Committee on Justice for Children (cj4c)

 

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) administers the Georgia Court Improvement Initiative - Deprivation, a joint project of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges and the Committee on Justice for Children. It is a part of a nationwide effort to improve how courts handle child abuse and neglect cases. The project works with juvenile judges to bring together court staff and other related agencies to improve court procedures and implement "best practices". It offers training, referrals to other programs, and hands-on assistance. There are twelve focus sites across the state.

 

GCII – DELINQUENCY

Fourteen of Georgia's judges with juvenile court jurisdiction came together for two workshops, the first in the fall of 2005 and the second in the spring of 2006 to launch a Delinquency Court Improvement Initiative. The first meeting was a 2-day planning retreat moderated by Cathy Lowe, a consultant with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The group’s discussion focused around the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ publication “Juvenile Delinquency Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Juvenile Delinquency Cases.” The Delinquency CII committee reviewed the Guidelines and worked with Georgia State law students who created a concordance between the National Guidelines and existing Georgia law. From this work a draft document entitled Aspirational Guidelines for Georgia Courts in Delinquency Cases was created. At the Spring 2007 CJCJ meeting, the Executive Board endorsed the document. The format of this document by consensus is designed to be short and concise and yet provide enough details to help a judge properly process juvenile delinquency cases. The guidelines are non-mandatory and aspirational, yet much thought and debate went into their formation, and judges are urged to read and consider these guidelines for juvenile delinquency cases.

 

GCII – DEPRIVATION

The Executive Committee of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges created the Court Improvement Initiative in 2004 to develop guidelines for best practices in delinquency cases. The Initiative consists of a committee of judges from around the State that meet periodically to research and discuss best practices in areas that include, but not limited to, intake, adjudications, dispositions, appeals, and supervision of youth found delinquent. The Delinquency Committee, a standing committee of the Council, oversees the work of the Delinquency Initiative. The Delinquency Committee has approved recommendations from the Initiative Committee to provisionally adopt the Delinquency Resource Guidelines promulgated by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

 

 

 

 

The Measures for Courts project will work in partnership with the GCII-Deprivation to establish outcome measures for deprived children within the system. For child deprivation cases, state and federal law establishes three goals for children; that they shall: 1) be safe, 2) have permanency and 3) have their well-being needs met. All systems need measurements to ensure the end goal or product is being accomplished. The J4C staff and committee are consulting with state and federal leaders to establish the outcomes and the measures and monitors to be reported out publicly, thereby providing a means to ensure these crucial goals of safety, permanency and well-being are being met.

 

 

Knowledge creates context for better decision making and for the identification and use of best practices in courts. All courts in Georgia will be aware of the GA CIP’s published child welfare outcome framework (measures from a child’s perspective), and all courts willing to collect specific court process measures regarding due process and timeliness will be able to do so.

 

a. Outcome: Maltreatment does not occur.
Measure: Proportion of children reported maltreated.

 

b. Outcome: Maltreatment does not recur.
Measures: Proportion of children re-reported within 3, 6, and 12 months; Proportion re-entering foster care.

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a. Outcome: Children remain in their homes.
Measure: Proportion removed from their home.

b. Outcome: Bonded attachments are maintained.
Measures: Proportion of siblings placed together; Frequency of visitation with kin; Proportion in a stable placement.

c. Outcome: Permanency is timely.
Measures: Proportion reunified with family within 12 months; Proportion adopted within 24 months.

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a. Outcome: Children are healthy.
Measures: Proportion with physical health needs met; Proportion with mental health needs met.

 

b. Outcome: Children are educated.
Measure: Proportion performing at age-appropriate grade level.

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This framework has been guided by the federal Child and Family Services Review. Many of these measures can be obtained from a data sharing currently in place with Georgia DFCS. Other measures can be obtained from data collection on the court side and case file reviews.

 

See http://fosteringcourtimprovement.org/ga/ for the most recent measures currently available to the J4C. The Measures for Courts work evolved from J4C's SANCA (Strengthening Abuse and Neglect Courts of America) grant. See: SANCA Final Report

In addition, J4C will continue to do small sample court case file reviews and court observations to give each court a snapshot of how their files and process compare to others.

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All courts have a general understanding of framework

Intensive work with interested courts to receive significant training and support to measure court process