A new federal funding source for legal representation of parents and children in child welfare cases aims to improve representation quality. A December 2018 federal policy change allows states to seek federal reimbursement under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act for the cost of providing legal representation to eligible children and parents. The ABA Center on Children and the Law and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges released a resource documenting the importance of this new source of federal funding, requirements for accessing IV-E funding, who is covered by this funding, judges’ roles in leveraging IV-E funding for children’s and parent’s counsel, and practical considerations for accessing IV-E funding to improve parent and child representation. 

You can access the resource here.