Court Improvement Program News and Report - 1st Quarter 2017
5/17/2017 2:07:45 PM
During the past quarter (January through March, 2017), the Court
Improvement Program (CIP) has focused on three primary strategies: improving
timeliness to permanency for children; increasing judicial, attorney, and
stakeholder’s knowledge and expertise; and building systemic capacity through
continual quality improvement (CQI) and data exchange.
CIP’s
principal initiatives to help reduce barriers to timely permanency for children
included supporting the Community Improvement Councils (CIC) in each judicial
district. During the 2016 CIC Summit, the
CICs developed aggressive action plans for the upcoming year. The CIP
Coordinator attended and participated in CIC meetings in the majority of the judicial
districts throughout the State, providing support and information to assist
with the implementation of the action plans.
To
help improve timeliness to permanency and build systemic capacity, CIP launched
the statewide Juvenile Dependency Mediation Program (JDMP) on July 1, 2016. Since
that time, 56 mediations have been conducted throughout the state with 47, or 84
percent, resulting in agreement. Sixteen
more mediations have already been scheduled for the final quarter. The use of mediation is increasing and is
successful. The 11th Judicial
District has scheduled its first mediation to be conducted in the 4th
quarter, leaving the 6th and 7th JDs yet to hold dependency
mediation. The 7th JD ordered
mediation in the 1st quarter, but the case settled prior to the
mediation.
The
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is conducting a
process assessment of the Statewide Program, and process and impact evaluations
of the 2nd JD’s mediation program to help ensure program
sustainability. They have gathered the majority of the data for the studies and
are beginning the analysis. NCJFCJ has observed
how effectively and efficiently the courts have integrated mediation into their
processes. NCJFCJ has assigned two
outstanding researchers, Sophie Gatowski, Ph.D. and Gene Siegel, to manage
these studies. Dr. Gatowski provided technical assistance to the Blue Ribbon
for Kids Commission and is familiar with dependency in Nevada. She has also conducted numerous dependency
mediation evaluations across the country.
She believes that the depth of this study will expand national knowledge
on the subject.
Since the
On-Line Attorney Dependency training was launched the end of January; 14
attorneys and CASAs from across the state have registered to take the course
and two have completed and received their certificate of completion. Several courts plan to require contract attorneys
to complete the course.
The
Statewide Collaborative on Education, Child Welfare, and the Courts in
collaboration with the ABA Center on Children and the Law planned a BDR to
incorporate the federal Every Student Succeeds Act into the Nevada Revised
Statutes. The resultant bill, AB491, was
sponsored by the Assembly Committee on Education and passed out of the Nevada
State Assembly as amended. It will next
be heard by the Senate Committee on Education where a few more matters will be
resolved.
The U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau notified CIP on
March 2, 2017 that it was awarded an additional $2,156 for a total of $135,314
for the federal fiscal year 2017 Basic Grant. CIP is continuing its national
efforts to recover funding for the CIP Data and Training Grants. CIP developed and submitted an information
package to the National Center for State Courts, NCJFCJ,
and the American Bar Association to continue national efforts to recover
funding for the CIP Data and Training Grants lost as the result of an analyst’s
error. The Conference of Chief Justices
issued a resolution in support of full reauthorization of CIP Data and Training
Grant funding.
The
Children’s Justice Act Task Force offered CIP a grant for $10,475 to develop
and deliver a training toolkit for the Statewide Juvenile Dependency Mediation
Program.