Last week I went down to the Edelman Children's Court, which is the court for dependency cases in Los Angeles County. I spoke to a lawyer from the Children's Law Center (CLC), the people who represent almost every child in the foster care system, and was permitted to observe the proceedings in a couple of the courtrooms.
CLC has approximately 120 attorneys. The average caseload size is over 200 children each. Whew! The lawyers are often the most consistent person in a child's life, as social workers change frequently and kids are repeatedly moved from one placement to another.
The hearings I observed were review hearings. These children had been removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect and taken into foster care at least six months earlier. Their cases were ongoing. This is standard procedure, a follow up, to see if parents were taking the necessary, mandated steps to enable their children to return home, such as drug and alcohol rehab classes, anger management classes, or finding a stable place to live.
The judges were deciding if a child could return home, or if a parent would be allowed to visit their children, how often, for how many hours a week, and where.
The third floor waiting area, which is the size of a train station, was filled.
Mothers, fathers, uncles, cousins, friends, and kids of every age, talking, playing games, doing homework, chasing each other, doing anything to fill up the time till their case was heard. Many had 2 hour bus rides to get there and had to be present all day. This was an average day at Children's Court where each of the 20 judges hears 20 to 30 cases a day.
The court proceedings themselves were low key and intimidating at the same time, despite the presence of stuffed animals and Star Wars posters. The cases take on average 10 to 20 minutes. The long table facing the bench is crowded with the children and their lawyer or lawyers, the parent or parents and their lawyers, an interpreter if necessary, the lawyer for the Dept of Children's Services, and behind them the social workers involved in the case.
There wasn't a lot of drama. It was all remarkably unremarkable, especially when you think that each decision will hugely affect a child's life and a family's future.
At this moment there are 25,000 kids in foster care in Los Angeles County. I know that children are very resilient and find ways to adjust to all sorts of things, but it's truly sad to see great numbers of children jostling in and out of court like it was just another day.
I was invited back to visit Judge Marguerite Downing in her chambers. Judge Downing is a confident, down to earth woman, with years of experience as a lawyer for juveniles and a judge. She seems quite astute at sizing up the people who come before her. She told me that she thought that many of the families she sees have problems that come and go. Most have other family members who could step in to care for the children when they are taken from their homes, and that this would be the best situation for these kids. The problem is that very often the regulations for fostering a child are too tough to be met by the family... for example, a house that doesn't have the required amount of space. So the kids end up in foster homes with unfamiliar people, separated from their siblings and away from relatives who know them. Often parents are mandated to take classes they can't afford and have no way of getting to.
Even visitation can be tough... for example, in a hearing I watched, the Dept of Children's Services recommended that the father and the mother be allowed to have unsupervised visits with their children at separate times, in a neutral setting, for three hours a week each. This particular mother didn't drive. Her husband was her ride. Their 4 children were not living together. They were placed with different families in neighborhoods far from where the parents lived. The judge questioned how it would be possible to continue trying to parent the children with these restrictions. She ruled that the parents could visit together in a neutral setting for 6 hours a week, for now. Another hearing was scheduled in 6 months time.
There's a big controversy over Children's Court's presiding judge, Michael Nash's recent decision to open the courtrooms to the media, unless a compelling case is made to close it in the best interest of the child or children involved. Some people like this decision because they say it will bring more accountability to the courts and the Child Welfare system, while some are against it on the grounds that it opens the lives of children who have already suffered mistreatment to further humiliation and is an invasion of their privacy.
I don't know yet which side I'm on, or if there is even a clear-cut yes or no answer. I just know it's pretty damn awful that such a huge population of children spend so much time in court and it doesn't even seem foreign to them. This shouldn't be.
California has a responsibility to protect its children, so we have this system set up to do that. It's an enormous system with a huge amount of people employed in service of it, and tons of rules and regulations designed to make everyone accountable. But, as we all know, a child can't be raised by a system.
