: When child advocates and parent attorneys should be advocating for the same thing - PowerPoint Presentation

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: When child advocates and parent attorneys should be advocating for the same thing

Finding Common Ground

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Key Questions in the Beginning

Can the child return home?If not, where should the child be placed?If the child is placed outside of the home how will they maintain bonds / attachments to parents and siblings?

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Can the Child Safely Return Home?

Is there a serious risk of substantial harm to the child if returned home?

What about return to the non- residential parent?

What services or Court Orders would allow the child to remain safely at home?

What is the harm to the child of remaining out of the home?

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Is out of home care safer for children?

New researcher has found that children who have been placed in foster care are: • Seven times as likely to experience depression • Six times as likely to exhibit behavioral problems • Five times as likely to feel anxiety • Three times as likely to have attention deficit disorder, hearing impairments and vision issues • Twice as likely to suffer from learning disabilities, developmental delays, asthma, obesity and speech problems

Mental and Physical Health of Children in Foster Care, Kristin

Turney

, Christopher

Wildeman

, October 2016

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/10/14/peds.2016-1118

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Children on the margins

A 2007 study of children in Illinois looked at outcomes for children in marginal homes (children placed into foster care and children who remained in their home).The study found that children on the margin of foster care placement have better employment, delinquency, and teen motherhood outcomes when they remain at home.

Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care, Joseph J. Doyle, Jr

http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf

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HomelessnessFear / liability Denial - Mom doesn’t believe that the child was injured by the “boyfriend”Lack of creativity in safety planning

Barriers to Returning Home

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Some Possible Solutions

Concurrent Benefits should be provided to parents

Utilizing family and other supports to create safety plans

Using No contact orders to keep perpetrators away and understanding the law does not require a placement whether a parent or relative to believe that the “boyfriend” did it to have the child placed with them.

To ensure that a real conversation about the harm of removal is had and that is a lens from which we determine whether the child is better in out of home care.

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Is the placement proposed by DSHS the least disruptive and most family-like setting that meets the needs of the child?Are responsible relatives or other responsible adults available?What consideration has been given to continuity of the education of the child? Community? Culture?Will the placement hinder reunification? Will they support contact with parents and siblings?

Placement

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Barriers to Relative Placement

Slow paternity testing / establishing paternity

Slow background checks process

Getting timely waivers for past history

Fear

Custom or culture

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Departments new(ish) emergent background checks policy – increases the time they are able to do an NCIC background check without fingerprints to 7 days post removal. Results from NCIC check are back almost instantly.Direct Paternity testing through a lab – not through support enforcement - Results back within weeksGoing up the chain of command to get a waiver.Moving faster – we get into difficult situations when the process does not move at a sufficient rate. ICWA Relative placement ICPC requests Paternity testing

Some Possible Solutions

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Visitation / Family Time

What frequency and duration of visits will meet the developmental needs of the child and family?

Do the visits need to be supervised?

Is the proposed location of the visits conducive to maintaining or enhancing the relationship?

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Children who have regular, frequent contact with their family while in foster care have more positive experiences: • A greater likelihood of reunification • Shorter stays in out-of-home care • Increased chances that the reunification will be lasting • Overall improved emotional well-being and positive adjustment to placement Weintraub, A. Information packet parent-child visiting. National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning, Hunter College School of Social Work, 2008.

Why do Visits Matter?

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More Important for Very Young Children

Children’s reactions to and ability to cope with separation from a parent depend on their age and developmental stage.

Infants and young children experience distress over being removed from a parent and placed in a strange environment.

Unable to use words to express their grief over losing their parents, young children often experience emotional trauma when removed abruptly and for extended periods of time.

Wright, Lois E.

Toolbox No. 1: Using Visitation to Support Permanency.

Washington, D.C.: CWLA Press, 2001, 8-9.

Goldsmith, Douglas F., David Oppenheim and Janine

Wanlass

. “Separation and Reunification: Using Attachment Theory and Research to Inform Decision Affecting the Placements of Children in Foster Care.”

Juvenile and Family Court Journal

55(2), 2004, 1-13.

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The younger the child and the longer the period of uncertainty and separation from the primary caregiver, the greater the risk of emotional and developmental harm to the child. Consistent, frequent contact between the young child and the parent promotes healthy attachment, provides an opportunity to heal damaged relationships, and mediates the trauma of removal. Children need to know that their parent cares for them and is available to them. American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent Care. “Developmental Issues for Young Children in Foster Care.” Pediatrics 105(5), 2000, 1146.Edited by Charles H. Zeanah, Jr., MD. Handbook of Infant Mental Health, Third Edition. Guilford Press, 2009.T Smargia, Margaret. Visitation with Infants and Toddlers in Foster Care: What Judges and Attorneys Need to Know. American Bar Association and ZERO TO THREE, 2007, 5.

