In 2023, with HHS-2023-ACF-ACYF-CS-0053 , the Children's Bureau announced the availability of a new round of five-year awards providing tribes and tribal consortia the opportunity to improve the handling of American Indian and Alaska Native child welfare cases by tribal courts. The competitive grants support tribal courts to do the following:
- Conduct assessments of how tribal courts (including courts for tribal consortia) handle child welfare proceedings.
- Make improvements to court processes to provide for the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and increase and improve engagement of the entire family in court processes relating to child welfare, family preservation, family reunification, and adoption.
- Ensure children's safety, permanency, and well-being needs are met in a timely and complete manner (through better collection and analysis of data).
- Provide training for judges, attorneys, and legal personnel in child welfare cases.
- Continuously improve the quality of court hearings and legal representation, including the engagement of parties, through training and efforts to increase substantive and procedural justice.
Find more information about Court Improvement Program.