Alaska
Alternative Dispute Resolution
As reported in prior Court Improvement Progress Reports, Alaska continues its mediation program, which includes Family Group Conferencing. It includes both preadjudication and termination of parental rights cases. Emphasis is placed on mediation in contested cases and early in the process. The court system continues to provide mediation and FGC in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, Homer, Bethel, Kotzebue, Seward, Barrow, Nome, Dillingham, Palmer, and mediators also travel to Alaska Native villages. The program is now funded from state general operating funds.
The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Coordinator implemented the mediator mentoring program in fall 2007. In response to an increasing demand for mediation services, the Coordinator recruited and trained new mediators in fall 2008.
At the request of the sitting judges, the ADR Coordinator successfully expanded the mediation program to Juneau and Kodiak. These pilot programs are being funded by the CIP until such time as they can be transferred to the court system’s general fund budget.
Supervised Visitation
The CIP Visitation Subcommittee completed its policy document explaining the appropriate use of supervised visitation. The goal of the project is to encourage frequent and substantive family contact with the expectation that increased family contact will result in more timely permanency (whether through reunification or TPR). As discussed in Training and Education Initiatives, the Education and Visitation Subcommittees have scheduled regional, interagency conferences to train on the new guidelines, visitation coaching, and other best practices.
Treatment of Parties
Treatment of Parties: Other Initiatives
Substance Abuse Issues
In a recent survey of judges and CINA practitioners, a majority of respondents agreed with the statement that permanency is delayed because parents cannot access timely substance abuse treatment. The CIP is developing a strategy to ensure that parents whose children are the subject of CINA cases in Alaska can access timely and appropriate substance abuse treatment. The multi-agency initiative focused this year on creating a long-term, family-oriented substance abuse recovery facility in Anchorage. After extensive research, this facility was modeled after the Exodus/Shields program in California. The CIP has completed the action plan, which includes hiring an intern to continue planning. The Division of Behavioral Health (DBH) planned to request start-up funding; however, DBH was not able to forward its request to the Legislature this session. Alternatives are being sought.
Treatment of Parties
Treatment of Parties: Other Initiatives
Transition to Independent Living
The CIP created two new working groups to address judges’ and practitioners’ concerns about creating thoughtful and planned transitions for youth who are “aging out” of the foster care system. The Independent Living Work Group developed a description of the characteristics of a successful transition to independent living, and is working on checklists for implementing the transition. For the group of youth who will not be independent but will need adult guardianship, a second workgroup is creating job aids to assist workers and others to prepare for the appointment of the guardian.
Treatment of Parties
Treatment of Parties: Other Initiatives
Information Materials for Children
In cooperation with the child welfare agency director, an employee was designated to design and create multimedia materials for foster care children to increase their knowledge of the CINA court process in Alaska, to prepare them to appear in court, and to prepare them to consult with caseworkers, GALs, and/or the judge on permanency goals and the permanency plan, as appropriate. Draft products will be ready by summer 2009.
Treatment of Parties
Treatment of Parties: Information to Parties
Data Collection and Analysis
As reported in the Court Improvement Progress Report 2007, the CIP hired a Case Management System (CMS) Analyst to identify needed enhancements to the child protection module, assess data entry problems, develop management reports, run the reports regularly, and monitor/analyze those reports. During the past year, the CMS analyst has worked on the following activities:
- Conversion to CourtView. The CMS Analyst helped with the conversion of the Bethel, Valdez, Glennallen, and Cordova courts. In addition, the CMS Analyst (1) continued to train about the CINA module and post-conversion data clean-up of CINA cases at new sites; (2) maintained contact with the newly converted courts; and (3) worked with the courts on CINA-related questions and problems.
- Ongoing CourtView Support. The CMS Analyst conducted CourtView CINA training for Anchorage clerks and judicial assistants at their statewide conferences.
- Management Reports and Tracking Timeliness. The CMS Analyst continued to work with court staff to review probable cause and other data entry errors. The analyst also designed several audit reports to measure timeliness of case processing.
- Analysis of CourtView Functionality. The CMS Analyst reviewed a modification for the CourtView CINA screen that enables users to more easily track key case petitions, and submitted another modification that helps staff track motions.
- CMS Access for Others. State agencies involved in CINA and delinquency cases requested access to confidential cases via the Internet. The CMS Analyst researched several legal and logistical issues related to this proposal, including how to maintain case file confidentiality and handle concerns about reliability of the data.
- Child and Family Services Reviews and PIP. The CMS Analyst, along with the CIP Coordinator, will participate in the Program Improvement Plan (PIP) development.
