BEST PRACTICES IN THE JUVENILE DEPENDENCY COURT

BEST PRACTICES IN THE JUVENILE DEPENDENCY COURT EUGENE, OREGON APRIL 5, 2008

BEST PRACTICES • Judge Leonard Edwards (ret) • Judge-in-Residence • Center for Families, Children & the Courts • Administrative Office of the Courts • San Francisco, CA • Leonard.edwards@jud.ca.gov

PURPOSES OF THE JUVENILE DEPENDENCY COURT OUTLINE • What is juvenile court all about? • What is the relationship between the juvenile court and the children’s services agency? • What are best practices? • What is the role of the judge • Are we headed in the right direction? • Conclusion

PURPOSES OF THE JUVENILE DEPENDENCY COURT • I. The Juvenile Court (Dependency Side) • GOALS: • (1) Protect Children • (2) Provide Due Process to Parents • (3) Monitor the Actions of the Agency • (4) Provide Permanency for Children • (5) Ensure that Parents have a fair opportunity to reunify with their child. • (6) Ensure Child Well-Being • (7) Permit everyone to be heard.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • The Children’s Services Agency (The Agency) and the court have an important relationship. • In 1980 the two experienced a shotgun wedding. • They have been struggling with that relationship ever since.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • How does the court monitor actions by the agency? • A. By requiring the agency • (1) to prove its case in court regarding agency actions such as removing a child from parental care, adjudication and termination of parental rights; • (2) to provide reasonable services to the family to prevent removal, to support reunification, and to achieve timely permanency for the child;

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • B. Reasonable Efforts findings. • The court is required by law to make reasonable efforts findings at various times during the life of a child’s dependency case. • - at the initial hearing • - at subsequent hearings regarding the adequacy of services. • - to determine whether timely permanency was achieved.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Reasonable Efforts is a term of art – there is no precise definition of what is reasonable. • It will depend on the issue as well as the community. What may be reasonable in one community may not be in another.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Case #1: The attorney for a teen mother asks the court to order the agency to find a foster home where the teen mother and her baby can live together. The agency objects saying it can’t find one. • Could this be the subject of a “no reasonable efforts” finding?

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Case #2 – An attorney for a parent asks the court to order in-home social services delivered 24 hours a day to a family where it is clear that without such services the child could not safely remain in the home. • Is the requested level of services reasonable? • What would the agency say? The judge?

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Case #3 – A parent’s attorney argues that the mother has been unable to visit her child because the agency has not provided transportation to the visitation site. • Is this a denial of reasonable efforts?

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Case #4 – At a removal hearing the social worker testifies that she removed a child because there was no fresh food in the house, the refrigerator did not work and there was no heat. • The parent’s attorney argues that the social worker could have fixed both of these problems for a few hundred dollars.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Did the social worker provide reasonable efforts to prevent removal of the child?

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Case #5 – The court asks the agency whether it can provide wraparound services or multi-systemic therapy for a particular family. The agency states that it cannot even though the agency concedes that these have been proven to be successful interventions. • Is this a reasonable efforts issue?

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AGENCY • Case #6 – The agency places the child in foster care without locating the father or the father’s family members. • Is this a situation in which the court should make a “no reasonable efforts” finding?

COURT-AGENCY RELATIONSHIP • Q: What is the significance of a finding of “no reasonable efforts?” • A: The agency may lose federal monies. • This is the result of the agency not fulfilling its agreement to provide the services it promised when it received the federal monies.

COURT-AGENCY RELATIONSHIP • But the court doesn’t want the agency and the state to lose money. • So should the court ignore the law and find that the efforts were “reasonable?” • There is a Possible Alternative: The Art of the No Reasonable efforts Finding.

COURT-AGENCY RELATIONSHIP • The court could tell the agency that it will make a “no reasonable efforts” finding, but that it will give the agency a week to address the problem and continue the case for a week. • Guess what will happen during that week.

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES? • III. Courts around the country, large and small, have developed best practices over the past decade. • Through publications, court visits, conferences, and the internet, best practices have been exchanged and copied. • I have “borrowed” most of my ideas from other courts. Without much attribution!!

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES? • Best Practices for the court include: • 1. Long term assignments for the judge • 2. One judge-One family • 3. Early appointment of counsel • 4. Extended initial hearings. • 5. Adherence to timelines • 6. Rigorous oversight of the agency

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES? • 7. Regular administrative meetings with representatives from all parties/agencies. • 8. Regular cross-trainings. • 9. Implementation of Family Drug Court. • 10. Use of Mediation • 11. A strong CASA program • 12. An Attitude about court improvement.

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES? • My “23 Steps” article describes these and other best practices.

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES? • BEST PRACTICES FOR THE AGENCY • (suggestions) • 1. Differential Response • 2. Alternative Dispute Resolution practices (Family Group Conferencing, Team Decision Making, Family Team Meetings, Emancipation Conferences)

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES? • 3. Hiring and supporting good social workers who are paid adequately and want to make a career out of social work. • 4. Participation in administrative meetings with the court. • 5. Participation in cross-trainings. • 6. Developing Agency expertise in domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health, housing, and other critical services.

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES? • 7. Commitment to finding fathers and extended family members. Using Family Finding techniques. • 8. Use of Wraparound Services.

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGE • REMEMBER JUDGE JOSEPH WAPNER?

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGE • Doesn’t the judge just decide cases? • Not in juvenile court! • The juvenile court judge must do much more than decide cases. • The juvenile court is the original problem solving court. The judge must connect with the community to identify and work with those who can address the needs of the children and families before the court.

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGE • A. Convening the court system and the community. • The judge must convene the participants in the court system regularly. • These meetings should focus upon administrative issues and court improvement.

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGE • The judge should also convene members of the community to address issues relating to the children and families who appear in court. • By convening service providers and professionals, the judge can assist them focus on the needs of the most at-risk children and families in the community.

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGE • By convening the community the judge can encourage volunteers to participate in programs to assist these children and families. • CASA is the most outstanding of these programs, but there are others.

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGE • Remember…when the judge calls a meeting, people come. • And such activities are ethical since they serve to improve the administration of the law.

WHERE ARE WE HEADED? • How do we know how we are doing? • How do we know if we are headed in the right direction?

WHERE ARE WE HEADED? • We have made remarkable gains over the past 28 years since the passage of P.L. 96-272. • We have a very good idea of what works and what doesn’t work.

WHERE ARE WE HEADED? • BUT… • We have not changed our child protection system to use these Best Practices. • We still struggle with child safety. • We still struggle with timely permanency.

WHERE ARE WE HEADED? • On the other hand, the child protection system cannot be blamed for all of societies’ ills. • It is a limited system, with limited resources.

WHERE ARE WE HEADED? • On the other hand, it is a very important societal institution, one that will determine the futures of many of our most vulnerable children and families.

CONCLUSION • I. Emphasis on Families • II. Reduce the impact of the Adversarial Process • III. Collaboration • IV. Emergency Nature of Child Protection. • V. Judicial Leadership

CONTACT INFORMATION • JUDGE LEN EDWARDS • Leonard.edwards@jud.ca.gov

BEST PRACTICES IN THE JUVENILE DEPENDENCY COURT