Family Drug Court,Targeted Parent Training and Family Reunification: Did this Enhanced Service Strategy Make A Difference?

This article reports findings from an evaluation of reunification outcomes for children and families who participated in a family drug court (FDC) that incorporated the use of two innovative evidence‐based parenting programs. In addition to comprehensive FDC services, families participated in the Strengthening Families Program and Celebrating Families!^TM programs in a sequential format. Data analyses were conducted on a sample of 214 children whose child welfare cases were adjudicated through the FDC and 418 matched comparison cases. Entry‐cohort survival analysis results indicated that families receiving FDC services were more than twice as likely to reunify in a 45 month observation window.     

Parenting in Families of Low Socioeconomic Status: A Review with Implications for Child Welfare Practice

Families involved in the child welfare system overwhelmingly draw from low socioeconomic (SES) populations. Impoverished children are placed in foster care at disproportionate rates. Addressing this dynamic requires understanding the adaptations low‐income families make when parenting under adversity so that accurate assessments of their needs occur. This article focuses on two aspects of child welfare practice: the evaluation of parenting capacity and service delivery. It examines, in particular, how well current practices and guidelines, as outlined in the literature, fit with more general research on families and parenting in low‐SES environments and offers suggestions for improving practice.     

Enhancing the Foster Care Review Process: The Case of Kentucky's Interested Party Review Program

In order to promote timely permanency for children in out‐of‐home care, citizen foster care review programs employ volunteers to monitor progress for children in the child welfare system. In addition to case file reviews, Kentucky implemented an Interested Party Review system in which foster care review board members meet with family members and child welfare staff in order to glean more detailed and multi‐faceted information to submit to the court. This article describes a mixed‐methods program evaluation demonstrating the contribution of such a review process to judicial decision making and child outcome, as well as recommendations for program improvement.     

Perspectives on Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Dependency Court in Cases Involving Battered Mothers

A qualitative study was conducted involving clients, victim advocates, and judges participating in one of Miami‐Dade County's (Florida) “therapeutic” juvenile court based programs, the Dependency Court Intervention Program for Family Violence (DCIPFV). The primary objective of this study was to assess how battered mothers’ perceptions of the dependency court judges’ actions impacted the women's motivation to take appropriate actions to promote their own, and their child(ren)'s safety.     

Evaluating the work of Australia's Family Relationship Centres: Evidence from the first 5 years

Family Relationship Centres (FRCs) have been described as a centerpiece of Australia's 2006 family law reforms. This paper places these centres in the larger context of the reforms and their commitment to providing community‐based family services in the family law area. The paper also examines the empirical evidence regarding FRCs' use and effectiveness. It notes that while the objectives and intentions of FRCs place considerable emphasis on strengthening family relationships and assisting families to stay together, the centres themselves have only a modest level of direct involvement with intact families. FRCs tend to have strong links with other community‐based family services, many of whom are more engaged with intact families; but it is difficult to gauge their effectiveness in this area. Most FRCs' direct services are aimed at separating families and most of that work involves family dispute resolution (family mediation) and associated services such as screening and assessment and the provision of relevant information. A substantial majority of clients who attend FDR at an FRC reach agreement about their parenting arrangements either at FDR or subsequent to attending FDR. These agreements also tend to hold up in the medium term. A majority of parents believe that at FDR, the child(ren)'s needs were taken into account; the parenting agreement worked for the child(ren); and the parenting agreement worked for them. A substantial proportion of FRC clients come from families that have experienced family violence or other dysfunctional behaviours, and such behaviours reduce the chances of resolving parenting disputes. The paper concludes by suggesting that having been created mainly as a default alternative to legal interventions and court processes, it is likely that a major future strength of FRCs will lie in their emerging capacity to work constructively not only with other relationship services and networks, but with family lawyers and the courts.     

