Opinion ID: 1926384
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Permanent Placement Priority

Text: The federal Family Preservation and Support Act provides multi-year grants to state Supreme Courts to improve how courts within each state handle cases involving children in foster care, termination of parental rights, and adoption proceedings. These grants are administered through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau. The Delaware Supreme Court and the Family Court have participated in this program for several years. [26] The Court Improvement Project of the Delaware Supreme Court issued its first report in 1997 An Assessment of Delaware's Court Performance in Child Welfare Cases with Recommendations for Improvement. That report concluded that a paramount goal in child welfare cases is to establish a safe permanent home for the child in a timely fashion. [27] This can be accomplished by successfully reuniting a child in foster care with the natural parents or, if that good faith effort fails, by terminating those parental rights and arranging for an adoption. The Delaware studies have determined that the judiciary plays a vital role in the timely establishment of permanency for children in individual cases. [28] Therefore, if it becomes necessary to adjourn and reconvene a termination hearing in the future, under circumstances similar to Orville's, the Family Court should make every effort to complete the hearing within thirty days of the original adjournment. The Delaware Family Court recently published a monograph entitled  Family Court Performance Standards and Measures.  [29] Standard 2.3 relates to Prompt Implementation of Law and Procedure. It requires the Family Court to integrate into its operations changes mandated by statute, case law, or court rules as soon as those changes become effective. [30] In an effort to support the Family Court's commendable efforts to identify and promptly implement the best practices, the Clerk of this Court is directed to send a copy of this Opinion to all Family Court Judges.