Jane has three ways to get her baby back

Jane has three ways to get her baby back
By JAMES SEALSSPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS
Published by news-press. com on October 30, 2005


EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is not based on any real case. Any
similarity between this fictional case and any real case is purely
coincidental and unintentional. Baby Doe, 18 months, is in a licensed
shelter home. The juvenile court judge ordered him placed there the
day before. Jane Doe, his mother, will not go back to court for
another four weeks, but a lot of important work is going on, and a lot
of decisions are being made. A key decision lies with Jane.

Today, Jane is not so much concerned about her decision as she is
about seeing her child. Jackie, Jane's court-appointed lawyer, advised
her it will be several weeks and probably several months before the
judge will even consider returning the baby to her custody. Until then
all Jane can do is visit with her baby under supervision twice a week
for 90 minutes each visit. Jane's mixture of emotions is now turning
into one: anger. How can "they" take away my baby like that? "They" is
the child protection system, commonly thought of as the Department of
Children and Family Services (DCF), and formerly known as the
dreadful, monolithic bureaucracy: HRS. (HRS was broken up into three
separate state agencies, DCF being one of them, in 1994.) DCF now has
a limited role in the child protection system. It investigates child
maltreatment complaints and removes victims of abuse or neglect. From
there forward, the bulk of the workload falls upon Lee County's
community-based care provider, Children's Network of Southwest
Florida. Under court oversight and direction, Children's Network is
primarily responsible for fulfilling the mission of the child
protection system.

A CHANGING SYSTEM

Beginning in 2000, and ending in 2004, most of Florida's child welfare
system shifted from a government agency (DCF) to a private community
based care provider (CBC). As a result of privatization, DCF now
selects, supports and monitors the community based care organizations.
For over a year now, Children's Network has had full responsibility
for all of Lee County's community-based care functions, which include
licensing and operating the foster care system, providing case
management to the families and the court, contracting with the service
providers who work with the children and families and, when necessary,
recruit and approve adoptive homes for children when parental rights
must be terminated.

Today "they" consists of DCF, Children's Network and the juvenile
dependency branch of the juvenile court. The week following Baby Doe's
removal, Jane meets Harry, her child welfare case manager. Harry works
for Ruth Cooper Center, one of two case management subcontractors of
Children's Network. Harry is trying to explain his role in the case,
what will happen and what needs to be done for her to be reunified
with her child. He talks about an upcoming case plan conference where
the required tasks and services to achieve the goal of reunification
will be discussed and put in writing for court approval. Jane is in no
mood to pay close attention. She has hardly slept or eaten since her
son was removed. She is depressed and has been self-medicating with
marijuana and alcohol. Joe, her live-in boyfriend, disappeared when
told he might be the target of a child abuse criminal investigation.
All Jane can think about is seeing her baby and finding out how he is
doing. She finally interrupts Harry's presentation and demands to know
when her first visit will be.

Harry makes a phone call and sets up a visit for two days away. Harry
advises Jane what to bring to the visit, and even though Baby Doe is
just a toddler, he warns Jane not to make any promises to him about
coming home. Jane doesn't know whether to thank him or scold him.
Harry reminds her of the case plan conference in two weeks and leaves.

JANE'S CHOICES

Jane meets Jackie at the case plan conference. Also present are
Robert, the assigned DCF attorney (DCF provides legal services to
Children's Network throughout the case), Kate, the Child Protective
Investigator, Lucy, Kate's supervisor, and Harry and his supervisor,
Jan. A case plan is a covenant of sorts between the parents, the child
welfare case manager, the foster parents and other stakeholders in the
system. It is the operator's manual for achieving reunification. It
contains all tasks and responsibilities of all stakeholders, the
services that will be provided to the child and the services that will
be offered to Jane. (John, the baby's father, is in prison for another
two years and cannot participate.) Jane does not like what she sees in
the case plan and refuses to sign it, which is her right. Jackie then
explains to Jane there are three paths to getting her baby back and
the choice is up to her. First, Jane can contest the case in court,
and demand a trial. If she prevails at trial, Baby Doe is returned to
her custody and the child protection system must stand aside. Her
second path is to waive her right to trial, agree to work the case
plan and seek reunification by successfully complying with the case
plan. Jackie reminds Jane that if she loses her case at trial, the
judge will order her to follow the second path. The third path is
Family Drug Court, a specialized, very successful program for parents
in the child protection system who are drug abusers or addicts.

By far most of the parents in Lee County's dependency court choose the
second path, and most of them do so voluntarily. Family Drug Court,
which will be discussed in a future article, receives only a small
number of families. Very seldom does a parent contest a case and win
at trial.

ABOUT THIS COLUMN
This is the fifth in a series of weekly columns by Circuit Court
Judge James Seals about Lee County's child-protection system, which
handles abused, neglected and abandoned children. In the last two
columns, Seals has tracked a fictional case of a mother who has
neglected her baby.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs....510300428/1015

Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action.