Why would a child in foster care need an attorney?
When a family is involved in the foster care system, the whole situation is actively monitored by the court, starting with the initial removal and then continuing with review hearings until the case ends, which often takes years. The court monitors and makes orders on all kinds of issues.
The most common issues related to the child in particular look like:
- How is the child's current placement going?
- Are there relatives or close family friends they would rather be living with?
- Are they living with siblings, and if not, why not?
- Is this the appropriate level of care, or do they need something less restrictive?
- Are there any concerns about the placement that need to be raised?
- If they are going to be moved to a new placement, how do they feel about this and is this situation likely to work better?
- Are there items important to them that didn't make it through a move (such as clothes, stuffed animals, glasses)?
- How is visitation going?
- Are they getting to have in person visits as well as the option of phone / Facetime visits with important people in their life, particularly parents?
- Are they getting to have regular sibling visits?
- Do they feel comfortable with having visits, with the type of visits, and with all the people included as part of the visit?
- If case is going well, how can we increase hours of visitation?
- What should be the permanent plan for the child (reunification, guardianship, adoption, or aging out)? Should parental rights be terminated?
- Is the child getting the support they need as far as therapy, developmental services, and school services? Is the child on psychiatric medication and who is making decisions regarding this medicine?
- Should the child be involuntarily committed to a locked facility?
- If the child is aging out, do they have the information and support they need for independent living and know their rights related to Extended Foster Care?
All the parties get their own attorneys - so each parent has an attorney, CPS has an attorney, and the children have an attorney. Each party gets to state their opinion on the issues above (as well as issues relating more specifically to the parents) and then the judge makes orders. So my job in court is to make sure the judge knows the child's opinion on the issues before the court, and my job in between court hearings is to stay up to date on what's going on with the child and to advocate more informally for anything they need.
How is representing a child different from representing an adult?
It's actually probably much more alike than people would guess. The job is to stay up to date on what is happening in the case, explain that to the client in a way that they can understand, get their opinion on issues being decided by the court and others in charge, and then advocate for them in and out of court. We have all the same tools as regular attorneys - speaking in court, filing motions and oppositions, calling witnesses, filing appeals, etc.
Having said that, there are some things that make the job very different. Some examples:
- The methods we use to gain trust and build rapport - if you have a young client, this might look like building blocks together, crashing cars, coloring, hunting for bugs. With school age clients, let me just say that I know a lot more now about video games and YouTube videos.
- Judgment calls on what the client is able to understand and discuss - you're going to have different conversations with a 3-year-old than with an 8-year-old; and with an 8-year-old than with a 16-year-old. We convey as much information as possible and do our best to gather the child's perspective, but exactly what that looks like varies wildly by age.
- Part of the job is explaining the basics so it's a more comfortable experience for them - like, what is an attorney? what is a judge? what exactly happens in court and do they want to be a part of it? will they have to talk if they don't want to?
What are the best things about the job?
There are several great things about the job: it's amazing getting to form relationships over time with our clients and to watch their growth. It's a privilege to try to help guide a case towards the most positive outcomes possible for the youth (and sometimes to help finalize their adoption). It's inspiring to work with other professionals, both my colleagues and others in the system, who care so deeply about the kids. And there's never a boring day. There are definitely some really hard things about the job as well, but even with the hard things, it's a privilege to be one of the adults entrusted with helping a young person navigate through challenges.
So that's my job in a nutshell! If hearing more about the concerns of foster youth makes you want to get involved, there are a bunch of ways...
How can others get involved?
- If you are an attorney in Northern Nevada, there is always a need for pro bono attorneys to help with these cases. You can talk to me or check out the Northern Nevada Legal Aid website.
- CASA volunteers form relationships with foster children, learn about the situation, and report to the court their opinion about what would be in the best interests of the children.
- There is always a need for more foster families!
- There is also always a need for mentors.
