Title: Case Review Systemic Factor
1 Case Review Systemic Factor
- Agencies and Courts Conference
- Arlington, VA
- August, 2009
- Presented by
- Will Hornsby, Childrens Bureau
- Nancy Miller, NCJFCJ
- Timothy Travis, NCJFCJ Consultant
2Overview
- Preview Technical Assistance Bulletin
- Overview of the Case Review Systemic Factor
- Substantial Conformity
- Best practices to achieve substantial conformity
- Involving the legal community
- Its an open book test
3SUBSTANTIAL CONFORMITY IN THE CASE REVIEW
SYSTEMIC FACTOR
- Preview of a technical assistance bulletin
- The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Judges principal writers - The American Bar Association
- The National Center for State Courts
- The Childrens Bureau
- THE COLLABORATIVE
4Substantial Conformity
- To be in substantial conformity, the Childrens
Bureau must assign the systemic factor a rating
of 3 or 4. - 1 none of the child and family service plan
(CFSP) or program requirements is in place - 2 some or all of the requirements are in place,
but more than one of the requirements fail to
function as described in each requirement - 3 all in place, and no more than one fails to
function as described in each requirement - 4 all are in place and functioning as described
in each requirement
5Items for Case Review System
- Item 25 Written Case plan
- Item 26 Periodic reviews
- Item 27 Permanency hearings
- Item 28 Termination of Parental Rights
- Item 29 Notice of hearings and reviews
to caregivers
6How are states doing?
- Item 25 Written Case plan
- No state rated a Strength in FY07 and FY08
- Item 26 Periodic reviews
- 27 states rated as Strengths in FY07 and FY08
- Item 27 Permanency hearings
- 17 states rated as Strengths in FY07 and FY08
- Item 28 Termination of Parental Rights
- 7 states rated as Strengths in FY07 and FY08
- Item 29 Notice of hearings and reviews to
caregivers - 9 states rated as Strengths in FY07 and FY08
7Written Case plansWhat are the reviewers looking
for?
- Does the State provide a process that ensures
each child has a written case plan, to be
developed jointly with the childs parents that
includes the required provisions? - How does the state agency or court track
information regarding case planning? - What does the data show regarding
- Number/Percentage of cases with active/timely
case plans - Family involvement in case planning
- Differences between in home and foster care cases
8Written Case plansWhat are the reviewers looking
for?
- Are there processes in place to facilitate family
engagement? - If so, how are these processes utilized in case
planning? - Are case plans updated regularly?
9Case Plans The Role of the Court
- Carefully review the plan and determine whether
it is updated and individualized to the
particular child and family - Query the parties about family involvement in the
development of the plan AND ORDER SAME - Document the adequacy of the plan and the
engagement of the parents and age appropriate
children in the court order - Create data points in the courts data system to
document timeliness, thoroughness, and family
engagement in the case planning process - Review case files and provide data for CFSR
Statewide Assessment
10Family Engagement
- Court Annexed Mediation Programs
- Family Group Conferences
- Family Team Meetings
- Use of parent mentors, cultural liaisons
- Appointment and engagement of competent counsel
11Notice of hearings and reviews to caregiversWhat
are the reviewers looking for?
- Is there a process for foster parents,
pre-adoptive parents, and relative caregivers of
children in foster care to be notified of, and
have a right to be heard in, any review or
hearing held with respect to the child? - What specifically is the process for
notification? - Who is responsible for notification?
- How is compliance tracked?
- What are the barriers to providing timely notice?
- What efforts are in place to address barriers?
12Notice of hearing and reviews to caregiversWhat
are the reviewers looking for?
- How frequently do caregivers attend reviews and
hearings? - Are caregivers given an opportunity to be heard?
- Is this consistent throughout the state?
13NOTICE TO CAREGIVERS
- Work closely with Foster Parent Associations
- Provide court based training to foster parents
- Host foster parents at the court to demystify the
process - ENSURE foster parents have an opportunity to be
heard
14Periodic reviewsWhat are the reviewers looking
for?
- Is there a process for periodic review of the
status of each child, no less frequently than
once every 6 months, either by a court or by
administrative review? - How does the state track information regarding
Periodic Reviews? - What does the data show regarding
- Timeliness of periodic reviews.
- Participation by parents, foster parents, care
givers, youth etc - Effectiveness of periodic reviews in promoting
timely achievement of permanency. - Does this include CIP data?
