Federal Family Drug Treatment Courts: Providing Positive Possibilities

• Author: Amanda Hickey
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12514
• Date: 01 July 2020
• Published date: 01 July 2020

STUDENT NOTES

FEDERAL FAMILY DRUG TREATMENT COURTS: PROVIDING

POSITIVE POSSIBILITIES

Amanda Hickey

Due to the lack of family drug treatment courts, families are often torn apart when a parent has a substance abuse problem.

Children of substance abusers are often abused and neglected. However, childrenin these tough living situations fear seeking

help because they do not want to be the reason that their family is torn apart and they are placed in the foster care system.

This Note proposes a federal statute that requires all states to implement family drug treatment courts. These courts allow

families to stay intact while providing the parent with the help that he or she needs.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

About 8.7 million children live in homes with parents that have substance abuse problems. Over 425,000 children

are in foster care in the United States. A majority are there as a result of their parents’substance abuse.

Living in a home with a substance abusing parent and living in foster care are both extremely detrimental to children.

Family drug treatment courts have positively changed both substance abusing parents’lives and their children’slives.

Less than half of the states in America have family drug treatment courts.

The federal government has not taken any initiatives to help children that are growingup in homes with parents abus-

ing drugs and alcohol.

Keywords: Abuse and Neglect; Children; Constitution; Family Drug Treatment Court; Federal Statute; Foster Care; Sub-

stance Abuse.

I. INTRODUCTION

Rufus, a two-month old baby, was taken to the emergency room.

1

The doctor at the hospital said

that he had been vomiting as a result of severe dehydration.

2

The severity of the dehydration was so

alarming that Child Protective Services (“CPS”) was sent to the home.

3

CPS found that Rufus and

his four other siblings lived in an extremely unfit home.

4

Rufus, at such a young and vulnerable

age, lived in a house that lacked hot water and legal electricity.

5

There were also electric cords

unsafely scattered throughout the house, as well as parts of the house that reeked of kerosene from

the space heaters.

6

The windows were made of plastic instead of glass and the front door did not

have a lock.

7

The house was absolutely filthy.

8

Moreover, Rufus and his siblings had almost no

food.

9

They were also unbathed, disheveled, and dressed in dirty clothes.

10

Unsurprisingly, the par-

ents admitted that they were cocaine addicts.

11

As a result, the children were placed in protective custody and were removed from their home

and placed in foster care three years later.

12

However, foster care was also unsuccessful for the chil-

dren.

13

At the age of three, Rufus was argumentative, aggressive, and defiant.

14

He also hoarded

food, was often confused, refused to bathe, and picked at his skin.

15

Furthermore, he frequently

went to the bathroom in his pants and cried regularly.

16

Sadly, he had not mentally developed to his

Corresponding: ahickey110@gmail.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 58 No. 3, July 2020 832–846

© 2020 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts