NACC at 50: Honoring Progress. Confronting Challenges. Raising the Standard.
August 4-7, 2027 – Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center
Abstracts due January 15, 2027
NACC seeks abstracts for its 50th National Child Welfare Law Conference. The annual conference brings together professionals from child welfare law and intersecting fields and furthers NACC’s mission by exchanging ideas, information, and collective efforts.
The conference will be in-person at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center in August. NACC seeks abstract submissions from presenters willing to present in-person.
Conference sessions must be designed for a national audience, and should expand attendees’ understanding of the law, provide practical tools, and lend information and strategies for systems improvement.
Most conference attendees are attorneys and judges who work in child protection court systems. Many attendees have diverse practices which also include work in the juvenile and criminal legal systems. Attendees also include professionals with lived expertise and from other disciplines including medicine, policy, community advocacy, immigration, education, social services, homelessness, and civil rights, as well as law students and other child protection stakeholders.
NACC encourages submissions that will apply to attorneys who represent children, parents, agencies, and kinship caregivers, as well as judges and multidisciplinary professionals working in child welfare. NACC encourages abstracts centering leadership and management for our Children’s Law Office pre-conference.
The theme of this year’s conference is NACC at 50: Honoring Progress. Confronting Challenges. Raising the Standard. For 50 years, NACC and the children’s law community have worked to transform advocacy for children and families. As we honor the progress that brought us here, our conference theme also centers our focus on confronting the challenges that remain and asking what it means—together—to raise the standard of advocacy, representation, leadership, and justice for the next generation.
Proposals should align with the theme by:
- Highlighting lessons, innovations, and advances that have strengthened advocacy, representation, leadership, and outcomes for children and families.
- Examining persistent and emerging challenges, including barriers to justice, changing legal and policy landscapes, systemic inequities, and threats to effective representation.
- Exploring how we can strengthen the quality, effectiveness, and impact of advocacy, representation, leadership, and legal practice for the next 50 years.
Specific topics of interest include:
- Trial skills (e.g., objections, developing effective arguments or examinations, introducing exhibits), evidence, and motions practice
- Practical, skill-based trainings for out-of-court and in-court advocacy
- Authentic youth and parent engagement
- Ethics & Professionalism (including conflicts, confidentiality, collaboration and communication),
- Well-Being (including vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout)
- Antiracist and culturally humble legal practice; recognizing, interrupting, and addressing bias; race equity and justice; and diversity and inclusion in the legal profession
- Representing parents and youth with disabilities
- Working with LGBTQIA+ youth and parents and related topics
- Topics related to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and representing Indigenous families
- Trauma-Informed Representation
- Appellate advocacy
- High-quality legal representation of children, youth, and emerging adults
- High-quality legal representation of parents
- High-quality legal representation of agencies
- Effective collaboration among parties and professionals
- Constitutional law, due process, and federal and Supreme Court jurisprudence
- Concrete advocacy strategies for keeping children with family, assessing and ensuring child safety, promoting kinship care and sibling relationships, ensuring youth have relational permanency and supporting quality family/parenting time
- Advocacy around mental health and substance use diagnoses, including ensuring quality treatment
- Cross-sector presentations that address the intersections of child welfare, mental health, juvenile and criminal legal systems, poverty, domestic violence, and/or homelessness
- Policy advocacy and systems reform
- Innovative legal service delivery systems, multidisciplinary and pre-petition representation
- Law office management and leadership
- Workforce Recruitment & Retention
- Technology (including use of AI in child welfare and legal practice, innovations, efficiencies, and concerns)
In addition to the specific topics of interest, NACC will consider the following in reviewing and scoring abstract submissions:
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion – We value a mix of presenters from different backgrounds, experiences, and identities, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and career stage. We will also look for diversity in topics covered and geographical representation.
- Authentic inclusion of individuals with lived experience in the child welfare system – We prioritize active involvement of those who have directly navigated the system (either as youth, parents, resource parents or family caregivers) in the creation and planning of session content, as well as in the actual presentation. Please reference this tipsheet for more information.
- Concrete tips and takeaways that will elevate legal practice – Presenters are encouraged to offer concrete tips and real-world examples that will help participants elevate their skills and effectiveness in representing children, families, and other stakeholders in the child welfare system. This could include: 1) Best Practices: Practical advice on strategies that have proven successful in legal proceedings, such as courtroom tips, strategies for effective advocacy, or insights into working with families and child welfare professionals. 2) Tools and Resources: Presenters might provide templates, checklists, or resources that legal professionals can immediately use in their practice, such as case management forms or best practices for engaging clients. 3) Problem-Solving Approaches: Presenters could offer concrete solutions to common challenges faced by child welfare attorneys, from dealing with difficult legal situations to navigating interagency collaboration and family engagement.
- Interactivity – presenters should incorporate interactive elements designed to engage participants and accommodate a variety of learning styles.
Abstracts may include a maximum of three presenters for each session. However, only two conference presenters and presenters with lived expertise receive full scholarships for conference registration. All presenters must pay for their own travel and accommodations.
NACC expects lead organizations submitting abstracts including persons with lived expertise to cover the hotel and travel expenses of presenters with lived expertise and compensate them for their time preparing and presenting at the conference. The investment in authentic engagement of persons with lived expertise is a shared responsibility. NACC only covers these expenses for members of NACC’s National Advisory Council on Children’s Legal Representation.
Abstracts are due Friday, January 15, 2027; no late submissions will be considered.
All applicants will be notified of NACC’s selection decisions by the end of April.
STOP! Have you read NACC’s Conference Abstract FAQs before submitting your abstract??
NACC Non-Discrimination Policy
It is the policy of the National Association of Counsel for Children not to discriminate against any individual or group on the basis of race, culture, ethnicity, national origin, religion or religious beliefs, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, or age. NACC embraces diversity among its Board, staff, members, and volunteers.
Submit your conference abstract!
Please note that you cannot save your progress when filling out the online submission form. You will need to enter all the required information at one time. We recommend that you use this worksheet to draft your responses before entering online. Also, be mindful of character limits, as the form will not let you submit answers that are over the limit.