Programs: San Juan County

Court Appointed Special Advocates

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

San Juan County CASA volunteers are appointed in child neglect/abuse cases that have been filed in the District Court of San Juan County, Children's Court Division, of the Eleventh Judicial District, State of New Mexico.

In 1996, there were a total of 1,658 reports of suspected abuse and/or neglect of children in San Juan County. Of these 49% were substantiated and resulted in action by child protective services. Out of home placements in San Juan County resulted in 333 children residing in Childhaven's Emergency Shelter during 1996. There were also children placed in 22 state-run foster homes. Nearly all of these children would have benefited from a CASA volunteer.

Generally, the state sets two years as the maximum time the child can be placed in temporary care without some form of permanency plan in place. The new Children's Code has shortened the timeframe for a child placed in the state's custody, thus creating a greater burden on the system to make quicker determinations in the lives of these children. However, the reality of the situation is high turnover in social workers, high caseloads, and a limited budget for the state's legal department. The CASA program and its volunteers are paramount to serving the needs of these children and relieving the overload and inefficiencies of the present system.

In New Mexico, Guardian Ad Litems (GAL)s are attorneys contracted to provide representation to children involved in abuse and neglect proceedings to the court. New Mexico State law requires that a GAL be assigned to represent children in all abuse and neglect cases. The reality is that there are far too many cases and the pay so low that GALs are incapable of providing little more than the most basic of legal representation. There is only one GAL in San Juan County and she is supportive of CASAs and the service that they provide. Her annual caseload is approximately 50 abuse/neglect cases in addition to her private law practice.

The New Mexico Supreme Court rule 10-121 recognizes the status of the CASA volunteer. The CASA may assist the children's court in determining the best interests of the child by investigating the facts of the situation when directed by the court and submitting reports to the parties. The CASA also assists by monitoring compliance with the treatment plan and submitting reports to the court and the parties subsequent to adjudication.

Coordinate All Aspects of the Program:

The San Juan County CASA program will be administered by an umbrella organization: Childhaven. Childhaven is its own 501(c)(3) and is currently comprised of five programs: Children's Emergency Shelter (32 bed residential facility for children ages birth-seventeen), Children's Safehouse (Forensic Interviews for child victims of sexual abuse), Child Placement (Foster Care and Treatment Foster Care), Family Support (Advocates that work with families in their homes), and the CASA program. The continued placement of the CASA program at Childhaven is a logical one, as the agency is focused solely on child advocacy issues. Childhaven's staff reflects the population of San Juan County with 45% Anglo, 41% Native American and 14% Hispanic.

A lawyer on the Childhaven Board of Directors and a now retired judge organized the San Juan CASA program in 1996. The CASA program was given to Childhaven to manage, as our missions were similar.

The CASA program currently is administered by the part-time CASA Volunteer Coordinator who is supervised by the Childhaven Executive Director. All CASA program monies are kept separate from the other four programs. The CASA program shares 10% of the administrative costs for the full-time Executive Director, Development Coordinator, Finance Coordinator, Secretary, and a part-time maintenance person. The Development Coordinator was hired in the Fall of 1998 to take over some of the grant writing, fund-raising, and planned giving program responsibilities of the Executive Director. The Secretary is available to all programs to create forms, data entry, and keep statistics, as well as perform various clerical duties. The Secretary is available to CASA volunteers to type written reports if needed. Ultimately, the Childhaven Executive Director is responsible to see that all tasks are completed on time, within budget, and at the highest level of quality. Many of the specific duties, however, have been delegated to the CASA Volunteer Coordinator to fulfill.

The current part-time CASA Volunteer Coordinator position will continue once the contract has been secured. A part-time Case Manager position will be hired once the CASA Volunteer Coordinator has a reached a caseload capacity of 15 or more volunteers. The New Mexico CASA Network State standards, as well as, National CASA standards, recommend a volunteer/manager of 30/1 for a full-time case manager and a 15/1 ratio for a part-time case manager. All applicants are required to submit a resume, with three written references. The applicants are interviewed typically twice by a selection committee. All new hires are required to attend an 8-hour new staff orientation, have negative results of a TB Test, undergo screening through local and state law enforcement agencies, the Central Registry of Children Youth and Families Department (CYFD), a Federal Background Check and three reference checks.

B. Recruit, and Manage volunteers:

The CASA Volunteer Coordinator is responsible for recruiting and training 12 volunteers per year. Volunteer recruitment is combined into Childhaven's current solicitation of volunteers through free television, radio and newspaper advertisements. Childhaven has a solid volunteer program currently in place called the "Helping Hands", utilizing an average of 100 volunteer hours per month. Volunteers are used to help with office work, newsletter editing and distribution, fund-raisers, and direct care. A valuable resource for volunteers has been the San Juan College Volunteer Center in Farmington. The majority of Childhaven's new volunteers have been placed through the center.

CASA volunteers must complete twenty hours of initial training. This mandatory training of prospective CASA volunteers wilL utilizeS the various entities (judge, social workers, GALs and therapists) involved in the investigation of child abuse and neglect cases. The CASA Volunteer Coordinator has been working with these various agencies and all have participated in the CASA trainings. CASA volunteers are required to complete fifteen hours of in-service training.

