About Us
Basic Grant
Assessment of Interstate Placements
An assessment of the West Virginia courts' role, responsibilities and effectiveness in achieving interstate placements of children is currently being conducted. A report of this assessment, including the specific recommendations and a plan to implement needed improvements will be completed by June 30, 2008.
Development of Drug Screening Protocol
A collaborative Drug Screening Committee has been formed by the Court Improvement Oversight Board. The committee is comprised of Department of Health and Human Resources personnel involved with the drug screening process, judges and probation office staff, prosecuting and defense attorneys, Supreme Court Administrative Office staff, and other interested stakeholders. The committee will investigate the various issues surrounding effective administration and use of drug screens for adult respondents in child abuse and neglect cases. Following this investigation, the committee will draft appropriate protocols or agreements for the administration and use of drug screens in these cases.
Judicial Benchbook for Abuse and Neglect Proceedings
The first edition of the West Virginia Judicial Benchbook for Child Abuse and Neglect Proceedings was completed under the CIP grant program in 2000. The benchbook is updated annually to keep current with federal and West Virginia statutes, rules, and caselaw. New topics have been added when it appears that more attention is needed on a specific subject. The CIP Oversight Board, with assistance from contracted professionals, will continue to update the statutes, rules, and caselaw sections of the benchbook. Additionally, new topics will be included based upon data collected showing a need for particular attention to specific facets of these cases. Finally, in order to promote active leadership by judges in these cases, benchbook updates and new topics will stress the importance of judicial leadership and how it facilitates the timely and effective resolution of these cases.
Timely and Complete Court Orders
To ensure that court orders involving children in the foster care system conform to current law, the Juvenile Abuse and Neglect Information System (JANIS) and Juvenile Delinquent Information (JUDI) systems are regularly updated. Also, to benefit from improvements in the software platform upon which JANIS and JUDI are built, updates are based upon current versions of the software platform. The CIP Oversight Board will contract with legal and technical professionals to keep the JANIS and JUDI programs legally and technically current. These efforts will also facilitate the incorporation of these software systems into the statewide judicial management information system.
Court Rules
A collaborative Youth Services Committee has been formed and will continue to research and draft a set of procedural rules applicable to youth offender cases and removal from the home. This committee is comprised of DHHR staff involved with youth services, defense and prosecuting attorneys, the Supreme Court Administrative Director of Probation Services, the Division of Juvenile Services Assistant Director, CIP Oversight Board legal counsel, and counsel from the National Juvenile Defender Center. After completion, the proposed rules will be submitted to the CIP Oversight Board for review and approval. The final proposed rules will then be submitted by the CIP Board to the West Virginia Supreme Court for review and promulgation.
Judge-Led Stakeholder Meetings
The CIP Oversight Board, with assistance from the Supreme Court Administrative office, will develop a model protocol for the chief judge in every circuit to conduct periodic meetings attended by key stakeholders to address systemic problems regularly encountered in child abuse and neglect cases in the circuit. To alleviate any ethical concerns from judges about whether discussions of general systemic issues (not specific cases) at such meetings would be considered prohibited ex parte communications, an advisory opinion will be sought from the West Virginia Judicial Investigation Commission. A proposed court rule will also be drafted requiring each chief circuit judge to hold such meetings at least once every six months. The model protocol will be presented to all circuit judges in a training session at one of their semi-annual judicial conferences. The proposed court rule will be submitted to the Supreme Court with a recommendation from the CIP Oversight Board that it be promulgated as a new rule in the Rules of Procedure for Child Abuse and Neglect Proceedings.
Assessment of Overlap Rules
The CIP Oversight Board and its Overlap Rules Committee will collect data from circuit and family courts, and from the DHHR, to monitor and assess the effectiveness of the 2006 overlap rules and 2007 amendments. The data will be analyzed and a report will be prepared for the Supreme Court, with any recommendations needed for further improvements.
