Davis
CHARLESTON -- State Supreme Court Chief Justice Robin Jean Davis is attending a National Judicial Leadership Summit on Children March 8-9 in New York as part of her work to improve the way West Virginia's judicial system handles abuse and neglect cases during the Year of the Child, Too.
Davis will be accompanied by Nicholas Circuit Judge Gary Johnson. Johnson is president of the West Virginia Judicial Association; chairman of the West Virginia Court Improvement Board, which works with the Department of Health and Human on child abuse and neglect systemic issues; the judicial representative on the Coalition on Domestic Violence and the Child Welfare/Juvenile Justice Committee; and a member of the Commission to Study Residential Placements of Children.
Nikki Tennis, the Counsel for Children and Families in the Supreme Court's Administrative Office, also will accompany them. Tennis holds journalism and law degrees from West Virginia University. She represented victims of domestic violence at Legal Aid of West Virginia before she began her current job in 2006.
The summit is being co-sponsored by the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators in partnership with the National Center for State Courts and the New York State Unified Court System. Organizers obtained private funding to offset a portion of the cost.
Sessions will include expanding collaboration between courts and child welfare agencies to include other agencies and the Legislature; effective approaches for data sharing while protecting privacy; overcoming obstacles to adoption; expediting appeals in child protection cases; alternative approaches to resolving child protection disputes; fostering local collaboration; family treatment courts; and child protection in disaster planning.
A representative of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources also will attend the meeting: Sue Hage, Program Manager of Regulatory Management in the Bureau for Children and Families.
The Supreme Court last year received two federal grants that are helping it collaborate with the DHHR to improve management of child abuse and neglect cases. The grants provide more training and improvements in data systems and collection.
"The summit will allow us to exchange information with other states who are struggling with the same issues we have in West Virginia as we strive to help children in our court system," Davis said. "This also will be a good opportunity for us to focus on what we need to do next."