Children's Court Improvement Program
In 1995, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Director of State Courts Office applied for and received grant funding under the federal Court Improvement Program (CIP) to improve the handling of child abuse and neglect, termination of parental rights and adoption cases in the court system. The highest court of appeal in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico currently participate in the program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau. Congress has authorized appropriations for the program through federal fiscal year 2006. States have two years from the issuance date of each grant award to obligate and liquidate the funds.
Use the boomarks below to explore the Children's Court Improvement Program:
Children's Court Initiative
Mission statement
The mission of the Children’s Court Initiative (CCI) is to assist the court system and those providing services to it in achieving safety, permanence, due process, and timeliness outcomes for children and families in child welfare proceedings.
Project description
The Children’s Court Initiative (CCI) is a comprehensive county circuit court review process designed to strengthen court processing in child welfare and termination of parental rights cases. The project establishes safety, permanency, due process, and timeliness performance measures that are based on best practice principles outlined by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, as well as areas evaluated in both the federal Child and Family Services Review and Title IV-E audit related to court practice. The achievement of the performance measures is assessed and tracked through court file reviews, court observation, surveys, focus groups, and data analysis from the Consolidated Court Automation Programs (CCAP). CCI staff members work in partnership with the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Continuous Quality Improvement staff to implement both quality assurance programs together.
Project reports
The Children's Court Initiative (CCI) Summary Report, which compiles the data, findings, and best practices from the CCI on-site reviews conducted in 30 counties, was issued in January 2008.
The following documents are all in Adobe PDF format  :
Children's Court Initiative (CCI) Summary Report
Appendices:
To learn if a county-specific report is available, contact CCIP Benchmark Coordinators Bridget Bauman or John Strange.
Reassessment Final Report
As a condition of funding, all states receiving Court Improvement Program grants were required in the late 1990s to conduct a self-assessment of court performance in child abuse and neglect and foster care cases, develop a plan for improvement, and then use the federal funding to implement their plans. Wisconsin completed this assessment in April 1997 and put into practice several of the improvement recommendations.
In 2003, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau issued a program instruction that requires states to conduct a reassessment. The purpose of the reassessment is to update each state’s earlier assessment of court performance in processing child welfare cases and also to determine what progress has been made since the original assessments. Wisconsin’s reassessment was completed in January 2005.
The following documents are all in Adobe PDF format :
Reassessment Final Report
Appendices:
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Confidentiality Project
The objective of the Confidentiality Project is to clarify confidentiality provisions in Wisconsin statutes, regulations, and practices to improve interagency collaboration when working with children and families in the court system. Confidentiality issues relating to the children in need of protection or services (CHIPS) system are the primary focus of the project.
This project is co sponsored with the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Children's Justice Act grant. On October 1, 1999, the first meeting of a multi-disciplinary advisory board was held in Madison. Since then, statutory analysis and a practice issues working groups of the committee have compiled and analyzed information relating to information and records release. An Executive Summary of Phase I of the project was completed in June 2004. Phase II of the project, which includes the development of a guidebook for professionals and a brochure for clients, was completed in February 2006.
The following documents are in Adobe PDF format :
Executive summary
Guide to Confidentiality Laws Applicable to CHIPS Proceedings
Privacy Rights In Child Abuse and Neglect Cases
Advisory board members
Related sites
Organizations
Laws/documents
Contact information
Children’s Court Improvement Program
Office of Court Operations
110 E. Main St., Suite 410
Madison, WI 53703
Michelle Jensen Goodwin, Director
Phone: (608) 266-1557
Fax: (608) 267-0911
E-mail: michelle.jensen-goodwin@wicourts.gov
Bridget Bauman, Benchmarks Coordinator
Phone: (608) 267-1958
Fax: (608) 267-0911
E-mail: bridget.bauman@wicourts.gov
Jeanne Williams, Training Coordinator
Phone: (608) 264-6905
Fax: (608) 267-0911
E-mail: jeanne.williams@wicourts.gov
Terri Wilcox, Program Assistant
Phone: (608) 261-0692
Fax: (608) 267-0911
E-mail: terri.wilcox@wicourts.gov
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