Beyond The Foster Care System: The Future for Teens

Chapter 1: First Impressions of the Foster Care System

To get into foster care, you have to pass through family court. To get into family court, you have to wait on a long line to go through metal detectors. The court officers proudly show off garbage cans filled with weapons, guns, knives, brass knuckles, and weapons discovered on clients attempting to enter the courtroom. Some evade the metal detectors, like the family member who brought a rock to throw at a judge. We too first entered the foster care system through family court, when we worked there as lawyers for children in foster care. Betsy was an attorney, recently out of law school, working for a small legal services office that represented children in foster care review cases. Paul was a law student, on sabbatical from the chairmanship of the communications department at a university. He applied for an internship at the firm and was assigned to work with Betsy, who persuaded him to continue at the firm when he graduated from law school. As law guardians (in New York the official family court name for lawyers who are assigned to every child in foster care) we were assigned by judges in the family court to represent children who were put into foster care. These children had “cases” in family court because every child in New York City’s foster care system had their case—living situation, permanency plan, and any special needs—reviewed by a family court judge, not because they had done anything wrong. The children were assigned lawyers to represent 1 1 First Impressions of the Foster Care System Teresa their interests. Our job was to articulate the child’s position in court and present evidence or argument to support that position: stay in a foster home, return home right away, move to a better group home, prevent separation from a sibling, receive preparation to live independently, or receive attention about other issues related to foster care placement. This court review typically lasted less than five minutes; but its purpose was explicit: to ensure that (1) the child was in the right place with the right sort of services , and (2) that the city was either working with the family, if that was the plan, or trying to place the child with an adoptive family. Many of our cases were teenagers. Many had grown up in foster care, and others were placed into foster care when they hit adolescence and family con- flicts escalated. For youth older than about fifteen, the judge usually approved the goal of independent living. In practice, this meant the teen would remain in foster care indefinitely, until she or he “aged out” somewhere between eighteen and twenty-one years old. We learned that for many teens, foster care became a long-term living arrangement. Paul On the second day of work as a lawyer, my supervisor handed me a stack of folders. “Here are some cases that you can take over,” she said. “I don’t think any are coming into court right away, but you can start checking up on your clients. See how they’re doing. Ask their social workers to bring them in to meet you.” I was somewhat confused, but I began looking through the files, making phone calls, introducing myself as the new lawyer on the case, and requesting a time to interview Brian, or Maritsa, or Lateesha. One of the first clients I saw was Teresa. Teresa and I met for the first time in my minuscule office. There were no windows and no discernable air vent. Teresa moved into the office with little emotion and sat down. I had to ask her to stand again while I maneuvered her chair so I could close the door. I cursed the fact that both she and I had to meet in such an inhospitable environment. Teres’s face was unreadable, as if she were a captured spy preparing for interrogation. Teresa was seventeen years old with a pleasant face and wellkept short hair. Her clothes were surprisingly nondescript, in contrast to many Beyond the Foster Care System 2 teenagers trying to define their identity through their clothing. The few times she looked directly at me, her eyes conveyed a sense that she was aware of every action I took. I let Teresa know that the purpose of our meeting was for me to learn where she wanted...