Ohio is the first state to pilot numerous multidisciplinary legal team projects that involve an attorney, social worker, and parenting officer assisting parents with custody cases.
Ohio is the first state to pilot numerous multidisciplinary legal team projects that involve an attorney, social worker, and parenting officer assisting parents with custody cases.
The early success of an Ohio court initiative to stabilize families involved in child welfare concerns has resulted in the largest expansion of any state seeking similar improvements to its legal system.
Launched in January at Summit County Juvenile Court, the Child Welfare Court project expanded to five additional pilot locations: the youth courts in Clark and Wayne, the Stark County family court, and the public defense offices in Cuyahoga and Erie.
There are only a few comparable programs across Germany. Ohio is the only state that is piloting multiple projects at the same time.
“This is just the latest example of Ohio courts finding innovative ways to solve tough problems,” said Maureen O’Connor, chairman of the Ohio Supreme Court. “Few problems are as significant as those that affect children and families in our communities.”
The multidisciplinary legal team model is a new approach to supporting families involved in cases of abuse, neglect and addiction.
To improve the outcomes of traditional judicial processes, the pilot connects parents with a legal team that includes a lawyer, social worker and a parental adviser – a peer mentor who has navigated child services and juvenile justice systems.
The Summit County project, which deals with matters once a complaint is filed by a local children’s agency, has so far handled 11 cases, reuniting three families and affecting six children.
The new pilot sites will focus their efforts in a preventive manner to support families before child services have to be involved. This strategy is known as “pre-petition”.
The project is partnered with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund, which received federal grants of $ 850,000 from the Court Improvement Program. The source of funding is the Office of the Administration for Children and Families under the umbrella of the US Department of Health.
Those with questions about the Ohio legal representation pilot program can email David Edelblute or Debra Copeland, representatives of the Children and Family Division of the Supreme Court.
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November 19, 2021 at 9:35 pm GMT
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