An Overview of the Courts Catalyzing Change Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard Study

• Author: Jesse Russell,Alicia Summers
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jfcj.12003
• Date: 01 March 2013
• Published date: 01 March 2013

An Overview of the Courts Catalyzing

Change Preliminary Protective Hearing

Benchcard Study

By Jesse Russell and Alicia Summers

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an overview of the Courts Catalyzing Change: Achieving

Equity and Fairness in Foster Care Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard Study.

In the fall of 2009, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

(NCJFCJ) began a study to examine the effects associated with judges’ use of the

Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard. For this study, data were gathered from

case file information (both court and agency files) and from courtroom observations of

more than 500 children in Los Angeles, California; Omaha, Nebraska; and Portland,

Oregon. Data from a baseline sample were collected at each of the three sites, and

judicial officers at each site were randomly assigned to either a Benchcard group or a

control group. Benchcard implementation appears to be associated with more dis-

cussion and higher quality discussion of key dependency topics during preliminary

protective hearings. Benchcard implementation also corresponds to increased judicial

inquiry and parental engagement. Benchcard use also was associated with more

family placements—placement with a charged parent, a non-charged parent, or a

relative—at the initial hearing and even more family placement at adjudication when

comparing the same judges before and after Benchcard implementation. Similarly,

the percentage of children who were reunified with the charged parent at the initial

hearing and the adjudication hearing increased after Benchcard implementation.

This paper presents an overview of the Courts Catalyzing Change: Achieving

Equity and Fairness in Foster Care Preliminary Protective Hearing (PPH) Benchcard

Study. The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) conducted

this study to assess judicial decision making within the Courts Catalyzing Change (CCC)

National Agenda for Reducing Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in the Depen-

dency Court System. Included in this paper are a description of the study, research

Jesse Russell, Ph.D., is Director of Research-Midwest with the National Council on Crime and

Delinquency.

Alicia Summers, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate at the National Council of Juvenile and

Family Court Judges. Correspondence: asummers@ncjfcj.org

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Juvenile and Family Court Journal 64, no. 2 (Spring) 1

© 2013 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

informing the development of the PPH Benchcard, and highlighted findings concerning

improved court practices and related outcomes.

The CCC agenda, supported by Casey Family Programs and the Office of Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention, was created and launched through the NCJFCJ

Model Courts project. The goal of the agenda is to reduce disproportionality and

disparate treatment, ultimately improving outcomes for all children in care. The CCC

agenda includes efforts to: (1) engage national, state, local, and tribal stakeholders,

community partners, and children and families; (2) transform judicial practice from the

bench; (3) participate in policy and law advocacy; (4) examine and employ research, data,

and promising practices; and (5) impact service array and delivery.1

The PPH Benchcard is one tool developed as part of this agenda, focusing on a

reexamination of the Resource Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect

Cases (NCJFCJ, 1995) through a racial equity lens and on the development of a specific

set of judicial decision-making tools. Intended for use during the initial dependency

hearing, the Benchcard asks judges to reflect on the decision-making process to identify

and attempt to minimize institutional bias and to consider some key inquiries, analyses,

and decisions relating to removal, placement, and services. The Benchcard is built around

two types of inquiry: internal and external. The internal inquiry is set forth in a

self-reflection section containing questions designed to help judges examine potential

biases that may affect their decisions. The external inquiry is laid out in the due process

related questions and considerations as well as the actual judicial inquiry of the hearing

participants related to specific salient issues that should be determined at the preliminary

protective hearing.

CHILD WELFARE BACKGROUND

More than 2 million families are investigated for child abuse and neglect each year

in the United States (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2012a). For the

fiscal year 2011, in the United States, about 681,000 children were confirmed undupli-

cated victims of child maltreatment (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,

2012a). Over the past decade, there have consistently been more than 500,000 children

in foster care in the United States at any given time (Child Trends, 2011). Only recently

has the number of children in foster care dropped to 400,540 at the end of the 2011

federal fiscal year, with 47% of these children living in non-relative foster care homes

(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012b).

Recent research has highlighted a number of troubling issues facing children in

foster care. These issues include, as compared to the general population, greater incidence

of drug and alcohol use (Thompson & Auslander, 2007); significantly higher levels of

unemployment (Macomber et al., 2008); higher likelihoods of homelessness (Yen,

Hammond, & Kushel, 2009; Zlotnick, 2009); higher incidences of teen pregnancy

1 The CCC agenda is available on NCJFCJ’s Web site at http://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/

CCC%20National%20Agenda.pdf.

2 | JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL / Spring 2013