Quantitative Performance Measures for
Juvenile Dependency Court
Administrative Office of the Courts
March 14, 2008
Conference on Juvenile Court Standards: 1921
“In order that it may be possible to compile information covering a period of years and to compare the work of one court with that of others, it is essential that uniform terminology and methods of statistical tabulation and presentation of fundamental items be agreed upon. By this means only can significant social data concerning the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency and neglect be obtained.”
Juvenile Court Statistics: 1921
“Juvenile court judges, probation officers, and others concerned with delinquency and dependency are without adequate statistical information indicating the extent and nature of these problems. Federal statistics of births and deaths are available to the public health worker, and of manufacture, trade and agriculture to the business man and the farmer, but no plan has yet been developed for the collection on a national scale of statistics of dependency and delinquency.”
Welfare & Institutions Code Section 16545
…the Judicial Council shall adopt, through rules of court, performance measures…so that courts are able to measure their performance and track their own progress in improving safety, permanency, timeliness, and well-being of children…
Child Welfare Performance Measurement in California
Countiescollect data
CDSS throughCWS/CMS
U.C. BerkeleyCSSR
Federal AFCARS/NCANDS data
Collection Standards Reporting
SACWISCFSR
AB 636
CFSR
Outcomes &Accountability
Federal Safety and PermanencyPerformance Standards
Safety PermanencyRecurrence of maltreatment Reunified in under 12 months
Recurrence of maltreatment in foster care
Median stay in foster care
Reentered foster care
Time to adoption
Discharged to permanent home
Children in care 3+ years
Number of placements
Court Performance Measurement in California
Courtscollect data
CCMS
AOC
No federalreporting scheme
Collection Standards Reporting
PerformanceMeasureReporting
ABA/NCSC/NCJFCJ I
PewCommission
ABA/NCSC/NCJFCJ II
Blue RibbonProposedMeasures
Proposed Dependency CourtPerformance Standards
•Hearing timeliness and reasons for delays
•Due process: continuity of oversight and participation of parties
•Safety (Federal and state measures)
•Permanency (Federal and state measures)
•Well being: court inquiry and findings on physical and mental health, education, transitioning from care, relatives and connections
•Demographics
•Court process: caseload, cross over cases, court services
Federal Court Improvement Program Mandate:
• “Explain the State court’s planned activities and how those activities will lead to tangible, measurable, and time-specific improved outcomes for children and families in the child welfare system”
What are the causal relationships?
Measures of timeliness, due process andcourt services
Measures of safety and permanency
Projects examining the relationships among court measures and outcomes:
• National Dependency Drug Court Study
• AOC agreement with CSSR to use child welfare data
• Meeting at Beyond the Bench of dependency court and drug court researchers
• Court Improvement Program Model Court evaluation
• California Rule of Court Proposal
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