Strengthening statewide strategic planning & implementation in Kansas

Background

In 2023, Kansas began its strategic planning process, but the path wasn't without obstacles — a cyberattack paused efforts, delaying completion until late 2025. Lessons learned from the pandemic and cyberattack reinforced the need to use this opportunity to improve, innovate, and advance a justice system that would serve Kansans for generations to come.

Our approach

The project was conducted in two-phases: statewide planning and local action planning.

Phase I: Comprehensive planning effort

Supported by the State Justice Institute, Kansas partnered with NCSC to conduct a comprehensive statewide strategic planning effort to update their vision, mission, strategic priorities, and goals to improve the court user experience. Our team worked alongside a 31-member strategic planning committee of judges, court administrators, clerks, court services officers, and court reporters from across the state to conduct an honest assessment of the current state and a roadmap for the future.

Perspectives from judicial officers, court administrators, and staff across the state were gathered to ensure the strategic plan reflected the diverse roles and communities within the court system. 

At the conclusion of our multi-phased planning process, the Kansas Judicial Branch 2026–2029 Strategic Plan was built around four key priorities:

1. Enhancing access to justice for court users
2. Building public trust, confidence, and understanding
3. Improving court operations and efficiencies
4. Fostering a strong workforce

Phase II: Local action planning

Understanding how critical local courts are to the statewide plan's success, Kansas asked NCSC to work with four courts to develop local court strategic action plans that highlight current work and identify future work happening in each jurisdiction that aligns with the statewide strategic plan priorities and goals. The local court strategic action planning effort is now expanding to Kansas's remaining 28 judicial districts over the next year. 

Next steps

To further support alignment and accountability, NCSC is developing a data visualization tool to collect and display local court strategic action plans statewide. This tool will visually illustrate the efforts occurring under each strategic priority and goal and measure progress toward completion. The visualization will also provide a transparent and accessible way to communicate statewide progress to judicial employees, justice partners, and the public. 

Strategic plans bridge a statewide vision and local court operations by clearly demonstrating how daily work, initiatives, and projects advance the long‑term goals. Judicial officers, court leadership, staff, and justice system partners share a common understanding of a state's strategic priorities and work collaboratively across the state to achieve them. 

As a result of our work in Kansas, NCSC now has a local court strategic action planning toolkit to complement its nationwide strategic planning.

Resource

• Watch: Creating the strategic plan