Child Welfare Cases Involving Mental Illness: Reflections on the Role and Responsibilities of the Lawyer-Guardian Ad Litem

Child welfare cases involving mental illness suffered either by a child or his parent can be among the most difficult and perplexing that a child’s lawyerguardian ad litem (L-GAL) will handle. They may present daunting problems of accessing necessary and appropriate services as well as questions about whether and when such mental health problems can be resolved or how best to manage them. They also require the L-GAL to carefully consider crucially important questions—rarely with all the information one would like to have and too often with information that comes late in the case, is fragmented or glaringly incomplete. This brief article will begin with a discussion of the scope of the problem of parental mental illness and its impact upon children. It will then suggest the need for a particular type of evaluation in order to attain a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of the mental health issues involved, their impact on each party’s functioning, and how best to proceed with the provision of services. Next, it will address case planning by the L-GAL, doing so primarily through suggesting a series of questions that the L-GAL might ask herself about the parties to the case, others involved in the family’s life, and the community resources available to address the needs of the children and families with whom sheis working

The Indian Child Welfare Act: a Brief Overview to Contextualize Current Controversies.

Congress passed and the president signed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) into federal law in 1978. Because the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to make law regarding Indian tribes, ICWA’s provisions are mandatory, unlike other federal child welfare legislation such as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which are voluntary. State authorities handling any case involving an “Indian child” must comply with ICWA

Prenatal Drug Exposure as Aggravated Circumstances

In Michigan, a child has a legal right to begin life with sound mind and body. Yet the family court may not assert Juvenile Code jurisdiction until after birth. In re Baby X addressed the question of whether a parent\u27s prenatal conduct may form the basis for jurisdiction upon birth. It held that a mother\u27s drug use during pregnancy is neglect, allowing the court to assert jurisdiction immediately upon the child\u27s birth. In deciding Baby X, the Court specifically reserved the question of whether parental drug use during pregnancy might be sufficient to permanently deprive a parent of custody. In the 40 years since that April 1980 decision, our knowledge regarding the impact of prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol has grown dramatically and the law has evolved. These developments suggest prenatal exposure is an aggravating circumstance and should result in immediate termination of parental rights when a petition is filed, at least in some cases

Child Protection Law and Procedure

Child protective proceedings are governed by the Child Protection Law (CPL), MCL 722.621 et seq.; the Juvenile Code, MCL 712A.l et seq.; and Subchapter 3 .900 of the Michigan Court Rules. Taken together these sources of authority establish a comprehensive scheme for reporting cases of suspected abuse and neglect, investigating those reports, and responding with appropriate action

The Impact of Traumatic Stress and Alcohol Exposure on Youth: Implications for Lawyers, Judges, and Courts

Since its inception in the late nineteenth century, the juvenile court has been concerned with the legal problems of children and their families. From the court’s earliest days, it has sought to address child abuse and neglect and juvenile delinquency as social problems that result from familial and community breakdown. Over the decades, researchers from various disciplines have provided varying explanations of how and why family systems break down, why some parents fail to nurture their children, why some physically or sexually abuse their children, and why some children become delinquent

When Minors Face Major Consequences: What Attorneys Representing Children in Delinquency, Designation, and Waiver Proceedings Need to Know

In 1996, responding to the widely held misperception that juvenile delinquency was out of control, driven largely by the media’s disproportionate focus on youth violence, the Michigan legislature passed one of the country’s harshest packages of delinquency reform legislation (see sidebar). That legislation dramatically altered the way youth alleged to have violated the law are treated. Moreover, the legislature clearly intends that delinquency proceedings exist largely to punish children for their violations of the law. Both MCL 712A.2d(2)(e) (designation) and MCL 712A.4(4)(e) (waiver) make explicitly clear that one purpose of delinquency proceedings and the juvenile justice system is to punish rather than to rehabilitate. Many of the newer provisions are clearly oriented to punish rather than to address a youth’s best interests. Unfortunately, Michigan’s appellate courts have been slow to recognize this simple fact

Confidentiality of Educational Records and Child Protective Proceedings

The Federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which provides funding for state educational programming, requires that student records be disclosed to a nonparent only with the written consent of the child’s parent, unless the disclosure falls within one of the several exceptions detailed in the statute. One of the exemptions provided for in the federal law permits a school to disclose information to “state or local officials or authorities to whom [that] information is allowed to be reported or disclosed pursuant to state statute,” if that official certifies in writing “that the information will not be disclosed to any other party except as provided under state law without the prior written consent of the parent of the student.” If these basic requirements are met, the question of whether children’s protective services (CPS) workers, foster care workers and lawyers-guardian ad litem may access a child’s educational records is a question largely left to state law

Juvenile Justice Reform and the Myth of the Superpredator

In the 1980s and 1990s, driven to a moral panic by a sudden escalation in juvenile homicide rates, Michigan lawmakers enacted tougher laws with the intention of cracking down on all juvenile crime. That was the era of the “superpredator” (a term that has recently resurfaced in the presidential contest), a term coined by John Dilulio ,a Princeton professor who later became the Director of Faith Based Initiatives in George W. Bush’s administration, and was spread far and wide by a number of self-serving reform advocates who predicted an onslaught of psychopathic juvenile predators. Here in Michigan, then-Governor John Engler proselytized for get-tough measures such as building a “punk prison.” Then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chair William Van Regenmorter insisted that children be treated harshly and as much like adults as possible when they break the law. Twenty years later, these policies have proven short sighted and at odds with what we know about adolescents and their delinquent acts. Over that course of time, medical and social science research has demonstrated conclusively that the vast majority of teens engage in delinquent behavior at some point in their adolescence making delinquency developmentally normative. Research has also shown conclusively that most of those delinquent acts are the impulsive actions of still-developing teenage brains, and that these youths’ law breaking is “adolescent limited” rather than “lifetime persistent.” Simply put, almost all delinquency is outgrown in the normal course of maturing

Using Screening and Assessment Evidence of Trauma in Child Welfare Cases

If you are a child welfare lawyer representing children, parents, or the child welfare agency, understanding how traumatic experiences may impact your clients will help you frame your advocacy. Understanding children and their parents’ histories of exposure to potentially traumatic life events and how those events have impacted the client’s functioning—in school, in interactions with other people, and as parents—can be critical to framing your approach in the case. Evidence of the client’s trauma history and any compromised functioning that may have resulted from that trauma is critical to integrate into your advocacy