Identifying the essential competencies for court professionals to promote youth engagement in permanency planning in court hearings

Many youth age out of foster care without achieving permanency. This article describes a process undertaken to determine priorities for creating curricular content to train court personnel on how to authentically engage youth in permanency planning. Utilizing the Delphi method with adults with foster care lived expertise, a list of competencies was prioritized for inclusion through a comprehensive literature review and a series of individual interviews conducted with a broad range of stakeholders (youth with lived experience, state and tribal direct service workers, supervisors, administrators, judges, and child attorneys). Highly rated competencies were included in the subsequent training developed after completion of the Delphi process.