Representation
of Children (return to
Issue Areas)
Lawyers Make a Difference for
Foster Children:
Palm Beach Project
Excerpts of an article published by the ABA
Written by John Walsh
Late in the year 2000, the Children Services Council of Palm Beach
County, approached the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach and asked for
ideas about how to address the problem of children languishing in foster
care. As of May 2001, the average length of stay in foster care for a
child between the ages of birth to 5 was 19.8 months, and for adoption
clients, that average grew to 27 months. We knew immediately that we
could not serve all the children in Palm Beach County.
The staff of the existing advocacy program and management at Legal
Aid looked at the recent research which tells us that many of the life
long attachment and socialization problems that foster children develop
can be traced to the failure to attach to a consistent caregiver early
in life. We knew that we could have the greatest impact by beginning
representation when children were young and by advocating for fast
permanent resolutions of the cases. We chose to target every child under
5, and all their siblings, who were removed from their parents and
placed in the custody with the Department of Children and Families (the
“Department”). Based on Florida’s statistics, this would give us
approximately 210 children to serve divided among six attorneys. That
gave us an average caseload of 35 children per attorney.
Foster
Children’s Project
After we decided on our age range, we had to define the program’s
mission. We decided that the staff attorneys would advocate for
permanence for each of our clients within 12 months. Although
reunification is always preferable where possible, program attorneys
would not hesitate to look at adoption if reunification was not likely
to occur within 12 months. In July 2001 the Foster Children’s Project
opened its door and began advocating for early referrals of services for
our clients’ parents.
We began to look at the concurrent planning contemplated by the
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). By advocating for early placement
in adoptive homes for our clients, we were able to cut down on the time
it took to get adopted after their parents’ rights were terminated.
Our early efforts to do this were met with much resistance. After a few
successful outcomes for our clients, the other players were starting to
see that concurrent planning could work. This cut down on the amount of
time children spent in foster homes and hastened their placement in
their forever home.
Overall, we began cutting out all the “dead air” which we knew
existed in all dependency cases. That time between when the case plan
has been approved by the Court and the first judicial review. During
this time we have made calls to different inpatient substance abuse
treatment centers. When our
clients remained in shelter we have filed motions to have them placed in
pre-adoptive home. When parents have materially breached their case
plans just a few months into the case, we have filed petitions to
terminate parental rights. We have
advocated for a case plan that addresses the
specific problem which causes the removal of our client (as opposed to a
case plan that lists every service available regardless of whether it
addresses the underlying problem). By watching the clock at every stage
of the proceedings, and, more importantly, in between every stage of the
proceedings, we were able to save our clients months of needless foster
care time.
Best
Interests vs. Express Wishes
Further clarification of our goal came when we went to visit a
group of clients at a shelter. This particular shelter was for
two-year-olds. Some of the children clung so tightly to staff (whom they
had never met) that they had to be pried off when it was time to go.
This moment helped us resolve the academic debate of whether to
represent a child’s best interests or express wishes. All of our
clients and all foster children for that matter, have a simple legal
problem which they need resolved: They are in the custody of the state
when they need to be in the custody of a family. We can only look at the
facts of the case as we find them. If a parent rehabilitates in 12
months, then we look towards a reunification goal. If a parent fails at
reunification, we move towards adoption.
For older children, in the area of child welfare law, the role of
the lawyer as counselor and advisor is vital. They rely almost solely on
the attorney to guide them. So it is incumbent upon a child’s attorney
to spend a good amount of time with that client. This is why it is vital
that the case loads be limited to 35 children per attorney. Our project
requires a minimum of quarterly contact with all clients. The
relationship with the older child is one of the most important. Only if
you know them will you understand
their position.
Results
The project has served over 556 children in its 2 years of
existence (of these 556 children, many have been referred for foster
care after their initial placement in shelter with the Department by
placement with relatives or their parents). In that time we have
achieved permanency for 159 children. The average length of stay is 12.5
months less than it was before we began representing children. Just
recently, the Children’s Services Council asked Foster Children’s
Project to expand. They plan to fund the Project to represent children
up to the age of 12.
The cost of this project, considered exorbitant by some, is
approximately $2,264.00 per child served. When you calculate the amount
of money saved in board payments, caseworker time, court time, not to
mention human misery, the project becomes quite affordable. In fact, the
question on most state’s minds should be; how can we afford not to
give children attorney’s to advocate for their permanence?
John Walsh Co-directs the
Foster Children’s Project at the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach
County with his brother Jim Walsh.
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Legislation
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HB
0439 (2003) Statewide Guardian Ad Litem Office;
Guardians Ad Litem: Creates the Statewide Guardian Ad Litem Office within
the Justice Administrative Commission; provides for appointment
of an executive director; provides oversight responsibility for
local guardian ad litem and attorney ad litem programs; provides
for transfer of the attorney ad litem pilot program and the
funds and positions associated with the Guardian Ad Litem
Program to the Statewide Guardian Ad Litem Office.
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Resources
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American
Bar Association Center on Children and the Law
The
Center's mission is to improve the quality of life for children
through advancements in law, justice, and public policy. Its areas
of expertise encompass child abuse and neglect (including child
sexual abuse and exploitation), child welfare and child protective
service system enhancement, foster care, family preservation,
termination of parental rights, child support, child fatalities,
parental substance abuse, child custody and visitation, and
parental kidnapping.
Children's
Ombudsman Offices
Ombudsman offices
have been established in a variety of state, municipal, county,
local, federal, academic organizations and businesses. As an
independent, impartial and confidential complaint handler, an
ombudsman serves as an alternative means of dispute resolution.
The U.S. Ombudsman Association describes an ombudsman as "a
public official appointed by the legislature to receive and
investigate citizen complaints against administrative acts of
government." In
recent years, states have chosen to create ombudsman offices or
offices of the child advocate to assist in providing oversight of
children's services.
Lawyers
for Children America Violence has become a prominent part of too
many children’s lives. The problem of child abuse and
neglect has risen to an epidemic proportion in this country.
Newspaper headlines detail the tragic consequences that impact
many children who suffer abuse and neglect, and who becomes part
of a foster care system often too overburdened to take timely and
effective action. Crushing caseloads and limited budgets
often stand in the way of child-centered and proactive
intervention. Lawyers for Children America engages pro bono
attorneys and their law firms or corporate legal departments to
help address the issue of abuse and neglect.
National
Association of Counsel for Children
The
National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) is a
non-profit child advocacy and professional membership association
dedicated to representation and protection of children in the
legal system. The NACC provides training and technical assistance to child
advocates and works to improve the child welfare, juvenile justice
and private custody systems.
NACC membership is comprised primarily of attorneys and
judges, although the fields of medicine, social work, mental
health, education, and law enforcement are also represented.
National
CASA Association Concerned over making decisions about abused and neglected
children's lives without sufficient information, a Seattle judge
conceived the idea of using trained community volunteers to speak
for the best interests of these children in court. So successful
was this Seattle program that soon judges across the country began
utilizing citizen advocates. In 1990, the U.S. Congress encouraged
the expansion of CASA with passage of the Victims of Child Abuse
Act. Today more than 900 CASA programs are in operation, with
70,000 women and men serving as CASA volunteers. CASA is an
acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocate.
Statewide
Guardian ad Litem The
Florida Guardian ad Litem State Association is a Non-Profit
organization, whose mission is to improve the lives of abused and
neglected children in Florida, by promoting the development,
expansion and improvement of Guardian ad Litem Programs statewide.
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FCF
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