ASFA TRAINING PROJECT PHONE POLL FOR COURT IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

Maryland

1. How would you rate the child welfare agency staff in terms of their understanding of ASFA requirements? Please rate the understanding on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'comprehensive'.

a. Why did you give them that rating?
Their understanding varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Overall the average is probably about a 3.

2. Based on the court's experience to date, what skills do you think child welfare supervisors and workers need to have to implement ASFA?

a. Supervisors?

• Clear understanding of the law and the roles of the parties required by law
• Ability to explain law and requirements to workers
• Ability to interface successfully with court
  

b. Workers?

• Able to think creatively and individually about clients.
• Clear understanding of the law and the roles of the parties required by law
  

3. As part of your state's ASFA implementation, have the court and the child welfare agency undertaken or changed any day to day joint activities?
Yes No
If yes, please describe

• Schedules more review hearings and TPR trials
• Attorneys for the agency have worked with the Court Improvement Project concerning ASFA requirements. Their involvement varies by jurisdiction though.
• More frequent multi-disciplinary meetings have been held to work on court case load.
  

a. Has communication changed? Yes No
If yes, please describe

• More frequent communication in the form of meetings between court personnel and agency attorneys, meetings to talk about the increase in hearings
• The court Bench book has been distributed to child welfare agency personnel and attorneys. Reasonable effort forms have also been distributed to agency staff.
  

b. Are you getting the information you need regarding cases from the agency?
Yes No
If no, please describe.
No trouble in some jurisdictions; however, in other areas it is difficult.

4. How do you handle training on ASFA for court personnel?
a. Please describe the training.
We have three approaches to training for court personnel on ASFA.

• In 9/98 there was a one-day training on ASFA for judges and masters (masters are appointed by judges to hear the bulk of juvenile cases)
• In October 98, 99, and 00 there was a 2-day conference attended by judges and masters that included ASFA topics
• Court staff have been trained on the new court information management system (MAGIC). Some functions in the system resulted from ASFA. Training covered topics related to ASFA and also training on how to use the system.
  

b. Who does the training?
The one day training in 9/98 was delivered by attorneys from the Attorney General's office. The conference training was delivered by speakers form the ABA and by local judges and masters.

c. Is the training just on ASFA or is it incorporated into other training that you provide?
Incorporated

d. Have you done any training with or for the child welfare agency?
Yes No
If yes, please describe.
No specific joint training done on ASFA; however, at the conference in 10/00 agency staff were invited to the judicial training on the first day. Some ASFA topics were incorporated into the training.

e. Have you done any training with or for the agency attorneys?
Yes No
If yes, please describe.
No specific joint training done on ASFA; however, at the conference in 10/00 agency staff were invited to the judicial training on the first day. Some ASFA topics were incorporated into the training.

5. What has worked best for you in terms of working with the child welfare agency as it implements the ASFA requirements?

• Increased communication
• Having agency staff active on the Court Improvement Project and when the statute was revised the Attorney General got feedback from the agency.
  

6. What do you view as barriers to your work with the agency as it implements the requirements of ASFA?

• Making sure agency understands the law; especially difficult in large jurisdictions
• Coping with lack of time and resources to provide needed training.
  

7. Is there anything else that you want to tell us regarding the best way to implement the requirements of ASFA?
Even though group training has been done, there still a need for individualized and local training in courts and agencies. Need more resources to do that.

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