NCJ Number
239578
Date Published
September 2010
Length
25 pages
Annotation
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) describes the features of its Model Court protocol, with attention to leadership, innovation, and accountability.
Abstract
Model Court jurisdictions engage in cutting-edge local, statewide, and national programs, policies, and initiatives. The goals are to achieve the safe reduction in the number of children in foster care and improve outcomes for children in foster care. The strategy of the Model Court project is to enable these dependency courts to be leaders of system reform and the implementation of best practices. In 1995, following a 3-year development process, the NCJFCJ published the RESOURCE GUIDELINES: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases. The core of the Guidelines is a problem-solving approach for improving court practice. This approach focuses on judicial leadership and oversight, substantive and timely hearings, and collaboration among all key partners in the dependency system. Under the Guidelines, Model Courts focus on the key values of judicial leadership, court oversight and due process, multi-system collaboration, child-focused outcomes, and system accountability. Each Model Court leads local system reform through the selection of short-term improvement goals based on Guidelines practices, measured implementation of its goals, partnerships with statewide efforts, and the nationwide dissemination of information on dependency system improvements that have worked for the Model Courts. Model Courts continually assess their child-abuse-and-neglect case processing, focusing on barriers to timely permanency, developing and instituting plans for court improvement, and working collaboratively to achieve systems change. Over the two decades during which the Model Courts project has evolved, it has achieved positive outcomes for children and families, including decreases in the number of children in out-of-home placements. This report provides details on various aspects of Model Court operational tasks and procedures.