FWSN-advisorybd-repo.. - The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance

More documents

Recommendations

Info

However, many cities and towns have no access to a JRB. Among those that do, not all of the JRBs accept referrals involving children from families with service needs. In a survey conducted of Youth Service Bureaus, fifty-six stated that they had existing JRBs. Of the fifty-six YSBs with existing JRB programs, 70% handle FWSN cases and 30% do not. 3 For example, the Hartford JRB, which serves a major metropolitan area, does not handle FWSN cases. In addition, there are no statewide standards for who should be referred and how the JRBs should function. A pilot program in each of four Judicial Districts will focus specifically on children at risk of being referred as children from families with service needs. The pilot program will allow each YSB to enhance its JRB by increasing its caseload to accept and handle cases of children at risk of being referred to court as a child from a Family with Service Needs. The JRB process can help to divert more children from court and provide services for the child and family in their local community through the resources of the Youth Service Bureau. It is anticipated that the State Department of Education will establish desired outcomes, monitoring and evaluation of the YSB pilots to ensure competency and standardization. RECOMMENDATION FOUR FUND AND USE FLEXIBLE FUNDING TO ALLOW THE COURT SUPPORT SERVICES DIVISION TO PURCHASE CHILD SPECIFIC SERVICES FOR COURT REFERRED LOW AND MEDIUM RISK CHILDREN. Funds are still needed to purchase diversionary services that are not funded under existing contracts for services or not available in a certain community. Examples of these services include mentoring, pro-social and positive youth development programs and the cost of transportation to access a service. Use of flexible funds would be under the local control of CSSD in each court location. CSSD would be responsible for monitoring and evaluating the use of the funds and the effectiveness of the services purchased. Currently, CSSD has been very successful in utilizing and monitoring the use of flexible funds for delinquents and is achieving desirable outcomes. Expanding the use of this innovative initiative to FWSN cases would provide greater flexibility to the courts in designing appropriate services. 3 Presentation to the FWSN Advisory Board by Francis J. Carino, Supervisory Juvenile Prosecutor, “Youth Service Bureaus & Juvenile Review Boards”, September 2007. 9
RECOMMENDATION FIVE MAKE NEEDED CHANGES TO THE FAMILIES WITH SERVICE NEEDS LAW TO ENSURE PROCEDURAL SAFEGUARDS, ALLOW FOR THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION WITHOUT AFFECTING DUE PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS AND ADHERE TO FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS. • Confidentiality Currently, Section 46b-124(j) provides that mental health screenings and assessment of delinquent children are to be used solely for planning and treatment purposes and are otherwise confidential. This prevents statements the child may make during such assessment from being used against the child in any court hearing. It is recommended that FWSN children, who will be screened and assessed by probation officers to ascertain appropriate diversionary services, be afforded the same protections as delinquent children. • Procedural Safeguards ‣ Child as the subject of the Families with Service Needs; ‣ Permanency Plan Review Hearings; ‣ FWSN Supervision In a family with service needs (FWSN) case, the child is the respondent and the court only adjudicates the child as an individual, not the family. The current statute erroneously refers, in several instances, to adjudicating the family rather than the child. Adjudicating the family is illogical in many FWSN matters, as the allegations and grounds pertain to the conduct of the child, not the family, and in some cases, mainly those alleging the child is beyond control, the parent is the complainant. It also is recommended that the word “placement” in Section 46b-148 be substituted for “commitment” in subsection (a) to avoid confusion with an actual commitment to the department of children and families. Revisions are proposed to Section 46b-149. A new subsection (i) is proposed because it has been the practice to modify and enlarge the conditions of FWSN supervision in the same manner afforded to the court with respect to probation orders in Section 46b-140a. The court should be afforded such flexibility, particularly after an alleged violation has taken place, to ensure appropriate services and sufficient time to measure their effectiveness. Amendments to subsections (j) and (k) are recommended because extensions and revocations of commitments for both child protection matters (Section 46b-129(k)) and delinquency cases (Section 46b-141(b)) are now done by motion. The addition of language contemplating permanency plans for committed FWSN children and motions to 10
Page 1 and 2: Families with Service Needs Advisor
Page 3 and 4: VI. Other Key Recommendations Relat
Page 5 and 6: Report to the General Assembly from
Page 7 and 8: In addition, minor changes to the r
Page 9: RECOMMENDATION THREE PROVIDE FUNDS
Page 13 and 14: The Advisory Board is recommending
Page 15 and 16: ased preventive programs 4. Flex fu
Page 17 and 18: B. Recommendations related to Truan
Page 19 and 20: D. System-wide Prevention Strategie
Page 21 and 22: Intervention for DCF youth residing
Page 23 and 24: gender responsive programming to as
Page 25 and 26: and organizations represented inclu
Page 27 and 28: and to added referral to community
Page 29 and 30: C. Young FWSN Children In 2006 ther
Page 31 and 32: • Juvenile Review Boards (JRB) A
Page 33 and 34: are truant. The focus is to provide
Page 35 and 36: Presently, there is no data collect
Page 37 and 38: Juvenile probation officers provide
Page 39 and 40: The Family Support Center provides
Page 41 and 42: achievement and reentry. The progra
Page 43 and 44: Once the child is adjudicated as a
Page 45 and 46: DCF may petition the court for an e
Page 47 and 48: ‣ Current Services for Court Invo
Page 49 and 50: hearing held every fifteen days. At
Page 51 and 52: IV. Lessons Learned from National L
Page 53 and 54: continuum of effective strength-bas
Page 55 and 56: E. Other programs include: Mediatio
Page 57 and 58: CORE RECOMMENDATION # 2: FUND AND E
Page 59 and 60: 2. Grades 6-8 3. Grade 9 a. In addi
Page 61 and 62:
FWSN referrals submitted to court.
Page 63 and 64:
CORE RECOMMENDATION # 5: MAKE NEEDE
Page 65 and 66:
4. Systemic, longitudinal evaluatio
Page 67 and 68:
3. Crisis/risk determination traini
Page 69 and 70:
SDE’s Secondary School Redesign D
Page 71 and 72:
truant students who attend school r
Page 73 and 74:
Handling of FWSN cases. Confidentia
Page 75 and 76:
In response to Special Act 04-5, DC
Page 77 and 78:
for all DCF Social Workers and CSSD
Page 79 and 80:
IX. APPENDICES Table of Contents Ap
Page 81 and 82:
Appendix II FAMILIES WITH SERVICE N
Page 83 and 84:
FWSN ADVISORY BOARD - TRUANCY SUBCO
Page 85 and 86:
LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING SUBCOMMITTEE M
Page 87 and 88:
States continue to struggle with th
Page 89 and 90:
Appendix IV Detailed Population Dem
Page 91 and 92:
Chart 1 shows a detailed analysis o
Page 93 and 94:
Most of the assessed children score
Page 95 and 96:
Appendix V Highlights of Other Prog
Page 97 and 98:
The programs also provide preventio
Page 99 and 100:
Appendix VII Evaluation of FWSN sys
Page 101 and 102:
Table of Contents Introduction Page
Page 103 and 104:
considered “gender-specific” or
Page 105 and 106:
filed during the months of April, M
Page 107 and 108:
or guardian, the child, parent or g
Page 109 and 110:
general statutes, as amended by thi
Page 111 and 112:
X. GLOSSARY OF TERMS ADP - Alternat
show all

FWSN-advisorybd-repo.. - The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?