What I learned about behind the scenes at the hearing - aka for cripes sake!

Last night, CD's case manager, Ms. B., came for her monthly visit. She came with a coworker. I am learning that when you talk to any new person in the System, you will be given different information and different advice. In this case, the worker that we had never met suggested that we consult with an attorney.

Since my husband and I (with Z observing from the back) are only entitled to be in the court room to give a statement and answer questions, we are not entitled to observe the rest of the hearing. Ms. B. filled us in on much of what else occurred in the hearing. I also called the law guardian this morning to discuss some of my concerns and see what she had to say.

I learned that the System writes their court reports three weeks prior to court hearings. This means that the latest report submitted to the judge was written after a five week time period in which R had been consistently visiting as well as participating in all of her programs. As a result of R's progress, the report submitted to court recommended that R be given more time to work toward reunification with termination of parental rights and adoption as a back up plan. Ms. B. admitted that if the court report had included the month of July when R missed all of her visits as well as an intake for a supervised visitation program, the System would have recommended termination. But, you know, the court reports have to be submitted three weeks in advance. Yeah. Whatever.

In court, having only been told that the System would be seeking termination at the Permanency Hearing, my husband told the judge that we were prepared to and would love to adopt CD. He came to court prepared to now be a person of interest to the judge, ready and willing to discuss adoption plans for CD. Now we know why the judge said to him that it is "premature."

Unbeknown to us, the System had recommended the extension and no one bothered to tell us! My husband was pissed. He didn't need to be in court for a hearing that was simply a continuation of what was. He should have been at work and saved a precious day off to spend on vacation with the family. He was pissed that with all my communications with the workers and the year long relationships that we have built with those responsible for CD's life, that there was no heads up. We recognize, that we, as foster parents, are really nothings in this process and have no legal rights. However, common courtesy could have been extended. We know that the case worker and law guardian don't just do their jobs for a pay check. They genuinely care about CD. My husband being pissed triggered my calling the law guardian this morning.

Here's another bombshell. Though this new judge has had this case since February, he has yet to have read the file. When R spoke to the judge from a phone in the court room she said that she missed a mandated appointment because she was dealing with an issue regarding her son. Despite the file including information regarding R's history of the System's involvement with her first child and the ultimate decision for the child's father to take full custody of him a number of states away, he said, "what? there is another child?" The judge then ordered the full file on the complaint again R related to her first child. Let me tell you, this does not give me a whole lot of faith in this judge. Prior System involvement with an elder sibling is a key piece of information. How was the judge so unaware?

I'll save the conversation that I had with the law guardian for the next post. This one has gotten too long already.