Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Over the past decade, various reforms of state and county juvenile court systems have been initiated in an effort to expedite case processing and improve outcomes for children involved in both dependency and delinquency cases. Although most of these have involved structural or procedural reforms (e.g., requirement of mediation, case assignment practices (i.e. one judge/one case)), many have also entailed the provision of legal representation for children. The premise underlying this model is that, in contrast to court-appointed guardian ad litems, attorney ad litems will operate with greater autonomy and assertiveness and, more importantly, faithfully represent the expressed wishes of children. To date, however, no rigorous evaluation of the impact of the assignment of attorney ad litems on children's permanency outcomes has been completed. The current study was an attempt to address this gap. Methods: The current study involved a mixed-method evaluation of the Foster Children's Project (FCP), which is an attorney ad litem program operated by the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach (FL). First, based on a natural experimental condition resulting from the exclusion of children whose parents had been provided prior legal representation by Palm Beach Legal Aid, the substitute care and legal outcomes of children served by FCP were compared to those not receiving legal council. Data concerning the timing of court events and changes in legal status were obtained from a structured review of the juvenile court records of approximately 900 children entering care between 2001 and 2004. This data was then matched to FL Department of Children and Families (DCF) administrative records describing children's substitute care histories. Second, qualitative interviews of youth (10 to 14 years old) (n=30) and parents (n=35) drawn both from FCP and non-FCP cases, and semi-structured interviews of 25 informed participants (e.g., judges, service providers), were conducted. Results: In general, children represented by FCP experienced more timely transitions to permanence. In particular, they were much more likely to experience timely adoption but were no less likely to exit to reunification than non-FCP children. Additionally, the reduction in time to adoption appears primarily to be a function of faster completions of termination of parental rights orders. Results from the interviews of informed participants suggest that there is broad agreement about the affirmative impact of FCP, but that its apparent focus on adoption has lead to considerable controversy in the child welfare community. Results from the interviews of youth and parents suggest, however, that FCP representation helped to give voice and empower youth during their contact with the juvenile court system. The findings from this study provide valuable insights into the potential benefits and limitations attorney ad litems for the jurisdictions considering ways to improve permanency outcomes of children.