Commission on Children in Foster Care

Mission: Provide all children in foster care with safe, permanent families in which their physical, emotional, intellectual, and social needs are met.

Value statement: All children need safe, permanent families that love, nurture, protect and guide them.

Tactical goals: Improve collaboration between the courts, child welfare partners and the education system to achieve the mission.

Strategic goals:

• The Commission will monitor and report on the extent to which child welfare programs and courts are responsive to the needs of the children in their joint care.
• The Commission will broaden public awareness of and support for meeting the needs of children and families in foster care.
• The Commission will institutionalize collaboration beyond the terms of office of individual agency directors and elected officials.

The Commission will demonstrate its leadership through the implementation of sound foster care practices within the Commission members’ respective agencies and further its commitment through self-evaluation. Existing Groups with Similar Interests:

• Court Improvement Program (CIP) Steering Committee
• DSHS Children’s Administration Legislative Committees
• Unified Family Court Workgroup
• Minority and Justice Commission
• Gender and Justice Commission
• Children’s Home Society of Washington
• Catalyst for Kids
• Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Office of the Attorney General
• Foster Parents Association of Washington State (FPAWS)
• Casey Family Programs
• Washington State Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
• Superior Court Judges’ Association Committees: Family and Juvenile Law and Best Practices and Education
• Board for Court Education
• Department of Health
• Office of Public Defense
• Northwest Intertribal Court System
• Judicial Information System Committee

• Court Improvement Program (CIP)
• Court Performance Standards
• Best Practices
• Children’s Protective Services and Domestic Violence
• Development of Self-evaluation
• Legislative Review
• Technology (efficiency and information sharing)
• Funding
• Permanency Planning
• Public Awareness
• Judicial Education
• Clearinghouse/Resource Center (Public and Dependency "System")

Guest Editorials

• "View Foster Care Through Their Eyes" by Justice Bobbe J. Bridge 

Justice Bobbe Bridge, co-chair	Denise Revel Robinson, co-chair
Washington State Supreme Court	Assistant Secretary DSHS/Children’s Administration
Annie Blackledge	Judge Tari S. Eitzen
Supervisor, Building Bridges Program, OSPI	President, Superior Court Judges Association
Ryan Murrey	Senator James Hargrove
Program Manager – Washington State CASA	Chair, Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee
Sassi Jarvela	Representative Ruth Kagi
Representing Youth in Foster Care	Chair, House Children and Family Services Committee
Rob McKenna	Joanne Moore
Washington State Attorney General	Washington State Office of Public Defense
Beth Canfield	Mike Canfield
Co-Chair, Board of Directors - Foster Parents Association of Washington State	Co-Chair, Board of Directors - Foster Parents Association of Washington State
Julio V. A. Carranza	Jim Bamberger
Foster Youth Alumni Representative	Office of Civil Legal Aid
Chorisia Folkman
Northwest Intertribal Court System Representative
Staff
Michael Curtis	Karen Castillo
Executive Director – Center for Children and Youth Justice	Administrative Office of the Courts