Early Childhood Court (ECC) is a problem-solving court which addresses child welfare cases involving children under the age of three and is premised on the fact that healthy attachment and early brain development, from birth to age three, is crucial to a child's future social-emotional health, school-readiness, and life-long well-being. Infants and toddlers in the child welfare system are at extraordinarily high risk for developmental delays, non-optimal attachment relationships, trauma, and toxic stress that can affect their adjustment and well-being for years to come — often, tragically, for a lifetime. Early Childhood Court allows courts to take what is currently known about the appropriate services and practices for early brain development and make them available to the most vulnerable children.
The core components of Early Childhood Court include judicial leadership, a community coordinator, monthly court reviews, evidence-based child-parent therapy, frequent parent-child contact, and the use of multidisciplinary family team meetings.
Goals of Florida's Early Childhood Court
- Improve child safety and well-being
- Heal trauma and repair the parent/child relationship
- Promote timely permanency
- Stop the intergenerational cycle of maltreatment
The ECC model provides for the dependency court to serve as a platform for increasing the reach and effectiveness of therapeutic evidence-based interventions for maltreated children and their caregivers. The model focuses on (1) centering the attention of the Court on the developmental, emotional, relational, and mental health needs of the young child (ages 0-5) in judicial decision-making, case planning, and permanency determination; (2) timely referral to and judicial monitoring of services for adjudicated children and their parents; (3) cross‐disciplinary, sustainable practice change at the case level; (4) reducing re-removals by increasing continuity in high-quality foster care placements; and (5) expediting permanency planning decisions and achieving sustained placements for all of our children.
Our Unified Children’s Court (UCC) Division forged further ahead with the support and commitment of Miami-Dade’s lead child welfare agency, Citrus Family Care Network (FCN), to advance an “ECC Plus model,” with a much greater, expansive scope than other statewide models. The goal is to approach cases in a way where legal, societal, and individual problems intersect to attain the best outcomes for our families.
The Circuit’s ECC “Plus” Problem-Solving Court model launched in September 2021 in two stages. First was the rollout of a comprehensive and targeted service delivery system for all children ages 0-5 with a pending dependency case before any of the presiding UCC Division Judges and two General Magistrates in Miami-Dade County. Case coordination is carefully managed by an experienced Early Childhood Manager from Citrus Family Care Network (FCN). Second was the launch, in January 2023, of a specialized ECC docket for selected dependency cases involving children ages 0-3, presided over by an ECC-designated, seasoned, and cross-trained, trauma-informed UCC Division Judge.
The Problem-Solving ECC Structure and Caseload
The Problem-Solving ECC structure and caseload consists of a partnership between the UCC and CITRUS FCN as follows:
UCC Component
A cross-trained, trauma-informed UCC Division Judge will preside over the Circuit’s ECC, with a planned caseload of 40 families heard on a specialized court docket. An ECC Program Coordinator position provides leadership and manages all aspects of the ECC, supervises the ECC Case Manager, liaises with the CITRUS FCN team in selecting new families and supporting existing families, and represents the Circuit’s ECC at state and national meetings and conferences. Currently, calendars are conducted on a weekly basis.
Citrus FCN Component
Citrus FCN funds and administers all social services and affiliated program staff, including an ECC Early Childhood Manager who leads and supports the ECC Behavioral Health Team; four ECC Specialists with extensive knowledge of early childhood development and infant/early childhood behavioral health services that provide care coordination for all children ages 0-5 who enter the child welfare system, remain in care regardless of whether or not they are on the ECC specialized docket, but whose dependency cases are proceeding before the UCC Division Judges and two General Magistrates; and two dedicated Community Coordinators/ECC Specialists for the specialized docket.
Citrus FCN ECC Specialists are each assigned to only one (1) of the Circuit’s three Full Case Management Agencies (FCMA) and the families therein. ECC Specialists staff all cases with the assigned case manager and participate in court hearings as needed. Families benefit from full care coordination, including referrals to any needed services such as child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), dyadic therapy, infant mental health services, and continued monitoring of the child’s overall development.
The two dedicated Community Coordinators/ECC Specialists for the specialized ECC docket each carry a caseload of 20 ECC families presided over by the designated ECC Judge. Both Community Coordinators have extensive knowledge of early childhood development and infant/early childhood behavioral health services and provide care coordination for all children who are accepted into the specialized ECC court docket. Additionally, Community Coordinators attend all court hearings, coordinate and lead family team meetings, and provide support to the families as they navigate through the ECC process.