After discussing the Washington State Legislature’s 1999 request for the Washington State Office of Public Defense (OPD) to develop a cost proposal providing legal representation for indigent parents, guardians, legal custodians, and children in dependency and termination cases, the authors describe the details of the pilot program developed by the OPD in order to enhance parents’ legal representation. Detailing the various ways that Washington counties now provide publicly-funded parents’ attorneys, the authors discuss public offender officer representation in urban areas, private attorney representation funded by county contracts, representation pursuant to specific parents’ attorneys’ county-funded contracts in other areas, and non-contractual appointment of attorneys. After discussing the pilot program attorney’s role as making sure that parent clients understand present and future case procedures, the authors discuss the outcomes of the pilot study. The authors report that since the implementation of the pilot program larger numbers of parents are better able to achieve reunification with their children in cases resulting in a termination order, more parents have been able to obtain visits or periodic correspondence with their children, and parents’ attorneys’ over scheduling constituted only 4 percent of all court continuances. The authors conclude that the Washington OPD’s pilot program demonstrates that a wider percentage of parents can and will meaningfully participate in their children’s dependency and termination cases if they are afforded more effective attorney services. 22 Endnotes