Permanency for Older Youth: AL egal Perspective

							Permanency for Older Youth:
    A Legal Perspective

           June 9, 2011
       Jennifer Pokempner
       jpokempner@jlc.org
          215-625-0551
Background Relevant to the Legal
Discussion
   Practice and best practice models demonstrate that permanency
    can be achieved for older youth and that successful practices
    tend to include:
      Trauma-informed practices/approaches
      Child-specific recruitment
      Youth involvement from beginning to end
      Education and training of caregivers and youth re:
       permanency
      Post-permanency services and supports to youth and family
      Creative and flexible view of permanency options, including
       full consideration of biological family
Background Relevant to the Legal
Discussion
 Preparation for adulthood must occur while all efforts
  are being made to achieve permanency.
 Achieving permanency is central to helping a youth
  develop as a youth to adulthood and beyond.
Legal Basis for Permanency:
Requirements of Federal Law
•   A permanency plan must be established w/in 12
    months of coming into care and reviewed at all
    hearings.
•   The hierarchy of permanency goals exists for youth of
    all ages.
•   Reasonable efforts findings required:
    –   To prevent placement
    –   To reunify
    –   To finalize the permanency plan
    –   To place siblings together
Permanency Hierarchy
1.   Reunification
2.   Adoption
3.   Legal guardianship
4.   Permanent placement with a fit and willing relative
5.   Another planned permanent living arrangement
     (APPLA)
APPLA: The Least Favored Plan
•   Only selected when the court determines that compelling reasons exist to rule
    out the more favored options and select APPLA.
•   Examples of compelling reasons include:

         (i) The case of an older teen who specifically requests that emancipation
         be the permanency plan;

         (ii) The case of a parent and child who have a significant bond but the
         parent is unable to care for the child because of an emotional or
         physical disability and the child's foster parents have committed to
         raising him/her to the age of majority and to facilitate visitation with
         the disabled parent; or,

         (iii) the Tribe has identified another planned permanent living
         arrangement for the child.
45 C.F.R. § 1356.21 (h)(3)
Concerns Regarding the Use of APPLA
 Over use
 Not about relationships, more about placement
 Used as a default when a concrete plan does not exist
 Reflects and reinforces misperceptions about older
  youth and their chances for permanency
Pennsylvania Data
 45% of the substitute care population are 13 and older
  (8,500).
 About 50% of older youth in care are placed in group
  homes or institutions rather than family settings.
 About 25% of youth in care have the permanency plan
  goal of APPLA
Permanency Services in PA: Statewide
Adoption Network Units of Services
 Child Specific Recruitment (can include family finding)
 Child Profile
 Family Profile
 Child Preparation
 Post-Permanency Services
What Can Lawyers and Judges Do in
Individual Cases?
 Ensure that the hierarchy of goals are considered and
  that compelling reasons are truly compelling when
  APPLA is chosen.
 Revisit at each hearing whether a more preferred plan is
  appropriate.
 Use court hearings and appeals to flesh out these
  concepts and involve youth in discussions.
       In re Thomas H., 889 A.2d 297 (Me. 2005)
       In re M.E.W., 2004 WL 865840 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2004)
       In the Interest of E.K., 707 N.W. 2d 336 (Iowa App. 2005)
Advocacy in Individual Cases:
Reasonable Efforts Findings
 Ensuring that r.e. are made to prevent placement and
  for reunification are important routes to permanency.
 Use the reasonable effort to finalize the permanency
  plan finding to ensure provision of best and evidence
  based permanency services. Examples include:
       Child specific recruitment
       Family finding
       Family group decision making (and other youth and family
        guided meetings)
       Sibling placement and visitation
       Addressing relationship with biological family
Systemic Legal Reforms
 Eliminate use of APPLA through practice or law.
 Circumscribe use through narrow definition of
  compelling reasons or procedures for approval.
 Define APPLA to ensure it includes relational
  permanency:
       NY regulation—Another planned permanent living
        arrangement with a permanency resource
       Administrative requirements of use of a foster club
        permanency pact or similar written agreements between
        youth and caregiver documenting a commitment of a
        particular individual(s) to provide support past the transition
        to adulthood
Fostering Connections: Recent Federal Law Changes
Promoting Permanency
   Support of sibling bonds
      Requirement of reasonable efforts to place siblings together
   Supports for kinship arrangements
      Relative notification when enter care
           Consider application for already open cases

      Federal reimbursement for kinship guardianship up until 21
      Waiver of non-safety licensing requirements
      Kinship navigator grants
   Incentivizing permanency
      Federal reimbursement for adoption and kinship subsidies until age 21 (in
        addition to foster care until 21)
Legal Innovations to Expand
Permanency Options
 Consideration of post termination reunification as a
  permanency plan
 Mechanisms to undo termination of parental rights
 Laws allowing components of open adoption
Legal Representation and Permanency
 Improved legal representation can expedite
  permanency.
 Improvements include:
       Establishing right to counsel for children and parents at all
        phases in dependency case
       Establishing standards of practice and quality control
       Clarifying expressed interest model of representation for
        children