People hired for this job have legal, social work, or related experience. Experience with a private family or children’s service agency is preferred. The court supervises the family court facilitator.

The court assigns cases in need of facilitation.  These usually include:

• Expedited permanency planning cases;
• Children in care more than six months;
• Children whose placements have been changed at least three times;
• Cases where termination motions have been filed;
• Families who have had prior D&N cases;
• Any case open more than two years; or
• High conflict situations.

The court may also ask a family court facilitator to follow up on compliance with a court order or to make sure any affidavits of unknown whereabouts are filed in a timely manner.

Family court facilitators hold status conferences to help solve problems. DHS, the attorneys, family, relatives and service providers are brought together to exchange information, evaluate alternatives and resolve disputes. The family court facilitator promotes discussion at these meetings.

Family court facilitators support cases with research and reports. They may file written reports with the court on permanency planning goals and timelines in individual cases. They report what occurred at status conferences. Any communications must be sent to all parties. They also collect and analyze case data. They monitor required time frames for each case, look at local trends and explore national efforts to improve and speed judicial determinations in D&N cases.