Worcester County Desperately Needs Special Advocate Volunteers in Juvenile Court
Friday, March 20, 2015
When the Department of Children & Families (DCF) determines that the state must intervene in the lives of abused children to ensure their safety, these children are removed from the legal custody of parents and placed in a foster home.
The CASA Project advocated on behalf of 608 such children in 2014. Of those children, 50% were under the age of six years old and 73% were under the age of ten years old. Almost all of CASA's children have severe unmet educational, medical, and/or social needs and almost all have resided in poverty.
“Last year was such a tragic year for child welfare in Worcester County. We saw a far higher number of young children be taken into protective care than in other years,” said Sinead Fitzmaurice, Coordinator of Volunteer Recruitment & Retention/Grant Writer at the CASA Project. “This was primarily as a result of the discovery of Jeremiah Oliver’s body, a number of other child fatalities in Worcester County, the ensuing upheaval and turmoil within DCF and their mandate to pull at-risk children under the age of five and not leave them at home where they may have previously done so, putting services in place.”
Last April, five-year-old Jeremiah Oliver’s body was discovered wrapped in a blanket on the side of I-190 near Sterling. Oliver’s DCF social worker had failed to make required monthly visits with the Oliver family since May and follow-up on Jeremiah’s whereabouts in the fall of 2013. Jeremiah was deemed missing in December 2013. Shortly following the discovery of his body, two other infants in Worcester County whose families were involved with the Department of Children and Families died. And in September there was the discovery of what has been termed the “Blackstone House of Horrors”, bring more
Fitzmaurice said, “It was sort of a knee-jerk reaction on their part during the whole controversy. DCF wanted to remove more children from their homes because they did not want to face the possibility of another tragedy. More children became court involved and we started seeing more and more cases coming into our office.”
Before 2014, on average CASA would receive around 450 new parent protection cases. Those cases could involve one child or even up to five children. Typically, 700 children would come in under parent protection every year. But they’re joining the 700 children from the year before whose cases were not resolved. These cases taken anywhere from 1 to 4 years to resolve. As long as the children are still in the system, they’re counted.
According to Fitzmaurice, the CASA Project was assigned more cases in the five months following the discovery of Oliver’s body than ever before in the organization’s 33 year history.
The Need for Volunteers
The CASA Project is currently in urgent need of new volunteers to work with court-involved foster children. Established in 1981, the CASA Project has been recruiting, training supervising and providing volunteers to the Worcester County Juvenile Court for 34 years now, but relatively few in Worcester County know about the organization and the work that they do to represent the best interests of children in court.
The CASA project currently has 135 active volunteers working on cases involving children throughout the cities, towns and communities of Worcester County.
“We’re always in need of volunteers because the work that we do is similar to what paid (attorney) Guardians ad Litem do in Juvenile Court, except that we train and supervise our volunteers and provide our services to the Court for free. With the Courts facing possible budget cuts every year, the WCJC cannot really afford to pay a sufficient number of attorney GALs the state rate (approximately $50 an hour) so they turn to us for volunteers. We are the only organization in Worcester County that provides free child court advocacy services to abused and neglected children in the WCJC” said Fitzmaurice.
Last year, CASA volunteers advocated for and their children received over 1,200 specialized services. These services ranged from eye exams to dental treatment, to children being tested and treated for a wide variety of medical and behavioral issues, as well as getting extra help at school. “CASA children’s needs are often great based on the nature and severity of the abuse and neglect a child has suffered. To whatever extent we can be instrumental in helping match those children up with services we will, by bringing them to the attention of the DCF and the Court. I think that this is one of the most satisfying aspects of being a CASA volunteer as you feel that you can and do make a real difference in that child’s life, not just in the final placement outcome but also in their present circumstances. Being placed in foster care is a very scary, stressful and traumatic time for children, so if we can help to lessen that burden in any way, however small, we will absolutely strive to do so.”
