By Sharice J. Zachary, MSW
Program Background
The North Carolina Office of the Parent Defender (OPD) is as statewide public defender office that provides and promotes high quality legal representation for parents with an abuse, neglect, or dependency (A/N/D) court case. In 2022, OPD launched the Interdisciplinary Parent Representation Program (IPRP), in partnership with NC’s Court Improvement Program to bring this model of parent representation to North Carolina. The IPR Program currently services parents and their A/N/D attorneys in Cleveland, Buncombe, New Hanover, Mecklenburg, Wake, and Lincoln County’s
The IPRP model of parent representation takes a holistic approach to the way parents navigate their child welfare cases. Too many North Carolina parents have navigated their abuse, neglect, and/or dependency cases while facing one of the most overwhelming moments of their lives. Parents are expected to understand complex court processes, respond to allegations, meet service requirements, and maintain connections with their children. Many times, this is being asked of them all while they continue to cope with poverty, trauma, abuse, stigma, and systemic barriers. Many times, parents navigate this unknown system without meaningful support beyond their legal counsel.
What Is the IPR Program?
The IPR Program pairs trained social workers with parent attorneys and their legal teams. The social workers role is to support the attorney’s defense strategy while also working directly with the parents to reduce barriers to reunification, provide quality advocacy that parents deserve, support parental compliance with case plans, and increase the likelihood that children return to a safe home. Unlike agency social workers or the guardians ad litem, IPRP social workers do not duplicate agency work, investigate families, or provide recommendations to the court. Instead, IPRP social workers support parents from the lens of a trauma-informed, culturally responsive, family-centered practice. This style of holistic representation creates a more balanced process for parents whose dignity and rights deserve protection.
The focus of the IPR program is to ensure parents understand their case; access needed services and have a voice in every decision that affects their family. At its core, the IPRP recognizes that when parents receive continuous support and high-quality representation, children benefit through stronger permanency outcomes, fewer placement disruptions, and more humane engagement with the system intended to protect them.
In practice, IPRP social workers primarily:
• Help parents navigate referrals for mental health treatment, substance use services, housing supports, or parenting programs.
• Coach parents through court expectations and build confidence as they engage with providers and DSS.
• Support communication between attorneys and parents who may feel intimidated, confused, or distrustful due to prior trauma or past system involvement.
• Gather strengths-based information that helps attorneys tell a full, accurate story of the family’s progress.
• Advocate alongside parents in team meetings or case-planning sessions.
• Help parents maintain healthy, meaningful contact with their children during periods of separation.
Leading the Charge of Legal Defense Social Work in North Carolina
Before joining the IPR Program, my career was rooted in child welfare social work. I spent years working with families experiencing poverty, crisis, mental health challenges, and generational trauma. I saw firsthand the resilience of parents who loved their children deeply despite incredible hardship. I also witnessed how the court system, though intended to protect children, can overwhelm parents who need support rather than judgment.
As a legal defense social worker and the program manager for the IPRP, I have the opportunity to integrate everything I learned in traditional child welfare practice with a new mission: creating a program aimed at supporting parents so they can stabilize, strengthen, and reunify with their children. This role requires a deep understanding of both the child welfare system and the structural inequities that often lead families into it. It also requires relationship-building skills, empathy, patience, and a commitment to honoring parents’ voices.
Unlike traditional agency social work, legal defense social work centers advocacy for parental rights and ensuring parents have the tools and information they need to succeed. The success of the case is led by the desires of the parent. This means that while reunification between parent and child is the most desired outcome, if a parent expresses their desire for custody, guardianship, or adoption of their child be granted to a kinship provider or non-relative foster family, our program will support the parent in their decision and count it as a success. By posturing our advocacy from this position, our program is able to ensure its alignment with the social work values of self-determination, dignity and worth of the person, and the belief that parents are more than the words written about them in juvenile petitions and families can heal when given meaningful support.
Why the IPRP Matters for Child Welfare Practitioners
For child welfare social workers, kinship providers, foster parents, and GAL advocates, programs like the IPRP may be unfamiliar, but our impact is significant for everyone involved in a case, not just the parent.
1. The IPRP strengthens engagement.
Parents who feel informed and supported are more likely to attend visits, follow through with services, and communicate openly with DSS. This reduces frustration and improves collaboration across the entire team.
2. The IPRP improves service matching and reduces delays.
Because IPRP social workers help parents access services efficiently, courts receive clearer updates and can move toward permanency more quickly, whether through reunification or other options.
3. The IPRP promotes stability for children in foster or kinship placements.
When parents make progress, visitation becomes more consistent and positive. Caregivers see clearer timelines, reduced uncertainty, and fewer crisis-driven disruptions to the case.
4. The IPRP reduces adversarial tension.
The support of a parent from the IPRP does not mean undermining child safety. Instead, IPRP social workers helps ensure that interventions are fair, proportional, and trauma-informed. Many DSS workers and GALs have expressed that when parents understand expectations and have someone helping them navigate the process, communication improves for everyone.
Supporting Reunification Through a Stronger System
Reunification remains the preferred permanency outcome when it can be achieved safely. The IPR Program helps make that goal more realistic. Parents who receive individualized support are better able to overcome barriers that previously felt like unsolvable problems like, transportation issues, lack of stable housing, difficulty accessing appointments, untreated mental health needs, or simply feeling defeated by a system they do not understand.
When a parent succeeds, a child returns home, which is the outcome most children hope for. Even when reunification is not possible, the presence of an IPRP social worker ensures parents are treated with respect, supported through transitions, and able to build healthier long term connections with not only their children, but kinship providers and non-relative foster families.
A Shared Mission
Every professional in the child welfare system, DSS workers, kinship caregivers, foster parents, GAL advocates, attorneys, and now IPRP social workers, plays a role in supporting family stability. The responsibilities may be different, but the goals are aligned: safety for children, healing for families, and relationships built on respect and understanding.
I’d like to think that the IPR Program is one part of a larger shift toward a more compassionate, collaborative, and family-centered child welfare system. For parents who feel unheard, unsupported, or misunderstood, the IPRP offers hope. For children longing to be reunited with the most important people in their lives, the IPRP offers possibility. And for the system as a whole, the IPRP offers a path toward more equitable outcomes.
Sharice J. Zachary is the Interdisciplinary Parent Representation Program Manager with the NC Office of the Parent Defender and has managed the program since its inception in 2022. She has over 8 years of experience working with children and families navigating the child welfare system and has lived experience as a former foster youth.
