Chapter X: The Juvenile Court and Child Welfare

I. INTRODUCTION

The provision of child welfare services is frequently enhanced by the involvement of the court system. However, invoking the jurisdiction of the court system into a child welfare case is not a measure to be taken by the agency without careful consideration and planning. This careful consideration and planning must take into account that while the juvenile court process is an adversarial process, it is also a process that requires strong collaboration between the agency, the family, the service providers, and the court system. This duality of adversity and collaboration exists to serve the best interest of all parties involved by protecting the rights of both children and their parents and by holding the community accountable to serve the best interest of its families. Protecting the safety, well-being and permanency of children is not only the role of the agency but of the community, including the court system. The court system also plays a critical role in meeting the eligibility requirements of several funding sources that are essential to meeting the needs of North Carolina’s children. North Carolina’s child welfare practice model foundation is the use of Family-Centered Partnership Principles along with principles grounded in a System of Care approach. These principles are:

Family Centered Practice Principles	System of Care Model Principles
• Everyone desires respect	• Interagency collaboration
• Everyone needs to be heard	• Child and family partnership
• Everyone has strengths	• Individualized strengths based care
• Judgments can wait	• Cultural competence
• Partners share power	• Community based services and supports
• Partnership is a process	• Accountability to results

Despite the fact that the juvenile court process is adversarial in nature, staff from county departments of social services are strongly encouraged to use these principles to guide every interaction with every person the staff member encounters throughout the court process. This includes the judge, the family and their children, the agency’s attorney, the respondent’s attorney, the Guardian ad Litem volunteer and their attorney advocate, the bailiff or sheriff’s deputy, and any other court personnel. Specifically, maintaining professional relationships with respondents’ attorneys and attorney advocates in this adversarial process models for families and demonstrates to the court that partnerships are valued despite differences each group may have. Albeit only a small piece of the equation, these interactions can, in essence, become a part of the teaching process to help families successfully navigate the child welfare system.

To solidify these principles into everyday practice, agencies are strongly encouraged to develop a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) or a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with their local court system to help establish a collaborative relationship between all the participants within the court process and can be used as the basis to establish local court rules and procedures. These memoranda can also help to improve outcomes of safety, permanency and well-being of abused, neglected and dependent children in the court system by increasing timely decisions and resolution of juvenile court cases and to conduct more meaningful, thorough hearings. When used as a “living document” these memoranda can help to identify trends which impact outcomes for children and their families and develop responsive strategies and highlight those training activities needed to enhance overall best practices in child welfare and juvenile court.

The court process, from the first hearing to the final disposition, is critical to the achievement of a timely, appropriate, permanent plan for children. The clock on the courtroom wall is ticking away a child’s life, reminding all courtroom participants to make each hearing count as a step in the direction of permanence.