In 2014, Casey Family Programs selected Wisconsin to implement the Judicial Engagement Team (JET) Initiative. JET is led by the Children’s Court Improvement Program (CCIP) and a mentor judge to improve child welfare practices. JET focuses on engaging judicial partners to support children and families involved in the child welfare system by integrating best practices, analyzing data-centered case management, and cross-system collaboration. Each JET county forms a multi-disciplinary committee with various child welfare stakeholders including judges, prosecutors, guardians ad litem, adversary counsel, county agency managers and supervisors, CASA, and community stakeholders such as school administrators and citizens review panel members. CCIP assists each JET county with organizing meetings, setting agendas, providing requested data, offering trainings, and communicating with stakeholders to take the weight off the stakeholders.
In 2015, JET was piloted in Dane, Kenosha, and Monroe counties. JET was expanded to Barron, Jefferson, Marathon, Marinette, and Oconto counties in 2018 and to Outagamie County in 2020. Each JET county has established concrete strategies to safely reduce the number of children in out-of-home care and improve timely permanence for children involved in the child welfare system. These unique strategies have improved relationships amongst stakeholders, allowed for more frequent communication, and led to more effective child welfare processes.
Kenosha County JET led by Chief Judge Jason Rossell implemented Project Permanency to reduce the backlog of Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) cases. Kenosha County JET stakeholders focused on data to identify inefficiencies and quickly discovered only 42 TPR cases could be processed every year due to having only two social workers trained to handle TPR cases, one Assistant District Attorney to file the TPR cases, and two judges assigned to hear TPR cases. In 2018, Kenosha County Division of Children & Family Services identified over 120 children in out-of-home care who were awaiting a TPR petition to be filed. Kenosha County took their data to the county board who approved a half-time special prosecutor to handle additional TPRs which also resulted in an additional judge agreeing to add TPR cases to his docket and the county agency trained additional social workers to handle TPR cases. As a result, Project Permanency will eliminate the entire backlog of children awaiting TPR by the end of 2022 since Kenosha County now has a capacity of filing over 90 TPR cases per year. Kenosha County JET continues to focus on utilizing data to improve child welfare practice.
Jefferson County JET has collaboratively implemented strategies to enhance family engagement and promote trauma-informed work within child welfare proceedings. These strategies include: creating a parent input form for the court to utilize to increase participation at hearings, appointing counsel for parents earlier in the CHIPS case, and scheduling review hearings post-disposition, outside of the permanency hearings, to discuss parents’ progress on their conditions for return. The goal for implementing these strategies is for children to reach permanency faster. The established relationships through JET amongst stakeholders have led to successful implementation of additional projects in Jefferson County. These projects include: family centered therapy to focus on the child’s needs and offer families resources with the goal of returning children in out-of-home care to their home, the Parents Supporting Parents initiative serves as a model of hope and source of support from parents previously involved in the child welfare system to assist parents currently involved in CHIPS cases, and the Family Legal Advocacy and Supports program prevents formal child welfare intervention by addressing ancillary legal issues. Judge Bennett Brantmeier stated, “by working together to make improvements and adjustments to the juvenile system, the children and families of Jefferson County have benefited.”
Outagamie County joined the JET initiative in late 2020 and only met once in-person prior to COVID-19. COVID did not impede Outagamie’s motivation and desire to collaboratively come together to examine and challenge current practices and create functional solutions. Outagamie County has seen success in improving timely discovery distribution pre-disposition, educating the social workers about CHIPS and TPR court processes, and reducing time to disposition. Chief Judge Carrie Schneider, Outagamie County Circuit Court, noted “having the ability to bring all partners together to discuss issues around child welfare cases is a significant benefit of the JET initiative. CCIP’s expertise in advising on issues, providing statistical analysis, and facilitating out meetings has been invaluable. When all parties who want to see increased efficiencies to the process can meet together and be guided by the exceptional staff of CCIP, improvements to the lives of the children and families in our court systems can be achieved.”
Additional JET counties have accomplished expediting time to permanence by expanding family drug treatment courts, earlier and increased legal representation for parents, implementing the one judge/one family model, enhancing the quality of hearings and judicial oversight, increased stakeholder communication, improved TPR referral processes from the agency to the prosecutor’s office, and elevating child and parent engagement in the child welfare and court systems.
CCIP will be expanding the JET initiative to St. Croix County and Racine County in 2023 with plans to continue expansion throughout the state by sharing successes and lessons learned from other JET counties.
For more information, or if your county is interested in forming a multi-disciplinary collaborative child welfare JET team, please contact Bridget Mauerman, Kristen Wetzel, or Justin Wolff with the Children’s Court Improvement Program.
Third Branch eNews is an online monthly newsletter of the Director of State Courts Office. If you are interested in contributing an article about your department’s programs or accomplishments, contact your department head. Information about judicial retirements and judicial obituaries may be submitted to: Sara.Foster@wicourts.gov