Family Team Meetings as Principled Advocacy

Involving families in decision making is especially challenging when children are removed on an involuntary and emergency basis. To encourage participation of families, legislation for child welfare enacted in Washington, DC extended the time before a first hearing from 24 to 72 hours so that a family team meeting could be held to develop a plan for presenting in court. This article reports the qualitative findings from an external evaluation of the District of Columbia's implementation of this legislation. Agency and community interviewees largely agreed that the program was carried out with fidelity to principles of family and community engagement, mobilized family group resources without jeopardizing parents' rights to legal counsel, and supported families to advocate for themselves. Considerable effort is required by professionals to collaborate around the principles of family engagement.