Volunteers visit the children at least once a month and spend roughly an hour and a half or so with each child doing activities that the child likes to do. They typically remain in the child’s foster home during that time. “While we are there we have the opportunity to observe if it is a good foster placement fit, and ensure that the child appears to be in good condition, is being properly fed and dressed appropriately for the season. Essentially we want to make sure that the child is being looked after properly in the current foster placement,” said Fitzmaurice.
The Juvenile Court Judge’s Role in a Child’s Life
The five judges of the Worcester County Juvenile Court have to make serious decisions every day about the welfare of children and where a child or sibling group is to be placed permanently. That decision is made at the end of a fairly lengthy legal process but the question is always “Where is the best place for this child or sibling group to live permanently?” After a child is removed from his or her family of origin due to safety concerns, that child will typically be placed in foster care, which can either be a kinship foster placement (with a relative) or in a foster home in the community. But children cannot remain in a foster home forever as it is only a temporary solution. At the end of the case the judge has to determine - is it safe for me to send this child home to mom or dad or caretakers? Have the problems that existed in the family which led to the child’s removal been resolved satisfactorily? Can I feel safe sending this child home? Are the parents no longer a threat to the safety and well-being of the children?
Fitzmaurice said, “It must be really difficult for a judge to make that decision. It’s really the biggest decision you can make in a child’s life. You are determining where that child will live for the rest of his or her life. You could inadvertently be sending that child back to the same type of terrible situation from which they had been rescued before if you make the wrong decision. They could be harmed worse than they ever had been before. So for the judge, it’s a huge and grave decision to have to make.”
The CASA movement started in Seattle in 1977 when Seattle Superior Court Judge David Soukup was faced with making permanent placement decisions for children based only on information from child protective services. He felt strongly that this was not enough information upon which to base his decisions, as well as it being a huge disservice to the minors involved to not allow their voice to be heard in court. He was making decisions about the future of their lives without hearing their input. So he decided that he would utilize trained volunteers who could dedicate themselves to learning all about individual cases, provide objective reporting and speak up for the best interests of the children in Court.
Judge Carol Erskine, First Justice of the Worcester County Juvenile Court, states, "CASA volunteers perform a unique and essential role advocating for the best interests of abused and neglected children. The CASA Project volunteers assist all juvenile court judges in making decisions to improve the quality of life for our most vulnerable population. Their role as independent, objective advocates is an essential contribution to the management and disposition of these complicated cases."
“The Court wants information. The judges know that if they have a CASA volunteer on the case, they’re going to get monthly information on how the child is doing,” said Fitzmaurice. “We interview pretty much everyone in the child’s life – parents, foster parents, relatives, teachers, guidance counselors, therapists and doctors. Anyone who plays a significant in the child’s life and who we feel has valuable and pertinent information for the court.”
CASA Today
CASA is found in 49 states across the country. With more than 950 programs, CASA served over 230,000 children through more than 75,000 volunteers last year.
According to Fitzmaurice, the judges in the Worcester session of the Worcester County Juvenile Court can hear up to 100 Care & Protection hearings in a day, in addition to hearings for CRA (Children Requiring Assistance) and Delinquency cases. By having up to date, salient information about the cases that are front in them, CASA volunteer reporting can make their jobs a little easier.
“The Judges are strong proponents of what we do because they know that we are effective at what we do, and that the court reports we provide may contain information critical to the disposition of the case,” said Fitzmaurice.
CASA volunteers are frequently assigned by judges to the most complicated and difficult cases. The judge relies on them to be an extra set of eyes and ears to watch and monitor the child and to obtain as much information as possible for the Court before the judge has to make his or her final placement decision.
“We believe that every abused and neglected child deserves a competent and caring adult that will speak out on behalf of what is really in their best interests,” said Fitzmaurice. “Obviously we will probably never be able to grow our organization to be able to serve ALL of the children and youth involved in the WCJC as the number is so great, but our goal is to serve all of the children involved in Care & Protection petitions in the next five years. These cases involve the youngest children in the court. The youngest children have the least voice. They are often the most harmed and the most vulnerable because they are the least able to speak up for themselves”
For more information on the CASA Project, and to learn how to become a volunteer, please go to casaworcestercounty.org.
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