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Scholarships for Attorneys

Information about scholarships will be available on this webpage and also through the Children’s Commission’s Resource Letter for Judges and Attorneys. To receive notice about scholarships to future conferences and trainings, please subscribe below:

The Children's Commission regularly offers scholarships to attorneys to attend state and national conferences. Scholarships typically reimburse attorneys for conference registration fees, and occasionally, for travel-related expenses.

Generally, to meet the criteria for all scholarships, the applicant must:

  • currently represent DFPS or currently receive appointments on a child welfare docket; 
  • be in good standing with the State Bar of Texas; 
  • be in good standing with their primary or appointing judge; and
  • commit to completing and timely submitting a post-event survey from the Children’s Commission, in addition to the pre-event survey portion contained in the Commission scholarship application of their choice. 

Preference may be given to attorneys who have not received scholarships from the Children’s Commission within the past 2 years. Other considerations include, but are not limited to, the percentage of an attorney’s law practice devoted to child welfare cases and whether the applicant has support from their primary or appointing judge. 

For all scholarships, the Children's Commission determines scholarship criteria and deploys an application process that includes pre- and post-conference evaluations to identify or confirm the knowledge gained from the training, new practices which awardees plan to implement, and/or a current practice which they plan to change. Surveys also inquire about additional topics of interest to help inform planning for future training.

Please visit the sections below for more information on state and national conferences in child welfare. Please note, the Children’s Commission may not offer scholarships to every training listed. For questions about scholarships to this year’s events, please email CCScholarships@txcourts.gov.

 

Upcoming Scholarships

The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center on Children and the Law typically hosts two national conferences every other year in Washington, D.C. These conferences bring together experienced child and parent attorneys, youth formerly in foster care, parents, judges, child welfare agency representatives, and other key stakeholders to receive not only substantive training, but also tips for returning to their home states to work on ways to improve the quality of legal representation for children and parents.

The next conferences will be held in Spring 2024. For more information about the conferences, please visit the ABA National Conferences webpage. More information regarding the scholarships will be available in early 2024.

TexasBarCLE and the Child Protection Law Section of the State Bar of Texas will host the 6th Annual Advanced Child Protection Law Course (Advanced Course) on April 4-5, 2024. A 3-hour Child Protection Law 101 Course (101 Course) will also be offered as a pre-conference training on the morning of April 4th. Both the 101 Course and the Advanced Course will also be offered via webcast replay.

More information regarding the course and scholarships will be available in early 2024.

TexasBarCLE will host the 2024 Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) one-day Workshop during the Annual State Bar of Texas Advanced Family Law MCLE in August 2024. This one-day training covers current topics of interest to Texas attorneys who practice on the child welfare docket. The Children’s Commission will provide up to 75 registration scholarships to attorneys to attend the 2024 Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) Workshop.

More information about the scholarship will be available in the spring of 2024.

The NACC’s 47th National Child Welfare Law Conference is scheduled for August 12-14, 2024, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Additionally, a second virtual conference will take place in late summer or early fall, 2024. The Children’s Commission will offer up to 10 reimbursement scholarships to judges and attorneys to attend the in-person conference in Salt Lake City on August 12-14, 2024. The scholarship reimbursement of up to $1,000 will be applied to registration fees and eligible travel expenses. For more information about the conference, please visit the NACC Conference webpage.

More information about the scholarship will be available in the spring of 2024.

State Board Certification Reimbursement

For more information, please visit the Texas Board of Specialization webpage.