Welcome to the Florida Guardian ad Litem Academy.
The Florida Guardian ad Litem Academy is a free online learning resource developed and operated by the Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office. The Academy is designed to provide on-demand continuing education opportunities on a variety of child welfare topics for Guardian ad Litem volunteers, staff, and stakeholders. Child welfare is a complex and ever-evolving field. The Academy offers a robust catalog of trainings on topics including legal representation, child development and well-being, advocacy, educational needs, independent living, lived experience perspectives and so much more.
About the Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office
The Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office is the best way to represent the legal interests of Florida’s most vulnerable children, the abused, abandoned and neglected based on data and evidence. Florida law requires the Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office represent Florida’s dependent children caught in the complex foster care system every day through no fault of their own. They face a world of temporary living situations and intervening professionals with a high turnover rate. The Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office is the only agency on the child’s case who focuses solely on the child and represents the child’s legal interests in court and their social needs in the community.
Every child appointed to the Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office is assigned a Guardian ad Litem Attorney.
The Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office uses a multi-disciplinary team approach to represent children using a Guardian ad Litem Attorney, a child welfare professional, and hopefully a trained volunteer or pro bono attorney from the child’s community. The Office’s multi-disciplinary team model has been recognized as best practice in child representation since 1993 and is the recommended practice by many advocacy organizations, including the Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System. The unique perspective and expertise of each multi-disciplinary team member complement the others. All are critical in the representation of Florida’s abused, abandoned, and neglected children
The Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office has more than 180 attorneys on staff and hundreds of pro-bono attorneys throughout Florida who volunteer their services. In 2023, we served more than 34,000 children in Florida and had more than 10,000 volunteers.
We believe the ability to shape a young life profoundly affects our collective future. We train and support attorneys, volunteers and child welfare professionals to be caring, dedicated advocates and mentors for Florida’s most vulnerable children during this critical, traumatic time in their lives.
When a child is removed from their home, the judge stands in the parent’s shoes and has a duty to protect the child. Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office representation is an integral part of a child’s protection. When a judge appoints the Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office to an abused, neglected, or abandoned child, the child gets:
The benefit of a MULTI-DISCIPLINARY TEAM that always includes a Guardian ad Litem Attorney, child welfare professional, and hopefully a trained volunteer or pro bono attorney from the child’s community.
REPRESENTATION of the child’s legal interests.
SUPPORT from a trained volunteer or staff member who is often the only safe and stable adult throughout the child’s case.
A link to the child’s COMMUNITY and support from the Guardian ad Litem Foundation’s public-private partnerships.
The Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office multi-disciplinary team assures the child is not lost in the over-burdened legal system or languishes in inappropriate foster placements. The multi-disciplinary team reduces court delays and legal continuances. The child’s team builds relationships and represents the child in dependency court, advocating for the child’s best interests. We help children with legal proceedings, family visitations, educational support, medical and mental health needs. The Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office stays with each child until their case is closed and they are placed in a safe, loving, and permanent home.
Our Mission: To provide the most vulnerable children in Florida with an adult from their community who will be a consistent, positive presence in the child’s life as part of a multi-disciplinary team that includes an attorney, child welfare professional and hopefully a community volunteer providing the highest quality community advocacy and legal representation to protect each child’s legal interests. To provide dependency judges with thorough and accurate information regarding the children under the court’s jurisdiction.
Our Vision: To represent every child under the Jurisdiction of Florida's Dependency Courts.
Click here if you would like to make a difference in the life of a child.