Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2026
Abstract
The federal government has provided funds to support legal representation of parents facing allegations of child neglect or abuse since 2019, across administrations of both parties. That funding illustrates the field’s recognition of parent defense’s importance to improving outcomes and reducing harms from the family regulation system, especially once CPS agencies file petitions against parents. Federal Title IV-E funding supports parent representation in those family court cases and for parents at risk of facing such cases. That funding has been an essential boon to parent representation and the benefits that flow from it. It is nonetheless time to take a critical view of that funding structure, and specifically how it funnels federal money through CPS agencies instead of granting the funds directly to agencies that provide parent representation. This funding structure empowers CPS agencies to help shape both the financing and the scope of parent defense activities, now and in the future. That concern is particularly apt for preventive legal advocacy (also known as early defense), a growing model of parent representation in which lawyers represent parents who are at risk of facing a CPS agency petition against them in family court.
Disciplines
Family Law | Juvenile Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Joshua Gupta-Kagan,
Reforming Funding to Better Defend Families: Holistic Preventive Legal Advocacy That Checks CPS Agency Power,
59
Fam. L. Q.
281
(2026).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4862
Comments
©2026 by the American Bar Association. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.