November 1, 2004

Child Welfare Mediation: Best Practices

This brief explains best practices for child welfare mediation, a strategy that uses a skilled, neutral, third party to assist families, agencies, and attorneys in reaching a mutually acceptable resolution of the issues regarding child welfare and placement. The mediator has no authoritative decision-making power and does not make recommendations as to the outcome of the case. In mediation, participants attempt to resolve the issues cooperatively before the case goes to trial. The benefits of a court-based child welfare mediation program are discussed, as well as guidelines for referring cases to mediation, scheduling mediation, the mediation process, confidentiality, domestic violence protocol, program evaluation, and administrative oversight.