Bill Text: FL S1442 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Early Childhood Court Programs
Spectrum:
Status: (Failed) 2018-03-10 - Died in Appropriations [S1442 Detail]
Download: Florida-2018-S1442-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Early Childhood Court Programs
Spectrum:
Status: (Failed) 2018-03-10 - Died in Appropriations [S1442 Detail]
Download: Florida-2018-S1442-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2018 SB 1442 By Senator Book 32-00740B-18 20181442__ 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to an Early Childhood Court program; 3 creating s. 39.01304, F.S.; providing legislative 4 findings and intent; defining terms; requiring the 5 Office of the State Courts Administrator, by a 6 specified date, to verify the existence of an Early 7 Childhood Court program at certain circuit courts; 8 requiring the office to coordinate with the 9 appropriate circuit court to employ and train a 10 community coordinator for each program site; 11 authorizing the office to hire a statewide community 12 coordinator; requiring the Florida State University 13 Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy to 14 hire a statewide clinical consultant and assemble a 15 clinical oversight team for specified purposes; 16 establishing the primary goal of the program and the 17 means of achieving the goal; requiring that the 18 program be modeled on a specified approach for 19 specified purposes; requiring the program to 20 incorporate specified core components; requiring the 21 office, in partnership with the center and within 22 appropriated funds, to provide training to program 23 court teams; requiring the Florida Institute for Child 24 Welfare to conduct an evaluation of the program’s 25 impact in consultation with the Department of Children 26 and Families, the office, the center, and a specified 27 organization; requiring the evaluation to include 28 certain data and recommendations; requiring the 29 institute to submit the results of its evaluation to 30 the Governor, the Legislature, and the Office of 31 Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability 32 by a specified date; requiring the institute to submit 33 annual reports; providing an effective date. 34 35 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 36 37 Section 1. Section 39.01304, Florida Statutes, is created 38 to read: 39 39.01304 Early Childhood Court program.— 40 (1) LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND INTENT.— 41 (a) The Legislature finds that a child’s first 1,000 days 42 of life are a critical period during which he or she faces 43 either the greatest risk of having to endure lifelong adversity 44 or the greatest opportunity for long-term well-being with a 45 stable nurturing caregiver. 46 (b) The Legislature also finds it is important to identify 47 evidence-based practices and developmentally appropriate 48 strategies to mitigate the impact of trauma on young children 49 placed in the state’s dependency system and to improve outcomes 50 for them and their families. 51 (c) The Legislature further finds positive results 52 associated with the Safe Babies Court Team approach, advanced by 53 the national ZERO TO THREE nonprofit organization, which 54 achieves timely permanency, increases a child’s well-being, and 55 greatly reduces recurrence of child abuse through the 56 development and use of specialized dockets, multidisciplinary 57 teams, and a nonadversarial approach in connection with 58 dependency proceedings. 59 (d) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide 60 resources to expand upon the existing specialized Early 61 Childhood Court dockets to ensure their adherence to the Safe 62 Babies Court Team approach. The Legislature also seeks to assess 63 the potential benefits to Florida’s children and families from 64 adopting this approach and determine whether expansion of the 65 Early Childhood Court concept in this state is warranted. 66 (2) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term: 67 (a) “Community coordinator” means an individual who works 68 with a judge presiding over an Early Childhood Court, who 69 supports the activities of the court, and who facilitates 70 coordination and collaboration among the members of the Early 71 Childhood Court team. 72 (b) “Early Childhood Court” means a program that has a 73 specialized court docket created under this section which is 74 modeled after the national ZERO TO THREE Safe Babies Court Team 75 approach and which addresses child welfare cases involving 76 children under 3 years of age. 77 (c) “Safe Babies Court Team” means a ZERO TO THREE 78 community engagement and systems change initiative focused on 79 improving how the courts, child welfare agencies, and related 80 child-serving organizations work together to improve and 81 expedite services for young children in out-of-home care. 82 (d) “ZERO TO THREE” means the national nonprofit 83 organization that informs, trains, and supports professionals, 84 policymakers, and parents in efforts to improve and promote the 85 health and development of children under 3 years of age. 86 (3) PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT.