Article
The Safe and Timely Placement of Foster Children, P.L. 109-239,
amended the language of 42 U.S.C. Chapter 675 (5) 2006 to
mandate that state courts give foster parents, pre-adoptive
parents and relatives providing care for foster children “notice
of hearings and a right to be heard” in any proceeding involving
a foster child. Each state must enact a court rule or statute to
comply with the new federal law. After speaking with judges
throughout the country, I learned that a few of our colleagues
are quite negative about this new law. Most are pleased. Others
do not know what to expect. So, what does the new role of the
foster parent mean to judges who hear abuse and neglect cases?
Foster parents offer judges their daily eyes and ears as they
provide a home for a foster child. No one else in the system can
say that they live with the foster child. The rest of us learn
about the foster child second-hand. CASA volunteers come the
closest to a foster parent’s insight in terms of regular contact
and speaking up for the foster child. But foster parents truly
stand in lieu of the biological parent by providing daily care,
nurture and love.
Foster parents need ongoing training about their role. Letting
go of a child who is being reunited with his or her biological
parent may well cause grief and separation anxiety—especially if
that foster parent wanted to adopt the child. Concurrent
planning for reunification and adoption is necessarily a
schizophrenic concept. When reunification is uncertain and
questionable, we simultaneously plan for adoption. Prolonged
foster care adds to the expectation of the foster-adoptive
parent that adoption is likely. How many times have we seen the
foster-adoptive parent’s tears when the child is removed and
sent back home? Proper training about permanency planning will
help prepare the foster-adoptive parent for this type of loss.
But we must do more. Grief counseling, therapeutic visitation
and transition time must be provided for the well-being of both
the foster child and the foster parent.
At any proceeding, a foster parent can tell the judge about how
a child is doing in a myriad ways. A foster parent knows what a
child likes to eat (or not!), how school is going—both
academically and socially—activities in which the child
participates, and how the child feels about his parent, himself
and the foster placement. A foster parent knows whether a parent
is regularly visiting with his or her child. A foster parent
knows how a child reacts before and after a visit or when a
parent fails to show up for visitation. Foster parents bring
children to medical and therapeutic appointments. Foster
children experience the stability of mature, caring and
consistent parenting from foster parents.
Judges, this new law can help you make better decisions about
the best interests of a child who has been placed into foster
care because of parental abuse or neglect. Any negative
experience regarding foster parents usually boils down to a
training issue. Judges can help train foster parents just like
they do with all the others who come to court. Can there be a
bad apple? Sure, but that can be properly addressed the same as
with any other player in court. If a foster parent is sabotaging
or undermining reunification efforts, the judge can find that
the foster placement is not in the best interests of the child
and remove the child. I have had to do this on occasion. I
suspect many of you have too. Additionally, Health and Human
Services licenses these foster placements and has the duty to
provide proper oversight and input. CASA volunteers, guardians
ad litem and foster care review board members can also provide
oversight and information to help make appropriate decisions
regarding out-of-home placement.
It is very helpful to have age-appropriate foster children
brought to court so that they can speak to us judges. Some are
very articulate and others are not for a variety of reasons.
Other important persons advocate and speak up on behalf of the
child, including CASA volunteers and guardians ad litem.
However, if you want first-hand information regarding how a
child fares in his or her daily world of foster care, ask the
foster parent. In Nebraska, we are working on an optional
checklist form for foster parents to fill out in advance of
hearings. It will be offered just as any other evidence. Of
course, I will still ask the foster parents for their comments
regarding the well-being of a child.
If you still have reservations, try to help shape the process by
participating in training, and give feedback as the new law is
implemented. One thing is clear, regardless of one’s view, the
law of the land is that foster parents, pre-adoptive parents and
relatives providing care to foster children have the right to be
heard in any proceeding involving a foster child.
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