The Indiana Supreme Court is pleased to announce that funds are now available for individual scholarship grants for education opportunities and for trial court grants aimed to assist courts in assessing their organizations and implementing recommended improvements.
Information about the application process and application forms for both grants is available on the judicial website at http://courts.IN.gov/admin/reform/.
Education Scholarship Grants.
The education grant program is geared to help judicial officers expand their professional development by attending seminars, conferences, meetings, or other programs that are not provided by the Indiana Judicial Center. Although aimed at judges and magistrates, applications from others will be considered if funds are available.
Through this program, the Supreme Court has set aside approximately $120,000 each year for scholarship grants. The grants will be awarded though a scholarship application process which will enable approved applicants to attend sessions sponsored by pre-approved providers, such as the National Judicial College, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, American Bar Association, National Center for State Courts, National Association of Women Judges, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, American Judicature Society, American Law Institute, and the American Judges Association.
Up to $3,000 per judicial officer would be available for a session at an 80/20 match. This means that the scholarship will provide 80% of the cost of the program, and the applicant will have to provide the remaining 20%. Interested applicants will have to complete an application for courses from pre-approved providers.
In addition, scholarship grants will be available for attending meetings and conferences that are sponsored by other providers, if attendance would enhance the professional development of the applicant. Once again, up to $3,000 at the 80/20 ratio may be awarded to a judicial officer to attend one of these conferences. Interested judicial officers would also need to apply for these discretional grants.
Court Reform Study Grants.
This program is designed to foster innovation and generate effective court reform. The Supreme Court anticipates awarding approximately five grants per year, with the understanding that each of the projects will be eligible for a subsequent implementation grant. Under this grant program, the courts in a district, in several counties, or in a single county may apply by identifying a particular problem they want to solve, reform they want to achieve, or a general desire that the district/county would benefit from an objective assessment of the current organization, management, and processes and identification of best practices. The initial study grants will be up to $30,000, with successful applicants being eligible for subsequent grants of up to $40,000 for implementation of the improvement proposals.
“Our trial court judges have first-hand knowledge of the issues they face and the needs they must address in order to dispense justice effectively. We believe these grants will enable our judges to try their ideas and develop best practices from which our entire system could benefit,” said Chief Justice Shepard when he announced these grants during the 2008 judicial district meetings that recently took place.
Staff of the Division of State Court Administration is available to help prospective grant applicants develop letters of interest and grant applications and help the grant recipients to select an organization to perform the study. The projects must engage the majority of judges in the district or county, and collaboration with and input from the clerks and bar is strongly recommended.
The court reform grants will target three areas: (a) judicial district governance and court reform efforts; (b) county level court reform and efficiency efforts; and (c) special program efficiency efforts. The judicial district grants may include proposals to study, recommend, and implement, on a district-wide scale:
- Leadership/governance structures, such as an executive committee, chief judge, professional court administrator, etc., with authority parameters and other incidents of governance.
- Comprehensive and uniform personnel policies for court employees, including factors such as standard job descriptions, recruitment, discipline and advancement policies.
- Judicial resource management plans, including factors such as transfer of judicial officers, elimination of the use of practicing lawyers as judges pro tem, and sharing of staff, physical resources, and facilities.
- Program management plans for efficient delivery of specific district programs such as indigent defense, court interpreter, GAL/CASA, Family Court, and pro se or pro bono services.
- Implementation of all or part of CourtTools, a judicial performance evaluation system developed by the National Center for State Courts and being implemented in many states.
- Development and implementation of a best practices manual or guidelines for defining and allocating functions among the court and clerk staffs.
The county level grants will support projects set out above in items 2 to 6 for a district. In addition, special focus will be given to the development of a single funding request for all the courts in the county.
The special program efficiency grants may be sought for single county, multi-county or district level special programs that could benefit from reevaluation and restructuring. For instance, the following scenarios would be eligible for grants under this target area:
- A district with heavy pro se caseload wants to organize and implement a pro se help center in cooperation with its pro bono commission to be used by clerks and courts in the district.
- Several smaller counties want to establish a court interpreter program that’s managed centrally.
- A county with several courts but separate budgets and staff wants to find ways to share resources such as court reporters, probation staff, facilities, etc.
Letters of interest for the court reform grants are due May 1, 2008. The final application for these grants is due July 1, 2008. Applications for the education scholarship can be submitted at any time during the year.
Questions about the education scholarship grants may be directed to Jane Seigel at [email protected] and questions about the court reform study grants may be directed to Lilia Judson at [email protected].