Court Performance Measures in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases: Implementation Guide

• NCJ Number: 223568
• Author(s): Sophia I. Gatowski Ph.D.; Lisa Portune M.S.W.
• Date Published: April 2009
• Length: 76 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2003-JS-FX-K008; 90XW0008
• Agencies: OJJDP
• Publication Type: Policy/Procedure Handbook/Manual

Annotation

This volume of the toolkit provides practical advice to child abuse and neglect courts on how to set up a court performance measurement team, assess capacity, prioritize among measurement needs, plan data collection activities, and use the data generated through the performance measurement process to plan reforms.

Abstract

Organizations recognize that performance measures enhance effective decisionmaking, evaluation, communication, and planning processes. This implementation guide is intended to provide assistance to child abuse and neglect or dependency courts as they implement a process of performance measurement using national performance measures identified by the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law, the National Center for State Courts, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The guide is based on the experiences of various dependency courts across the country, and is designed to help support courts in their efforts to determine how effectively they handle child abuse and neglect cases. It guides the reader through the stages of forming a performance measurement committee, conducting a needs assessment to determine which measures they can collect data for and which they cannot, and creating an action plan for implementing performance measures. The guide helps orient court staff in the kind of thinking and analysis necessary to complete a performance measurement process, and acts as a practical, action-oriented handbook that dependency courts can use when measuring their performance and working with technical experts. This volume, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), is one of five in a toolkit designed and tested to provide practical and comprehensive guidance to the critical task of measuring court performance in child abuse and neglect cases. Samples and appendixes A-B