The Pew Commission Recommendations:
A Progress Report

At the federal level, major new provisions to improve the juvenile and family courts based on the recommendations of the Pew Commission were included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. These new court improvements will help courts track and analyze their caseloads to improve outcomes for children in foster care, allow judges and other court personnel to receive needed training, and require significant and ongoing collaboration between state courts and state child welfare agencies as a condition of receiving federal child welfare and court improvement funds. The DRA provides $100 million over five years for these court improvements.

Across the nation, State Supreme Courts and child welfare agencies have worked together to craft comprehensive action plans to speed the movement of children out of foster care and into safe, permanent families. These action plans were developed at a first-of-its-kind national judicial summit attended by teams of court and child welfare agency personnel from each state.

More than one-third of states have formed or are in the process of creating their own high-level commissions to promote collaboration between child welfare agencies and courts to serve children in foster care better – as recommended by the Pew Commission. These states include: California, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Indiana and Washington.

Chief Justices across the country have answered the Commission's challenge to serve as champions for the children in their courts, bringing much needed, high-level attention and assistance to statewide efforts to strengthen the dependency courts. Following the release of the Pew Commission's recommendations, the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators adopted a joint resolution endorsing the recommendations and urging their members to enact them.

National legal, child welfare and tribal organizations have passed resolutions in support of the Commission's recommendations, including the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Counsel for Children, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the National Congress of American Indians and the United South and Eastern Tribes.