FOREWORD

Welcome to CJER’s online course on Juvenile Dependency Hearings. This is our first fully developed judicial education online course. Because it is always available online, it is especially useful to judicial officers who are recently assigned to juvenile court. It also provides more experienced judges with a refresher course and a convenient reference for juvenile dependency topics.

As with CJER publications, this online course is a group effort. The long list of credits below is eloquent testimony to the numbers of people and hundreds of hours that went into its preparation.

But development of an online course does not end here. Feedback from those who take the course is critical to its evolution and the design of future courses. We expect to offer more online judicial education courses in the areas of criminal and civil law. By submitting your comments after taking this course, you will become part of the development team and help refine the model for future courses.

Thanks in advance for taking time to contribute to the development of CJER's judicial education online course library.

—Education Division/CJER

Credits

Many thanks to the following judicial officers who gave generously of their time and whose thoughtful comments contributed significantly to the development of this course.

Hon. Pat Bresee (Ret.), Superior Court of San Mateo County
Hon. Hideo Chino, Superior Court of San Diego County
Hon. Len Edwards, Superior Court of Santa Clara County
Hon. Brenda Harbin-Forte, Superior Court of Alameda County
Hon. Natalie Lindsey, Superior Court of Sacramento County
Hon. Sherri Sobel, Superior Court of Los Angeles County
Hon. Marilyn Kading Martinez, Superior Court of Los Angeles County
Hon. Nancy B. Williamsen, Superior Court of Stanislaus County

Content review:

Mara Bernstein, Attorney, CFCC
Dennis Matsura, Senior Editor
Ellen Matthews, Senior Publications Attorney
Chris Wu, Attorney, CFCC
Deborah Hedger, Attorney at Law

CJER staff:

Diane Cowdrey, Director
Jim Vesper, Assistant Director
Bob Schindewolf, Managing Attorney
Jeff Shea, Senior Publications Attorney
Ralph McMullan, Supervising Media Production Specialist
Mandy Covey, Media Production Specialist