Calculating Juvenile Dependency Judicial Workload

This Technical Assistance Brief can be used to answer two questions. First, how can jurisdictions fully account for the time that judicial officers dedicate to juvenile dependency cases? Second, how many judicial officers does a jurisdiction need to implement best practices? Because traditional methods of calculating judicial workload do not account for the complexity of dependency practice, the Permanency Planning for Children Department developed a judicial workload calculation methodology that provides an objective approach for measuring judicial workload while also reflecting the complexity and quality of juvenile dependency practice. This Technical Assistance Brief outlines the steps courts can take to determine juvenile dependency judicial workload and resource needs.While this document is intended to provide the information necessary for jurisdictions to conduct an independent judicial workload assessment, the PPCD is available to answer questions and may be contacted at any point during a jurisdiction’s workload assessment.