Month: June 2009

Linda Metz

Washington County Judge Mark E. Mascara believes that state courts have taken a major step toward helping improve the lives of abused and neglected children.

On Monday, the state Supreme Court released a mission statement and set of guiding principles to be used by all those who deal with dependent children, including judges, caseworkers and providers.

Entitled “Families 4 Children,” the statement establishes four priorities: protecting children, promoting strong families, promoting child well-being and providing timely permanency.

The state and principles were crafted by the Pennsylvania Children’s Roundtable Initiative, a group of state and local child welfare professionals, attorneys, county commissioners, judges and national expert, with the support of the Office of Children and Families in the Court.

Mascara, who serves as dependency judge in the county, was among those to sit on the roundtable and have input into the production of the materials that will play an important part in efforts to reduce the amount of time that dependent children spend in temporary placements such as foster care and expedite their return to permanent homes.

Mascara and Washington County have long served as a model for other counties throughout the state regarding dependency cases.

“It’s a very difficult problem,” said Mascara, who added that while the new guidelines won’t solve the intricate problems connected with child dependency, “it’s a huge step in the right direction.”

Dependent children, as they are known in the court system, are often removed from their homes under court order as a result of abuse or neglect and are placed by child welfare agencies in temporary foster homes, group homes or institutions.

And child welfare professionals generally agree that many children spend unnecessarily long periods in temporary care, which can include multiple placements, when expedited permanency is far better.

“With approximately 20,000 children in Pennsylvania’s foster care system at any given time, the need to examine and enhance our child dependency system is paramount,” said Supreme Court Justice Max Baer. “We must do all we can to ensure safe, nurturing and permanent homes for every dependent child as quickly as possible.”

Baer went on to point out that the state is changing the way that its child dependency system does business by removing institutional barriers and long established practices that once discouraged collaboration between child welfare agencies and courts.

Copyright Observer Publishing Co.

Max Baer, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Most children are “ dependent” on their parents for what they need — and receive — unequivocal love and nurturing, as well as all of life’s physical necessities, but the term “dependent child,” as used in the Pennsylvania courts, has a tragic meaning — that children are “dependent” on the state for their physical needs, and must find love and nurturing where they can.

The courts are forced because of parental deficits to removed many of these children from their homes and place them in foster care, group homes, or other “temporary” residential settings. The time dependent children spend in this “temporary” care often, unfortunately, is not temporary.

Children are young for a very short time, and need their life’s course set during these formative years. When days drag to months and years, children are harmed. Whatever decision is considered best, it often consumes too much time for too many of the approximately 20,000 children in “temporary” out of home care in Pennsylvania.

The court system is spearheading a massive effort to change this. Together with our partners at the Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Children, Youth, and Families and in every county children youth service in Pennsylvania, we are working to reduce delays in getting dependent children home, or into permanent placements with their relatives; using stranger foster care as a last alternative. We believe we are making significant progress.

Nearly three years ago, to orchestrate this sustained movement, the Supreme Court created the Office of Children and Families in the Courts within the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. This new office created “Children’s Roundtables” in every county, “Leadership Roundtables”, comprised of representatives from each Children’s Roundtable, grouped by population, and a “State Roundtable” which meets once a year and decides plans for future innovations in the Pennsylvania dependency system.

While the State Roundtable has already been responsible for many completed and ongoing changes in the Pennsylvania, I write today because in May of 2009, it adopted what is the first clearly articulated mission statement and set of guiding principles for dependent children in Pennsylvania’s history. This mission statement establishes priorities for those who make decisions affecting the lives of abused and neglected children.

These priorities are protecting children, promoting strong families and child well-being, and providing timely permanency. While these priorities may sound abstract, they have important concrete application: with each priority goes a set of guidelines designed to assist court and child welfare professionals in carrying out the goals.

Here is something else concrete: We believe that three years of foundation-building is beginning to show results. According to statewide data, the number of children waiting in “temporary” care has decreased from 19,705 in 2006 to 17,326 in March 2009.

We are determined to see that numbers go down even further. The story of every dependent child is heart-wrenching. We have a collective obligation to help them. Restoring loving family connections is essential. Our goal in the court system is to place each dependent child in a safe, stable and happy home — as quickly as possible. We are committed to meet that goal.

Jess Eagle, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Kevin Campbell, of Seattle, Wash., stood in front of an audience in Venango County earlier this year, talking with a 16-year-old girl about her past. The girl had been in foster care for 10 years, with no relatives to claim her.

Within 20 minutes, Mr. Campbell was able to locate numerous relatives of hers — including a grandfather — living in an Eskimo tribe on an Alaskan island. While still in front of the audience, Mr. Campbell reached the grandfather on his cell phone on an icefishing boat. The man admitted with horror that he thought his granddaughter had been adopted 10 years ago, and eagerly offered her a home.

Stories like this drew more than 600 people from around the world for the annual American Humane Conference, held this year in Pittsburgh’s Westin Convention Center Hotel. Attendees of last week’s conference learned about innovations in foster care, including Mr. Campbell’s invention, which has helped children across the country. Known as Family Finding, his Internet-based program locates previously unknown relatives of foster children and has become widely used in Pennsylvania.

Attendees came from all over the country, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, England and Canada.

