Guarantee Legal Representation for Children and Parents

The National Coalition for Child and Family Well-Being (NCCFWB) strongly believes in access to quality legal representation for both children and parents involved in the child welfare system. High-quality legal representation is essential across the continuum of child welfare decision points, including as part of any child abuse or neglect investigation or filing with a court. It is one of the most effective ways to protect the rights of parents and children and to keep children from entering or becoming more deeply involved in the child welfare system.

Research has consistently shown that investing in child and parent counsel reduces delays in case processing, increases parties’ participation in the case plan, informs better judicial decision-making, increases family reunification, and helps children reach permanency sooner and with more stable long-term outcomes. Access to high-quality legal counsel helps ensure that child welfare investigations are conducted in accordance with due process and based on reliable evidence. When court involvement occurs, effective representation provides hearing officers and judges clear, relevant, and complete information, enabling well-informed decisions.

Research has consistently shown that investing in child and parent counsel reduces delays in case processing, increases parties’ participation in the case plan, informs better judicial decision-making, increases family reunification, and helps children reach permanency sooner and with more stable long-term outcomes. For example, a review of parent representation programs in New York City, Detroit, and Washington State found providing parents with quality representation also resulted in: fewer children entering foster care, faster and more successful family reunifications, and lower reentry rates. In New York, more than 50% of clients’ children avoided foster-care placement. In Washington State, 68% of children who attained permanency reunited with their parents. Similarly, a 2021 evaluation of the child legal representation program in Washington State found that, compared to children without attorneys, children receiving standards-based legal representation were 45% more likely to reunify with their parents, 30% less likely to experience changes in foster homes, and 65% less likely to experience unnecessary school moves.

When kids spend less time in foster care, taxpayers save money. For example, the Washington State child representation program resulted in approximately $1.2 million in net state savings for the cohort studied. Representation for parents, including during an investigation, results in similar savings. A more recent federal fiscal analysis similarly showed that providing unrepresented children with lawyers would reduce foster care costs by $4,300 to $8,200 per child, yielding a net benefit under Title IV-E of $67 to $145 million per year. This conservative estimate did not capture other likely additional savings that would be captured from parent representation and other federal streams that support foster care.

POLICY RECOMMENDATION #1

Require states to guarantee legal counsel for parents and children involved in child welfare court proceedings.

In 2025, approximately 331,747 children and their parents were involved in child protection court proceedings. Even though parents have a fundamental constitutional right to raise their children, 14 states have no statutory requirement to guarantee legal counsel to parents in child welfare court proceedings, including when terminating parental rights. Meanwhile, 13 states have no universal requirement to provide legal counsel to all children in foster care. Congress must act to ensure that children and parents involved in dependency and foster care proceedings are represented by trained legal counsel throughout the court process. NCCFWB strongly recommends that federal law require legal representation in these cases as a condition of receipt of federal funds (ex. Title IV-E).

This proposal enjoys bipartisan support. During President Trump’s first administration, HHS changed long-standing administrative policy to open federal funding for children’s and parent’s attorneys and released guidance to support implementation. Executive Order 13930 further affirmed his commitment. Likewise, under former President Biden’s Administration, HHS consistently promoted the importance of legal representation, citing it as a strategic priority, providing relevant testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and finalizing a regulation that codified the funding for legal counsel originally opened during the prior administration. Families need legal representation to stand up for their rights, prevent government overreach, and ensure judges hear directly from them before making important decisions.

POLICY RECOMMENDATION #2

Incentivize states to provide preventive legal services through Title IV-E funds.

Child welfare is both a social service and a civil legal system. Preventive legal services help keep families together and protect child welfare agency resources by diverting cases where intervention and/or removal is not necessary. Preventive legal services fall into two categories: representation for parents during child welfare investigations and representation for families for ancillary legal issues.

First, representation for parents once a child welfare investigation is initiated can prevent court involvement. For example, the Bronx Defenders avoided formal court petitions for at least 71% of the investigation stage clients it served during the third quarter of 2023. Representation during investigations also helps government agencies function better and avoid rights violations like illegal searches, which harm families and can result in expensive lawsuits. Where a child welfare agency urges a parent to provide an alternative caregiver for their child to avoid court involvement, counsel ensures that the parent’s rights are protected and they are properly advised and informed before agreeing to that arrangement, avoiding coercion and confusion. In sum, appointing attorneys for parents during CPS investigations would provide critical legal support and help ensure a fairer, more balanced process in a system that many parents experience as inherently adversarial. But no states guarantee representation during investigations.

Second, representation for ancillary legal issues can help families address challenges that increase the risk of child welfare involvement such as housing, education, and access to benefits, as well as the harms following an investigation, including the decision to place a parent on a registry that could impact securing or retaining employment.

In sum, investing in preventive legal advocacy is good governance because it is a cost-effective way to address real legal issues without child removal and because it can help prevent the government from violating individual rights in the process of enforcing the law, producing both legal benefits and financial benefits for state and federal taxpayers. Congress should update federal law to offer fiscal incentives for states that pursue these important programs.

POLICY RECOMMENDATION #3

Promote greater collaboration within and across disciplines and levels of government to support legal representation.

There are currently many laws and important programs designed to support children and their families and to keep families together as much as possible. Unfortunately, too many families are unaware of these programs and resources or are unable to access them. Many different fields, including legal, medical, education, child welfare, and others, can provide assistance but may need help to learn about how to support families in accessing these services. NCCFWB calls on policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels to work alongside community leaders and partners from all the different fields to develop resources, including a centralized online portal, where members of different fields and families involved in the child welfare system can easily find resources, including ways to gain legal representation.

Guarantee Legal Protection for Children and Parents