Brevard Early Childhood Court
– INTRODUCING THE FIRST EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT IN BREVARD COUNTY –
EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT OFFERS:
Healing Through Action - A Unique Window of Opportunity
- Judicial Leadership with frequent court hearings to review progress
- Trauma-Responsive court involvement
- Specialized evidence-based therapeutic programs
- Relationship-based assessment of each child and parent/caregiver with treatment recommendations for reunification
- Highly individualized case plans addressing specific needs of parents to young children
- Child Parent Psychotherapy focused on improving parent-child relationship
- Infant Mental Health Services to screen for developmental and social-emotional treatment needs
- Parent psychosocial education to promote better long-term developmental outcomes for children
- Significant parent and caregiver involvement with services, meetings, and hearings
- Family Team Meetings with parents and multidisciplinary professionals
- Community resource navigation assistance
- Parent case plan support and coaching
- Increased family time to strengthen attachment and expedite permanency
- Building co-parenting relationships between parents and resource families
- Placement stability and concurrent planning
- Child-Centered decision making for healthy development and timely permanency
- Promoting healing and resilience for children and their families
EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT BENEFITS ARE:
What Are the Goals, Process And Benefits?
INTRODUCING THE FIRST EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT IN BREVARD COUNTY
The Eighteenth Judicial Circuit has launched an Early Childhood Court in Brevard County. ECC is for young children and their families involved in dependency court because of allegations of abuse or neglect. ECC is a trauma-responsive court providing therapeutic jurisprudence and multidisciplinary team support for infants and toddlers ages three and younger. One of the young child’s parents must consent to voluntarily participate in the ECC program.
The Goal:
The goal of Florida’s Early Childhood Court is to improve child safety and well-being, heal trauma and repair the parent/child relationship, expedite permanency, prevent recurrence of maltreatment, and stop the intergenerational cycle of abuse, neglect, and violence.
The ECC program and its team members including parents work together to change the tragedy that brought the family into court into an opportunity to heal.
Making a difference in the lives of families:ECC offers an intensive program for the youngest, most vulnerable children and their parents involved in the dependency division. Abuse and neglect are harmful to a young child’s developing brain and social, emotional development. More than fifty percent of children involved in dependency cases are under age five with infants under age one being the largest group.
Who Benefits From This Program:
The Early Childhood Court program is for families involved in dependency court having at least one child age three or younger. To participate, at least one parent needs to be committed to voluntarily participating in the program.
ECC is a voluntary program. Parents chose to voluntarily participate in the specialized interventions provided by a multidisciplinary team of professionals including child development experts. This team will support the family during the difficult time of separation while striving to achieve permanency as soon as safely possible.
Parents involved in dependency court have often experienced adverse childhood experiences resulting in personal and multi-generational trauma. The specialized therapeutic interventions used in the ECC program simultaneously focus on healing the trauma of young children and their parents to break the adverse childhood experiences trajectory.
Starting the Healing Process:
Trauma healing in the ECC program is accomplished using child parent psychotherapy which also strengthens parent child attachment for the goal of reunification. The ECC program also provides psycho-educational parenting to build attunement and secure attachment in parents’ relationships with their children. Parent participation and input are key at monthly family team meetings focused on ensuring the developmental needs and well-being of children are met.
Judicial leadership holds frequent court hearings to monitor progress towards permanency. The core components of the ECC program stem from the science of early childhood development and infant mental health to ensure meaningful services for children; empower parents to have a voice throughout the process; and build a supportive community around each family. The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare has listed the Safe Babies Court Team approach as having promising research evidence and high child welfare system relevance.
EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT RESOURCES:
Information for Attorneys, Parties, and Participants – Helpful Resources and Forms
View Florida's Best Practice Standards and Commentary on how Early Childhood Court operates.
Administrative Order and Policies & Procedures establishing and governing Brevard's Early Childhood Court.
- Administrative Order Establishing an Early Childhood Court in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit
- Policies and Procedures for Early Childhood Court in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit
Below are the specific forms used for referral and participation in Early Childhood Court.
- Referral Form – E-form may be completed by participants, parties or their legal representatives, child welfare professionals, or Guardians ad Litem involved with the family before emailing it to Community Coordinator at dina.mezza@flcourts18.org
- Consent to Participation and Treatment – parents and their counsel to review/sign this form to be filed with the Court’s Transfer Order to the ECC docket
- Waiver of Confidentiality and Consent to Exchange Information - parents and their counsel to review/sign this form to be filed with the Court’s Transfer Order to the ECC docket.
Our Favorite Quote:
“Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet become something beautiful.” - Unknown
EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT RESOURCES:
Information for Attorneys, Parties, and Participants – Helpful Resources and Forms
COMMUNITY PARTNERS / STAKEHOLDERS
PARENT PARTICIPATION
SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES
MEET THE ECC JUDGE
The Honorable Kelly McKibben
Judicial leadership is key in facilitating better outcomes for young children by improving court procedures. Judge McKibben has many years of judicial experience in the dependency division. She is also the presiding judge for Brevard’s Adult Drug Court, another type of problem-solving court. ECC involves non-adversarial court proceedings utilizing therapeutic jurisprudence. Judge McKibben fosters a child-friendly courtroom, and young children are welcome to attend court hearings with their parents and caregivers.This enables the judge to observe parents and children together, the parents’ attunement to meeting their children’s needs, and children’s attachment relationships. During hearings, Judge McKibben listens to parents and other members of the collaborative multidisciplinary court team who provide expertise on infant mental health and parent/child bonding and attachment. With extensive trauma-responsive experience, Judge McKibben is an ideal member of the judiciary to launch this new court program with the support of community partners.
EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT PROGRAM DIRECTOR:
We welcome you reaching out!
Moore Justice CenterEARLY CHILDHOOD COURT INFORMATIONAL VIDEOS:
Videos that take a closer look at the science of early childhood development
CHILDHOOD TRAUMA
A young child’s experience of trauma, whether psychological maltreatment, neglect, exposure to violence, or physical or sexual abuse, can have long-lasting adverse effects on developmental functioning, and physical, social, or emotional well-being.
National data shows an overwhelming percentage of infants and toddlers encountered by the child welfare system have attachment problems and developmental delays. This includes a child’s physiological and emotional responses; ability to think, learn, and concentrate; their impulse control, self-image, and relationships.
HEALING FAMILIES
Early interventions promote neuroplasticity in children’s developing brains to form new neural pathways leading to healing. These videos focus on what has happened to these young children and the science-based interventions for healing trauma and strengthening the parent-child relationship to heal families and help children thrive.
EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT HEARING DATES:
ECC hearings will be calendared for specific hearing times:
Teams is a platform that unifies chat, voice, and video similar to other software such as Zoom or WebEx. The Eighteenth Judicial Circuit has fine-tuned Teams to effectively conduct Video hearings.Early Childhood Court Referral Form
Fill in and submit the Brevard Early Childhood Court Referral Form
Download the Parent Brochure
Download the brochure for more information
Watch the Video "Hope & Healing"
View this 21 minute tutorial on the Early Childhood Courts debut in Florida