American Humane chose Pittsburgh because Allegheny County has drawn international attention as a leader in both Family Finding and Family Group Decision Making, another innovative foster care practice.

FGDM is an alternative option to traditional judicial-ruled foster care that allows the family — rather than the legal system — to create a plan for a child’s future, and often results in their staying with relatives rather than strangers. FGDM is currently used by 63 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

Justice Max Baer, of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, led a panel of Pennsylvania judges who discussed Family Finding and FGDM at the conference Friday morning.

Mr. Baer called foster care in Pennsylvania “a bad system” as a whole, despite dedicated and caring foster parents. But he also pointed out that the state is making great strides compared to others.

For example, in the past few years, Pennsylvania cut the time that it took a child to go through the legal system from 19 months to three. And in September 2008 — a month before it became federal law to use Family Finding for every foster child — Allegheny County had Mr. Campbell start training social workers to use it.

The county is also the only one in the state with a separate children’s court and a legal electronic filing system, both of which allow a child to move more quickly through the system.

And with Family Finding and FGDM becoming common practices, more Allegheny County children are ending up with relatives, and sooner.

“When children are abused and neglected, they’re traumatized, but when children are removed from their homes — even if there was abuse or neglect — it’s also traumatic for them,” said Sandra Moore, administrator of Pennsylvania’s Office of Children and Families in the Courts, who led Friday’s panel discussion.

Bringing children into relatives’ homes alleviates some of that trauma, Ms. Moore said.

As for the Venango County girl, she has been talking with her Alaskan relatives on the phone the past few months, and the county is arranging a trip for her to meet them this summer. For now, Mr. Campbell said, she just wants to meet the family she never knew she had, and will decide if she wants move there later.

“Our hope is that we don’t have to have a child in foster care for 10 years before that happens,” Ms. Moore said.

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Jess Eagle can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1953.

HARRISBURG — The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania today released a mission statement and set of guiding principles aimed at improving the lives of abused and neglected children whose care is entrusted to the child dependency system under the supervision of the courts.

The mission statement and guiding principles, titled “Families 4 Children,” establishes four priorities for judges and others who make decisions affecting the lives of abused or neglected children:

• Protecting Children
• Promoting Strong Families
• Promoting Child Well-Being
• Providing Timely Permanency

Supreme Court Justice Max Baer said it is hoped that the Families 4 Children mission statement and guiding principles will play an important part in efforts to reduce the amount of time that dependent children spend in temporary placements such as foster care and expedite their return to permanent homes.

“Dependent children,” as they are known in the court system, are often times removed from their homes under court order as a result of abuse or neglect and are placed by child welfare agencies in temporary foster homes, group homes or institutions. Child welfare professionals generally agree that many children spend unnecessarily long periods in temporary care which can include multiple placements and that expedited permanency is far better for children. A permanent placement can be reunification with parents in a stabilized setting, adoption or some other court-approved arrangement.

“With approximately 20,000 children in Pennsylvania’s foster care system at any given time, the need to examine and enhance our child dependency system is paramount,” said Justice Baer. “We must do all we can to ensure safe, nurturing and permanent homes for every dependent child, as quickly as possible.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2006 launched an initiative to reduce the length of time dependent children spend in temporary care. To implement the initiative, the court created the Office of Children and Families in the Courts within the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Justice Baer, the former administrative judge of Allegheny County Family Court, provides oversight to the Office of Children and Families in the Courts (OCFC).

The Families 4 Children mission statement and guiding principles were crafted by the Pennsylvania Children’s Roundtable Initiative, a group of state and local child welfare professionals, attorneys, county commissioners, judges and national experts, with the support of the OCFC. The Pennsylvania Children’s Roundtable was formed in 2006 to help carry out the Supreme Court’s goal of improving the child dependency system.

“We are changing the way Pennsylvania’s child dependency system does business by removing institutional barriers and long-established practices that once discouraged child welfare agencies and the courts from collaborating,” said Baer. “This will lead to better outcomes for our children and a brighter future for our communities.”

The Pennsylvania Children’s Roundtable officially adopted the Families 4 Children mission statement and guiding principles at its annual meeting in Harrisburg on May 28-29. “The statement and principles underscore the expectation that every child deserves a family and that ‘growing up’ in stranger care or institutional placement is no longer acceptable,” said Lehigh Common Pleas Court Judge Brian Johnson, who chaired the roundtable committee that drafted the mission statement and principles. (A list of roundtable committee members is attached).

Sandy Moore, OCFC Administrator, said, “Everything we know about child development and well-being tells us that having a safe, stable family is critical. Without loving family connections, children struggle and positive outcomes are jeopardized. Knowing this, we have a collective obligation to do better for our children.”

In addition to a statewide children’s roundtable, OCFC has organized regional and local children’s roundtables in each judicial district. The local roundtables, lead by a judge and child welfare director includes supervisory and dependency judges, children and youth professionals, county solicitors, child and parent advocates, academic experts and others interested in the well-being of children.

For more information on Pennsylvania’s overall Dependency Court Improvement Project, please contact the OCFC at 717-295-2000, ext. 4255.

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Editor’s note: OCFC is funded with federal grants under a program called the Court Improvement Project, which is run by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is responsible for facilitating “best practices” in the handling of dependency cases and assuring that judges are given necessary time and resources to reach the best decision, with a minimum of delay, for each child.