Mediates some trauma of removal

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More on visits

Their memory capacity is such that they cannot hold the parent in mind for long periods of time between contacts

Very young children are dependent on close physical proximity and frequent, repeated interactions with a parent in order to develop an attachment relationship.

Jones Harden, Brenda.

Infants in the Child Welfare: A

Developmental Framework for Policy and Practice

, Zero To Three, 2007, p. 252.

Edited by Charles H.

Zeanah

, Jr., MD.

Handbook of Infant Mental Health, Third Edition

. Guilford Press, 2009.

Hill, Sheri &

Solchany

, Joanne. “Mental Health Assessments for Infants and Toddlers,”

American Bar Association Child Law Practice,

Vol. 24, no.9, 2005, p. 139.

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It is normal for children to react to and grieve losses they have experienced. These reactions are seen before, during, and after visits. This is because visits remind the child of his/her loss, and each visit includes both a reunion and another separation. Children’s reactions to separation have been well documented in divorce research: More than half…were openly tearful, moody, and pervasively sad. One third or more showed a variety of acute depressive symptoms, including sleeplessness, restlessness, difficulties concentrating, deep sighing, feelings of emptiness, play inhibition, compulsive overeating, and other symptoms. Beyer, Marty. “Parent-Child Visits as an Opportunity for Change.” The Prevention Report. The National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice. No. 1 (1999): 1-12. 6 June 2008

Children React to Visits

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Some children were overwhelmed by their anxiety. Very young children returned to the use of security blankets, using toys they had outgrown, regressed in toilet training, and increased masturbatory activities. However, not having visits does not mean a child does not have any reactions to grief and loss. Beyer, Marty. “Parent-Child Visits as an Opportunity for Change.”Wentz, Rose, National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning. http://www.clarola.org/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=att_download&link_id=83&cf_id=24

Reactions

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The State has the “unusual ability to structure evidence” during a dependency proceeding and the power to “shape the historical events that form the basis for termination” of parental rights. This is especially true as it pertains to visitation. Research shows that the frequency of parental visits strongly correlates to the caseworker’s prediction for reunification. In other words, if the caseworker is skeptical about the chances for reunification, the department will likely be reluctant to provide maximum visitation or the support necessary to make visitation successful. This in turn will inevitably shape the historical events of the dependency, with the State actually playing a part in weakening the parent-child bond rather than fulfilling the mandate to work toward reunification.Santosky, 456 U.S. at 765 n. 13 (noting that one of the ways in which the State might structure evidence for termination is by denying visitation and preventing parent-child contact); In re Hauser, 15 Wash.App. 231, 236, 548 P.2d 333 (1976)(recognizing the injustice that would exist if a trial court were permitted to enter a finding that no parent-child bond exists when the State is responsible for such absences).Sonya J. Leathers, Parental Visiting and Family Reunification: Could Inclusive Practice Make a Difference?, 81 Child Welfare 595 (July 2002). Santosky, 456 U.S. at 765 n. 13.

The Power of the State

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Changing Outcomes

Social Workers have power to determine visitation and thereby influence the case outcome

When child welfare workers did not encourage parents to visit or use visit locations other than the agency office or engage in problem-solving with parents; children tended to remain in foster care 20 months or more.

Parents who are given regularly scheduled visits have a better attendance rate than parents who are told to request visits and thereby visits are not regular

.

Beyer, Marty. “Parent-Child Visits as an Opportunity for Change.” The Prevention Report. The National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice. No. 1 (1999): 1-12. 6 June 2008 <http://www.uiowa.edu/~nrcfcp/publications/documents/spring1999.pdf>.

Original source of research: White, Mary E., Eric Albers, and Christine

Bitoni

. “Factors in Length of Foster Care: Worker Activities and Parent-Child Visitation.” Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. 23.2 (1996): 75-84.

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Barriers

What are the barriers to sufficient contact between children and their parents and siblings?Money – supervised visits Lack of sufficient providersTransportationTime

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The department’s new visitation policy:Presumption that visits are unsupervised – unless there is a real safety threat that cannot be ameliorated by a safety plan – during the visit time.Using community and family resourcesUsing daycares / preschools for supervision and / or monitoring of visitsHaving parents at school events, dr’s visits, sporting events, etc.

Some Possible Solutions

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How do you determine BIOC?

