Pennsylvania Counties

ACTIVE COUNTIES & ACHIEVEMENTS

Bedford

• Worked with project to hold meaningful permanency hearings for every child.
• Full hearings help parents and children have a say in court and understand what is being asked of them.
• ABA provided judicial checklist to streamline permanency hearings.
   

Butler

• Began work on a concurrent planning policy.
  
  Worked with ABA to develop a written kinship care policy.
• Relatives are involved earlier in case planning and decisions.
  
  

Clearfield

• PA Technical Assistance providers collaborated with county on projects so efforts not duplicated.
• Monthly TA provider meetings identified service needs.
  
• The county chose from a menu of projects.
   

Crawford

• Worked with project to address delays in termination of parental rights (TPR) hearings.
• ABA collected TPR data to find delays.
  
• Project works with county to streamline TPR process.
   

Lehigh

• Worked with project to change how parents were represented at TPR hearings.
• Change allowed counsel to continue on cases so no new attorneys were assigned or played catch-up.
• Court, agency and counsel developed procedures for counsel assignments.
   

Washington

• Collaborated with service providers to increase interorganizational awareness.
• ABA helped convene trainings and meetings with mental health providers and child welfare agency.
  
• Project helped attorneys become familiar with behavior health issues.

Westmoreland

• Worked with the project to start a 90-day multidisciplinary case conference process.
• The 90-day case conference promotes permanency, engages families, frontloads services, and encourages cross-system collaboration.
• Case conference is used in every new case 90 days after removal from the home to evaluate progress, review service referrals, and prepare for the first permanency hearing.

CLOSED COUNTIES & ACHIEVEMENTS