Safe Babies Court Teams: A Collaborative Approach to Child Well-Being

Course overview

Early Childhood Court (ECC), an adapted approach modeled after Safe Babies Court Teams, is a collaborative approach amoung community partners to ensure trauma and FASD-informed care, child well-being, and achieving permanency more quickly. ECC helps states and communities strengthen child welfare and early childhood systems to support healthy development. Using the ECC approach, the program works at multiple levels - child and family, community, and state - to promote early childhood well-being and long-term system improvements. Rooted in the court system, it also foosters collaboration across agencies to better serve families. This approach is especially valuable for supporting young children and families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Learning Objectives: Understand the core components of the Early Childhood Court (ECC) approach and its positive impact on infants, toddlers, families, and communities. Identify the short-and long-term risk factors for babies prenatally exposed to alcohol. Recognize the importance of traum-informed, FASD-informed court system for children involved in or at risk of entering child welfare. Speaker: Kathryn Shea, LCSW, FASD United Board Member, past president of the Florida Association for Infant Menatl Health and has been very involved in developing and expanding Florida's Early Childhood Court Initiative.