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Family #1

Mom and dad have 6 kids. Three are adopted and three are their biological children. The children are age 6 months, 2yrs, 5yrs, 10yrs, 12yrs, and 14 yrs. The 10

yr

old disclosed to her parents that her 14

yr

old brother touched her inappropriately. The parents confronted their son who admitted to the behavior.

The parents, who are devote Mormons sought guidance and counseling from their priest. The 14-year-old received counseling from the church but no other counseling or intervention was sought. CPS received a referral and upon investigation and confirming the abuse removed all 6 children.

At the shelter care hearing mom and dad are fighting for all the children to be returned home and in the alternative for placement to be with 2 church members who are with them at court. The CPS social worker has placed all the children in foster care the three youngest children are placed together and the two oldest are together.

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Family #1 additional info

The 10-year-old child is placed alone and asking daily to come home. The 12 and 14-year-old do not want to return home.

 

The SW is recommending 1 visit per week supervised at the department for all the kids. Since removal the children have had no contact with their parents or their siblings they are not placed with.

 

The SW says that she cannot place with the church members until their NCIC fingerprint background checks come back and a

homestudy

is completed. She believes that should take 2- 3 months.

 

Mom is a stay at home mom, dad is an electrical engineer. Neither have any drug or alcohol issues or any alleged DV. Mom is currently very sad that her children are gone and is having a hard time not crying in court. Dad is angry.

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Family #2

Six months ago 2 and 6-year-old were removed from their mother’s care when they were found inappropriately clothed, down the street from their home asking neighbors for food. Law enforcement and a SW arrived at the scene and picked up the kids. They found mom passed out in her room with drug paraphernalia next to her, there was no food in the refrigerator and the house was filthy.

The children were placed into foster care two counties away - over the mom’s objection. Mom asked for the children to be placed with her auntie who lives a few miles from her. Following the SW request the court ordered 1 visit per week with both children. Since removal mom has successfully completed inpatient treatment and is now in outpatient treatment. No visits happened when mom was in inpatient treatment.

Mom’s attorney has filed a motion for unsupervised visits 3 times per week and a motion to place the kids with mom’s auntie. The SW is objecting to both. The foster parents don’t believe the children should go back to their mother and want to adopt them. They are asking you to request fewer visits because they are disruptive to the children’s routine and the youngest child who is now almost 3 has nightmare’s after visits and tantrums more frequently after seeing her mom.

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Family #2 additional info

Auntie completed her background check immediately after the initial hearing. The background check came back with a conviction for writing a bad check in 2004. Auntie has no other criminal or CPS history and has had a close relationship with the children. She is single and drives a school bus for a living.

The visit supervisor reports the visits are fine but there are times when mom has difficulty managing both children in the visit room.

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Uncommon Ground:

What to expect w

hen we do not agree

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Animated Content Page

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Client Expectations of an Attorney

If you hired an attorney, what would your expectations be of them in handling your case?

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Awesome Power of the State

Children’s Administration has about 2500 employees and receives about $550,000,000 per year.Here is what that often feels like to a parent:The only thing standing between the awesome power of the state and the parent is the parents attorney.

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Implementation of the Right to Counsel

Washington State Office of Public Defense

Duties: implement the constitutional and statutory guarantees of counsel and ensure effective and efficient delivery of indigent defense services funded by the state of Washington

(RCW 2.70).

These duties include:

Trial court criminal indigent defense

Appellate indigent defense

Representation of indigent parents in dependency and termination cases

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OPD Parents Representation Program

Program is established in 31 counties and contracts with over 176 attorneys and 34 social workers

OPD Contracts (full time and part time) for indigent defense services with:

Sole Practitioners

Law Firms

Public Defender Agencies

OPD provides training for program attorneys and social workers

OPD manages contracts

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Current PRP Counties

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Parents have a right to counsel at all stages of a proceeding in which a child is alleged to be dependent

Shelter Care

DependencyTermination of Parental RightsAppealsIndigent parents have a right to an attorney at public expenseRCW 13.34.090; In re Dependency of Grove, 127 Wn.2d 221 (1995)

The Right to Counsel in Dependency and TPR Cases

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OPD Parents Representation Program

Program Goals

Reduce continuances

Set caseload limits

(

+

80 cases = full time case load)

Establish practice standards

Client Communication

Early Engagement & Advocacy for Services and Visits

Provide social workers and expert services

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Attorney’s duties and responsibilities described in Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC)

“Representative of the client”Advisor- provides a client with an informed understanding of the client's legal rights and obligations and explains their practical implications;Advocate- conscientiously and ardently asserts the clients position under the rules of the adversary system; andNegotiator- seeks a result advantageous to the client but consistent with honest dealings with others.

