Why CASAs Should Know and Care About "Reasonable Efforts"
Posted: February 4, 2008
Federal and state lawmakers have given judges a watchdog responsibility in child welfare. The power to remove children from their parents is huge—with far-reaching consequences. Lawmakers have tasked the courts with overseeing social service agency decisions, to ensure that the agency’s awesome power is well used.
Judges meet this responsibility by making rulings (called findings) that the agency either made or didn’t make “reasonable efforts”. That’s a technical finding that—in plain language—means that the Court thinks the agency did or did not act as it should. In particular, the Court must examine whether the agency (1) should have removed the child from the parents, (2) has provided adequate support to the parents during the case, and (3) took adequate steps to ensure the child finds a permanent home.
And here’s where CASA comes in.
Each of the judicial findings just discussed is based on the particular facts of the case. Where a judge has incomplete or incorrect facts, the judge’s ruling will likely be flawed. And is a bad finding a bureaucratic-type wrinkle or do bad findings matter to the well-being of the child? Surely the child, not legal technicality, is the reason you’re in the CASA business.
In actuality, these findings are crucial to the child. They are crucial because they are the court’s judgment of whether the agency is properly handling the child’s case. They are made a critical junctures in the life of the case. The findings also are an accountability tool, something the court can use to change the agency’s performance.
If the court makes a “no reasonable efforts” finding, the agency cannot seek federal foster care reimbursement for that child. “No reasonable efforts” findings also have a negative impact on periodic federal reviews of state agency performance, where millions of dollars are at stake. Agencies care about these findings.
The first finding the court makes is whether the agency made “reasonable efforts” to prevent the child from being removed from the home in the first place. Where a child has a bond with the parent, the removal itself is a kind of harm, sometimes the cause of great anguish and sorrow for the child. Science tells us that damage to a parent-child bond may contribute to developmental delays. If the removal could have been prevented by agency assistance (such as emergency provision of food or a voucher for family counseling), then that help needs to be given so that the child’s world is not turned upside down. This finding is made at the first hearing in the case, a time when CASA may not yet be involved.
The court subsequently must decide whether the social service agency made “reasonable efforts” to allow the child to return home safely, and, if reunification is not possible, whether the agency made “reasonable efforts” to find a safe, permanent home for the child. CASA reports move to center stage as the court considers these findings.
There is no definition of “reasonable efforts” in state or federal law. What is reasonable in one community may be unobtainable in another. What is reasonable for one family may not make sense for another. It’s ultimately the court’s decision. Since it is a decision that is individualized to the community and the case, the information the CASA provides may make the difference between an informed or uninformed judicial decision.
Let me give you a poignant example of the critical role of a CASA, in the context of whether the agency was making reasonable efforts to find a safe, permanent home for a child. In this case, the young lady is highly emotionally and mentally fragile, the survivor of a failed adoption. We cannot tolerate, and her well-being may not survive, another placement that disrupts.
Last fall, the agency was considering an out of community placement. The prospective adoptive family’s home study made the family seem the perfect match. The social worker and the CASA took the extra step of traveling to visit the prospective home. They immediately knew that this placement would not result in sufficient attention for this very needy child, and the search for her forever family continued.
At the most recent court hearing, I learned that a family in the Midwest was being considered for our young lady. The agency had not budgeted funds to travel to visit the prospective home. The local agency usually relies on the social work of the sister state agency and, in this case, they’d already gone beyond usual protocol with the earlier visit to a prospective adoptive placement.
Our dedicated CASA made the persuasive plea that—on the facts of this child’s case—the agency needed to find the extra dollars to make a home visit to the Midwest. The social worker who knows this child, who truly understands what’s at stake, needs to assess whether the right family has been found. I agreed with the CASA. It would not be reasonable to require the agency to find find funding to take this step in every foster child’s case. But “reasonable efforts” required it in the case of this deeply vulnerable girl. On the very day that I write this article, I will preside over the hearing where I will learn of the outcome of these extra efforts.
A CASA may be the only figure of continuity in a case with changing social workers and a series of mental health professionals. A CASA may be the only person the child truly trusts. A CASA often is the only person in the case that has the time to gather critical information on the child and his or her environment. A good CASA report significantly assists the court to faithfully discharge its responsibility to assure agency accountability.
About Judge Deborah Schumacher
Judge Deborah Schumacher sits in Washoe County and has presided over foster care cases since 1993. She is the “Lead Judge” of the Reno Model Court, a project of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges dedicated to improving court handling of these cases. Judge Schumacher is running for a position on the Nevada Supreme Court, where she hopes to extend her work in child welfare to a new level.