Judicial, Court, and Attorney Measures of Performance (JCAMP)

The child welfare court experience can affect children and families for a lifetime. For those seeking to improve the child welfare court process, performance measures can help establish common understanding and tracking of court practices.

The Judicial, Court, and Attorney Measures of Performance (JCAMP) can help individuals (e.g., judges, attorneys, court administrators) and organizations (e.g., Court Improvement Programs, attorney organizations) track practice over time. Designed in the spirit of continuous quality improvement—not to set standards for performance—they do not include pre-established benchmarks or goals. Measures instead focus on court and professional practice and family experience across five topical categories:

• Family engagement
• Due process
• High-quality legal representation
• Safety
• Permanency

The JCAMP project team developed a series of products to introduce the measures and support implementation. Readers should begin with the Quick Start Guide, which outlines each product’s purpose and provides a quick reference list of the measures:

• Quick Start Guide. Summarizes the JCAMP volumes and describes important information for use
• Volume I: Measures. Describes the JCAMP performance measures across five topical categories
• Volume II: Implementation Guide. Guides users in effectively implementing the measures and using the data
• Volume III: Implementation Toolbox. Compiles tools for each implementation step in Volume II, including sample data collection instruments
• Volume IV: Technical Guide. Provides information on how to calculate each measure using different data collection methods
• Volume V: Background and Research. Describes the methods used to develop the measures and discusses supporting research evidence and best-practice recommendations for each measurement category