Library: Juvenile Justice

Implementing Juvenile Court Reforms:
Improving the System for Children

Juvenile dependency courts face substantial obstacles in discharging their responsibility to ensure children’s safety and well-being. Resources are shrinking while caseloads continue to expand, and courts today are faced with increasingly complex legal issues. Thanks to federal and state legislation, courts are also facing tighter deadlines for holding hearings to move children into permanent placements. Without a close look at how they are addressing these problematic issues, dependency courts will continue to fail many of the children who come before them.

The court improvement program is a federally funded program aimed at evaluating state juvenile courts’ successes and short-comings, and helping courts to better manage child abuse/neglect and foster care cases. During the program’s first phase, which started in 1994, the District of Columbia and 48 participating states assessed their court systems; handling of child abuse and neglect cases and recommended systemic improvements. Now well into the project’s second phase, program participants are using their court improvement grants to develop and implement comprehensive plans for systemic court improvement.

Signed into law last November, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, P.L. 105-89, will play a key role in court improvement, The Act extends the court improvement program for an additional three years, and contains other provisions that will force many states to amend statutes and policies to comply with new federal requirements. Under the Act, for instance, states are required to provide pre-adoptive parents and other caregivers with notice and opportunity to be heard in all reviews and hearings. When in force, such requirements will supplement and enhance reforms already underway.

Court Project Findings and Recommendations

After assessing their judicial systems, court improvement projects across the country recommended reforms that are both realistic and systemic, and identified promising, innovative approaches to expediting the permanency planning process. Georgia’s advisory committee recommended that practice standards be developed for and distributed to judges, attorneys, and court personnel working on juvenile cases. New Mexico has developed a model contract addressing the appointment and compensation of guardians ad litem, and Michigan’s assessment report explores how factors such as reasonable caseloads for judges and attorneys, quality of legal representation, and court calendaring of cases influence courts’ ability to make timely permanency planning decisions.

Most projects have focused their efforts on three main vehicles for change: legislation, court rules, and training. Major issues that states addressed include:

• Quality of legal representation ------ an essential component of a high functioning court process. Attorneys who represent children bear many responsibilities, but one of the most fundamental is helping the judge to make an informed and reasoned decision. To advocate effectively, attorneys must have the experience and skills to thoughtfully investigate the case and prepare adequately for court. They must have a basic understanding of child development to communicate effectively with their clients, and they must know which questions to ask when gathering evidence to support their cases.

Many states’ recommendations promote improved training and increased qualifications for attorneys. State plans suggest that training should be regular and mandatory, and stress ongoing curricula over one-time programs. Substantive topics, they say, should include developments in law as well as advocacy skills, and lawyers should be expected to acquire a basic understanding of children’s linguistic and developmental capabilities.

Some projects recommend legislation to clarify duties of counsel who serve children, parents, and social service agencies. Setting guidelines or standards of representation, such as maintaining regular contact with a child client, is a fundamental step toward achieving competent representation. Many assessment reports also expressed support for Court Appointed Special Advocates or CASAs – volunteers who serve as guardians ad litem or work closely with an attorney on behalf of children. Several states advocate expanding CASA programs and increasing funds to enable more children to receive the benefits of CASAs. CASA workers often handle only a few cases at once, and have more time to devote to a child’s progress.

• Judicial training and education. Success of the court process often depends on judges and judicial officers who are educated about child welfare issues, have experience in the field prior to coming to the bench, and have demonstrated leadership and commitment to improving the lives of children and families. Many assessment reports view education and training for juvenile court practitioners as a primary focus. Nearly all reports recommend some increased level of regular, long-term training for new judges, attorneys, case workers, and CASA volunteers to educate them about child welfare law, basic principles of child development, and the court process itself.

Virginia, for example, brought together local "teams" from each jurisdiction in the state to participate in regional trainings. The teams, which included judges, court clerks, attorneys and child protection agency representatives, sat together during each session and then discussed how they could implement in their own courts the "best practices" they learned at the training. Each team left with an action plan to move reforms forward in their own communities.

• Multidisciplinary approaches. Approaches that emphasize collaboration between courts, agencies, and communities to address the complex needs of children and their families are critical. Working under the premise that no single entity can solve all the child welfare system’s problems alone, West Virginia has mandated multidisciplinary teams for each county based on a state-wide model protocol. Each team must meet regarding a child’s case within 30 days and must be present at all judicial reviews. West Virginia’s philosophy, according to the court improvement project director, is based on a "comprehensive state-wide approach that emphasizes multidisciplinary, community-based solutions founded in strong judicial leadership and case management, with clear objectives for families and aggressive advocacy for children."

• Treatment of parties and witnesses. Another benefit of improved court proceedings relates directly to the children and families the courts are intended to serve. The court’s increased ability to communicate effectively with children, family members, and others conveys the message that abuse and neglect cases must be taken seriously, and that children and families should be treated with dignity. Respectful procedures--such as calling parties by name and not making a family wait for hours before its’ case is heard—reflect a commitment to a child-centered process. Child-friendly waiting areas with books and toys can also have a significant impact on a child’s courts experience. Some states even recommend developing material, including booklets and videotapes, to explaining the court process to parents, older children, and foster and adoptive parents.

Looking to the Future

One of the most valuable benefits of the court improvement program is the exchange of information and strategies that occurs between states. By sharing successful reform strategies, states are often able to replicate successful reforms and innovations implemented in other states. In the end, however, the strength of the projects and their reforms will depend on the commitment and dedication of court practitioners and communities.

Court improvement grants offer states an opportunity to focus closely on an often neglected area of court functioning and heighten the visibility of children’s issues at the highest levels of state court systems. The challenges facing juvenile dependency courts—efficient case management, reasonable caseloads, and quality legal representation, among others—need immediate and specific reforms. Ultimately, through changes made possible by the court improvement program, children in foster care will spend less time in care, wait less time in court, and more quickly find the permanence they so desperately need.