The Children's Commission has developed a number of judicial education trainings to meet Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit required by the State Bar of Texas. Texas judges qualify in receiving MCLE credit at no charge for programs put on by the State Bar of Texas' CLE branch, Texas Bar CLE. For more information on how to receive MCLE credit at no charge, please contact the State Bar of Texas. Found below is a description of current program offerings.  

Child Welfare Judges Conference (CWJC)

Each year, the Children's Commission plans the Child Welfare Judges Conference (CWJC) through the Commission's grant with the Texas Center for the Judiciary. TCJ specializes in judicial education and training opportunities for active, retired, and former Texas appellate, district and county court at law judges, as well as associate judges and court personnel. 

Last year’s CWJC took place on November 12-14, 2018 at the Sheraton Georgetown. 83 judges attended a broad range of educational topics and feedback from Conference attendees was very positive. This year’s CWJC will take place on October 21-23, 2019 at the Sheraton Austin. A high number of judicial attendees is expected due to the legislative session and to the large number of new judges who were sworn in on 1/1/19. Commission staff solicited feedback from the CWJC Curriculum Committee and are proceeding based on their input to put a broad range of educational topics in place, many of which are based on the judges’ feedback from the 2018 CWJC post-event survey.

Family Justice Conference

In addition to the annual Child Welfare Judges Conference, the Children's Commission sponsors a half-day track at the annual Family Justice Conference hosted by the Texas Center for the Judiciary in January of each year. The 2018 conference was held January 22-23 in Bastrop. Please look for announcements regarding the next conference from the Texas Center for the Judiciary or through the Children’s Commission’s Jurist in Residence letters.

Past Summits and Conferences:

Beyond the Bench 

Education and Foster Care Summit

Implicit Bias in Judicial Decision-Making

Permanency Summit