Butler County is among counties selected to receive training to improve services provided to abused and neglected children and their families.

The county's Children and Youth Services agency applied to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to receive the Pennsylvania State Roundtable's Family Engagement Initiative training, said Charles Johns, CYS director.

The training is the latest in CYS's continual effort to improve services and work with the court system, he said.

The training focuses on three topics and must be completed before any changes are made in the local system.

The training topics include helping agencies enlist the help of the courts and attorneys to look for family members to care for children. Agencies take on that task alone now, he said.

Another topic is having rapid response meetings with family members within 72 hours of an event that put a child at risk to try to find alternative placement of children with family, friends or neighbors instead of with strangers, he said.

Better legal representation is the third topic. Johns said training and information will be provided to parents and attorneys to help families navigate the legal system and come up with decisions that are safe for children.

Judges and attorneys who deal with child welfare cases will be included in the training, said Sandy Moore, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Children and Families in the Courts, which helps provide the training.

Read the full story in Sunday's Butler Eagle.