Lawyers Expedite Foster Children's Placement into Permanent Homes
Project by the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Florida,
increases adoption rate and reduces time children spend in foster care

Chicago, IL, May 21, 2008 - Foster children represented by lawyers in juvenile court are adopted or go to live with relatives in long-term custody up to three times more quickly than children without legal representation, according to a recently released evaluation by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. The study, the first of its kind, examined results of the Legal Aid Society's Foster Children's Project, which provides legal representation to children up to age 12 who entered foster care in Palm Beach County because of abuse or neglect.

Increasing the rates of adoption and long-term custody for children in the project did not have the effect of significantly lowering rates of reunification with children's biological families.

The study compared the cases of 1,201 Palm Beach County foster children who were served by the project since it began in 2001 with 132 foster children who were ineligible to participate because of a Legal Aid Society conflict of interest.

Nationally, most of the important decisions about foster children, for example, when they can go home or whether they can be adopted, are made in juvenile courts. While parents and child welfare agencies may have their own attorneys, foster children rarely have an attorney representing their "expressed" interests.

"Having an assertive legal advocate pressing for things that expedited court decisions seemed to make the difference for children in this project," said Andrew Zinn, a senior researcher at Chapin Hall and the study's lead author. "This could include compliance with court-approved case plans for parents and agencies, and establishing clear benchmarks and timelines."

In 2007, the project had an operating budget of $1.7 million and provided legal representation to approximately 350 children. The four main ways that attorneys in the project advocate for foster children are: filing legal motions, filing for termination of parental rights petitions and recruitment of adoptive homes, attending case plan meetings and advocating for services.

Juvenile court improvement projects have been in operation for almost 15 years, said Zinn. But there has been little, if any, research on the impact of juvenile court improvement efforts on permanency outcomes for foster children before this study.

The study estimates that the cost of each extra day a child spends in a permanent home might be as low as $32. Researchers derived the estimate by offsetting the costs of post-adoption subsidies and attorney representation with the savings gained when children no longer need a caseworker and other foster care supports.

The full report, "Expediting Permanency: Legal Representation for Foster Children in Palm Beach County," may be downloaded from the Chapin Hall website at www.chapinhall.org.

Chapin Hall Center for Children is an independent applied research center at the University of Chicago that provides rigorous research and innovative ideas to policymakers, government officials, service providers, and funders working to improve the lives of children and adolescents. Chapin Hall's multidisciplinary research encompass the needs of all children and adolescents, with special attention to populations experiencing significant problems—such as maltreatment, poverty, and mental and physical illness—and to the service systems designed to address those challenges.

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