"This manual presents and explains the laws, procedures, concepts, and people related to abuse, neglect, dependency, and termination of parental rights proceedings in North Carolina. It is designed to be useful as both a reference manual and a training tool, with an intended primary audience of district court judges, social services attorneys, parents attorneys, and guardian ad litem attorney advocates. Chapters will be updated annually to reflect changes in the law. Each chapter indicates the date it was updated. Important changes occurring between updates can be found by clicking on the Recent Developments link on the left side of this web page."--About this manual.