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65th Judicial District - Children's Court

About Us
The El Paso Model Court
The Vision: All children will have a safe permanent home within twelve months
65th Judicial District Children's Court is one of the twenty-eight model courts nationwide, which was designed by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in late 1996. Each model court site commits to the improvement of court practice in child abuse and neglect cases.
Each initiative focuses on the following objectives:

Front loading services to children and parents

A team approach to permanency planning

Stakeholder advisory committees

Significant court improvement practices adopted from the RESOURCE GUIDELINES, such as improving court practices in Child Abuse and Neglect, have motivated systematic changes in the handling of child abuse and neglect cases.
Permanency Planning/Adoption
All children are adoptable. This principle drives recruitment of adoptive families. Placement in legal risk families and concurrent plans secures a permanent home. Permanency planning begins the day the court places the child in the state's custody.
Mediation
Empowering families to make decisions is a winning position. Whether agreeing to changes in custody, visitation, or open adoption, open communication outside the court leads to savings in time and resources, and is always a better solution.
Pro Bono Legal Representation
Attorney ad litems for children are the El Paso Family Bar Association, law firms, and sole practitioners who volunteer to represent children. Attorneys provide pro bono legal help to the children through the Children's Justice Center.
Guardian Ad Litems (GAL)
Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers and attorneys serve ad guardian as litems. From the time a child is placed in protective custody, the GAL is essential in providing the court with the best interests of the child. GAL and a child's attorney comprise the child's team in court.
Video Conference Hearings
Children placed in out-of-country residential treatment centers are able to participate in their hearings via simultaneous video conferencing. An important live testimony from the child's therapeutic team supports decisions made by the court. Most importantly, the child never feels abandoned by his community.
Drug Court
The 65th Judicial District Court has developed an innovative family reunification program, known as a Drug Court, which focuses solely on child protective services cases. This program is designed to assist parents in the reunification efforts where their children have been placed in foster care due, in whole or in part, to the parents' drug or alcohol abuse problems.
Family Group Conferencing
Family Group Conferencing is a mechanism by which Child Protective Services collaborates with the family and engages the extended family and its support network in the decision-making and development of plans for the care and protection of the children.. The program aims to serve as a diversion initiative designed to preserve the family without a court involvement or placement of children in a foster care. It also aims to provide support to families who reunify by helping them to build a strong family network for the rehabilitated parent in order to best protect the children.