Family Dependency Treatment Court

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

The Dakota County Family Dependency Treatment Court Program (FDTC) is a problem-solving alternative court process that uses the power of the juvenile court in collaboration with other participants (county and court-appointed attorneys, treatment providers, social workers, guardian ad litems, community leaders and others) to provide professional and peer support in assisting parents whose children have been removed from their care in child protection actions due to substance abuse. The FDTC team closely monitors selected parents’ progress toward sobriety and recovery through ongoing treatment, frequent drug testing, regular mandatory check-in court appearances, and the use of a range of immediate sanctions and incentives to foster behavior change. The goals of the FDTC program are to protect the safety of children and support their well-being while giving parents the tools they need to become clean and sober long-term in order to provide a safe and stable home for their children, thereby meeting the overarching goal of public safety. By diverting selected cases away from the traditional child protection court processes and into the Family Dependency Treatment Alternative Court Process, parents are more likely to achieve long-term sobriety and stability resulting in reductions in drug and trauma related crime by not only the participant parents, many of whom have long drug-related criminal histories, but also for children whose risk of being perpetrators of crime later in their own adulthood increases exponentially when reunification is unsuccessful. As we all know, the number of children placed in foster care as a result of neglectful parental behavior remains high across the country. Chemical substance abuse is a common culprit in homes where neglect occurs and is the primary reason for children to be placed in foster care in Minnesota. Substance abuse disorders are one of most difficult to treat and recover from. The likely impact for individuals suffering from substance abuse disorders is far reaching and not only often impacts an adult’s ability to care for themselves and adequately function, but significantly alters any ability to parent a child. Children are often subjected to safety issues within the home due to substance use of their parents, along with significant and harmful neglect of their needs leaving county social services agencies with no choice other than removal and placement of children outside of their parental home. Given the intensity of programming and length of time needed to adequately address substance abuse disorders of parents, county agencies often found themselves faced with locating permanency options other than reunification with parents. In response to this, in 2006, Dakota County implemented the Family Dependency Treatment Court Program in an attempt to proactively address chemical substance issues negatively impacting families. Children deserve a safe and stable home environment. Adult parents experiencing substance abuse issues require a targeted more intensive approach to remedy the situation. Those who successfully complete the FDTC program will successfully become drug free while becoming more responsible parents, thereby allowing reunification with their children to occur.