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Missouri's Court Reforms to Improve

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Missouri's Court Reforms to Improve CONTINUING UPWARD FROM THE SUMMIT Volume 6 An E-newsletter Highlighting Implementation VolumeMarch 22008 May 2007 Accomplishments & Events Throughout the Country Join Our KENTUCKY STATE-WIDE SUMMIT ON CHILDREN Listserv Members of the At the March of 2007 National Summit on Children, juvenile justice system misunderstood their various speakers challenged participants from across appropriate roles and failed to act in fulfillment of Summit state our nation to conduct similar events in their states to responsibilities. Systemic problems such as lack of teams or your focus on how to best serve children in need. resources, inadequate diversion programs, and failure successors can of competent legal representation were identified. exchange While still in New York, members of the Kentucky information delegation discussed the possibility of having a A number of specific recommendations arose from through the similar state event in their Commonwealth. They the summit. There was widespread agreement that listserv. To recognized that much of the truancy courts or programs and subscribe to the necessary issue identification, family and juvenile drug courts listserv, send an planning, and organization had been should be expanded. done, and that the national event Representation of children and e-mail message could serve as a template for a families by guardians ad litem to statewide and subsequent regional and greater accountability of "listserv@listserv meetings in Kentucky. Discussions social workers were seen as .ncsconline.org". with child protection workers, foster needed changes. As a result of In the body of parents, legislators, judges, the Kentucky summit, legislation the message, put prosecutors, and others involved in is now pending to expand the "join Children- the child welfare system revealed a availability of guardians ad litem Summit". high level of enthusiasm for the idea and improve tracking and of a summit. reporting on complaints about child protection programs and The Kentucky statewide summit was services. Other legislation has held on August 27, 28 and 29 in been introduced to create a pilot Louisville. In attendance were 600 project concerning limited professionals who were focused on opening of juvenile proceedings how Kentucky courts could improve in court. Another proposed their services to children. A stellar legislative change would clarify group of national and local speakers parameters for detention of status focused on problems inherent in the offenders. Finally, it was system and possible solutions. Among the leading recommended that administrative procedures topics discussed were overcoming barriers to justice regarding dependency, neglect and abuse cases be for children, best practices to promote safety, improved. permanency and well-being for children, and understanding the parameters and promoting At the conclusion of the statewide summit, nine accountability of courts. Other topics included at-risk regional one-day summit events were also conducted. juveniles and the juvenile justice system, combating The regional events mirrored, in an abbreviated truancy, and developing regional action plans. fashion, the statewide meeting. Attending the regional summits were 1300 persons. In all, nearly At the conclusion of each program segment, 2000 Kentucky participants and decision-makers participants completed surveys developed by the attended the children’s summit. The 2007 Kentucky University of Kentucky School of Social Work. Summits on Children was a rare, mountaintop Survey results were compiled into a preliminary experience that got the creative energies flowing. As report on the summit. Among the findings were that powerful as it was, the Summit was just a start, an miscommunication and lack of communication important beginning for things to come. among professionals contributed to system breakdown and that various participants in the For further information, please contact Jason Nemes: [email protected] MILESTONE TRACKING: MISSOURI‘S COURT REFORMS TO IMPROVE TIMELINESS OF CHILD ABUSE/NEGLECT HEARINGS In 2002 the death of a child while in foster care Reporting Requirements created the impetus for a Senate Interim Committee on Children’s Protective Services and Missouri’s 114 counties and the City of St. Louis Foster Care, a Supreme Court Commission on are organized into 45 judicial circuits. Court Children’s Justice, a Child Welfare Reform Bill, Operating Rule 23.01 requires the presiding judge and ultimately Court Operating Rule 23.01. This of each circuit to submit a quarterly report to the Rule holds Missouri’s courts accountable for Office of the State Court Administrator (OSCA). timely child abuse and neglect hearings. This Juvenile Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) Quarterly Report provides detailed information on the required hearing date, the date the hearing was held (late), or the date the hearing is scheduled to be heard (overdue). The report also includes the reasons for delay and a plan for compliance in the following quarter. OSCA compiles this information by circuit and prepares a report for the Supreme Court and Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline. This management report is an overview of all hearings due for a specific date range. Information from previous reports is included to demonstrate Missouri’s progress Following the 2002 child fatality, the Senate toward achieving timely child abuse/neglect Interim Committee found there were delays in the hearings. Summary data, by circuit, is published first court hearing when children are removed annually in the Missouri Judicial Report from their homes, there was no parental contact Supplement and is available to the public via the for days or weeks, and people were distrustful of Supreme Court’s web page. the juvenile courts. The Commission recommended several reforms to enhance the processing of abuse and neglect cases, including: · Mandatory 3-day removal hearings · Specific requirements for content of hearings · Requirements for notification of parents prior to hearings · Time standards for scheduling all hearings · Strong no-continuance policies and documentation of reasons for continuances · A pilot project for open hearings · Standardized procedures and forms to be developed by the Supreme Court. In the spring 2004, Missouri passed the Child Welfare Reform Bill, which provided (a) mandatory protective custody hearings within three business days of the child entering care; (b) time standards for all child abuse/neglect hearings; (c) documented compelling reasons for a continuance of a hearing and; (d) open hearings for public accountability. “MILESTONE TRACKING…” CONTINUED Justice Information System/Milestone Tracking events, and any changes that have been made in the schedule. Dates adjust automatically based on Missouri’s Justice Information System (JIS) the date the previous hearing was held. utilizes case management software which is person specific. A child receives a unique person To meet the requirement for a documented number composed of a partial name, birth date explanation when a hearing can not be held, the and the last four digits of the child’s social system allows the user to enter predetermined security number. This ID may be used to look up reason codes when rescheduling a hearing outside all cases for a child in the JIS system. Siblings of the permissible time frame. Reasons for delay are linked, but the data and tracking remains include: unavailable court date, unavailable separate for each child. All juvenile divisions judicial officer, GAL, attorney, lay witness, enter data into this statewide database. However, professional witness, medical evidence etc. Missouri’s automated system did not have adequate tracking The Juvenile CAN capabilities to allow for the type Milestone tracking system of reporting required by COR is helping Missouri better 23. As such, the state developed serve the children that come and piloted the Juvenile Child into state care. The court Abuse and Neglect (CAN) system is better able to Milestone tracking system in manage its caseload and 2004. ensure that all mandated timeframes are met. In Milestones is a tool within the addition, all information automated information system necessary for the courts to which assists the courts in complete and submit the tracking and reporting on CAN Quarterly report is timeliness of child abuse/neglect accessed from the milestone hearings. The tracking module track. interfaces with the JIS case management system and enables The CAN milestone courts to meet the reporting tracking and reporting has requirements that would be very resulted in accountability at difficult and time consuming the circuit and judicial using manual methods. The officer level. This type of standard milestone schedule is accountability is producing entered into a table in JIS. A improved outcomes. For case is initiated in JIS and the standard milestones state fiscal year 2006 (July 2005 through June for that case type attach automatically to the case. 2006) 92 percent of all hearings were held within The docket code for a child taken into protective the required timeframes. This compares to 95 custody turns on the milestone tracking and sets percent for state fiscal 2007 (July 2006 through due dates as specified in the schedule of dates for June 2007). Eight circuits met 100 percent of all that case type. required timeframes in FY 2007. This compares to three circuits in FY 2006. Finally, 31 circuits When docket entries are made, the clerks can add held at least
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