Ohio juvenile courts are being invited to assemble teams to attend a regional abuse, neglect, and dependency (AND) caseflow management course.

The Ohio Supreme Court and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will be hosting one-day courses for juvenile courts and their community partners to examine local practices in AND cases, including processes that may impact Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) performance measures.

The course is open to teams of up to five people identified by the local juvenile court judge. Typically, each team will include court staff responsible for the dependency docket, the child welfare agency director or designee(s), and other court or community representatives who impact how the AND case comes to and progresses through the court.

The course covers the fundamentals of caseflow management and differentiated case management, as well as their practical application in AND cases. Teams will develop action plans for improving and assessing practices while strengthening oversight of AND cases.

The goal is to enhance the judiciary’s oversight of AND cases through the juvenile justice system in order to ensure the timeliness for children to reach appropriate placement and permanency by:

• Providing the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the juvenile court’s current caseflow management system with tools and techniques to enhance or create a caseflow management system and specifically, the processing of dependency cases.
• Increasing courts’ understanding of the CFSR and local court performance and caseflow data from multiple sources.
• Providing courts the opportunity to work with their justice partners to assess best practices and proven strategies and their application to issues confronting their juvenile dependency dockets throughout all stages of the process.

Sessions will be held:

• April 7, 2016, Perrysburg Hilton Garden Inn
• April 26, 2016, Beavercreek Hilton Garden Inn
• May 12, 2016, Quest in Columbus
• May 24, 2016, Akron Fairlawn Hilton

Additional information, including registration, will be sent to each juvenile court and public children services agency.