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47 Fam. Ct. Rev. 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/fmlcr47 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL NOTES JANUARY 2009 SPECIAL ISSUE ON MEDIATION AND CONFERENCING IN CHILD PROTECTION DISPUTES Volume 47 of FCR begins with a special issue that synthesizes the role of mediation and conferencing in child protection disputes and identifies a roadmap for its future. The special issue was created by guest editors Bernie Mayer and Kelly Browe Olson, both well-known experts in the field and dedicated to its growth and development. Bernie is a professor at the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at Creighton University and a partner at CDR Associates in Boulder, Colorado. He has worked as a mediator, trainer, and researcher since 1980. Bernie was co-director of the Child Protection Mediation Project, one of the first efforts to use mediation in child protection cases. He was a principal organizer of the Child Protection Decision Making Think Tank, described in later articles in this issue, that brought the child protection mediation community together and was the genesis of this issue. Bernie is a widely published author. His works include Dynamics of Conflict Resolution, Beyond Neutrality, and his newest book: Staying With Conflict. Kelly is an associate professor and Director of Clinical Programs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. She was the Mediation Clinic Director from 2001 to 2003. She mediates and supervises abuse, neglect, delinquency, special education, custody and visitation, and small claims mediations. She also teaches Alternative Dispute Resolution, Domestic Violence, and Family Law courses. She is a frequent speaker and trainer on mediation and children's legal issues. FCR has published many articles and a previous special issue on mediation and conferencing in child protection disputes. The importance of the subject has become ever more apparent to me because of my membership on the American Bar Association's (ABA) Youth at Risk Commission. The Commission's work brings me into contact with experts in foster care and, most importantly, with foster youth themselves. What I have learned and relearned is that removing a child from his or her family is a life-altering experience to be undertaken sparingly and carefully. Children removed from their families become our collective responsibility. Their lives are changed, not due to any fault of their own, but because we promise that society will make the best efforts to give them a better path in life and put them on the road to a more promising future. Often, however, children removed from their families suffer more rather than have their lives improved. Approximately 500,000 children are part of our nation's foster care system. These children are placed in foster care as a result of allegations that their parents or caretakers have abused or neglected them or are simply unable to care for them. While safer from abuse and neglect, their formative years are often characterized by movement from placement to placement, disruption of schooling, and the severing of ties with all FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 47 No. 1, January 2009 1-6 c 2009 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

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