The screening process for the CASA volunteer is already in place at the facility. Childhaven's volunteer screening and orientation process is the same as that required for employed childcare workers. For prospective CASA applicants, they are required to undergo an extensive background check through local, state law enforcement agencies, the Central Registry of Children Youth and Families Department (CYFD), a Federal background check and three reference checks. Volunteers are also required to undergo a TB test and must have negative results prior to working with the children.

The role of the CASA volunteers varies slightly in each court of law. For the Eleventh Judicial District Court, the Children's Court judge has helped devise policies and procedures that work in his court. The volunteer's role continues to be determined by their effectiveness in advocating for the children and the issues that they bring to the attention of the court. The Childhaven Executive Director and CASA Volunteer Coordinator continue to network with the local entities and have on-going contact with the Children's Court Judge and Court Administrator to fine tune any program needs or concerns.

The following are the duties and responsibilities of a CASA volunteer:

• To commit to one year of service as a CASA volunteer (or at minimum working an assigned case to completion, which may be up to one year.)
• To attend all court hearings involving the CASA's case(s).
• To be an independent advocate for the best interests of the child.
• To conduct research on the child by speaking with the parents, teachers, therapists, coaches, social workers, etc.
• To prepare a written court report for the Children's Court Judge.
• To ensure the children receive the services that they are supposed to receive.
• To see that things happen for the child in a timely manner.
• To maintain commitment to the mission statement and goals of the program.

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In the Eleventh Judicial District Court, CASA volunteers can be appointed as early as the custody hearing. Early appointment of CASAs is vital to their overall knowledge of the case. By being involved from the beginning the volunteer is more effective and can act as a consistent presence throughout the duration of the case.

E. Evaluate the CASA Program:

The CASA program will be evaluated annually by the agencies involved in abuse/neglect cases (the social workers, volunteers, judge, and GAL) that have interaction with the volunteers. The CASA Volunteer Coordinator will evaluate the volunteers, as well as, on an annual basis.

Long-term effectiveness of the program will be determined by the decrease in the length of time abused and neglected children must remain in foster care. The immediate impact of the program will be determined by the judge and the core team members involved in determining permanency placement. Their evaluations, along with the statistics will help determine the success of the program. This feedback will be discussed with members of the core team.

Statistical data will be collected on age, gender, ethnicity, residency, siblings, caseworker, attorney, etc. The CASA Program at Childhaven is one of a handful of CASA programs in New Mexico utilizing the COMET (CASA Outcomes, Management and Evaluation Tool) system to aid our program in managing the case information. COMET is endorsed by the National CASA program as the best system currently available to track CASA cases. Evaluations of the program will help design the specific demographic data needed to be collected. This database program has been useful in collecting statistics for monthly, quarterly and annual reports.

Cost effectiveness of the program will be evaluated by the number of in-kind services the program utilizes. The primary volunteer format of the CASA program is structured to ensure operating costs are kept to a minimum. The strong volunteer support that Childhaven currently receives in the areas of fund-raising, office support, and direct care will also contribute to inevitable cost savings for the CASA program. As for the financial aspects of continuing the CASA program under the umbrella format at Childhaven, this has enabled us to lower the start-up costs experienced with new programs, as well as consolidate administrative costs, while centralizing the location of the majority of abuse/neglect children with the CASA volunteer office under the same roof.

Childhaven is the most logical placement of the San Juan County CASA Program. The program has been established for three years, with the program having been overseen by Childhaven for the past two years. The current CASA program has established and maintained its connection with the Statewide CASA Network and is an active member if its board. The CASA Volunteer Coordinator has actively networked with the majority of the agencies involved in abuse/neglect cases, receiving positive feedback on the continuation of CASA in San Juan County. The program is already established; all it requires is continued funding.

F. Report to Children's Court Judge:

The CASA program will report directly to the Children's Court Judge regarding the status and progress of the program. The CASA program will compile a year-end report detailing the program's successes and improvement plan.

As the primary responsibility of the CASA volunteer, they will prepare a written report to present to the court. It will include recommendations for the judge to consider. The report will be distributed to parties from the various agencies involved in the abuse/neglect cases so that all of the information is available and all parties can discuss the issues. The volunteers will typically not be called to testify, unless clarification is deemed necessary in addition to their written report. Legal consultation will be available pro bono from a lawyer on the board of directors of Childhaven.

G. Participate in the New Mexico State CASA Network:

The CASA program at Childhaven has actively cooperated and participated in the support of the New Mexico State CASA Network. In the past year the part-time CASA Volunteer Coordinator has attended all quarterly statewide CASA Network meetings and has held a co-chairperson position on the NM CASA Network's Standards Committee. The San Juan County CASA Program is registered with the New Mexico State CASA Network and the National CASA Association and has a representative on the board of the New Mexico State CASA Network. The Network works collaboratively to assist new programs in getting established as well as schedule trainings for established programs to continue their education. The Network has been instrumental in securing the funding statewide for CASA programs in all counties.

The San Juan County CASA program networks with the 13 CASA programs in New Mexico. Through this communication network our CASAs and GAL can utilize the knowledge of the Albuquerque CASA program to support our GAL who has children placed in care facilities in that area. With San Juan County CASA's connections throughout the state, our program has a strong network in place to support children in our community wherever they may reside.