Street roots., March 31, 2017, Page 5, Image 5

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have an advocate never return to foster care.
These outcomes greatly lower a foster
child s cost burden on taxpayers, according
to an Office of Inspector General audit of
CASA programs nationally in 2006.
At the same time, advocate-appointed
children are more likely to receive the
counseling they need to address trauma and
abuse-related issues, according to CASA
staff interviewed for this story.
Foster kids who have an advocate are also
shown to have significantly improved
academic performance, according to data
compiled by the National CASA Association.
But above all, the program gives foster
children someone to go to bat for them as
they are ferried through an often frightening
period of their life.
News
CASA and the foster care system
Of Oregon’s 11,554 children in foster care in the past fiscal year, more than half did
not have a Court Appointed Special Advocate. CASA volunteers are shown to
reduce the amount of time a foster child spends in the system, and CASA-appointed
children are more likely to receive counseling to address trauma and abuse-related
issues, according to CASA staff who spoke to Street Roots.
OREGON CHILDREN
IN FOSTER CARE
Direct costs
Acute medical treatment ....$2.9 billion
Unfunded angels
The public defenders, Oregon
Department of Human Services caseworkers
and others that may be involved in handling
a foster care case are often juggling large
caseloads.
“There could be a lot of people involved
in a case, but those people have numerous
cases - I mean numerous cases,” said Kim
Ell, a volunteer advocate in Multnomah
County. The uniqueness with a volunteer
advocate is they have only one case, he said.
When Ell received his first CASA
assignment, he said, he went to Home
Depot and bought the largest binder he
could find, but it wasn’t large enough to hold
all the paperwork in the child’s file.
He said it’s not uncommon to see
attorneys and caseworkers wheeling large
cases full of paperwork into the courtroom.
But Ell’s a retiree, and he has only one case,
so he’s had the time to meticulously
organize all the documents and case files,
read through them carefully, and even
double check the accuracy of their contents.
All this puts him in a better position to
quickly answer a judge’s questions and relay
his recommendations in a meaningful way.
Volunteers typically receive about 30 to
40 hours of training, and then spend an
average of 10 hours per month on their
case, however the time varies greatly
depending on the complexity of the case
and other factors.
While the majority of volunteers are
retired, employed part time or unemployed,
this past fiscal year, 33 percent were
employed full time.
“I’ve done lots of volunteer work
throughout my life,” Ell said, “and this is by
far the most rewarding.”
Betsy Miller, executive director at CASA
for Children, said every time a case closes,
she sits down with the volunteer to see how
it went.
“I would say nine times out of 10, the
CASA (volunteers) will say, ‘This is the most
rewarding experience, and one of the most
difficult experiences I’ve ever had,”’ she
said. “But CASAs also say if it weren’t for
my supervisor, it would have been much
more difficult.”
In order for a CASA program to be
certified, it has to follow national standards
requiring that a paid, full-time supervisor
can oversee no more than 30 advocates or
45 cases, said Kari Rieck, executive director
of Oregon CASA Network, which exists to
support and represent Oregon’s CASA
programs.
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Mental health care system $1.15 billion
Child welfare services
system
Law enforcement.............. $34.28 million
S O U R C E : O R E G O N .G O V O R E G O N
C H IL D W E L F A R E D A T A SET. C O U N T
O F C H IL D R E N IN F O S T E R C A R E
hire the people we need to do the job.”
Some Oregon CASA programs have as
few as one full-time, or even just one part-
time, staffer who oversees all the volunteers
for their region.
“From all sources, we run on about a $6.5
million budget - about $1,291 per child to
have an advocate per year,” Rieck said of all
the programs across the state. “Currently,
the state funds $1.14 million, which is only
$219 per child.”
Rieck said the governor’s budget proposal
calls for what amounts to a 23 percent cut to
the CASA program, which she said would
have the potential to end service for as
many as 480 children.
The Joint Ways and Means Committee
budget also recommended cuts to CASA, but
it was less specific about how much.
We know from national data on CASA
programs that fully funding it might actually
cost taxpayers less in the long term than
not funding the program at all. But due to
the complexity of the child welfare system,
the lack of CASA data specific to Oregon,
and differences among the communities
served by the state’s 22 CASA nonprofits,
it’s difficult to pin down exact cost savings.
There are also lifelong cost savings for
foster children who have CASAs, given that
they are less likely to fall into the foster-
care-to-prison pipeline and less likely to be
reliant on social safety nets as adults, Rieck
said.
In Oregon, a foster child’s average
monthly cost to taxpayers is $2,500,
according to the Oregon Department of
H u m a n S e rv ice s.
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S O U R C E : N A T IO N A L C O U R T A P P O IN T E D SPECIAL
\
A D V O C A T E (CASA) A SS O C IA TIO N
H U M A N SERVICES
The lack of funding for these paid
supervisors is why more than half of
Oregon’s 11,554 foster children this past
fiscal year didn’t have a volunteer advocate.
Most nonprofits find that when they make a
call for volunteers, there are plenty of
people in their community who are willing
to put in the time.
Shaney Starr, director of the Marion
County CASA program in Salem, got
creative and recently paid for sponsored
content in the Statesman Journal to attract
new volunteers.
It worked.
She said she usually gets about 25 new
volunteers spread across four to six
trainings per year. After the paid articles, 21
people showed up to a single training.
“We know that when you reach out to the
community with the call for advocates - we
know we get a response,” Rieck said. “More
than anything, it’s that we can’t afford to
It costs far less than that to provide a
foster kid with an advocate for an entire year
- about $1,300. And doing so is likely to
shave months off their time in the system.
With more than 6,500 kids going without
CASAs, the savings could quickly add up.
Early estimates of what fully funding the
CASA program would cost give it a $15
million to $20 million yearly price tag, but
as Rieck explained, that applies CASA’s
current bare-bones, full-caseload approach to
management. The Legislative Fiscal Office,
tasked with coming up with the cost of the
bill to fully fund CASA, may project a vastly
different number.
If House Bill 2171 passes, it would make
that funding possible. It will likely stall in
committee until later in session, but could
come up for a vote after lawmakers sort
through budgetary challenges. For one of its
chief sponsors, Rep. Duane Stark (R-Grants
Pass), the bill hits close to home.
“As a foster parent and adoptive parent,
I’ve experienced what it’s like to not have a
CASA, and I’ve experienced what it’s like to
have a CASA,” Stark told members of the
House Judiciary Committee at a March 8
hearing for the bill.
“I’ve seen even in my own case, where
CASAs were in court, and (the government-
caseworker) had goofed some things up and
couldn’t technically make some specific
requests of the court - couldn’t actually say
what they wanted to happen because their
paperwork was not complete, and yet the
CASA was able to be a voice there for the
child, for the system, and for the foster
parents,” he said. “It was so important.”
He said his bill is intended to bring in
funding so Oregon can meet its own
mandate that every foster child is appointed
See CASA, page 7