The most important element of the foster care system is getting kids out of foster care and into a permanent placement so they don't have to spend their entire childhoods in courtrooms, wondering if they will ever have a place to call home.
Today I'm introducing Coty, a 16-year-old, from San Bernardino County. He's an articulate, empathetic boy who expresses himself through art and wants to be a lawyer. Coty is looking for a permanent home.
You can learn more about the children featured in these films and find more information about foster care adoption at ChildrensActionNetwork.org or by calling 800-525-6789.
Facts on Foster Care in America - ABC News
Foster Care - State of Illinois
There are children that need protection from abuse in their homes. But this massive for profit government agency and the Dependency Court does not observe Constitutional or Civil rights of the parents or even the children themselves. Most seizures (detentions) are based upon anonymous calls - social workers have too much discretionary power to take children without a search warrant - parents are guilty before being proven innocent in Dep Court administrative law. DCFS can seize children even without actual physical proof of abuse CSWs and SCSWs can and do permit perjry and falsify allegations and submit false documentation to court. DCFS makes wild accusations of abuse without presenting physical evidence in court and they do not ever file felony child abuse charges with the police or DA and yet they still accuse parents of physical abuse in Dep Court and after two or three years, they terminate parental rights without a real trial based on evidence. The Dep Curt Commissioners almost never challenge DCFS to present facts or evidence and when parents attempt to call witnesses or submit exculpatory evidence, the courts more often then not deny it. LADL appointed attorneys for parents and CLC attorneys for the children handle 400-500 cases each. It is total INEFFECTUAL COUNSEL. Both LADL and CLC attorneys meet their clients for 5 minutes before going to a detention hearing or follow up hearings which are six months apart.
Sure, we all can't be foster parents or volunteer hands-on, so I feel bad that folks are giving you flack for not doing so. I think your work is honorable b/c you are willing to step outside your world and see the lives of others and then write about them in interactive ways for Huffington Post. Sadly, foster youth aren't spoken about at the kitchen table and we need more articles from folks outside the system like yourself. Thank you for being an advocate.
The second horror of the system is that other family members who are suitable for parenting the children are not allowed to have the children and be paid for their services. Many relatives would love to take in their young relatives but cannot afford to rear the children. If utilized, this act of kindness would save the children emotionally and enable them to continue their bond with their relatives. If you have ever been around a detached, unbonded child you cannot possibly know how scary that is and what that child is capable of doing.
The third major problem with the system is the fact that teens are included in the system and teens become smart quickly. They learn to use Children's Services to fight against the parent's authority. When children have wonderful parents and then as teen-agers suddenly turn on their parent's authority, common sense should cause the system to back away. Overhall the system to exclude teens.
Wow! You might want to do come volunteer work at your local children's home if you really believe this. Most of the kids in the system would gladly submit to "the parent's authority" to get out of the system even if that authority is backed up with abuse.
Stepping up and adopting kids does.
California only removes children from their parents when their is evidence of abuse or neglect. There must be actual physical or sever emotional damage that can be demonstrated to the court to remove a child for more than the time it takes to have a hearing (less than a week).
The number one objective of the court, and the purpose of foster homes today, is reunification of the child with their parents. But the parents must prove they are capable of providing a basic level of support and safety for the child. Basic support and nothing more.
The reality is that kids removed from their homes are removed because they are in eminent danger. The parents are almost always poor, are often drug or alcohol abusers, may be child abusers, and may be going to prison. Even if the parents are destitute living on the street, the court will not take the children into custody, unless they see dangerous neglect.
And yes, there are a lot of kids in dependency court in California. And as poverty increases, the number of kids in the programs increase almost directly.
That puts them well below the poverty level.
Foster homes in California are monitored by both the Child Welfare Services and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates - one per child). If the child is mistreated or neglected in any manner they are moved instantly.
There are a lot of very good people trying to make this system work, and they frankly don't need the comments of a bunch of poorly informed fools.