CASA Director Mickey Edwards says the volunteers in the organization make a great difference in the lives of the children they represent.
Abused and neglected children in Chase and Lyon County can find allies and advocates among CASA volunteers.
SOS/CASA of the Flint Hills has been active in the Fifth Judicial District since the organization began in 1996. The the name behind the acronym — Court Appointed Special Advocate — signifies the responsibility assigned to the volunteers.
CASA volunteers follow children’s progress through the child-welfare and court systems, helping them get the services they need, working with the families and making sure that the child’s interests are being served from the time of initial contact through resolution of the problems.
“CASA volunteers are charged by the court to represent the best interests of children who are in the court system because of abuse and neglect,” said CASA director Mickey Edwards. “In a nutshell, that’s their job.”
Yet it is not as simple and straightforward as it sounds. Being a CASA volunteer demands a commitment to investigate, interview and interact with all of the players in a child’s life, then define what the child’s best interests are and try to ensure they are met.
Volunteers undergo extensive training and screening, along with fingerprinting, background checks by the Lyon County Sheriff’s office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, a check through the Child Abuse and Neglect Information System, and interviews to determine eligibility and the ability to follow the case through to completion.
The 35 hours of training covers a comprehensive curriculum: court systems, SRS and working with SRS contractors, collaboration, how to make an investigation, interviewing, how to build a relationship with a child and establish rapport. Trainees also learn much about elements that affect families, like poverty, domestic violence, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, and other topics.
Volunteers must meet all of those requirements before they can be certified by the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration.
CASAs, as they are called, each deal with one case at a time to better serve the child.
The CASA system evolved from a volunteer guardian ad litem program instigated in 1977 by Judge David Soukup in Seattle. In less than a year, guidelines had been developed that became CASA, to denote a volunteer “following a clearly defined role as a friend of the court,” according to historical information available.
Most of the children assigned to CASAs already are in the foster care system, Edwards said. A CASA makes an independent investigation into the child’s and the family’s life situation.
“They talk to everybody involved in the child’s life, anyone with information on that kiddo,” she said. “That would be from the professionals ... to family, family friends.”
Social and Rehabilitation Services workers, foster care agencies, mental health therapists, school teachers, principals, counselors, dentists, doctors, optometrists and more.
“Any professional, really, that has contact with the individual,” Edwards said.
Some of the children will have special needs, such as physical or behavioral problems, and others will have problems that have developed from the stresses they have lived through, and the CASA worker will need to know that information, too, and make sure the child receives the necessary services.
CASA volunteers, through the courts, have complete access to all of the protected information from doctors and schools, in order for them to be of greatest support to the child, the family, and the professionals involved.
“We don’t have to worry about HIPAA laws, we don’t have to worry about privacy laws on school records,” Edwards said. “We don’t have to worry about that confidentiality.”
After the initial investigation, the CASA is introduced to the family to get to know them.
“Lastly, they’ll meet with the children and get to know the kids and establish a relationship,” she said.
The children come to rely on their CASAs in a relationship comfortable enough for the children to be able to express their own wants and needs. That, Edwards said, is particularly valuable for children old enough to have an understanding of what is happening.
“It can really empower them, knowing they have a voice that’s going directly to the judge,” she said.
Once all of the information has been gathered and the child’s case goes back to court, a CASA recommends what solution would be best for the child.
“It can be simple, like, the child would benefit from Compeer, a volunteer or a mentor in some way, to something as serious as, maybe, ‘I don’t think this child should ever go home. Maybe we should look at parental rights being terminated,’” Edwards explained. “We’re not restricted in recommendations we can make. The court really wants to know what we think is best for the kid.”
The judge considers the CASA’s recommendation, but is not bound by it.
Throughout the process, the CASA worker acts as a clearinghouse for making sure that all of the information reaches the right people. It saves time for the attorneys and guardian ad litems who work on the cases, and also saves the court system and taxpayers the added cost of paying for attorneys’ time to do the research.
“That’s a significant savings to the county if the CASA volunteer can go out and make some of those contacts on their behalf,” Edwards said.
And, it helps the case move faster through the court system.
The CASA’s investigations and interviews also help take the load from social workers who may be working on 40 cases at one time. The CASA also works closely with the case workers and supervisors to make sure the child’s needs are being met “and to discourage kids bouncing from foster home to foster home,” Edwards said.
“We’re kind of that little dog nipping at the heels of the court system, the social service system. I’ve had social workers in the past tell me that they appreciate that,” she said. “It’s not for lack of caring. Who has time to do everything and be effective all at the same time?”
Placement changes need to be avoided, if at all possible.
“It’s one more trauma for them to endure outside of the fact that they’ve been removed form the parents that they love and want to be with,” she said.
CASAs also follow through in seeing that educational needs are fulfilled. In addition to routine meetings with educational professionals, CASAs take part in children’s Individual Educational Plan meetings for both ends of the spectrum of special education, she said.
The byproduct of the CASA’s work often is the child’s realization that he or she can trust an adult.
“Having a CASA volunteer who has been consistent in their lives is very beneficial to them,” Edwards said. “It can show them, by their actions, that some adults can maintain a relationship in their lives consistently.”
Anyone interested in volunteering to become a CASA may call Edwards at 343-2477.
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