As authorized for FY2006, these grants are for three purposes: to assess handling of child abuse and neglect cases and make needed improvements (FY2006 fundingâ$12.9 million); to train judges, legal personnel, and attorneys in handling of child welfare cases (FY2006 fundingâ$10 million); and to improve timeliness of decisions regarding safety, permanence, and well-being of children (FY2006 fundingâ$10 million). The latter two grants were first authorized and funded by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 ( P.L. Funding under the CIP grant for assessing and improving court handling of child welfare cases was first made available in FY1995, and is provided as a set-aside from appropriations made for services to children and families under Title IV-B, Subpart 2 of the Social Security Act (now called the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program); that funding is set to expire with FY2006. The 109 th Congress may consider whether to extend funding for this initial CIP grant, whether to add to the relatively limited instructions provided in the Deficit Reduction Act regarding purposes of the two newest grants, and whether additional court-related measures intended to improve court performance on behalf of children in child abuse and neglect cases are needed. Legislative History

As first enacted in 1993 ( P.L. Funding was provided (as a set-aside from Title IV-B, Subpart 2) at $5 million for FY1995 and $10 million for each of FY1996-FY1998. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 ( P.L. 109-171 ) expanded the CIP and provided new, independently appropriated funds for the program. The law appropriates $20 million in each of FY2006-FY2010 (a total of $100 million over five years) for two new kinds of CIP grants:
to ensure that the safety, permanence, and well-being needs of children are met in a timely and complete manner, and to provide for the training of judges, attorneys and other legal personnel in child welfare cases. Applications

P.L. 109-171 provides that an application for any of the three grant programs must demonstrate "meaningful and ongoing collaboration" between the courts, the state child welfare agency (or any other agency under contract with the state child welfare agency to administer child welfare programs authorized under the Social Security Act), and Indian tribes (where applicable). This same formula is applied to each of the new grant programs. Table 2 shows funds authorized and appropriated for the Court Improvement Program for FY2006-FY2010 (by the grant purpose). Context for Recent Changes to the Court Improvement Program

In May 2004, after a little more than one year of study and deliberation, the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care released its recommendations related to federal financing of child welfare services and improving court oversight of child welfare proceedings. The court-related suggestions made by the Commission were largely incorporated in legislation introduced earlier in the 109 th Congress: in the Senate ( S. 1679 by Senators DeWine and Rockefeller) and in the House ( H.R. In addition, to receive CIP funding to improve timely decision-making on behalf of children, courts must describe how they will collaborate with child welfare agencies to collect and share relevant data; finally, to receive training funds courts must assure that a part of the grant will be used to provide cross-training of court personnel and child welfare agency workers. P.L. 109-171 ), the Court Improvement Program represented the largest single source of funding and program authority related to court performance in child welfare proceedings.
The Court Improvement Program (CIP) was enacted in 1993 ( P.L. 103-66 ) to provide funds to eligible state highest courts to assess and make improvements to their handling of child welfare proceedings. Funding for the CIP was provided via a statutory set-aside from funding provided to state child welfare agencies for family preservation and family support services to children and families (Title IV-B, Subpart 2 of the Social Security Act). That set-aside, which totals $12.9 million for FY2006, will expire with FY2006. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 ( P.L. 109-171 ) requires and encourages collaboration between courts and public child welfare agencies, authorizes two new grants under the Court Improvement Program, and provides a total of $100 million for those grants. This mandatory funding is available for courts to improve their training of judges, legal personnel, and attorneys handling child abuse and neglect cases ($10 million for each of FY2006-FY2010), and to assist courts in improving the timeliness of their efforts on behalf of children in foster care ($10 million for each of FY2006-FY2010).
Federal child welfare policy has long assumed that courts and child welfare agencies must work in tandem to make timely decisions regarding the safety, permanency, and well-being of children. At the same time, almost all federal child welfare-related funding and requirements have applied to state child welfare agencies. Over the course of several decades, Congress has periodically authorized funds to courts to improve their efforts on behalf of children, and a May 2004 report from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, which made numerous recommendations to improve court performance on children's behalf, renewed attention to this issue. The changes made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 ( P.L. 109-171 ) were a part of the recommendations made by the Pew Commission and were also included in legislation introduced in the Senate ( S. 1679 âSenators DeWine and Rockefeller) and the House ( H.R. 3758 âRepresentative Schiff).
For various reasons, additional legislative activity related to the Court Improvement Program may occur in the 109 th Congress (likely as a part of the expected reauthorization debate for the child welfare program authorized under Title IV-B, Subpart 2 of the Social Security Act, now called the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program). Funding for the original CIP grant program (for improving and assessing court handling of child welfare proceedings) is statutorily reserved from total PSSF funding, and that funding is set to expire with FY2006. Congress may consider whether this funding set-aside for CIP should be extended, and if so, whether the authorization language for this grant meets the current program needs. In addition, Congress may want to review the adequacy of the authorizing language provided for the two new grant programs (related to timely decisions on behalf of children and training judges and other court/legal personnel), which was added during conference negotiations on the Deficit Reduction Act ( P.L. 109-171 ) and was not previously debated by Congress. Third, while the new grant programs, and several other changes made by P.L. 109-171 meet a number of court-related recommendations provided by the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, there are additional court-related child welfare issues that Congress may choose to address.
This report will be updated as needed.