-
15Periodic Review
- NCJFCJ Resource Guidelines recommends 30 minutes
- Ensure reviews are timely and all legal mandates
are met - Ensure parents, foster parents, other interested
parties are invited and are heard - Can be conducted by a court or administrative
review body (agency, foster care review board) - Important to coordinate court review and periodic
review to avoid duplication - Important to ensure that the court receives
information from the review body if other than
court review
16Permanency hearingsWhat are the reviewers
looking for?
- Does the state have a process that ensures each
child in foster care have a permanency hearing in
a qualified court or administrative body no later
than 12 months from the date the child entered
foster care and no less frequently than every 12
months thereafter? - Does the state agency or court have data
reflecting timeliness of permanency hearings? - What percentage of children had permanency
hearings held within 12 months of the date the
child entered care? - Is there evaluative data available regarding the
effectiveness of permanency hearings to promote
timely achievement of permanency? - Does this include CIP data?
17Permanency Hearings FISH OR CUT BAIT
- Ensure the court provides data on the permanency
hearings for the CFSR Statewide Assessment - Ensure parents, foster parents, and other
essential participants are invited and heard - Ensure the permanency hearing is truly thorough
and at each hearing, ensure the court rules out
all other permanency options before approving
APPLA. A permanency hearing is NOT a regular
review hearing - Ensure the court inquires as to the 15/22 month
compelling reason and requires documentation in
the case plan - Ensure all relevant findings of fact are included
in orders - NCJFCJ Resource Guidelines recommends 60 minutes
18Termination of Parental RightsWhat are the
reviewers looking for?
- Is there a process for Termination of Parental
Rights (TPR) proceedings in accordance with the
provisions of ASFA? - What is the TPR process in the state?
- Does the state agency or court have data
regarding the number/percentages of children in
care 15 of the most recent 22 months? - For what percentage of these children has the
state not filed TPR? - For cases where TPR was not filed, were
compelling reasons specified in the case file? - Is there data tracking compelling reasons by
type?
19TPR Role of the Court
- Review and order if necessary that the
termination of parental rights petition is timely
filed - Ensure the appellate process is expedited
- Review and order if necessary all agency
processes are completed in a timely fashion
(adoption committees, home studies, etc) - Ensure TPR orders contain thorough findings of
fact and conclusions of law
20What are the reviewers looking for?Summary
- Courts should be involved from the beginning by
providing input into the CFSR Statewide
Assessment. If the court has data on timeliness,
thoroughness, effectiveness of hearings and
reviews, it is critical that this data be
provided for the CFSR Statewide Assessment. - Substantial conformity is based on information
from CFSR Statewide Assessment AND stakeholder
interviews. - Many states have statutes that address case
review items but are they being followed?
21The CFSR is an open book test
- Courts can prepare for and participate in all
phases of the CFSR in partnership with the state
agency in order to work on the shared goal of
achieving substantial conformity for the case
review systemic factor - Courts can provide training to stakeholders in
the legal community to ensure hearings are
thorough, timely - Courts can develop data systems to track the
relevant issues contained in the case review
systemic factor - ALL IN IT TOGETHER!
22Notes from the audience on the technical
assistance brief
- Ensure the bulletin addresses both sides of
encouraging involvement by the court.
Encouraging the child welfare agency at the same
level as we encourage the court. - Its your PIP vs. its Our PIP important to
continue the communication as the PIP develops.
If its ours, it shouldnt stop being ours
during the final negotiations. Court should be
at the table for all the courses of the meal. - Suggestion for judges a basic description of
the CFSR process, ,include timelines what is it
and why should you care? - Clear bullet points on what judges can do.
- Include best practice on foster parent notice and
right to be heard. - Is there a way to monitor best practices as they
go to scale? It works in theory and the one
place it was first implemented but not so much as
it rolls out. - The importance of getting out there and observing
what is really going on out in the field - Sharing the data to provoke healthy competition
to meet the timelines - Laying out some best practice, like the fact that
Hawaii does not use APPLA - Reinforce the meaningful court hearings, is there
data that shows this leads to better outcomes? - Encouraging family engagement early in case plan
development, what about the family voluntarily
engaging prior to adjudication - Impact of effective concurrent planning it is
not disingenuous
23Notes from the audience on the TA brief
- Coordinating court and admin review, making info
from admin review available to court, make sure
that we cover due process protections for parents - Foster parent training demystifying the process
should include the pratfalls and difficult
experiences that foster parents may experience in
the court room. - Bulletin should make the points that Will makes
about tying the TPR practices to Item 7 as well.