Washington Courts: Judicial News Report Detail

Final Families for Kids

Permanency planning" has always been the main focus of the Juvenile Court Improvement Project. Now it's a goal of the state Legislature. Judicial News looks at one project--funded by the private sector--which is striving to speed up and improve the state's adoption and foster care system.

One year, one family.

Will this goal ever be realized by Washington state's child welfare system?

For the past two years, Families For Kids (FFK) has worked to bring this reality home to the state's legally orphaned kids. The goal: foster an adoption system reform that leads to permanent families for every legally free child, in less than a year after the youngster enters the system.

The project

Supported by grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the three-year-old project is one of eleven nationwide. The Children's Home Society of Washington--a 100-year-old multi-service child welfare agency with offices in Seattle, South King County, Tacoma, Spokane, Vancouver, Walla Walla and Wenatchee--administers the program.

Headed by Society staffer Marie Jamieson, the local project has joined the public, tribal and private sectors in an effort to reform the state's foster and adoptive care system. Similar projects operate in Arizona, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina. In each state, FFK attempts to coordinate actions of all agencies involved in the adoption and welfare process. In this state, that's the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and its social workers, managers, supervisors and administrators, plus judges and court administrators. "GALS,"--guardian ad litems--participate, along with defense attorneys, prosecutors and assistant attorney generals, Indian tribes, foster and adoptive parents, community organizations, and private agencies.

Need for reform

Jamieson says the current system works for most children, but for those that it doesn't, the results can be devastating.

"There are two different groups. The majority of children--over half--go home within sixty days, so the system is serving them. There is crisis intervention, things are resolved and the children go back home," said Jamieson. "If, though, the child doesn't go home within the first three months, the likelihood of their ever going back --according to national statistics--goes down to about 25%. That is the focus of Families for Kids--children who are staying in the system."

Development suffers if a child has had multiple placements, Jamieson says. "We see the effects it has on children when they have multiple placements--what is supposed to be a temporary situation--[drags on] for literally years, and the effect that has on their sense of belonging, security, the development of their self-esteem."

To identify those children, FFK conducted several surveys. One poll found that nearly 20% of those in the system more than a year had been there since infancy. Another finding: the average length of stay for children whose parental rights have been terminated is four years.

Streamlining procedures

To meet the 12-month goal, streamlining judicial and court procedures to move children more quickly through the system is seen as an important first step.

Asked whether the one-year goal towards adoption was realistic, King County Superior Court Judge Bobbe Bridge told Judicial News, "I absolutely think it is possible, but not without a whole lot of work and cooperation from all parts of the system."

"Half of that is raising this to the attention of everyone. We need to manage the cases, so that we don't just slide the information off to the side. It's the kids that get lost in the system, not the files," said Bridge. Her court is also looking at mandating specific review dates for each legally free child.

Jamieson thinks the judge is on the right track. "When you have a system that is set up to be a crisis intervention system--which is what child protection is--then it is difficult to keep the focus and the resources that are needed for the children who aren't obviously in need."

"I think there are challenges to keep the spotlight on those who are in care longer than a year, and really be looking at what needs to be done for those children. Having not just workers and judges, attorneys--but get the community involved in seeing that these kids need to be in a permanent situation. That might be guardianship, it might be placement with relatives who can make a long-term commitment."

To help meet the one-year goal, Jamieson suggests judges hold in-court reviews and permanency planning hearings and make their court orders more specific. Another goal--to have jurisdiction retained by the trial judge during reviews in hopes it will shorten the wait time.

Judicial conferences

FFK has sponsored a number of judicial conference's nationwide, including one in Atlanta two months ago attended by King and Kitsap County Superior Court Judges Bobbe J. Bridge, Leonard W. Costello, and Judge Kathleen M. O'Conner of Spokane County Superior Court.

"The goal really was to share information about what is happening within the various areas, and to look at various states, to do problem identification from a judicial standpoint. And there was some information about some of the national resources that can help," said Jamieson.

Bridge termed the conference a success, a chance to hear about innovative solutions applied to the permanency problem in other states. "We are now discussing with Attorney General Christine Gregoire the potential of having volunteer Rule 9 attorneys' process adoption and parental termination cases. Law schools will love it and there will be no additional budget needs," she said.

Similarly, FFK has been working closely with the OAC's Court Improvement Project to pilot "reasonable efforts symposiums" statewide this year, including one to be held this week in Seattle. Judge Bridge will deliver opening comments.

"I think from our perspective--we're very aware that Families for Kids will be going away, and that the judicial leadership will remain," Jamieson said. "It is important that the leaders of each state are the ones that are evolving this issue, and bringing it to the attention of the judicial community."

Optimism for the future

Washington's $3 million FFK grant from the Kellogg Foundation will run out in December of 1997. But so far, results have been encouraging.

According to FFK's 1996 annual report, 43% of the children statewide who needed permanent families as of June, 1995 had made that connection within a year--an overall reduction by one-third of those needing placement. Also, between 1994 and 95, adoptions increased by 15%.

Whether or not funding is extended to 1999, Jamieson feels the project and its goals have made a difference. "I think that if we--as a whole community--come to the table with the resources and the will to do this, we can."

"Yes, I am optimistic," concluded Jamieson. "It doesn't mean that every single case will be resolved within a year, but it's a benchmark--something to look and move towards."