SJI Newsletter

September 2018 | Volume 28, No. 12

SJI Awards FY 2018

Fourth Quarter Grants

The SJI Board of Directors met on September 10, 2018, at the Supreme Court of Nebraska to make 

decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of 11 new grants.

Five (5) Strategic Initiatives Grants were awarded: the National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF) 

to begin critical work on the impact of children and opioids in state courts; a final phase of the NJOTF 

core activities; the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) for continuity of operations planning 

updates in the wake of Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Harvey; the NCSC for evidence-based public 

access policies; and the NCSC for building resilient and transformative courts through judge and staff 

development. One (1) Project Grant was awarded to the Colorado Judiciary for a peer-to-peer 

coaching initiative. Four (4) Technical Assistance Grants were awarded: a process re-engineering 

project for the New Mexico Court of Appeals; a technology strategic plan for the Pinal County, 

Arizona, Superior Court; development of a science bench book and webinars for judges for the 

National Judicial College; and a domestic violence assessment for the Missouri Judiciary. One (1)

Curriculum Adaptation and Training (CAT) Grant was awarded to the New York Unified Court System 

for a judicial faculty development training program.

The next deadline for grant applications is November 1, 2018 (FY 2019, 1st quarter).
FY 2019 Education Support Program

The Education Support Program (ESP) supports full-time state court judges and court managers to 

attend courses that enhance their knowledge, skills, and abilities which they could not otherwise 

attend because of limited state, local, and personal budgets. The National Judicial College (NJC) 

and the National Center for State Courts/Institute for Court Management (ICM) will administer the 

ESP program separately, in partnership and with funding from SJI.

COVERED COSTS

The Education Support Program (ESP) only covers the cost of tuition up to a maximum of $1,000 

per award. Awards will be made for the exact amount requested for tuition. Funds to pay tuition in 

excess of $1,000, and other costs of participating in a course such as travel, transportation, meals, 

materials, and transportation to and from airports (including rental cars) at the site of the education 

program, must be obtained from other sources or be borne by the ESP award recipient.

ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS

Because of the limited amount of funding available, only full-time judges of state or local trial and 

appellate courts; full-time professional state or local court personnel with management 

responsibilities or on a professional career track; and supervisory and management probation 

officials in judicial branch probation offices are eligible for the program. Senior judges, part-time 

judges, quasi-judicial hearing officers including referees and commissioners, administrative law 

judges, staff attorneys, law clerks, line staff, law enforcement officers, and other executive branch 

personnel are not eligible. Applicants are limited to one ESP award every other fiscal year (i.e. if 

awarded an ESP in FY 2018, the applicant will remain ineligible until FY 2020), unless the course 

specifically assumes multi-year participation as part of a certificate program.

ELIGIBLE COURSES

Awards are only for courses presented by the NJC and ICM in a U.S. jurisdiction to participants in 

the U.S. or U.S. Territories. These courses are designed to enhance the skills of new or experienced 

judges and court managers. Participation during annual or mid-year conferences or meetings of a 

state or national organization does not qualify for ESP purposes, even though the conference may 

include workshops or other training sessions.
HOW AND WHEN TO APPLY

For NJC courses:

To seek an ESP to attend an NJC course, simply find the course you wish to attend on the NJC 

website: www.judges.org/courses, and click register. During the registration process, the website 

will ask whether you need a scholarship to attend. Simply follow the online instructions to request 

tuition assistance. If you have any questions about this process, you may contact NJC Scholarship 

Coordinator Rebecca Bluemer, at bluemer@judges.org or 800-255-8343. The NJC reserves the 

right to apply additional selection criteria.

For ICM courses:

To seek an ESP to participate in the ICM Fellows Program, submit a completed application to ICM 

Education Program Manager Amy McDowell, at amcdowell@ncsc.org. If you have any questions 

about this process, you may contact her at 757-259-1552 or via email.

To seek an ESP to participate in an ICM course, find the course you wish to attend on the ICM 

website: www.courses.ncsc.org, and click register. During the registration process, the website will 

ask if you need a scholarship to participate. Follow the online instructions to request tuition 

assistance. If you have any questions about this process, you may contact, ICM Director of National 

Programs Margaret Allen, at mallen@ncsc.org or 757-259-1581. ICM reserves the right to apply 

additional selection criteria.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF ESP AWARD RECIPIENTS

Recipients are responsible for disseminating the information received from the course, when 

possible, to their court colleagues locally and, if possible, throughout the state. The NJC and ICM 

may impose additional requirements on recipients.

National Judicial Opioid Task Force

Holds First of Three-Part Webinar Series

The National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF), in collaboration with the Prescription Drug 

Monitoring Program Training and Technical Assistance Center, held the first of three webinars earlier 

this month. The series is designed to help participants gain greater knowledge about how state 

courts can, and already are, working with prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to 

address the opioid crisis.

Part 2 of this series will address access to, and use of, information contained in PDMPs. Topics in 

the webinar will include:
types of PDMP reports;

court access of PDMP data;

valuable uses of PDMP information in the justice system; and,

 other important topics.

To join this webinar on October 18th at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, follow this link:

https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/132766241 (Advance registration is not required. Zoom software will be 

used for the presentation and may need to be downloaded before the webinar begins).

If you missed Part 1 in this webinar series, you can access it via the NJOTF website:

https://pdmpassist.wistia.com/medias/c8m8cs9ruw Courts and their stakeholders are encouraged to 

share this content and invitations to future webinars.

NJC Opens Registration for 2019 Courses

The National Judicial College (NJC) has announced its 2019 Course Calendar.

These in-person courses are popular and early registration is advised. Full course descriptions are 

available on the website and questions can be answered by calling (800) 25-JUDGE. Online 

courses and webinars are being updated and opened for registration as they become available. All 

courses listed are held at the NJC's headquarters in Reno, Nevada, unless otherwise noted. To

register, simply search by title or topic area and register through the link provided.
SJI Board of Directors

Chair

John D. Minton, Jr.

Chief Justice

Supreme Court of Kentucky 

Frankfort, KY

Vice Chair

Daniel J. Becker

State Court Administrator (ret.) 

Utah AOC

Salt Lake City, UT

Secretary

Gayle A. Nachtigal

Senior Circuit Court Judge 

Washington County Circuit Court 

Hillsboro, OR

Treasurer

David V. Brewer

Justice

Oregon Supreme Court

Salem, OR

Jonathan Lippman

Chief Judge of New York (ret.)

of Counsel

Latham & Watkins, LLP

New York, NY

Chase T. Rogers

Chief Justice (ret.)

Supreme Court of Connecticut

Partner

Pitney Day, LLP

Hartford, CT

Wilfredo Martinez

County Judge

9th Judicial Circuit of Florida

Orlando, FL

Marsha J. Rabiteau

Executive Director

Center for Human Trafficking

Court Solutions

Bloomfield, CT

Hernan D. Vera

Principal

Bird Marella P.C.

Los Angeles, CA

Isabel Framer

President

Language Access Consultants, LLC 

Copley, OH

Jonathan D. Mattiello

Executive Director

The State Justice Institute is a federally-funded, non-profit corporation established by

federal law in 1984 to improve the quality of justice in the state courts.

Products and Resources

Since 2011, SJI has designated the library at the National Center for State Courts as the

official repository of published work related to SJI-supported grant projects. You can

search the ecollection online by using the term, State Justice Institute.

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information of interest to the entire state court community. If your organization's work

complements ours, let us know and we will share.