— 87 (a) By August 1, 2018, the Office of the State Courts 88 Administrator shall verify the existence of an Early Childhood 89 Court program at each circuit court site that established a 90 specialized Early Childhood Court docket before July 1, 2018. 91 Multiple program sites may exist in the same county. The Office 92 of the State Courts Administrator shall coordinate with the 93 appropriate circuit court to hire and train a full-time 94 community coordinator at each Early Childhood Court program site 95 that was verified pursuant to this paragraph and may hire a 96 statewide community coordinator to implement the program. 97 (b) The Florida State University Center for Prevention and 98 Early Intervention Policy shall hire a statewide clinical 99 consultant and assemble a clinical oversight team to ensure 100 quality, accountability, and fidelity to the Early Childhood 101 Court model, including, but not limited to, training and 102 technical assistance related to clinical services, clinical 103 consultation and guidance for difficult cases, ongoing clinical 104 training for court teams, and training in child-parent 105 psychotherapy to expand clinical capacity and support of the 106 professional development of clinicians at each Early Childhood 107 Court program site. 108 (4) GOALS.—The primary goal of the Early Childhood Court 109 program is to improve outcomes of children under 3 years of age 110 in Florida’s child welfare system by doing all of the following: 111 (a) Improving child safety and well-being. 112 (b) Addressing parents’ trauma-related conditions and 113 associated issues, including, but not limited to, substance 114 abuse, mental health concerns, and family violence, and 115 repairing relationships between parents and their children. 116 (c) Achieving timely permanency. 117 (d) Preventing recurrences of maltreatment. 118 (e) Ending the intergenerational cycle of abuse, neglect, 119 and violence. 120 (5) CORE COMPONENTS.—The program shall be modeled after the 121 national ZERO TO THREE Safe Babies Court Team approach and shall 122 promote the adoption of its community engagement and systems 123 change initiatives to improve coordination between the courts, 124 child welfare agencies, and related organizations for the 125 benefit of children under 3 years of age placed in out-of-home 126 care. The program shall incorporate, but not be limited to, all 127 of the following core components of the Safe Babies Court Team 128 approach: 129 (a) An engaged and informed judge who leads the court team 130 in applying a therapeutic approach. 131 (b) A continuum of evidence-based mental health 132 interventions to address the parent-child attachment, to heal 133 trauma, and to promote healthy relationships. 134 (c) An Early Childhood Court community coordinator who 135 works with the judge to support Early Childhood Court 136 activities. 137 (6) TRAINING.—Within appropriated funds, the Office of the 138 State Courts Administrator, in partnership with the Florida 139 State University Center for Prevention and Early Intervention 140 Policy, shall provide training to the participating court teams 141 on meeting the program objectives. 142 (7) EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAM.— 143 (a) In consultation with the department, the Office of the 144 State Courts Administrator, the Florida State University Center 145 for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy, and the ZERO TO 146 THREE organization, the Florida Institute for Child Welfare 147 established in s. 1004.615 shall evaluate the impact of the 148 Early Childhood Court program on children and families in 149 Florida’s child welfare system. 150 (b) The evaluation must include the analysis of data 151 collected by the Office of the State Courts Administrator and 152 measurable outcomes, including, but not limited to, the impact 153 of the Early Childhood Court program on the future incidence of 154 maltreatment of children whose cases were heard in Early 155 Childhood Court, timely permanency, reunification of families, 156 and incidents of children reentering the child welfare system 157 whose cases were heard in Early Childhood Court. The evaluation 158 must provide recommendations as to whether and how the program 159 should be expanded, the projected costs of such expansion, and 160 projected savings to the state resulting from the Early 161 Childhood Court program. 162 (c) The institute shall submit the results of the 163 evaluation to the Governor, the President of the Senate, the 164 Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Office of 165 Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability by October 166 1, 2021. 167 (8) ANNUAL REPORTS.—By December 1, 2019 and 2020, the 168 Florida Institute for Child Welfare shall provide reports on the 169 status of the program to the Governor, the President of the 170 Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the 171 Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. 172 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.