The Judicial Deskbook is a 300-page guide for judges, lawyers and child-welfare workers.

Part I analyzes federal and state child welfare legislation, providing an overview of the major laws governing the field. It also describes lawyers' obligations to children.

Part II details the process of entering the child welfare system and the system's goals: protecting children in their own residences or moving them into adoptive homes. It further examines the meaning of permanency for dependent children - reuniting kids with birth parents, terminating parental rights or providing adoption and adoption subsidies. In addition, the section analyzes kinship care and the rights of third parties such as grandparents and foster parents, and discusses how juvenile courts can create new services to meet the needs of the abused and neglected children.

Part III is devoted to the rights of older youths in the foster care system, and provides an overview of the Foster Care Independence Act, details the effect of the Adoption and Safe Families Act on older youth, and suggests ways in which juvenile courts can ensure older youths' well-being as they age out of they system.

Part IV provides a detailed look at dependent children's rights to physical and behavioral health care. It also includes a section on dependent children's rights to education, drafted by Education Law Center-PA.