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Supreme Court presenters highlight family-preservation, specialty courts as tools to reunify families
Summary
Representatives from the Louisiana Supreme Court described court-run family preservation and specialty-court programs that combine treatment and supervision, cited strong reunification and recidivism outcomes, and said courts will work to better track father participation.
Storm Ehlers and Fletcher Hyacinth of the Louisiana Supreme Court briefed the task force on how the judiciary supports families through assistance grants, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and specialty-court programs.
Hyacinth, director of the Drug and Specialty Court Office, described family preservation courts as collaborative treatment models that accelerate reunification when children have been removed from the home for safety reasons. He cited a national study, discussed in the presentation, that showed family preservation courts were about 81% more likely to result in reunification compared with other approaches; he also said drug and specialty courts show lower recidivism than ordinary probation programs.
A short recorded testimonial from a family-preservation graduate illustrated those outcomes. In the video, a graduate named Brad described completing the program and being granted custody: "I walked out of that courtroom ... one of the first graduates of Family Preservation Court and granted sole custody of my son," he said.
Court officials also acknowledged a data gap: family-preservation sites generally track program participation and outcomes but do not consistently record whether participants are fathers. Hyacinth said the court office will explore adding fatherhood indicators to case-management data and will share summaries and brochures with the task force for outreach.
The Supreme Court’s Division of Children and Families described assistance programs for juvenile and child-welfare processes (FINS assistance, CASA grants and the federal Court Improvement Program) and explained how those efforts can be used to engage fathers in school and child-services interventions at the local level.
Next steps: the Supreme Court presenters agreed to supply the task force with program materials and national-source citations referenced in the presentation and to follow up on whether father-specific participation data can be added to court reporting.