Role of the Parent’s Attorney

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Specific Duties to Client:

Client Directed Representation- an attorney must abide by a client's decisions concerning the objectives of representation Confidentiality- an attorney shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consentRender Candid Advice-in addition to the law, such advice can be moral, economic, social or political in natureClient with Diminished Capacity- as far as reasonably possible, an attorney must maintain a normal client-lawyer relationship with the client

Role of the Parent’s Attorney

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Tailor representation to meet the unique needs of each client

Cultural & Language considerations

Substance AbuseDomestic ViolenceMental healthPovertyAvoid conflict of interest

Relationship to Client

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Discovery and Court Preparation

Independent Investigation

Thorough discovery

DCFS records

Other documents & records

Interviews

Use of experts and OPD SW

Thorough preparation- Court Motions, briefs, reports

Negotiations and settlement

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Advocacy for Services

Advocacy occurs at every stage of the proceeding

Emphasis on early engagement

Right to remedial services

Coordination of services

Involvement in developing service plan

Removing barriers to services

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Advocacy for Visits

Visits are the right of the family

Visits cannot be limited as a sanction

Visits should meet the developmental needs of the child

Amount of visitation ordered is indicative of the commitment to reunification

Visits are good for children even when reunification is not possible

Sibling visits

Address Barriers to visits

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Contested Hearings & Fact Findings

Note contested motions in a timely manner

Raise Evidentiary issues

Avoid continuances

Challenge state’s experts, including social workers

Use own experts when necessary

Make “red-faced” arguments when necessary

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Evaluations and Data

2010 and 2011 OPD and Washington State Center for Court Research Data

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Rude or Doing Their Job?

Court order requires two hour visits twice a week supervised.  Three weeks later, visitation has not occurred because it has not been set up.  The social worker says that she has been too busy to make a referral but she will get to it soon. The parents attorney files a motion asking that the social worker be found in contempt with $1,000 in sanctions.

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Rude or Doing Their Job?

The parent is asking that the child be transitioned home.  CASA gives an oral report to the court at a review hearing.  The CASA did not get a chance to see the child prior to the hearing because the child is placed out of county and not much has happened.  She did talk to the foster parent on the phone who said the child was doing fine. The CASA’s opinion is that the child should not be transitioned home at this time because she is worried about the parents stability.  The parents attorney spends a great deal of time arguing that the CASA has done a terrible job investigating this case and tells the judge that the CASA is incompetent.

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Rude or Doing Their Job?

There is a FTDM to plan the return of a child to her mother. The mother had satisfactorily completed all services. The meeting begins with a reminder for why the child was placed into care. The social worker reads from the petition and mentions all of the horrible things that brought the child into care. Mom’s attorney’s face keeps getting redder and redder as the social worker details every last bit of mom’s history. Finally, the attorney stands up and shouts, “THERE IS A REASON THEY CALL YOU THE BABY SNATCHERS! I AM TIRED OF YOU ALL RUBBING MY CLIENTS NOSES IS EVERY BAD THING THEY HAVE EVER DONE!” He storms out with his client.

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Rude or Doing Their Job?

Attorney prohibits all CASAs in county from speaking to his parent clients without the attorney or OPD social worker being present. When asked for an explanation, he says that he is tired of CASAs talking to his clients about relinquishing their parental rights.

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Rude or Doing Their Job?

A Native American child is placed with white foster parents. After two years, the parent does not make any progress in services. The child is doing very well in the foster home and the foster parents want to adopt. You feel that this is the best placement for this child. A Native American relative is identified late in the process and the parent wants placement with that relative. You testify at the hearing and the parents attorney questions you aggressively about your income level, your education, your family status and upbringing, and whether you lack cultural sensitivity or are biased against Native American’s in some way. During argument, they say your white privilege has clearly clouded your judgment.

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Rude or Doing Their Job?

Child is in foster care. At a visitation, the child asks parent why did the parent get kicked out of treatment? The parent asks, “Who told you that?” The child says, “Mama Louise. “She is going to be my new mommy now.” The parents attorney subpoenas the social worker, the CASA, and Mama Louise (the foster parent), for depositions. The attorney asks some personal questions in order to try to determine who gave the foster parent the information, what other information has been passed along, whether the Mama Louise is sabotaging the relationship between the parent and child, and whether the social worker and/or CASA made any promises to Louise about being able to adopt the child.

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Wicked Question

Can you fight an injustice that has enormous consequences without being perceived as a rude pain in the rump to those who think justice is being done?

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Celebrity Interview

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Last Thoughts

If we all do are jobs well, and the court has all the information needed to make a good decision, we should be proud of the job we did for that family.

“If we value our children, we must cherish their parents.” --John Bowlby

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Useful Clipart and Images