Improving and Enhancing Oregon's Family Dependency Treatment Courts

The OJJDP Family Drug Court Program seeks to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized tribal governments to sustain existing family drug courts or establish new family drug courts. Category 3: State and County Family Drug Courts Expansion will support states and counties to enhance and/or expand family drug court treatment and recovery practices at the larger state and county levels to more effectively serve families affected by opioid, stimulant, and other substance use disorders.

Oregon’s State Court Administrator will provide statewide, coordinated support for Oregon Family Dependency Treatment Courts (FDTC) to more effectively intervene with parents and children affected by substance use/mental health disorders who are involved in the child welfare system. Objectives are to reduce the length of time that children of parents involved in FDTCs spend in foster care and improve the well-being of families participating in FDTCs. This project will allow the state court administrator to hire a statewide FDTC coordinator who will achieve the following goals: (1) create consistency across the FDTCs to provide equal access to justice, (2) ensure adherence to research-based best practices and recommendations, (3) facilitate greater collaboration with system partners in child welfare and substance abuse treatment, (4) provide technical assistance to FDTC staff and judges, (5) monitor FDTC progress and achievement through continuous quality improvement, (6) advocate for additional support for FDTCs, (7) increase participation in the FDTCs, and (8) create a model for the expansion of the FDTC program to additional counties in Oregon. CA/NCF