Page 95 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

I. Children in foster Care
Transparent and effective justice that is within the reach of all people is essential to achieving access to justice . But is access to justice obtainable for everyone? Because the lens I work from focuses on the family and in particular children, sometimes I see that systems have obstacles that may be unintended but create negative consequences . Solutions are not always readily available or the system hampers people’s ability to move forward in making a life for themselves or their families . Children often live in this nether world because a child’s access is dependent on others . Access to the justice system for children is something that is usually explored through the adults that they are connected to . However, that access is constrained and might be invisible if the child’s caretaker’s ability to protect the child’s access to justice is at issue or the caretaker is the impediment .
“Child protection” are the words that we often use . Child policies have evolved over the centuries . Child labor laws were enacted, orphanages grew into a child protective and foster care system, and ensuring that children received primary educational instruction became a part of our mandate . Protecting children is important . If a parent lacks stellar parenting ability, it is not questioned unless safety is at issue . Sometimes, in the child custody law area, you wish that parents could see the harm that they are doing when the disintegration of their relationship negatively impacts their children . However, when the design of the system has children move through it with the possibility of becoming vulnerable adults, we have to assess whether their access to justice as a child was fully actualized . We see the costs on them as adults and on their children, and how the system has contributed to the marginalizing cycle .
Kay’s story
Kay grew up in foster care . When she was younger, she lived in a foster home . She thought she would stay with this family because it was her home . Her foster mother wanted to keep her, but she needed to move to North Carolina to care for sick relatives and the Interstate Compact for the Placement for Children (ICPC) unit in the receiving state did not authorize Kay moving with her so Kay had to stay in New York . ICPC is an agreement between states that was created so that children who are before a court do not move from one state to another without the knowledge of authorities in each state and without a mechanism for oversight .5
From the time when her foster mother moved until she was 18, Kay resided in a group home where people stole her clothes and physical fights were the norm . She left that environment . After she left foster care, she would stop by the foster care agency, but never seemed to connect with anyone there for a meaningful discharge from care . She never had a discharge plan meeting or knew she could receive a discharge grant . She never had a permanency review in court that she was part of, and she never learned that she might be eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile
5 See ICPC FAQ, ass’n of admin. of The inTersTaTe comPacT on The PlacemenT of children, http://www.aphsa.org/ content/AAICPC/en/resources/ICPCFAQ.html.
Alternative Models
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