Inter-Agency Coordination

Section 1.12

Judicial, Legal, Law Enforcement, Justice, Social Service and School Professionals Should Coordinate With Other Relevant Formal and Informal Systems of Care to Better Serve Children and Families

Children and families often come to the status offense system with numerous needs that require the assistance of more than one agency.  When many services are needed, how effective one service is may relate to the availability and effectiveness of other services required by the child or family.¹  Many benefits can be derived from developing relationships with other organizations serving the same populations of families, such as: (1) reducing duplication of services, (2) having a fuller understanding among partners of each other’s funding, policy and practice issues, and (3) maximizing resources, particularly during difficult economic times or in communities that are under-resourced.  In addition, using a coordinated approach early on can ultimately help families limit or avoid deeper involvement with the court and justice system by creating a complete system of community-based care upon which the family can rely.  Extending that system to include community faith partners and extended family networks through engagement strategies, such as Family Group Decision-Making and alternative dispute resolution (discussed in Section 1.6 and Section 1.7) will increase the likelihood that the family will not re-enter a formal court processing system--status offense, juvenile justice or child welfare.

Interagency collaborations should engage public, private and faith-based organizations working with youth charged with status offenses and their families, such as juvenile justice, child welfare, mental health, education, substance abuse, courts, tribes and law enforcement.  Working together to address the complex needs of these youth and their families not only creates important connections between systems but will provide better services to families in a more cost-effective and efficient way. 

Although each community will develop its system of care or service continuum differently, some organizational and governance structure must emerge to best coordinate partner agencies.  Partners will need to agree on common goals and values, and strategic planning will help develop long term relationships that welcome diverse perspectives.  Interagency collaborations will not only involve management and administrative coordination, but frontline practitioner collaboration, which can be achieved, in part, through cross-training opportunities, the development of formal agreements, communication plans and interagency protocols for case coordination and information sharing.²

An important collaboration to establish for status offense system stakeholders is with their child welfare system counterparts. Often when children are referred to the status offense system, the misconduct for which they have been referred is caused by or related to instances of abuse or neglect.  For example, a child who has run away from home may be running from a neglectful situation; a child who is labeled ‘ungovernable’ may have experienced abuse at home.

The first responder to the status offense allegation must conduct a thorough investigation to assess whether a referral to another system, such as child welfare, mental health or substance abuse, is appropriate in lieu of moving forward with the status offense case.  Developing policies and procedures to do so between agencies will help ensure children’s safety and make certain that the needs of children and families do not slip through the cracks.   

Law enforcement systems also play a critical role in forming partnerships with social service, education, mental health and other child-serving systems.  Often the first responder to alleged status offenses, it is critical that police departments have strong working relationships with community service providers to ensure the youth and families that are first referred to them get the assistance they need.  In fact, the International Association of Chiefs of Police directs officers to choose the least restrictive option for youth and suggests departments make “informal referrals” to community service agencies when the problems exhibited appear to be influenced by substance abuse and/or personal or family crises.³