News

Supreme Court Initiative to Improve Lives of Dependent Children Shows Early Progress

August 26, 2009

HARRISBURG, August 26, 2009 – On Thursday, August 27 at 11:40 am in Room 60, EWing of the State Capitol Building, Sandra Moore, Administrator of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts’ Office of Children & Families in the Court is scheduled to testify before the State House Committee on Children and Youth regarding the Supreme Court’s statewide initiative to improve the lives of dependent children. Your coverage is invited. The hearing begins at 10 am. The Court’s initiative, known as “The Permanency Practice Initiative,” strives to safely: Reduce the number of children adjudicated as dependents and in court-ordered placement Reduce the time children spend in the foster care system Reduce the number of children who re-enter care Reduce the dependency court caseload Reduce the cost of children in care Reduce the need for residential and institutional placements, and Increase child placement stability. Also testifying with Sandra Moore will be Dauphin County Common Pleas, Dependency and Orphan’s Court Judge Todd Hoover; Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick, III; Allegheny County Children’s Court Administrator Cindy Stoltz and Chester County Department of Children and Youth and Families Director Keith Hayes. “The early results of our efforts are very promising,” Moore said. “We are finding additional extended family members who are becoming lifelong connections for the dependent children and counties are already beginning to report reductions in the number of children in foster care. “By quickly moving dependent children into permanent family settings, we not only significantly improve their chances to succeed; we significantly reduce the cost of institutional care for the counties, thus saving tax dollars for other valuable county children and family services.” # # # Editor’s Note: The hearing agenda is attached. BACKGROUND The Permanency Practice Initiative focuses on three practice areas: Family Finding, Family Group Decision Making and Family Development Credentialing. Family Finding provides professionals with the tools they need to help find relatives and others committed to a child achieving permanency for every child faster and more efficiently. Pennsylvania Family Group Decision Making process is designed to join the wider family group, including relatives, friends, community members, and others, in collectively making decisions to resolve an identified family concern. Family Development Credentialing is designed to be an interagency training for staff from all public, private and non-profit service systems. The program teaches the skills to help front line workers become more effective in assisting individuals and families in taking care of themselves and becoming self-sufficient. In addition to the Permanency Practice Initiative a series of rules changes designed to speed the appellate process for children living in unstable or impermanent homes were implemented by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in March 2009. In June 2009, the Court released a mission statement and set of guiding principles aimed at improving the lives of abused and neglected children whose care is entrusted the child dependency system. The Supreme Court’s efforts are led by Sandy Moore, Administrator of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts’ Office of Children & Families in the Court (OCFC) in close partnership with the state Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Children, Youth & Families. Additional support and guidance for the initiative is provided by The Pennsylvania Family Group Decision Making Statewide Leadership Team, the Statewide Adoption Permanency Network, the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work and Child Welfare Training Program. The OCFC, created in October 2006 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, is funded with federal grants from the Court Improvement Project run by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. State Supreme Court Justice Max Baer, a former administrative judge of family court in Allegheny County is guiding these efforts on behalf of the Supreme Court. OCFC can be reached at 717-795-2685.