Florida Senator Lauren Book visited the central courthouse to observe Judge Hope Bristol’s Early Childhood Court docket today. The voluntary specialty court began in the Seventeenth Circuit last year, and offers an intensive program aimed at reunifying children in the dependency court system, aged newborn to five years old, with their families. Early Childhood Court in the Seventeenth utilizes methods such as child-parent psychotherapy, specialized parenting classes, increased visitation, and more frequent court hearings to closely monitor progress. As the number of successful reunifications continues to grow, our court hopes to grow the program as well!
