Report from governmental affairs. Advocacy Works

• Pages: 68-69

legal issues they’re facing … Another

reason is to broaden networks. Often,

one of the rst things that entices young

lawyers is to be able to network and

build out their practice for business de-

velopment purposes. You can broaden

your network, get mentors, make other

contacts. The nal piece of it is the ac-

cess-to-justice piece—advancing justice

that includes protecting our democracy,

promoting the rule of law and working

to give everyone access to justice.” Q

REPORT FROM

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

Advocacy

Works

ABA-backed Family Justice

Initiative has improved access

to counsel in child welfare cases

For parents and their children,

the child welfare legal system

can be confusing and intimidat-

ing. That’s where a good lawyer

comes in.

For over 40 years, the ABA has been

a leader in advocating for improved ac-

cess to counsel for parents and children

in child welfare cases. Those advocacy

efforts previously focused on either a

child’s right to counsel or a parent’s right

to counsel, but not on both. In 2017,

the ABA’s Center on Children and the

Law played a key role in launching the

Family Justice Initiative, a program that

helped change the conversation by unit-

ing national advocacy efforts to ensure

both children and parents have access

to counsel in these cases. The biggest

challenge with this effort is securing

adequate funding for that counsel.

Traditionally, federal funding could

only be used to pay costs for govern-

ment counsel in child welfare cases,

while state and local funding was used

to pay legal representation costs for

children and parents.

In 2019, the Children’s Bureau at the

U.S. Department of Health & Human

Services altered that inequity by revising

its Child Welfare Policy Manual to allow

states to seek partial reimbursement for

the cost of providing child and parent

counsel in these cases. The ABA sent a

letter commending this change as an

important step toward better outcomes

for countless children, parents, courts

and child welfare agencies throughout

the country.

Because it is optional for states to

request this new federal funding, it was

unclear in 2019 how quickly this rule

change might help increase investments

in access to counsel. Two years later, 25

states and three Native American tribes

are already accessing these legal services

funds.

ABA President Patricia Lee Refo

said the change is having a signicant

impact.

“This policy has increased the

availability of high-quality legal ser-

vices, making a signicant difference in

protecting parents’ and children’s legal

rights and improving outcomes for chil-

dren and their families.”

Exiting foster care

Child welfare systems—which operate at

the federal, state and local levels—work

with children who have been separat-

ed from their families, ensuring they

can live in safe, permanent and stable

settings.

In most cases, children exit foster

care by reuniting with their parents.

In 2019, approximately 672,600

children spent time in foster care in the

United States, including 251,000 entries

into foster care and 248,000 exits from

it. Of those children exiting foster care,

about 47% reunited with their parents;

26% were adopted; and 17% left with

a legal guardian or moved in with a

relative.

Legal counsel for parents and for

children help children exit foster care

sooner without risking their safety. From

a child’s perspective, less time in foster

care can mean spending birthdays and

holidays at home with parents or loved

ones; starting a new school in their

permanent school district; or in the case

of adoption, having a new last name and

a sense of security.

Over the past decade, research has

consistently shown that investing in

child and parent counsel reduces delays

in case processing, increases parties’ par-

ticipation in families’ case plans, informs

better judicial decision-making, produces

cost savings for child welfare agencies

and courts and, most important, helps

children reach permanency (reunica-

tion, adoption, guardianship) at a time

when they are the most vulnerable.

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