Miami-Dade Dependency Drug Court Expansion and Enhancement Initiative

The purpose of the Family Drug Courts Program is to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to develop and establish drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues. The program must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents. The program provides seed money, not long-term support. OJJDP expects successful applicants to develop and implement a sustainability plan during the grant period to continue operation of the family drug court when the grant ends. The program is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 3797u, et seq.

The Eleventh Judicial Circuit Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) implemented Dependency Drug Court (DDC) in March 1999. Building on the existing DDC, the AOC proposes to expand and enhance DDC through implementation of two evidence-based intervention approaches that have been successfully piloted. This initiative includes a case management intervention model for mothers and a parenting program for families with children ages 0-3. Activities include: screening, assessment, treatment plans and enhanced case management for an additional 120 dependency abuse/neglect cases and parenting sessions for 40 parent-child dyads.

The goals are: increase positive permanency outcomes (sole custody, joint custody, or permanent guardianship with family members with termination of parental rights when appropriate) which will be measured by outcomes upon completion of drug court; reduce likelihood of negative outcomes for children by addressing the substance abuse of parents and providing services for their children, which will be measured by re-entry. The evaluation will provide feedback regarding the implementation; present findings relative to data collected and outcome variables (including the performance measures); address the extent to which program implementation was consistent with the plans for implementation; identify the program's impact and effectiveness; and delineate lessons learned from the evaluation.
CA/NCF