An Act To Institute Safe Children Court Team Programs
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 0328
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: MADIGAN, BELLOWS, DODGE, GATTINE, MEYER, CHIPMAN

Legislative Document
No. 328
H.P. 253
House of Representatives, January 24, 2019
An Act To Institute Safe Children Court Team Programs
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative MADIGAN of Waterville.
Cosponsored by Senator BELLOWS of Kennebec and
Representatives: DODGE of Belfast, GATTINE of Westbrook, MEYER of Eliot, Senator: 
CHIPMAN of Cumberland.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  4 MRSA c. 8-C is enacted to read:
CHAPTER 8-C
SAFE CHILDREN COURT TEAM PROGRAMS
§441.  Establishment
1.  Programs.  The Judicial Department may establish safe children court team 
programs in the Superior Courts and District Courts and may adopt administrative orders 
and court rules to govern the practice, procedure and administration of these programs.
2.  Purpose.  The purpose of the safe children court team programs established under 
subsection 1 is to use community knowledge to find local solutions that meet the 
developmental needs of children who enter into the child protection system, especially 
the developmental needs of children in foster care.
3.  Collaboration.  The following shall collaborate with and, to the extent possible, 
provide financial assistance to the Judicial Department in establishing and maintaining 
safe children court team programs established under subsection 1:
A.  District attorneys, the Department of the Attorney General and statewide 
organizations representing prosecutors;
B.  Attorneys who represent parents in child protection proceedings, including 
statewide organizations representing such attorneys;
C.  The Department of Health and Human Services;
D.  The Department of Public Safety;
E.  The Department of Education; and
F.  Local service agencies.
§442.  Programs
1.  Coordinator of Safe Children Court Team Programs.  The Judicial 
Department shall employ a Coordinator of Safe Children Court Team Programs.  The 
Coordinator of Safe Children Court Team Programs shall help the Judicial Department 
establish, staff, coordinate, operate and evaluate safe children court team programs 
established under this chapter.
2.  Core components.  The core components of the safe children court team 
programs established under this chapter include the following:
A.  Judicial leadership in focusing on achieving timely, permanent resolution of child 
placement issues and resolving the issues that brought families into the system;
B.  A development specialist with education and expertise in developmental 
psychology;
C.  A team of key community stakeholders who commit to restructuring the way the 
community responds to the needs of children who are subject to abuse or neglect;
D.  Comprehensive services offered to each child, including screening for 
developmental delays and disabilities, medical care and mental health services that 
focus on the parent-child relationship;
E.  Services addressing the needs of parents and the wide variety of traumatic 
stressors in parents' lives;
F.  Concurrent planning that places equal emphasis on supporting a 2nd permanent 
family if reunification is ruled out;
G.  Training and support for the foster parents, mentors and extended family prior to 
and while foster parents are engaged with a child and the child's family;
H.  Preremoval conferences and monthly family team meetings, the purpose of which 
is to resolve issues that may lead to removal of a child from home;
I.  Frequent family time to permit a child and parent to maintain their bond and to 
improve the parent's responsiveness to the child's needs;
J.  A continuum of mental health services to provide intervention applicable to the 
specific characteristics of the parent and child as well as the level of preexisting 
trauma in their relationship and in the parent's own childhood experiences.  
Recommended interventions include:
(1)  An assessment of the parent-child relationship;
(2)  In-the-moment opportunities to help parents successfully respond to their 
child's behavior;
(3)  Visit coaching;
(4)  Appropriate parenting intervention; and
(5)  Child-parent psychotherapy; and
K.  Training and technical assistance for the program community and continuous 
quality improvement and evaluation planning.
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes the Judicial Department to establish safe children court team 
programs, modeled on the "Safe Babies Court Team" approach supported by the Quality 
Improvement Center for Research-based Infant-Toddler Court Teams funded by the 
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children 
and Families, Children's Bureau.  The purpose is to develop a community-based system 
to provide local systems and services for children and families that interact with the 
State's child protection system.  The core components of such programs are listed.