Recognizing Child Abuse and Your Duty to Report It

Four children die every day from child abuse. A child you know may be the victim of neglect or emotional, physical or sexual abuse. 

Texas attorneys are addressing less than 25% of legal needs of low income Texans today. While there is 1 lawyer for every 322 Texans, there is only 1 legal aid lawyer for every 10,838 poor Texans.

You can make a difference by signing up to Partner for Pro Bono! Partnering for Pro Bono is a web-based matching program that pairs in-house attorneys with private practice attorneys so that, together, they can make a difference.

R U Safe? is designed to educate children and their parents about online dangers and give them the tools needed to be safe while online. It is intended to serve students at every age level (elementary, middle school and high school) and also contains a section for parents.  Using experts from law enforcement and child advocacy groups, the video covers such wide-ranging topics as cyber bullying, social networking sites, chat rooms, “sexting,” and online predators. Children are also told how to report suspicious activity and educated about the legal ramifications of certain online behavior.  The parental section addresses basic safety plans, implementing parental controls, privacy settings and child-safe browsers, and the use of cookies and website history. It also provides parents with useful advice about how they should address the issue of cyber safety with their children.

TYLA’s Family Law Committee has prepared a CPS handbook, What You Should Know about Your Child Abuse, Neglect, or CPS Case, to help inform the public about the timeline all CPS cases follow through the legal system. Several years ago, the Texas Legislature enacted a 12-month timeline (possibly 18 months in very rare circumstances) in order to ensure permanency for children going through the CPS system. Attorneys and participants in the CPS system struggle with the relatively short timeline when it comes to balancing the need for children to know what will be their fate with their parents making the necessary strides in drug and alcohol recovery. The handbook contains definitions and acronyms specific to the CPS system that help parents and other participants follow the recommendations and findings of CPS.

"BSAFE - Battling Substance Abuse for Everyone" is a multi-media public service and education project intended to provide a free resource to educate youth about the dangers and real life consequences of substance abuse, to provide information and resources to teachers and parents who have children who may be struggling with addiction issues, and to educate the public about the use of drug courts to help deal with substance abuse issues and the benefits these specialty courts are currently providing the citizens of Texas.

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