- Data Regarding Court Performance and Evaluation of Court Improvement Efforts. The CMS Analyst is collecting and analyzing automated and nonautomated data to evaluate the quality of court performance and measure the success of court improvement efforts. Activities designed to assist in this evaluation include (1) evaluating and optimizing the performance of the court’s computerized child protection case management module; (2) assessing the accuracy and completeness of the data being collected; and (3) training court staff in correct data entry techniques and rules as needed based on the data audit.
To date, the CMS Analyst’s data auditing efforts have resulted in case information being entered more accurately. One task that has proven more difficult than originally anticipated is customizing the judicial management reports and customizing the statewide procedures to fit each individual court’s business needs. In addition, requests for modifications continue to be delayed due to the CourtView vendor’s lack of capacity and, more recently, its sale to another company. The CMS Analyst is working to alleviate these problems.
Technology: Data Collection
Technology: Information Sharing
Training and Education Initiatives
The CINA Court Improvement Education Subcommittee and the CIP Coordinator, with funds from the CIP Training and Education Grant, worked on the following projects:
- Regional, Interagency ICWA Conferences. The CIP Coordinator continued to solicit proposals from Alaska Native regional nonprofits to cosponsor regional, interagency ICWA conferences.
- Scholarship for Interdisciplinary Teams. The Education Subcommittee continued to offer scholarships to Alaska child protection practitioners to attend conferences in multidisciplinary teams. The CIP funded a team to attend training on disproportionate minority representation in Minnesota. The CIP continued to collaborate with Casey Family Services on its regional, interagency conferences about the importance of education to foster children’s life achievement. Conferences were held in Kotzebue and Fairbanks.
- Enhance Existing Training. The CINA Court Improvement Committee continued to partner with other entities to support existing interdisciplinary conferences. The CIP offered significant support to the Department of Law, Office of Children’s Services, Public Defender Agency, and Office of Public Advocacy to send practitioners to the interdisciplinary Child Maltreatment Conference in November 2008. The CIP also (1) provided technical assistance for the Public Defender annual conference; (2) supported the Alaska Native Indian Child Welfare Association (ANICWA) statewide conference in spring 2008; and (3) is participating in planning for the ANICWA conference scheduled for spring 2009.
- Training for ICWA Workers. The CINA Court Improvement Committee continued to work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the title IV-B recipients to ensure that ICWA workers receive basic and advanced training. The Committee also secured state court judges to present at trainings and at the BIA statewide provider’s conference in fall 2008.
- Other Regional, Interdisciplinary Training. The CIP Visitation and Education Subcommittees planned regional, interdisciplinary “train the trainers” programs on levels of visitation. In January 2009, twenty practitioners from all agencies attended a training event where they were taught about the new visitation protocols and developed a curriculum for teaching those protocols. The core group will then teach the protocols at a series of regional, interdisciplinary trainings in spring 2009.
- Coordinate Judicial Training with the Office of Children’s Services. During the PIP development process, the CIP Coordinator will work directly with the Office of Children’s Services Director to identify and develop training topics for judges as needed.
- Travel for Judges to Conferences. The CIP funded judges’ travel to (1) the fall 2008 statewide judicial conference; (2) interagency ICWA conferences; (3) the Child Maltreatment Conference; and (4) Casey Education Convenings. The CIP sent two teams of judges, as well as others, to visit a model drug/alcohol treatment program in California.
- Develop and Implement Statewide CINA Curriculum for Judges. The CIP Coordinator continued to work with the Education and ICWA Subcommittees to develop ideas for an interdisciplinary core curriculum. In addition, the CIP Coordinator continued collaboration with the Washington, Oregon, and Idaho CIPs on child protection training. The CIP Coordinator continues to update and revise the CINA Manual for Judges and recommended a full day of CINA issues for the fall 2009 judicial conference.
The CIP Grant has enabled the CIP to make training available to practitioners who otherwise would be unable to access it. Funds allowed more practitioners to attend the Child Maltreatment Conference and the ANICWA conference.
Training and Education
Training and Education: Judicial Training
Training and Education: Multidisciplinary Training
Training and Education: Attorney/GAL Programs
Training and Education: Other Training
Hearing Quality and Depth
Hearing Quality and Depth: Guidelines, Manuals, and Benchbooks
Child and Family Services Review
The CIP participated in activities leading up to the second round of the CFSR in September 2008, including the onsite activities. In January 2009, the CIP started participation in development of the PIP.
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