Des Moines, January 17, 2013 - The Iowa Judicial Branch, along with the Iowa Department of Human Services, Iowa Department of Public Health, and the Governor's Office on Drug Control Policy, recently received one of seventeen new federal Regional Partnership Grants to address the safety and well-being of children whose parents have substance-related disorders and are involved with the child welfare system.

Des Moines, January 17, 2013 ? The Iowa Judicial Branch, along with the Iowa Department of Human Services, Iowa Department of Public Health, and the Governor's Office on Drug Control Policy, recently received one of seventeen new federal Regional Partnership Grants to address the safety and well-being of children whose parents have substance-related disorders and are involved with the child welfare system. The five-year grant is for $500,000 a year and will serve 350 families.

The grant will fund the development of a pilot project in Wapello County that provides individualized care plans for families based on specific needs identified through trauma-informed assessments. The services will focus on the well-being of the children and families. Children and parents will take two parenting skills and family functioning classes and receive post recovery support services. The Wapello County project partners are the Iowa Department of Human Services, First Resources, and Four Oaks.

The grant will also fund both multidisciplinary and profession-specific training. The multidisciplinary training will prepare members of the child welfare and substance abuse treatment fields for collaborative efforts. The profession-specific trainings will target child welfare professionals, substance abuse treatment professionals, and judicial and legal professionals. All trainings will be statewide and continue after completion of the grant.

An evaluation will be conducted by Drs. Jody Brook and Becci Akin from the University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare in Lawrence, Kansas. The evaluation plan incorporates a multi-method approach to collect data that will be used to assess the extent to which the project is implemented as planned and objectives are achieved.

The Iowa Judicial Branch also received a two-year continuation of a Parents and Children Together: A Family Drug Court Initiative (PACT) grant originally awarded in November, 2007. The grant funds family treatment courts in six counties. The continuation is for $500,000 a year for two years. The two-year continuation grant will fund family treatment courts in Wapello, Polk, Linn, Scott, and Woodbury counties, and the combined court in Cherokee and Ida counties. Family treatment courts offer a comprehensive approach to treating parents with substance-related disorders, while maintaining the goal of reuniting the family.

PACT grant activities will focus on continued implementation of the six family treatment courts with ongoing training and information sharing between the sites and state level partners. The grant also funds case planning that involves entire families to promote family self-sufficiency, family treatment services, increased family support, and additional children's services

The original PACT grant was for parents with younger children, from birth to five years old. The continuation grant is for children from birth to 10 years old. The family treatment courts plan to serve an additional 180 families over the next two years. Iowa was one of only eight states to receive a continuation grant.

Through the original five-year grant, the six family treatment courts served 399 families comprising 481 parents or caregivers and 773 children. More than half the children were in foster care or staying with other family members for safety reasons prior to their parent or parents enrolling in treatment court. Of those children, nearly 80 percent were reunited with their families when their parent or parents completed treatment court. Estimates show that the family treatment courts have generated more than $2 million dollars in cost avoidance for the state in their first five years of operation.

Both of these grants were awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau entitled: "Targeted Grant to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse."

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Des Moines, December 7, 2012– Today, the Iowa Supreme Court appointed a committee to review the Expanded Media Coverage (EMC) Rules that allow audio and video recording and photography of courtroom procedures. The EMC Rules were first approved by the supreme court in 1979 and have been slightly modified since that time.

"As a district judge I enjoyed a good relationship with the members of the media covering high profile trials," Iowa Supreme Court Justice and Committee Chair Bruce Zager said. "Working with radio, television and print media was a collaborative effort that generally worked well. Today, judges and court staff are faced with requests from the media to use new technology in the courtroom such as laptops and smartphones for blogging and twitter. Those types of technologies and media are not specifically addressed in current rules which can cause some confusion in implementing the EMC Rules. The efforts of this committee will help both members of the media and members of the court navigate through media requests unheard of 10 years ago."

Prior to 1979, recording equipment and cameras were only allowed in the courtroom for ceremonial proceedings or educational purposes. The rules were changed because of the improvement in equipment and procedures used by the media and the desire of the supreme court for the judicial branch to be more open and accessible to the public. The EMC rules were first approved for a one year pilot period. The first trial covered under EMC Rules was a first degree murder trial in Black Hawk County, in 1980. The rules were made permanent after a successful pilot period.

"Most Iowans do not have the time to attend court proceedings, so they depend upon the media to keep them informed of the work of the courts," Justice Zager said. "For more than 30 years, the courts have worked with the media to allow audio and video coverage to the fullest extent possible without impinging the rights of litigants to a fair trial."

The Expanded Media Coverage Rules Committee members are:

Honorable Bruce Zager, Supreme Court Justice, Waterloo, Chair

Honorable Robert Hanson, District Judge, Des Moines

Honorable Christine Dalton, District Associate Judge, Davenport

Kent Wirth, District Court Administrator, Council Bluffs

Jennifer Miller, Marshall County Attorney, Marshalltown

Gregg Jones, Woodbury County Public Defender, Sioux City

Elaine Fehseke Gray, Attorney, Fort Madison

O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa, Des Moines

Peggy Senzarino, Mason City Globe Gazette, Mason City

Amanda Lewis, KCCI-TV News, Des Moines

Zack Kucharski, Cedar Rapids Gazette, Cedar Rapids

Tim Hynds, Sioux City Journal, Sioux City

Nancy Raffensperger Newhoff, Waterloo Courier, Waterloo

Kathy Richardson, Iowa Freedom of Information Council, Des Moines

Steve Davis, Court Liaison, Des Moines

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