• The Tennessee Access to Justice Commission Strategic Plan (2012) states that since law school does not adequately prepare attorneys for specialized areas of the law and the target populations needing their services, “it is vital and necessary to provide lawyers with the necessary skills to handle these ‘High Need’ substantive areas of the law, particularly in specific venues, e.g., general sessions, juvenile, family law and bankruptcy courts.” (p. 13)

 

• The University of Michigan Quality Improvement Center (QIC)-ChildRep study is attempting to address the importance of competent legal representation of abused and neglected children by comparing the performance of credentialed GALs with non-credentialed GALs in the states of Georgia and Washington. (Darwell, 2012) 

 

• The problem of child abuse in Tennessee is being reviewed by the Second Look Commission (SLC). It was created in 2010 as a unique entity with a single purpose: to make findings and recommendations regarding whether severe abuse cases are handled in a manner that provides adequate protection for the children of Tennessee. The SLC 2012 Report released the second week of January 2013 had some significant findings and recommendations. The first recommendation noted in the report is to “develop improved joint and collaborative training for all child abuse investigation stakeholders based on the identification of opportunities to improve practices.” (p. 7) , The commission also recommends multidisciplinary training to address the need for issue-driven investigations.

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• On January 11, 2013, The Tennessean reported a total of 73 child deaths occurred in 2012 after the children had been brought to the attention of DCS and an additional 18 suffered life-threatening injuries after DCS had started investigations. Not only is there a need for specialized training, the need is urgent to prevent more child vicitms of abuse.