A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Two Court‐Connected Programs for High‐Conflict Families

Parents who experience great amounts of legal conflict as they dissolve their relationship and arrive at their parenting arrangements require an outsize proportion of courts’ time and resources. Additionally, there is overwhelming evidence that conflict has a deleterious effect on their children. We partnered with the family court to conduct a study comparing the effectiveness of two programs for families deemed by their judge to be high conflict and thereby mandated to a program. Both involved one 3‐hour session; the existing program, Parent Conflict Resolution (PCR), used exhortational lecture and video; the newly designed experimental program, Family Transitions Guide (FTG), based on motivational interviewing, employed exercises attempting to get parents to decide for themselves what they needed to do for the sake of their children. Parents were assigned at random to one of the two programs (the literature often terms this a randomized clinical trial) and were interviewed just before it began and 9 months later, as was a child. Results showed that child's report of their own well‐being was significantly improved by FTG as compared to PCR and that these effects were mediated by children feeling less caught in the middle. On several variables, parent report showed that parents in PCR as compared to FTG felt decreased problems in co‐parenting and less interparental conflict, although the effects were not consistent across mother and father report. There was also evidence of diminished legal conflict over 9 months in FTG as compared to PCR.     

The Greenbook and the Overrepresentation of African American,Hispanic, and Native American Families in the Child Welfare System

Effective Intervention in Domestic Violence & Child Maltreatment Cases: Guidelines for Policy and Practice (the Greenbook) provided a valuable framework for child welfare agencies, domestic violence agencies, and the courts to work together to address the co‐occurrence in families of child maltreatment and domestic violence. It did not specifically address the overrepresentation of families of color in the child welfare system or the disparity of outcomes for these families. Yet the Greenbook’s approach to systems change can be used as a foundation to implement strategies to reduce overrepresentation and to improve safety, permanency, and stability for children and families.     

Helping Children in the Child Welfare Systems Heal from Trauma: A Systems Integration Approach

Numerous organizations touch the lives of children and their families following incidents of maltreatment, including family/dependency courts, child welfare agencies, foster parent associations, foster care agencies or substitute care facilities, mental health agencies, and others. The way these organizations work together is critically important. They have the potential to promote child safety and reduce the harmful impact of maltreatment on children, but also, unfortunately, at times their actions may worsen the traumatic experience for children and their families. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network conducted a survey of 53 child‐serving organizations in 10 states, to assess the ways the organizations gather and share trauma‐related information and the basic training about child trauma their staffs receive. The goal was to determine how the various service systems, including the courts, communicate with each other about trauma and the extent to which, alone or in combination, they promote children's healing following traumatic events. The survey results point to a need to improve collaboration on issues associated with child maltreatment and trauma. Judges can be important leaders in bringing about necessary changes. Recommendations for judges and courts are included.     

THE KIDS' TURN PROGRAM EVALUATION: PROBING CHANGE WITHIN A COMMUNITY‐BASED INTERVENTION FOR SEPARATING FAMILIES

We provide evaluation results for Kids' Turn, a community‐based divorcing parent education program. Based on pre‐ and post‐test results from 61 parents, we found that parents reported improvements over time in interparental conflict, the number of topics parents argue about, parental alienation behaviors, parent anxiety and depression, and children's internalizing behaviors. These changes over time remained after we accounted for child sex, parent and child age, and time since separation. However, we did not observe any change in parenting behaviors. We discuss these results in light of factors influencing the ability of community‐based programs to affect change in families after divorce.     

THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION ADDRESSES THE NATIONAL PROBLEM OF YOUTH AT RISK

During the 2006–2007 American Bar Association (ABA) year, a special ABA Presidential Youth at Risk Initiative has addressed several important topics: addressing the needs of juvenile status offenders and their families; foster children aging out of the foster care system; increases in girls, especially girls of color, in the juvenile justice system; the need to better hear the voices of youth in court proceedings affecting them; and improving how laws can better address youth crossing over between juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Lawyers are encouraged to use their skills to improve the systems addressing at‐risk youth and their families and to help facilitate coordination of youth‐related community efforts. Learning how to effectively communicate with youth is an important skill attorneys must learn. Through the Youth at Risk Initiative, the ABA has held continuing legal education programs, hosted community roundtables among youth‐serving stakeholders, and developed projects on: juvenile status offenders; lawyer assistance to youth transitioning from foster care; educating young girls on violence prevention, conflict resolution, and careers in law and justice; and provision of useful information to youth awaiting juvenile court hearings. New ABA policy has addressed services and programs to at‐risk youth, assuring licensing, regulation, and monitoring of residential facilities serving at‐risk youth, enhanced support for sexual minority foster and homeless youth, juvenile status offenders, and improving laws and policies related to youth exiting the foster care system.     

Show Me the Money: Child Welfare Cost Savings of a Family Drug Court

Family drug courts are programs that serve the complex needs of families involved with the child welfare system due to parental substance abuse. This article summarizes the results of outcomes and selected costs of a system‐wide reform located in Baltimore, Maryland. Results from this study found that parents served by the program entered treatment faster, stayed in treatment longer, and completed treatment more often than non‐served parents. Children in program families spent less time in foster care and were more likely to be reunified with their biological parents. These outcomes resulted in cost savings, including reduced foster care expenditures.     

Profiles of Victimized Women Among the Child Welfare Population: Implications for Targeted Child Welfare Policy and Practices

Despite the call to address domestic violence along with child maltreatment, little information exists to guide services for victimized women involved with child welfare. Research shows that victimized women contend with multiple problems stemming from violent victimization. Unfortunately less is known about combinations of needs and resources among victimized women, especially for those involved with child welfare. Through an examination of needs and resources among families with child maltreatment and domestic violence, we aimed to help address this knowledge gap. Needs and resources among 1,229 victimized caregivers were examined using the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW). Using latent class analysis, four distinct multivariate profiles of needs and resources among victimized caregivers were identified. Significant differences were found among the profile groups in the family violence they experienced in the 18 months following child welfare investigations. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for tailored practices to enhance the safety of victimized caregivers involved with child welfare. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 9th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, Miami, Florida in January 2005.     

DO PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAMS PROMOTE HEALTHY POSTDIVORCE PARENTING? CRITICAL DISTINCTIONS AND A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE

Most parent education programs are designed to improve child well-being following divorce by changing some aspect of parenting. However, there has been relatively little discussion of what aspects of parenting are most critical and the effectiveness of programs to change different aspects of parenting. This paper addresses these issues by: 1. Distinguishing three aspects of post-divorce parenting that have been targeted in parent education programs; 2. Reviewing evidence of the relations between each aspect of parenting and the well-being of children and; 3. Critically reviewing evidence that parent education programs have been successful in changing each aspect of post-divorce parenting.     

Family‐Centered Practice in Adult Treatment Courts: What Can We Learn from the Family Treatment Court Best Practice Standards?

Estimates suggest that upwards of 50% of participants in adult treatment courts (ATC) are parents. Previous studies point to negative impacts of unmet parenting needs on substance use treatment and criminal justice outcomes, and that family‐centered practices such as parenting classes substantially reduce recidivism among ATC participants. Judges and team members interested in adopting family‐centered practices in their ATC program may be unsure where to begin. One recent source of information regarding evidence‐based, family‐centered practices in treatment court settings is the Family Treatment Court (FTC) Best Practice Standards. The FTC Standards suggest adopting a family‐centered mission, expanding partnerships with child‐ and family‐serving agencies, discussing parenting and family roles during hearings, implementing family‐centered case management, and considering the effect of therapeutic responses on children and families. Building on the ATC Standards, the flexibility inherent in voluntary court programs, and existing community partnerships creates a pathway toward family‐centered practice in criminal settings.     

Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse: Programs,progress, and prospects

Recent years have witnessed the development and implementation of clinical services designed to remediate the many deleterious effects of child sexual abuse. However, little information has been disseminated and reviewed in the professional literature to facilitate clinical application and empirical investigation of specific procedures with child victims and their families. This paper provides an overview and critique of treatment programs and modalities, highlighting their achievements and limitations. The methods, characteristics, and empirical outcomes of specific programs are discussed along with future directions and recommendations.     

Court‐Based Interventions in Spain for Families in Divorce Transition: Challenges in the Implementation of (Co)‐Parenting Coordination

Families facing separation or divorce in Spain encounter a number of obstacles, including a primarily adversarial and slow justice system, nonspecialized courts and judges, and a lack of resources to help them through the process. Recent legislation at the regional level (autonomous communities) is moving toward emphasizing shared parental responsibility and introducing parenting plans, while at the national level, legislation advances slowly. One of the main challenges professionals are facing in high‐conflict couple separation is protecting children from the effects of being in the middle of their parents’ conflict. Traditional psychological, legal, and social services are insufficient to support parents and protect their children from interparental hostile conflict—which can be exacerbated by litigation, professional intervention, domestic violence, or addiction. This article illustrates, through a case study, the implementation of parenting coordination in Spain. Different jurisdictions in Spain are slowly implementing (co‐)parenting coordination, an in‐depth intervention designed to support these families. The objective is to help families focus on children's needs and follow the court‐approved parenting plans or court orders, reduce relitigation, and improve parental communication and conflict resolution skills. This article analyzes different aspects and challenges relating to the implementation of parenting coordination in Spain. Recommendations are then made to address them.     

Online Virtual Supervised Visitation During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: One State's Experience

This paper describes how supervised visitation programs in Florida rapidly transitioned from in‐person supervised visits to virtual, online visits during the COVID‐19 pandemic to protect the health of families and staff. Structured telephonic interviews and an online survey revealed that although most program directors had not previously developed guiding policies or hosted such visits, within weeks they were providing hundreds of online “virtual visits” between children and their non‐custodial parents to maintain the crucial parent–child relationship in a safe manner. Vignettes from this data provide lessons regarding parent and child reactions to virtual visits, advantages and disadvantages of virtual visits from the programs' perspectives, and levels of enthusiasm for using virtual visits going forward. In addition, the data includes recommendations for new program guidelines and protocols for the ongoing use of virtual visits. Although it is too early to call these policies best practices, the study does offer insight into the challenges and opportunities afforded by virtual visits and can inform disaster planning that supervised visitation programs develop to prepare for inevitable future disruptions in services to families.     

Visit Coaching: Building on Family Strengths to Meet Children's Needs

Visits between children in foster care and their families often do not build on family strengths or help them demonstrate they can meet their children's safety and developmental needs. Visits can alienate parents, children, and foster parents, and the parent's grief, anger, and preoccupation with complying with court‐ordered treatment often obscure their children's needs. Visit coaching is an innovative approach that can replace parenting classes and office‐based visits with hands‐on guidance for families in meeting their children's needs. The visit coach, who may be their caseworker or a variety of other trained individuals, helps parents take charge of visits and demonstrate more responsiveness to each child.     

Crafting the Greenbook: framers reflect on the vision, process, and lessons learned

Guided by research and the experiences of judges nationwide, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges made a commitment in 1998 to improve community response to families experiencing domestic violence and child maltreatment. A year later, the council's work culminated in a set of recommendations commonly called the Greenbook, which summoned child welfare agencies, domestic violence service providers, and dependency courts to implement internal changes and collaborate to address co-occurring domestic violence and child maltreatment. In 2000, the federal government funded six community-based demonstration programs to implement the Greenbook recommendations. As part of the evaluation of the Greenbook initiative, the evaluation team asked the national experts who helped frame the Greenbook to reflect on the processes used and the decisions that shaped the document. In addition, the experts were asked to describe their expectations for the systems and communities that implemented the recommendations, including anticipated challenges.