The Court Improvement Program (CIP) was established by grant as part of a Federal initiative to support family preservation, prevention of child abuse, and services to families at risk. The grant was initially authorized by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-66). Its purpose is to assess and improve court processes related to foster care and adoption. The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has received federal funding for the project since 1995.
The annual grant award to the AOC is approximately $300,000. These funds are distributed to districts and are used for training and information programs for juvenile court and management assistance in developing and implementing court improvements, including working with judges to bring together juvenile court staff and others to improve court procedures and implement "best practices." Improvements in juvenile court policy, procedure and management in juvenile courts include:
- Implementing pilot projects that tested the effectiveness of using juvenile court "case managers" to process and handle child abuse and neglect cases. The implementation of these projects resulted in the reduction of the frequency and number of out-of-home placements of children. The time children remained in out-of-home placements (or foster care) for the children involved in these cases was significantly reduced from a median of 404 days to 245 days.
- Developing a juvenile court information collection and management system (JWise). It is envisioned that once this system is in place and running statewide, performance standards can be used to monitor, evaluate and improve the performance of our state's juvenile courts.
- Reforming state laws (Juvenile Code), policies and procedures (court rules) for juvenile court proceedings. These changes have been made to either comply with federal legislation and/or to make clarifications in the state laws governing juvenile court procedures.
- Supporting and cosponsoring comprehensive skill-based training for judges and attorneys.
A statewide reassessment of proceedings relating to foster care and adoption was initiated in 2004 with results to be reported in 2006. Findings will be used to develop recommendations for further improving the processing of child abuse and neglect cases.