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The King County (Washington) Systems Integration Initiative: A First Look at the Kent District Dual System Youth Pilot Program
Author(s) -
Siegel Gene
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
juvenile and family court journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.155
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1755-6988
pISSN - 0161-7109
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-6988.2009.01035.x
Subject(s) - economic justice , juvenile , welfare , welfare system , mental health , political science , state (computer science) , dual (grammatical number) , public administration , psychology , law , psychiatry , genetics , biology , art , literature , algorithm , computer science
King County is one of five counties in Washington State participating in the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change juvenile justice reform initiative. One key aspect of King County's Models for Change participation involves ongoing “systems integration” work intended to improve how youth who have cross‐over involvement in multiple systems—e.g., juvenile justice, child welfare, education, mental health, and/or others—are handled. These cross‐over cases often present a range of challenges to juvenile courts including substantial risk factors that increase their likelihood of continuing system involvement. This article provides a first look at an emerging pilot project in King County that is intended to improve how cross‐over cases are handled by child welfare and juvenile probation with the longer term goal of improving outcomes for these difficult cases.