Child-abuse cases
encouraged judge
to speed adoption

Some displaced kids
were in foster custody for
up to three years

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

When Family Court Judge John Charles Bryant Jr. began handling child-abuse cases in January, he felt adoptions of displaced children were taking too long.

He started ordering the state Department of Human Services to file adoption papers within 90 days for certain cases, unless it had a good reason.

Some children removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect had been in foster custody two to three years, he said. In many cases, the foster families — often relatives — bonded with the children and wanted to adopt them.

But Bryant said, "There was no permanent relationship being established legally. I felt 90 days was enough to file an adoption petition, especially when a child is with adoptive parents and has been with them since day one."

State law requires planning a permanent placement for these children within 18 months if their own homes aren't safe.

This is to prevent "foster care drift" in which children may linger years in temporary homes without the stability and nurturing of a permanent family.

Norma Doctor Sparks, heading a Department of Human Services adoption backlog project, said the agency is trying meet the court's requirements but "it is creating a real burden on the staff." She said Bryant "has been working very well with us and we have been meeting at least to streamline this process."

Bryant said adoptions have increased, with about two or three cases a week in his court. Other judges, also enforcing 90-day filings in some cases, probably have a similar amount, he said. "But we haven't done what I consider a lot."

He expects a crunch in the next two months, noting he heard about 100 adoption cases are pending because of 90-day filings.

Three judges who handle juvenile cases have divided up child protective services cases and all are handling adoptions involving those cases, Bryant said. This is part of a new court procedure in which one judge handles a child-abuse case until it closes, he said. In the past, all adoptions went before one judge.

Family Court Senior Judge Michael Town said the "one-judge, one-family" practice takes more resources, but it's felt cases can be resolved faster.

Child-abuse adoptions increased fourfold last year — up to 135 from about 30 in 1995, Town noted. Still, there are about 1,701 children in foster care and about 365 are ready for adoption because parental rights have been terminated, he said. "The task is to get those taken care of."

Town said concerns nationally are to divert kids out of foster care or, if they must go into temporary homes, to put them in "kinship care" or extended families.

"We always want kids to go back to their immediate family or extended family," he said. But the court is looking at no more than 18 months, and more like three to six months, for the family to make their home safe, Town said. "If not, the kid goes into adoption."

For some parents, such as a mother on drugs who isn't responding to services, he said, "We know in three to six months which way she's going. The whole purpose of this is to protect the child as much as we sympathize with parents and their rehabilitation."

Children born to unwed parents are a big problem, Town said. In 1995, unmarried parents had 5,427 births — 29 percent of the state's total 18,552 births, according to the state Health Department.

Here as elsewhere, Town said, "a father really has no rights until he's adjudicated as the father. We're trying to reach out in these cases to find the father and the father's family because oftentimes they have some strength."

That potentially doubles the number of family members who might be able to care for a child instead of the state, which "does not make a very good parent," he said.

"What we're doing is cleaning up the back end," Town added. "It is also requiring a lot of work at the front end. But it's all for kids."