What's new?
New Course Offering: Child-Parent Psychotherapy in Early Childhood Court
Are you a clinician working in Early Childhood Court? Or, maybe a clinician considering this meaningful work? This new online, self-paced course is designed specifically for you. It provides foundational knowledge about both dependency court and Early Childhood Court, and explains the clinician's role in court and in the team.
New Webpage for Court Team Members and Guided Learning
Are you a new member of an Early Childhood Court team? Want to learn more about the goals, processes, and objectives of this court? Short documentaries, orientation tutorials, microlearning lessons and more are just a click away. Visit the webpage designed to guide you down a learning pathway.
What is Early Childhood Court?
Florida's Early Childhood Court, also referred to as "Baby Court," serves children under the age of three in the child welfare court process. Using the science of attachment and a trauma-informed team, outcomes are improved for safety, permanency, and well-being for abused and neglected young children during the most pivotal time for brain development. Early Childhood Courts are one type of Florida's many successful problem-solving courts designed to address both the legal and underlying nonlegal issues to break the cycle of multigenerational trauma and court involvement.
How does it work?
Explore the Implementation Manual for guidance on how to operationalize the nine best practice standards. (Coming Soon)
Why Early Childhood Court?
Science serves as the foundation for this problem-solving court. These courts improve outcomes for children and families, and deliver taxpayer savings.
Early Childhood Court Partners
At the local level, Early Childhood Courts build strong partnerships among judges, infant mental health specialists, community coordinators, attorneys, parents, foster parents, service providers, case workers, guardians ad litem, and more!
At the statewide level, three key partners provide support for these courts: Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator, Florida State University's Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy, and Zero to Three.