This distance education program was developed by the Distance Learning Unit, Education Services Division, of the Administrative Offices of the Arizona Supreme Court with funding by the Dependent Children's Services Division - Court Improvement Project.

The program developers and sponsors wish to extend special thanks to the Honorable Patricia G. Escher, Pima County Juvenile Court, whose assistance and guidance facilitated the creation of this web-based educational module.

"Dependency" was designed with ease-of-use and convenience in mind. There are links for immediate definitions, statutes, and laws. The tutorial offers a solid overview of the dependency process and illuminates areas of special importance throughout.

The information contained within the tutorial, however, is not meant to be used as an exhaustive list of the requirements for court procedure. For a comprehensive document on juvenile court procedure, please consult the Juvenile Benchbook, a publication of the Judicial College of Arizona (also available in electronic format through the Wendell intranet site). The Dependent Children's Services Division also has available an on-line version of the operational review client guide.

This site comes with a modest tutorial on navigation, so those who are new to the Internet should have no problem with the program. For those who would like to know more about the World Wide Web, please go to the
"how to surf the Internet" tutorial by Learnthenet.com.

The staff of the Education Services Division Distance Learning Unit and Dependent Children's Services hope that you enjoy this format for receiving educational information.