{"title":"Practice tips for managing challenges in parenting capacity assessments in child protection court","authors":"Krissie Fernandez Smith, Phillip C. O'Donnell","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12749","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12749","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Courts frequently rely on parenting capacity assessments to make decisions about visitation and case progress in child protection court. Although these evaluations can provide valuable information to courts, they often involve assessing areas of human behavior that are not clearly defined in the literature. For example, mental health professionals are often tasked with identifying risk and protective factors for child maltreatment while identifying factors that can impede progress towards reunification. Although some of these factors may be easy to identify and assess (e.g., symptoms of mental illness or substance abuse), others may be more challenging. For example, factors such as denial and minimization about risk factors and maltreatment, a parent(s)’ ability to protect their child(ren) from future incidents of maltreatment, the parent(s)’ potential for change, and the consideration of what is in the best interest of the child are hard to assess. This article will provide a summary of the research in these areas, provide tips for managing these areas, and highlight directions for future investigation that will help inform parenting capacity assessments in child protection court.</p>","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 4","pages":"818-831"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/fcre.12749","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48658747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The admissibility and persuasiveness of expert evidence","authors":"Thomas Altobelli, Bruce Gordon Smith","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12748","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12748","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Parenting plan evaluators are expert witnesses who offer their opinion. Courts in common law jurisdictions generally do not accept evidence of an opinion as it is not considered to be reliable evidence from which to establish a fact. An exception to that general principle is expert opinion evidence. In short, an opinion from a person with specialized knowledge or expertise about the area in which they are an expert may be sufficiently reliable to form an evidentiary basis from which to make a finding of fact, provided the opinion meets certain criteria. These criteria will be discussed in this article, as well as what is relevant, reliable and persuasive evidence. The relevant legal principles will be examined in an historical and contemporary, theoretical and practical context. The authors reflect on their considerable experience as consumers of expert evidence and apply this to parenting plan evaluations, as well as considering future challenges in the field.</p>","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 4","pages":"832-853"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43014496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The emperor has no clothes: A systemic view of the status and future of child custody evaluation (CCE)","authors":"Benjamin D. Garber","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12752","url":null,"abstract":"<p>For all of the time, effort, and money invested in child custody evaluation (CCE) and for all of evaluators' emphases on collecting empirically sound data, CCE is not itself an empirically robust process. The reliability, validity, efficacy, and efficiency of CCE has never yet been adequately demonstrated. The science has yet even to define and measure the variables that constitute a healthy family, much less how one is to measure and recommend changes for conflicted systems in the midst of tectonic transitions. This article proposes five ways in which family law professionals and the culture at large should work to better serve the needs of our children: (1) the establishment of proactive parenting and co-parenting education intended to diminish the frequency and magnitude of family conflict and improve the quality of child and family functioning; (2) the introduction of organized incentives that motivate healthy parenting and co-parenting practices as opposed to negative consequences that do too-little, too-late; (3) a greater emphasis on social equity, cultural humility, and universal professional training; (4) the creation of ethical guidelines that disconnect continuing conflict from professional income; and (5) outcome research that feeds back into the evolution of these and related processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 4","pages":"747-761"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50148668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How I met your mother: Mitigating forced marriage in the United States","authors":"Maisha Imam","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12744","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12744","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Forced marriage in the United States is a hidden issue for a growing number of children and young people. Being trapped in a marriage severely impacts a person's well-being, with long-term psychological and physical ramifications. Forced marriage increases the likelihood of domestic violence and sexual abuse, depriving victims of autonomy. To lessen the number of forced marriages, this Note proposes emulating a United Kingdom statute. The statute provides a comprehensive approach with tailored programs and services to serve the needs of victims of forced marriages. Adopting this statute will create uniform law, making forced marriages illegal federally.</p>","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 4","pages":"937-950"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43037760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Megan Suzanne Irgens, Keren-Or Givol, Claire S. Tomlinson, Ryan Davidson
{"title":"Returning to the child welfare system: Understanding the wellbeing, health, education, and placement of children who return","authors":"Megan Suzanne Irgens, Keren-Or Givol, Claire S. Tomlinson, Ryan Davidson","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12747","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12747","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using longitudinal archival Child Welfare System (CWS) data, this study describes child health and wellbeing at their initial entrance into the CWS and subsequent returns. Associations between child wellbeing, health, placement stability, and frequency of returning to the system were also investigated. Results indicated most children were healthy and developmentally on target. In addition, emotional distress, behavioral concerns, and number of placements in the CWS were significantly correlated with placement stability. Future work should utilize the use of developmental assessments to systematically and reliably document the concerns for children in the system, and investigate factors contributing to stable placements.</p>","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 4","pages":"870-884"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49116196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sweet dreams are made of this: The need for narrowly tailored statutory protection for documented dreamers","authors":"Emily Fontanetta","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12746","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12746","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The growing backlog of immigrant visa petitions and legal permanent resident adjustment applications is a harsh reality of the American dream. Dependent children of immigrants can wait decades for their parents' visas to become current, only to age out of dependent status before stepping foot on American soil. Dependent children of nonimmigrants seeking to become legal permanent residents age out before their parents' adjustment application is approved – leaving them at risk of removal. This Note proposes a temporary visa status for these dependents, allowing them to maintain legal status in America and remain with their parents.</p>","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 4","pages":"902-917"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43737235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How my role as a guardian ad litem has changed with the increase of mental health diagnoses in adolescents","authors":"Samantha Freed","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12732","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12732","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 3","pages":"504-509"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44834128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: The kids are not alright: Addressing adolescent mental health in family law","authors":"Marsha Kline Pruett, Amy E. Wilson","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12734","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12734","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 3","pages":"466-471"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44052436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It's just so difficult to get anything done: Teen mental health in the family court setting","authors":"Leslie Ellen Shear","doi":"10.1111/fcre.12731","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fcre.12731","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Navigating the family court setting to protect teen mental health, meet teens' mental health needs, and promote resilience and coping skills is challenging. We have tools that can help us meet that challenge. That toolkit includes: expanding who is involved in the work to develop a parenting plan or treatment plan; not reducing the case to a one-dimensional fact pattern; restructuring family court proceedings for ongoing problem-solving, providing protections for the teen's privacy; using consensual dispute resolution and adjudication on parallel tracks; and educating the decision makers through expert declarations and Brandeis briefs (even at the trial court level).</p>","PeriodicalId":51627,"journal":{"name":"Family Court Review","volume":"61 3","pages":"510-521"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42333335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}