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Michigan Court Improvement Program

The Court Improvement Program operates to improve court performance concerning at-risk families and children. With collaboration from key stakeholders, Court Improvement Program activities assess judicial processes, identify barriers to effective decision making, and examine child welfare laws and court rules to determine if changes are needed to ensure a unified child protection system that provides appropriate and timely services to families. The Court Improvement Program measures court performance to help ensure children's safety, well-being, and permanence.

Michigan receives three grants from the federal government. The Child Welfare Services division administers all three grants, which include the Court Improvement Program main grant, the data collection and analysis grant, and the training grant. A description of each grant's activities follows.


Court Improvement Program (CIP) Main Grant

Child Welfare Services main staff liaison: Kelly Howard

The main grant supports the statewide Court Improvement Program taskforce, which is a multi-disciplinary advisory committee to the Child Welfare Services division. The taskforce and Child Welfare Services collaborate to identify and address barriers to safety, permanency, and child and family well-being at the state and local levels. Members of the taskforce participate on one of five Court Improvement Program committees:
    (1) Quality Representation Committee
    (2) Policy Committee
    (3) Quality & Depth of Hearing Committee
    (4) Child & Family Services Review Committee
    (5) Tribal Court Relations Committee
    Quality Representation Committee
    Child Welfare Services staff liaison: Jenifer Pettibone

    The Quality Representation Committee is dedicated to improving the quality of legal representation in Michigan for all parties involved in abuse and neglect cases. The committee's focus is to evaluate the practice of attorneys that represent children, parents, and the Department of Human Services. As the evaluations are completed, the committee will develop model contracts, make policy and legislative recommendations, and help to implement positive changes in the child welfare system.

    LGAL Project
    The committee began with a survey of children's attorneys, the Lawyer Guardians ad Litem (LGAL), across the state. After reviewing the results of the survey, and talking to various stakeholders, the committee is now in the process of finalizing its report and recommendations.

         >>See the Lawyers Guardian Ad Litem Survey Results
             To download, right click on link and select "save target as..."
         >>See the L-GAL Report and Recommendations


    Parent Representation Project
    Additionally, the committee formed a subcommittee to concurrently address the issue of representation for parents in child welfare matters. The subcommittee has teamed up with the American Bar Association to improve the quality of representation for parents in Michigan by creating a model system for parent representation. The American Bar Association plans to disseminate the model to other states to improve the quality of representation throughout the United States.

             >>See the ABA Report: Legal Representation for Parents in Child Welfare
                 Proceedings: A Performance-Based Analysis of Michigan Practice
             >>See the Summary of the 10/22/09 Strengthening Legal Representation for Families
                 in Child Welfare Proceedings     Symposium


    Policy Committee
    Child Welfare Services staff liaison: Kelly Howard

    The Policy Committee drafts statewide policies to ensure consistency in courts' child welfare practices and procedures. The committee vets draft policies by the statewide task force, and submits them to the Child Welfare Services division for consideration.


    Quality & Depth of Hearing Committee
    Child Welfare Services staff liaison: Casey Anbender

    The Quality & Depth of Hearing Committee has been assigned the responsibility of responding to Chapter Four of the Court Improvement Program Reassessment and the related recommendations for changes in the Michigan system. The committee will also consider the Court Improvement Program Reassessment Report's findings and recommendations regarding assignment and training of jurists. To accomplish these tasks, the committee has begun to develop best practices for each child protective hearing. Once developed, the Child Welfare Services division will publish and provide statewide training on the best practices.

         >>See the Final Report of the Quality & Depth of Hearings Committee


    Child & Family Services Review Committee
    Child Welfare Services staff liaison: Jim Novell

    Child and Family Services Reviews are conducted by the Children's Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, and are designed to help states achieve more timely permanency decisions and establish stronger safety guarantees for abused and neglected children.


    Tribal Court Relations Committee
    Child Welfare Services staff liaison: Maribeth Preston

    The Tribal Court Relations Committee has three primary objectives: improve outcomes for Native American children in the child welfare system; preserve Native American families; and strengthen the relationship of state and tribal courts in Michigan. The committee will address all matters that affect both tribal and state courts in a collaborative and effective manner.


    Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Committee
    Child Welfare Services staff liaisons: Maribeth Preston and Bayo Callender

    The Court Improvement Program created a special workgroup which met four times from September, 2008, to May, 2009, and authored an ICWA Court Resource Guide. The guide, published in September of 2009, contains best practice tips for courts on how to implement the ICWA. The workgroup consisted of representatives from circuit and probate court judges associations, probate registers, court administrators, the Department of Human Services, prosecutors, and the federally recognized tribes in Michigan.
The CIP main grant also enables Child Welfare Services staff to participate in various child welfare workgroups and on special projects. These activities are typically collaborative efforts with local court staff and judges, the Department of Human Services, the Children's Ombudsman's office, the legislature, and other key stakeholders.


Court Improvement Program Data Collection and Analysis Grant

Child Welfare Services staff liaison: Maribeth Preston

The Data Collection and Analysis Grant (data grant) allows Michigan courts and the Department of Human Services to use federal funds to share and study data to ensure that children in the abuse and neglect system receive the best and most timely placement possible. The Department of Human Services signed a data sharing agreement with the State Court Administrative Office in June 2008. The data grant funds are initially being used for court and Department of Human Services data analysis in three pilot counties (Genesee, Oakland, and Saginaw). Each county maintains a different court information system, which can be used to determine the best methods for data sharing given the various data collection methods. Once the pilot counties are integrated into a data sharing plan focused on improved court performance for children, the data project will be taken statewide.


Court Improvement Program Training Grant

Child Welfare Services staff liaison: Maribeth Preston

The Child Welfare Services division provides Court Improvement Program trainings in different modalities aimed at reaching the greatest number of people. Child Welfare Services collaborates with the Department of Human Services and other area agencies to develop trainings that are useful to a broad spectrum of professionals.

A luncheon webcast series addressed the topics of:
  • AWOLP Update-Children Missing from Care
  • Court Agency Collaboration in Child and Family Services Reviews
  • Self Inflicted Violence
  • Reducing Trauma to Children During Removal and Replacement
  • Title IV-E Update
  • Improving the Legal System's Approach to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Questioning of Youth in Foster Care
The webcast modality of training continues to be an important method of training.

Previous trainings included a two-part summit on Expediting Court Handling of Adoptions. This summit involved specifically targeted county teams consisting of judges with primary oversight of adoptions, court staff in charge of adoptions, lawyer guardians ad litem, parents' attorneys, Department of Human Services and private agency adoption supervisory staff, and tribal representatives. The first part of the summit allowed the teams to examine the bottlenecks in their adoption processes and to collaboratively identify potential solutions. The second part of the summit enabled the selected teams to share their experiences implementing system based changes in their respective counties and to identify successes and areas still needing improvement.

Live trainings were conducted on issues of effective petition drafting and addressing children's needs in the child welfare system including developmental needs, safety issues due to domestic violence, and substance affected families. Additional live trainings included:
  • Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) regional trainings
  • Representing Parents in Child Protective Proceedings
  • "Yellow Book" Guidelines for Achieving Permanency in Child Protective Proceedings
  • A two-day conference on Child Welfare Issues
  • Legal Issues Regarding Fathers' Involvement
  • Dealing with Absent Parents
  • Engaging Fathers
  • Post-Termination Proceedings
To obtain up-to-date training information, please contact Maribeth Preston.

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