Court Improvement/Court Reform

Many courts across the country, in connection with child welfare agencies, are working to improve their processes or reform their systems to achieve better outcomes for children and families involved in child abuse and neglect cases.

Building a Resilience-Oriented Child Welfare Court System
Wyman & Warner-King (2017)
Juvenile & Family Court Journal, 68(1)
Proposes a new set of values for child welfare court systems that will orient its leaders and practitioners toward resilience. The article reviews the framework and principles for building protective factors for improved resilience of the Court Improvement Training Academy at the University of Washington School of Law.

Determining the Best Interests of the Child
Series Title State Statutes
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability View
Download (PDF - 816KB)
Year Published 2016
Discusses State laws that present the factors that courts need to consider when making decisions about a child's appropriate custody and care. Factors to be considered include parental capacity to provide adequate care, sibling and other family relationships, and the child's wishes. The factsheet also addresses the definition of best interests and guiding principles of best interest determinations. Summaries of laws for all States and U.S. territories are included.

Enhanced Resource Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases (PDF - 14,858 KB)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (2016)
Provides historical information on the need for guidelines to improve courts’ handling of child abuse and neglect cases, an explanation of the revision process, and new key principles to enhance court practice in child abuse and neglect cases.

Fostering Court Improvement
Children and Family Resource Center, Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic, Fostering Results, & National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues (2017)
Provides data  and resources for dependency courts and child welfare agencies to use to make informed decisions, manage operations, monitor performance, and make systemic changes to improve outcomes for children and families.

A Guide to Conducting Effective Training Evaluations: Recommendations, Strategies, and Tools for Dependency Court Improvement Programs
National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues (2014)
Provides recommendations, strategies, and tools for dependency court improvement programs.

Process Evaluation: Courts Catalyzing Change (CCC) Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard (PDF - 256 KB)
Gonzalez & Summers (2014)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Describes findings from a multisite process evaluation that examined dependency court judge's and stakeholder's perceptions of a tool to improve court practice and reduce the disproportionate treatment of children of color in the dependency court system.

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