National Forensic Science Week: September 20-26

National Forensic Science Week is three weeks away. The Consortium of Forensic Science Organizations (CFSO) has revamped its NFSW website, complete with many links and a great deal of helpful information. There are links for educators to secure classroom materials, links to events (and also a new event calendar), and a legislative packet that will help you inform your legislators and funding entities and also inform you about the issues that are most important in forensic science funding and policy work right now. 

This year, CFSO we will be hosting national webinars, giving out awards to forensic science educators, and highlighting national proclamations honoring this important week. 

Forensic Science is often viewed by our local, state, and federal policymakers, as it appears in many TV shows and in the movies. In those portrayals, the impression is often conveyed that crime scenes can be processed, evidence examined, and suspects identified many times within hours, if not minutes. Often, forensic pathologists on TV cannot only determine both the cause and manner of death quickly but also the time of death. Forensic science laboratories and medical examiner/coroner offices are also often depicted as having endless amounts of magic technology and, more importantly, the needed resources to assist in their analyses. This, of course, is not true, and our forensic community needs additional resources to acquire even the most basic pieces of equipment. Your respective Congressional policymaker, however, may also mistakenly believe from these portrayals and mischaracterizations of the forensic community that you have infinite resources available to your respective offices. Therefore, National Forensic Science Week provides you the opportunity to educate them from the forensic science community perspective.

CFSO has compiled a sample packet and how-to guide for you to use during Forensic Science Week 2026. Included you will find:   

1. How to contact your Member of Congress or other policy members and invite them to your office.
2. Planning guide for meetings.
3. What you should present during their visit: talking points and an outline for a packet they can take away with them.
4. Information about links on the thecfso.org website for white papers to use if you'd like to provide more detail to your policymakers.