New Tool Kit Helps Youth in Foster Care Prepare for Family Court Hearings

The Amer­i­can Bar Asso­ci­a­tion Cen­ter on Chil­dren and the Law, with sup­port from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, has pub­lished a new tool kit for young peo­ple in fos­ter care, fam­i­ly court judges and legal pro­fes­sion­als to ensure that the young peo­ple can mean­ing­ful­ly par­tic­i­pate in court pro­ceed­ings affect­ing them and their future. 

The Youth Engage­ment in Court Tool Kit, com­piled by two Jim Casey Fel­lows, iden­ti­fies resources cre­at­ed to help the young peo­ple under­stand their legal rights and voice their needs. 

Court hear­ings can deter­mine where young peo­ple live, what sup­port they receive, how they main­tain fam­i­ly con­nec­tions and what must hap­pen before they may safe­ly return home, live with rel­a­tives or reach anoth­er long-term arrange­ment. The young people’s voic­es are need­ed to share insights that case files and adult per­spec­tives can­not pro­vide, such as where they feel safe, their need for more con­sis­tent vis­its with sib­lings or why they need a driver’s license or after­school job.

Many young peo­ple are not giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty or sup­port to attend court hear­ing about their cas­es. Mak­ing it pos­si­ble for them to be present in court is the first step toward mean­ing­ful par­tic­i­pa­tion. Even when young peo­ple attend, they may not ful­ly under­stand the legal lan­guage used, the roles of the adults involved, the ques­tions they may be asked, whether they may speak or how their input may shape a judge’s decisions.

“Mean­ing­ful change hap­pens when peo­ple have the right tools,” said Sne­ha Barve, a senior attor­ney at the Amer­i­can Bar Asso­ci­a­tion Cen­ter on Chil­dren and the Law. ​“We hope this col­lec­tion of resources serves as a foun­da­tion for deep­er col­lab­o­ra­tion by pro­vid­ing prac­ti­cal resources to use as is or adapt to reflect the unique needs of young peo­ple in fos­ter care across states and communities.”

What’s in the Youth Engage­ment in Court Tool Kit?

The Youth Engage­ment in Court Tool Kit con­tains resources that help young peo­ple under­stand the court process, pre­pare for hear­ings with their social work­ers and attor­neys, build con­fi­dence to share their per­spec­tives with the judge and review the judge’s deci­sions after­ward with a trust­ed adult. This sup­port can help young peo­ple advo­cate for them­selves, build trust with judges and lawyers and par­tic­i­pate in deci­sions affect­ing their safe­ty and well-being.

Child wel­fare courts, prac­tice mod­els and pro­fes­sion­al sup­port roles vary by state, so the tool kit also offers resources rec­om­mend­ing a vari­ety of strate­gies for judges, attor­neys, legal advo­cates, case­work­ers and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als to help make hear­ings more wel­com­ing and more respon­sive to young people’s needs. 

The tool kit includes links to hand­outs, videos, tip sheets and learn­ing mate­ri­als grouped by these themes and practices:

• Pre­pare Youth Before Court, Sup­port Youth Dur­ing Hear­ings and Debrief After Court: tools to help young peo­ple under­stand the legal process, such as the dif­fer­ent types of hear­ings, and debrief after­ward, such as a post-hear­ing sur­vey for youth;
• Know Your Rights Resources: videos, work­books and quick tips that help young peo­ple in fos­ter care feel empow­ered to advo­cate for themselves;
• Authen­tic Con­ver­sa­tions With Youth: ado­les­cent brain sci­ence resources, con­ver­sa­tion guides and glos­saries to help adults talk with young peo­ple hon­est­ly and with­out using legal jargon;
• Pro­mote Nor­mal­cy: resources to help judges, care­givers and child wel­fare pro­fes­sion­als reduce bar­ri­ers in fos­ter care that may hin­der young peo­ple who want to engage in every­day expe­ri­ences nor­mal for their peers, such as after­school sports, spend­ing time with friends or get­ting a driver’s license;
• Region­al Spot­lights: exam­ples show­ing how states are engag­ing young peo­ple, part­ner­ing with courts and devel­op­ing train­ing mate­ri­als and resources for prac­ti­tion­ers. Exam­ples include a list of ques­tions that judges can ask and ​“What to Expect in Court,” a video for youth;
• Youth Engage­ment Self-Assess­ment: tools for lawyers, case­work­ers and judges to help them exam­ine their youth engage­ment prac­tices and iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for improve­ment; and
• Links to resources from oth­er orga­ni­za­tions and experts, includ­ing the Qual­i­ty Improve­ment Cen­ter on Engag­ing Youth in Find­ing Per­ma­nen­cy. 

Prod­uct of a Long-Time Part­ner­ship with the Foundation’s Jim Casey Initiative

The tool kit is the lat­est prod­uct of a long­stand­ing part­ner­ship between the Casey Foundation’s Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive™ and the ABA Cen­ter on Chil­dren and the Law to strength­en authen­tic youth engage­ment in child wel­fare proceedings.

In 2019, the Cen­ter pub­lished Casey Foun­da­tion-fund­ed tools for judges and lawyers to help them engage with young peo­ple in ways that sup­port their devel­op­ment, deci­sion mak­ing and tran­si­tion to adult­hood. These drew on ado­les­cent brain sci­ence research. In 2020, dur­ing the Jim Casey Initiative’s Acti­vat­ing Youth Engage­ment Sum­mit, where teams from 22 states devel­oped action plans to strength­en youth engage­ment, inter­est in the top­ic grew. 

Improv­ing youth engage­ment in court became the focus of a year-long vir­tu­al com­mu­ni­ty led by the Cen­ter. Sev­en par­tic­i­pat­ing states shared strate­gies, exam­ples and resources, which formed a basis for the tool kit.

Jim Casey Fel­lows Leslie McClain and Anas­ta­sia Neu­mann then made the vision real. They were con­nect­ed to the project through the Foun­da­tion as part of their fel­low­ship. They iden­ti­fied the top­ics it should cov­er and curat­ed its con­tents. They high­light­ed youth engage­ment work tak­ing place in Jim Casey Ini­tia­tive part­ner sites in Hawaii, Iowa and Maine. They also co-authored the self-assess­ments and devel­oped a key terms document. 

The Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Coun­sel for Chil­dren and its coun­cil of lived experts in child wel­fare also con­tributed, help­ing ensure that the tool kit reflects pro­fes­sion­al exper­tise and the per­spec­tives of young peo­ple with expe­ri­ence in fos­ter care.

The tool kit also comes at a time of increased fed­er­al sup­port for court improve­ment. The 2025 reau­tho­riza­tion of Title IV‑B increased fund­ing for Court Improve­ment Pro­grams, which sup­port state and trib­al courts in strength­en­ing child wel­fare court process­es and outcomes. 

“In my 16 years work­ing in fam­i­ly court, it was rare to see a young per­son present for a hear­ing about their own life,” said Leslie Gross, direc­tor of the Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group. ​“Courts have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to change that by using this tool kit to exam­ine their cur­rent prac­tices and repli­cate promis­ing approach­es to make mean­ing­ful youth par­tic­i­pa­tion a more con­sis­tent part of court practice.”