LegiStorm

Summary:

The Court Improvement Program (CIP) was enacted in 1993 (P.L. 103-66) to provide funds to eligible state highest courts to assess and make improvements to their handling of child welfare proceedings. Funding for the CIP was provided via a statutory set-aside from funding provided to state child welfare agencies for family preservation and family support services to children and families (Title IV-B, Subpart 2 of the Social Security Act). That set-aside, which totals $12.9 million for FY2006, will expire with FY2006. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171) requires and encourages collaboration between courts and public child welfare agencies, authorizes two new grants under the Court Improvement Program, and provides a total of $100 million for those grants. This mandatory funding is available for courts to improve their training of judges, legal personnel, and attorneys handling child abuse and neglect cases ($10 million for each of FY2006-FY2010), and to assist courts in improving the timeliness of their efforts on behalf of children in foster care ($10 million for each of FY2006-FY2010). Federal child welfare policy has long assumed that courts and child welfare agencies must work in tandem to make timely decisions regarding the safety, permanency, and well-being of children. At the same time, almost all federal child welfare-related funding and requirements have applied to state child welfare agencies. Over the course of several decades, Congress has periodically authorized funds to courts to improve their efforts on behalf of children, and a May 2004 report from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, which made numerous recommendations to improve court performance on children's behalf, renewed attention to this issue. The changes made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171) were a part of the recommendations made by the Pew Commission and were also included in legislation introduced in the Senate (S. 1679—Senators DeWine and Rockefeller) and the House (H.R. 3758—Representative Schiff). For various reasons, additional legislative activity related to the Court Improvement Program may occur in the 109th Congress (likely as a part of the expected reauthorization debate for the child welfare program authorized under Title IV-B, Subpart 2 of the Social Security Act, now called the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program). Funding for the original CIP grant program (for improving and assessing court handling of child welfare proceedings) is statutorily reserved from total PSSF funding, and that funding is set to expire with FY2006. Congress may consider whether this funding set-aside for CIP should be extended, and if so, whether the authorization language for this grant meets the current program needs. In addition, Congress may want to review the adequacy of the authorizing language provided for the two new grant programs (related to timely decisions on behalf of children and training judges and other court/legal personnel), which was added during conference negotiations on the Deficit Reduction Act (P.L. 109-171) and was not previously debated by Congress. Third, while the new grant programs, and several other changes made by P.L. 109-171 meet a number of court-related recommendations provided by the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, there are additional court-related child welfare issues that Congress may choose to address. This report will be updated as needed.