorney in DFPS Region 9, provided tips on how to build a case theme and theory to best highlight a client’s position as a child welfare case heads toward final trial. Ethical considerations and attorney strategies for how to use the most persuasive facts and legal arguments together were also discussed.

The course is approved for 1.0 hour of MCLE by the State Bar of Texas. This course was approved by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization for 1.0 hour of certification and recertification continuing legal education requirements for attorneys and paralegals in the specialty fields of Child Welfare Law and Family Law.

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For a complete list of Resource Letters, please visit the Children's Commission webpage. Information provided by the Children’s Commission should not be read as a commentary by the Supreme Court of Texas or any other court. The Children’s Commission website is not equipped to facilitate dialogue or conversation about matters related to the information in this communique. For more information about the Children’s Commission, please visit our website.

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