Court Improvement Program

Supporting dependency and neglect cases through collaboration and reform

By: Amy Woodward, Media Coordinator

The Court Improvement Program (CIP) is bringing together judges, social workers, attorneys, and other child and family advocacy groups to strengthen relationships and enhance approaches to dependency and neglect (D&N) cases, which are among the most sensitive and emotionally charged matters in Colorado’s state court system. 

CIP is a federally funded grant program that provides ongoing recommendations to Colorado state courts through education and training. The program was created from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, or the Family Preservation and Support Services Program Act, which assessed how D&N cases were handled throughout the courts. 

“These are cases that require such sensitivity and such compassion; it involves a lot of people to do this work,” said Megan Kearsley, CIP coordinator, who has led the program since 2019. “It’s difficult and it’s a heavy subject, but it’s important,” she said. 

Imagen

There are 1,927 open D&N cases in Colorado, as reported for the 2024 fiscal year. 

These case types don’t just deal with legal questions or policy decisions. At their core, these cases involve the safety and well-being of children while requiring courts and child welfare agencies to make judgments about parenting, care, and capacity. 

Most open cases deal with substance abuse and mental health, said Kearsley. “People don’t abuse or neglect their kids because they want to;  there is a pathology that leads to this,” she said. 

D&N courts are uniquely positioned to collaborate with child and family experts to address these pathologies and issues meaningfully, which mitigates safety concerns, reduces the risk of harm to children, and in some cases disrupts generational patterns of neglect.

CIP relies on two approaches to increase impact: one way is through organizing court teams at the district and county levels, referred to as Best Practice Court Teams (BPCT), and the other is through the CIP Task Force.

Best Practice Court Teams

At the local level, the BPCTs are generally comprised of court partners and led by judges who receive resources from CIP to help improve processes. For example, continuous quality improvement efforts (CQI) are implemented through training workshops that help guide these teams as they assess D&N courts in the district.

“CQI workshops have been huge,” said Tina Horton, family court facilitator for the El Paso County Combined   Courts in the 4th Judicial District. “In the last four years, experts have been brought in to help us understand the importance of data collection,” she said.  

For example, the BPCT in the 4th Judicial District is examining data related to the number of youth attending court who have been named as having been neglected.  

“We are working on a new project to increase the number of young people in D&N cases that want to attend court,” Horton said. 

Data shared by the Office of the Child’s Representative (OCR) showed that the 4th Judicial District, particularly El Paso County, experienced a decline and then a plateau in the number of youths attending court. 

This data point is important to address because of a youth’s right to attend and participate in all hearings related to their case per Colorado law and Colorado Rules of Juvenile Procedure. 

“We will be looking at barriers like transportation or lack of ability to attend due to school,” Horton said. “Is the young person being offered the choice to attend court by their caseworker and guardian ad litem/counsel for youth?  And if they decline, is the youth still being asked to attend court for every hearing?” she said. 

Additionally, through the BPCT’s work, the 4th Judicial District has implemented structures and processes so parents can access counsel earlier, which is statutorily allowed. 

Parents can now apply for legal representation via text, email, or phone, on the day before the first scheduled hearing and appearance. In the past, that service was offered on the day of the first scheduled hearing, which didn’t always allow enough time for parents to be informed about what to expect at the hearing and to familiarize themselves with their legal representative.

CIP Task Force

The second approach to improving court processes for D&N cases is through the CIP Task Force, a statewide multidisciplinary group that includes state and district and county judges, Colorado Court of Appeals judges, leaders from child welfare agencies, attorneys for parents and children, and representatives from Indigenous tribes or tribal consortia.

“The most basic goal of the CIP is to improve the child welfare system,” said Denver Juvenile Court Judge Elizabeth McCarthy, who co-chairs the CIP Task Force. 

“Since we have all the players at the table, including state-level leaders, local leaders, and the courts, we’re able to examine and ideally address the flaws in the system,” said Judge McCarthy. 

The most pressing issues include court funding and waitlists for service providers. The CIP Task Force also examines new juvenile rules adopted by the Colorado Supreme Court and ensures that cases are compliant with these new rules. 

“It’s a phenomenal resource to have CIP for the state,” said Judge McCarthy. “They really are the leaders in staying abreast of changes with juvenile law, dependency and neglect, and sort of what's coming to us nationally.” 

For CIP, one benchmark for improvement includes resolving cases in a timely manner. The federal standard for D&N case resolution for children under five years old is 24 months. In Colorado, the aim is to resolve cases within 12 months. 

Reunification is the goal of CIP and statistics released earlier this year helped provide insight into these efforts. In 2021, 38 percent of cases resulted in reunification, 21 percent resolved in placement with a guardian such as a relative or kin-like adult, and 13 percent of cases concluded with the child remaining in the home, according to the 2025 Court Process Evaluation Statewide Report by the Timeliness to Permanency Subcommittee of the Child Welfare Appeals Workgroup.

“We’re in a really unique place here that we have the ability to come together and collaborate and really address these issues,” said Judge McCarthy. “I’m not sure of any other area of law, at least that I know of, that exists this way.”

For more information about CIP, including the program’s strategic plan, please visit: https://www.coloradojudicial.gov/court-services/family-law-programs/court-improvement-programs-dependency-and-neglect