Page 4
According
to state law,
Oregon should be
providing every
foster child with an
advocate as they’re
ferried through the
News
Street Roots • March 31 -April 6, 2017
Someone to care
system, but most kids
go it alone
BY EM ILY GREEN
S T A F F W R IT E R
regon has no shortage of unfunded
mandates, but there is one on the
books that, if fully funded, could help
remedy some of the most serious problems
plaguing the state’s overburdened child
welfare system.
According to Oregon state law, every
foster child must be assigned a volunteer
who advocates for their best interest as
they’re shuffled through the courts and
bounced between foster placements.
This session, a bipartisan group of
lawmakers in Salem is
pushing a bill to make
full funding of this
mandate a reality.
In the face of the
state’s budgetary
shortfall, however,
others are instead
looking to make cuts
to a program that’s
already falling far
short of serving every
foster child.
That program is Court Appointed Special
Advocates, known commonly as CASA, and
it serves all but one Oregon county, with
CASA staff at 22 independent nonprofits
overseeing 1,880 volunteer advocates.
Each of these volunteers’ sole purpose is
to advocate for the best interest of a child or
sibling group in state custody.
For the 44 percent of foster children in
Oregon who are assigned a volunteer
advocate, having objective eyes watching
their case can make a big difference in the
way they experience the system.
Travis Lee, now 22, said growing up in
the custody of Oregon’s Department of
Human Services, which houses child
protective services, meant he had a
different government-employed caseworker
at least every eight weeks.
“There were times where I would go
through three to four caseworkers a
month,” he said.
His foster home placements weren’t
stable either, leaving him without any
continuous source of support.
But all that changed when he was
assigned a volunteer advocate at age 9.
“I only had one CASA worker for the
whole time,” Lee said. “Always having
different caseworkers - knowing that my
CASA would always stay the same, always
felt like some kind of relief for me.”
His advocate has stuck by his side for 13
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years, even as he was moved away from
Newport, where his case originated, living
in foster homes in Salem, Portland and
Newberg.
Lee said that before he got his
volunteer advocate, he didn’t really
understand what was happening with his
case.
“But my CASA worker put everything
into words I could understand,” he said.
Now an adult, he speaks at fundraisers
for CASA nonprofits and still stays in
contact with his advocate.
“It really is just an amazing program,”
Lee said. “I would take a CASA worker
over a DHS worker any day.”
Volunteer advocates are privy to a
child’s medical records, family history and
school file. They can interview the child’s
teachers, parents and other people
involved in the child’s life and visit the
child in their home environment, whether
it be a foster home or with their parents
or legal guardians. If they suspect
something is wrong, they can make an
unannounced visit.
They are also there to figure out what
is best for the child’s safety, health and
success, and to advocate for that outcome
in the courtroom. They also ensure a
child gets medical and dental care, and
they can make recommendations to a
child’s school as well.
Shenetta Martin is a volunteern
advoate and a volunteer supervisor with
CASA For Children, which serves
Multnomah, Washington and Columbia
counties.
She said that sometimes, while there
may be a plan for a permanent placement
or reunification with the child’s parents, it
can get stalled in the child welfare system.
It’s the volunteer’s job to help the
judge understand that the “child deserves
permanency as quickly as possible,” she
said.
Volunteer advocates are shown to
reduce the amount of time a foster child
spends in the system by 7.5 months, and
more than 90 percent of children who
See CASA, page 5