At the heart of the Safe Babies Court Team™ approach is professionals coming together, in partnership, across sectors to engage in collaborative and proactive work. This teamwork depends on leadership and staffing that supports the shift away from doing business as usual and towards improvement - always keeping the urgent development needs of infants and toddlers at the center of decision making.

Frequent review hearings allow the judge to provide close oversight of the progress on the case. This judicial oversight goes hand-in-hand with the family team's proactive, problem solving work. Pre- or post-removal conferences are critical, setting the collaborative tone for the family team meetings and launching vigorous family engagement efforts from the start.

The judge, community coordinator and family team ensure that child and family needs are systematically and fully identified as early as possible in the case process and that referrals are made in a highly way to address specific needs with effective services and interventions. 

All professionals involved in the Safe Babies Court Team™ understand the impact of the families' trauma history, including experiences of maltreatment, on adults and their very young children. They collaborate in creating an atmosphere that promotes healing and resilience for very young children and their families. 

Continuous quality improvement is the engine that drives effective uptake and sustainability of the Safe Babies Courts Team™ approach. This means systematically collecting data and using it to reflect on and implement needed improvements. 

There are currently 103 Safe Babies Court sites in 29 states across the U.S. The Safe Babies Court Team™ approach is recognized by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare as demonstrating "promising research evidence." Studies have shown that families who participate in Safe Babies Court: