Court Improvement Program

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia established the West Virginia Court Improvement Program Oversight Board in 1995, which took over the Broadwater Committee’s work to improve outcomes for children and families in child abuse and neglect cases. The Court established the Broadwater Committee in the mid-1990s during Chief Justice Margaret Workman’s previous tenure on the Supreme Court, which was from 1988 to 1999.

The Court Improvement Program Board was created as a result of the federal Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. That act designated federal funding beginning in fiscal year 1995 for grants to state court systems to conduct assessments of their foster case laws and judicial processes and to develop and implement a plan for system improvement. The Oversight Board is the advisory group and task force to implement the program in West Virginia, and it continues to obtain federal grant funding every year. Judge Derek C. Swope of the Ninth Judicial Circuit (Mercer County) is the chairman of the Oversight Board.

Court Improvement Program Oversight Board member list

Five subcommittees assist the Oversight Board:

Services and Treatment for Children and Families, chaired by Judge Louis “Duke” Bloom of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (Kanawha County)
Child Protection Across Court Systems, chaired by Family Court Judge Mary Ellen Griffith of the Twelfth family Court Circuit (McDowell and Mercer Counties)
Federal Review and Data, Statutes, and Rules, chaired by Judge Derek Swope of the Ninth Judicial Circuit (Mercer County)
Training, chaird by Senior Status Judge Robert Stone of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit (Monongalia County)
Youth Services, chaired by Judge Christopher C. Wilkes of the Twenty-Third Judicial Circuit.