Part One
Part Two

Continuing with the series addressing the difficulties in establishing collaboration between child welfare systems and juvenile justice systems, the second point addressed by the author of this article states:


Youth in foster care often appear in court without family or child welfare representatives.


I guess I must run in special circles, because the vast majority of families who have crossed my path are doing everything they can and then some to advocate for their kids. However, I have come to realize that it is those extra-special families who are interested enough in their foster kids to go the extra (thousand) miles who do search out resources. Apparently there are many disinterested foster families.


Youth interviewed for this article state their opinion that showing up for court with absolutely no one there on your behalf except your public defender or guardian ad litem makes a strong case to the judge that you—the youth—is without value. Otherwise, surely someone would be there with you, right? Judges support this view, stating that they view youth who appear before them with no family members in tow as less “stable” than kids who appear with a family member or two.


The last sentence of this section really bothers me:

Young adults generally believed that foster parents did not appear with them in court because they did not care about the youth or did not want to get involved in legal proceedings.

Again, most of the foster/adoptive families I have met would welcome the opportunity to have more involvement, more input, more impact on the trajectory of their child in the juvenile justice system.


The third point discussed in this article states:

Youth would benefit significantly from improved coordination between systems.


In many cases, child welfare and juvenile justice systems share legal responsibility for a youth arrested for criminal behavior. Even if the juvenile justice system has physical custody of the child, the welfare system is not off the hook. But caseworkers admit that once physical custody is transferred, a social worker’s involvement adjusts accordingly. Given that so many social workers are incredibly over-extended and they cannot or do not attend to even their most pressing cases, it isn’t hard to grasp that once a child is not in their physical custody, they invest little or no additional time into that child. One administrator said, “ … for the most part, the attitude is, ‘No longer on my caseload, I am done with this one.’”


Significant gaps in service occur because even if the two branches recognize and acknowledge their dual responsibilities, they are uncertain about how to manage those dual roles.


I will conclude this series in the next post.


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