EmptyHomestead
January 17th, 2009, 04:53 PM
Hi all. I just registered here. My name is Manda, my husband is Mark. We finished our foster parent training around the middle of November and we took our first placement December 15. Our foster sons are brothers - the oldest is 8 years old and the baby is 9 months old.
We go through a private foster care agency right now (though we're seriously considering switching straight to CPS; that's another rant). Our kids' state caseworker came on Thursday and we talked some more about the court process. Right now, their permanency plan is reunification. The first hearing date is in April. The most likely outcome of that hearing (per the caseworker) is a 3 month extension for the b-parents' improvement period. After that extension, the state will recommend that the court pursue TPR. While the state recommendation holds a lot of weight, the most clout belongs to the guardian ad litem. In our state (WV), the GAL is supposed to be involved with the children. He should be visiting regularly, talking with the kids, talking with doctors, therapists, caseworkers, attending meetings, etc. He has done NONE of this. Our kids have been in care for 4 months at this point (they had another foster home before they came to us) and he hasn't met them even once. It's infuriating to me that he gets to make recommendations on their future (a future that may be sketchy at best) and he doesn't know jack about them. To add to that, foster parents in WV are forbidden from attending hearings, so all we can do is write a letter to the court and hope the judge reads it.
Is there anything I can do about this? My first step is going to be to contact him and request a visit - try to set up an appointment in our home for him to come meet the kids and talk with the verbal one. If that fails, I'm not sure what comes next. Any advice?
We go through a private foster care agency right now (though we're seriously considering switching straight to CPS; that's another rant). Our kids' state caseworker came on Thursday and we talked some more about the court process. Right now, their permanency plan is reunification. The first hearing date is in April. The most likely outcome of that hearing (per the caseworker) is a 3 month extension for the b-parents' improvement period. After that extension, the state will recommend that the court pursue TPR. While the state recommendation holds a lot of weight, the most clout belongs to the guardian ad litem. In our state (WV), the GAL is supposed to be involved with the children. He should be visiting regularly, talking with the kids, talking with doctors, therapists, caseworkers, attending meetings, etc. He has done NONE of this. Our kids have been in care for 4 months at this point (they had another foster home before they came to us) and he hasn't met them even once. It's infuriating to me that he gets to make recommendations on their future (a future that may be sketchy at best) and he doesn't know jack about them. To add to that, foster parents in WV are forbidden from attending hearings, so all we can do is write a letter to the court and hope the judge reads it.
Is there anything I can do about this? My first step is going to be to contact him and request a visit - try to set up an appointment in our home for him to come meet the kids and talk with the verbal one. If that fails, I'm not sure what comes next. Any advice?