SESSION NAME: Judges Training Conference Call

Session Date / Time: January 15, 2003 1 p.m. Eastern Time

Attendees: Erna Olafson, Joy Osofsky, Kris Buffington, Jeff Wherry, Chris Siegfried

SUBJECT

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DISCUSSION

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ACTION

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Interests/experience of Group Members / ·  Erna Olafson runs an extensive training program in child abuse investigation and forensic interviewing and has spent many years developing training manuals and curricula. She is interested in familial abuse and jurisdictional issues related to when abuse and custody cases get transferred from family court into criminal or domestic violence courts where there is more investigative expertise. Joy Osofosky has been working with dependency court judges in Miami (Cindy Lederman and Bill Gladstone) and with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges to develop training on early childhood development and trauma. She has helped develop a model program of infant mental health evaluation and treatment in Florida courts. Joy is also very involved in the Zero to Three National Network. Jeff Wherry is interested in getting the Network involved in ongoing training at the national and state levels. He would like leaders of the Network to interact with Judicial Training leaders. Kris Buffington is working with her local juvenile judge, who is the incoming president of the Nation Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). She is also working with a Juvenile Dependency Court group in her area. Chris shared a memo from MJ Sutcliffe in Florida expressing her particular interests and concerns about judges training issues in Florida. / · 
/ ·  Chris shared some preliminary information about judges training requirements in various states. Some states are very specific about requiring training for family court judges on child abuse and trauma issues; others are not. The National Judicial College in Reno offers many courses, but most are around administrative or procedural-type issues. The NCJFCJ has publications, training events, and an annual conference. The group agreed that a partnership with the NCJFCJ may be a good strategy. Kris suggested that we should emphasize what each of our groups could get from the partnership. / · 
/ ·  Erna asked if we were pursuing two tracks—one related to custody evaluations and visitation issues in divorce cases and one related to dependency. Joy and Chris suggested that the group needed to better articulate what they wanted to do and what their goals were in training judges before we approached NCJFCJ. Joy has contacts with NCJFCJ staff, and Kris offered to make contact again with her local judge. / ·  Group members agreed to write up a few short sentences or paragraphs about what our goals should be related to judges training. Everyone will send their ideas to Chris, who will compile them and send them back out. When we have a well formulated idea about what we would like to do, we will ask Joy and Kris to pursue their contacts with NCJFCJ. Another conference call will be scheduled after these initial contacts are made.
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