Court Improvement Program

About

The Court Improvement Program (CIP) is funded by grants awarded to the Indiana Supreme Court from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the CIP is to improve safety, permanency and well-being outcomes by:

• Assisting courts in carrying out state laws relating to Children in Need of Services and Termination of Parental Rights proceedings
• Enhancing collaboration between courts, the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS), and tribes
• Increasing child welfare expertise within the legal community and facilitating cross-training opportunities among agencies, tribes, courts, and other key stakeholders
• Supporting data collection, analysis and information sharing between courts, DCS and tribes

Child Welfare Improvement Committee

Current Initiatives

Grant & scholarship opportunities
Timeliness measures in child welfare cases
Education and training
Collaborative projects

Funding for the FFY 2024 grant cycle has been awarded. The 2025 grant application will be available in July 2025.

Reports & Resource Documents

• Quarterly Fiscal & Program Report [ [DOC, 99 KB]]
• Final Report [ [DOC, 96 KB]]
• Request for Reimbursement [ [DOCX, 31 KB]]
• Essential Questions to Ask at Each Hearing to Promote Permanency [ [PDF, 86 KB]]
• Post-TPR Benchcard (child not in pre-adoptive home) [ [PDF, 126 KB]]
• Post-TPR Benchcard (child in a pre-adoptive home) [ [PDF, 696 KB]]

Performance Measures

The Child in Need of Services (CHINS) Performance Measures were established by Administrative Rule 1 (F) in order to track and measure court performance in CHINS and Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) cases. The performance measures are based on the guidelines of the federal Court Improvement Program and are a part of the requirements of the program. They also provide an opportunity for courts to check their own performance and timeliness in CHINS and TPR cases. Effective July 1, 2014, every court with CHINS jurisdiction is required to report quarterly on the performance measures.

The performance measures are:

1. Time to permanent placement
2. Time to first permanency hearing
3. Time to the filing of the termination of parental rights petition
4. Time to termination of parental rights
5. Time to all subsequent permanency hearings.
6. Time to adjudication
7. Time to disposition
8. Timeliness of disposition
9. Timeliness of termination of parental rights
10. Time from disposition to termination of parental rights
11. Achievement of child permanency
12. Children not reaching permanency
13. Timeliness of first review hearing
14. Timeliness of adoption petition
15. Timelines of adoption proceedings

All data will be submitted through the CIP Performance Measures INcite application, including manual data submissions and Excel spreadsheets. If you have questions or need assistance with the CIP Performance Measures process, please contact cip@courts.in.gov.

Publications & Reports

Child Welfare Court Performance Measures - Interactive application

2023 Court Performance Measures Report [PDF, 791 KB]

Contact

Jamie Devine, Administrator/Staff Attorney, Court Improvement Program
jamie.devine@courts.in.gov

Indiana Office of Court Services
251 N. Illinois Street, Suite 800
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317-234-4164