Legal Lifeline for Foster Kids

For the almost 70,000 children who end up in the Los Angeles County foster care system, life is often confusing and painful. Taken away from parents found to be dangerous or neglectful, they are placed with strangers, often must attend new schools and have to enter a world governed by judicial orders and timetables. The children sometimes are frightened and unable to express their needs and usually are unaware of their rights.

A thoughtful new program soon to be tested in four of the county’s 20 dependency courts could help improve the quality of life for these youngsters and, in the process, improve the county’s troubled Department of Children’s Services, which oversees their placements.

In the coming weeks, children in the fifth grade or above will be given a lightweight, brightly colored binder when they first come before a participating dependency court judge. The case, to be kept by the children, has special pockets for their important court documents and the business cards of their lawyers and social workers. Inside are three brochures, written in language children can understand, to help them navigate the child-protective bureaucracy and learn their rights.

The case is the idea of attorneys with the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. of Counsel for Children, the lawyers who represent kids in court. While the tragic deaths of children in foster care have captured headlines in recent years, more common are the daily deprivations and indignities: youngsters who want to visit siblings in other foster homes and are told they can’t, kids whose social workers or lawyers won’t return their calls or kids whose clothes are left behind in a move to a new foster home.

The binder project, which could become countywide next year, is aimed at informing children of their rights within the county’s maze-like system. For example, kids have a right to talk with an attorney before each court hearing, a right to confide in their attorneys and a legitimate expectation that lawyers and social workers will respond to their calls. Kids also have a right to attend all hearings involving their situations; to be kept safe; to visit family members; to obtain prompt medical attention; to attend school and to get any needed help with their studies; to have adequate clothing and personal items.

These rights might seem self-evident, but they are denied to far too many children here. The binder project could be a real lifeline for vulnerable kids.