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August 8, 2008, 2:55 pm PDT
casa
Quote From: skbrown419I'm sorry, that in your state, CASA's were adamant about returning a child to the home they were removed from. In the state where I was a CASA we were told that we were to advocate for the best interest of the child, no matter what that might be. It was the state who said the first goal was reunification. The parents have a lawyer who does what THEY want, the child has a
lawyer who does what the CHILD wants, but the CASA is a neutral party
who does what's best for the child. Because a CASA is appointed by the judge and has more assessibilty to information than a case worker, our CPS workers actually wanted us to be involved. Granted, I would love to have "fixed" every home so the child could return, but if that was not the safest place then I would look for other more suitable situations. The CASA program can be a great thing for a child. I'm sorry your experience was a bad one for you and possibly the children you represented. I have both worked for cps and am now a casa volunteer. So I know both worlds. My last case was sad and against our efforts the children were sent back to their parent. We advocate on what is best for the children and sometimes it is best to give them a fresh start if that previous home has not changed. It saddens me that you see us as the bad guys here because surely you know we do not have the final say! the judge has that say and sometimes "against all odds" the judge sends them back into a home that has not changed. I have graduated college and did some undergrad work, so please do not assume we have no training and we do not know what we are doing! Our chapter has more training that I could never make all of them even if I had nothing else to do. Here the children have their lawyer as well, so hopefully the chilren won't get lost in the shuffle. I think we do the best we can, but the judge still has the final say.
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