NCJ Number
188289
Date Published
March 1998
Length
145 pages
Annotation
This report provides an overview of 25 State court assessment reports that focused on court improvement activities related to the handling of child abuse and neglect cases and presents the recommendations from each of the 25 reports.
Abstract
The Permanency Planning for Children Project Advisory of the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges reviewed the State reports in 1997 and noted that the 25 reports represented a cross-section of the States, both geographically and in population. The overview focused on what State courts were doing well, common areas of concern for State courts, common themes in the recommendations, and innovative or unique recommendations on the assessments. Results revealed that variability of practice within a State was common. No areas existed in which the majority of States were doing well. However, topics on which four or more reports noted that the States were doing well included the State statutory framework (nine States), judicial performance/leadership and concerned staff (nine States), quality of advocacy (five States), and the implementation of the concept of one judge for one case (four States). Areas of concern in the majority of States included judicial leadership and philosophy, issues related to reasonable efforts of State agencies to prevent a child’s removal from the home, a lack of substantive hearings, continuances and wait time, inadequate management information systems, representation, training, and State laws and court rules. The numbers of recommendations for improvements varied widely from State to State. Recommendations most often focused on the role of the court or judge, case management, representation, management information systems, training, and implementation. Charts and appended recommendations from individual reports