Ten Year Child Advocacy Lawsuit Ends with Renewed Hope, Collaboration, and Emphasis on Prevention St

PRESS RELEASE

Judge to hear arguments in federal lawsuit seeking reform of New Jersey's child welfare system.

Baby Neal vs. Casey results in constructive changes at the Department of Human Services and establishes new collaborative relationship between the advocacy community and DHS.

A press conference on Thursday, February 1, 2001 at 2:00 PM at the Hawthorne Family Center (Frank Palumbo Elementary School, 1100 Catherine Street) marks the end of the Baby Neal vs. Casey lawsuit. Alba E. Martinez, DHS Commissioner, Stefan Presser, Legal Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and Frank Cervone, Executive Director of the Support Center for Child Advocates, will host a press conference to announce the end of the "Baby Neal" lawsuit, outline improvements that have taken place at the Department as a result of the lawsuit, and highlight the Department's current and future emphasis on child abuse PREVENTION strategies.

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Baby Neal v. Casey was filed on April 4, 1990, after a two year review undertaken by a coalition of civil rights organizations of the foster care services provided by DHS. The review established the need for systemic reforms in the care provided to abused and neglected children in Philadelphia. In preparation for trial, the plaintiffs conducted a case review in which hundreds of variables were assessed for nearly 1,000 of the Department's files. With the delivery of this report in January of 1998, settlement discussions were initiated. Those discussions produced an agreement in which the Department committed to ensuring that it would meet federal and state mandates and effectively implement its practice standards and policies. Over the course of the eight years during which the case wound its way to trial, the Department revised its abuse and neglect (Children and Youth Division) written policies and procedures.

Moreover, as a result of both the litigation and the Department's renewed focus on reform and accountability, the following changes have taken place at DHS within the last five years:

*Dramatic improvements in achieving permanency for children by increasing finalized adoptions from 212 in 1994 to 650 in 2000 (over a 200% increase)
*Reductions in the numbers of children in foster care
*Development of permanency planning policies and practice standards in collaboration with private provider agencies and advocates
*Marked improvement in the continuity of legal representation in the permanency/adoption "track" by exclusively designating attorneys to manage these cases
*Development and implementation of an electronic database to document and track key information on a child's permanency/adoption "track" status
*Implementation of joint training with private provider agencies on best child welfare practices (i.e. ASFA, Kinship) to integrate knowledge, communication, and service delivery between DHS and private agency workers
*Greater collaboration with the courts through the planning and implementation of the Accelerated Adoption Review Court (with Judge Ransom) to speed up the finalization of adoptions for children
*Creation of specialized social work units to focus on children with family reunification plans, per ASFA requirements (Adoption and Safe Families Act)
*Establishment of a "child welfare open door policy" to develop an environment of dialogue and collaborative planning with a variety of stakeholders committed to the health and safety of Philadelphia's vulnerable children.

More recently, the settlement discussions have significantly changed the relationship between the advocacy community and DHS from an adversarial relationship to one of collaboration and forward-looking partnership. Stefan Presser, Legal Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the litigation's lead Philadelphia lawyer says: "It had always been my hope that the Baby Neal effort would strengthen the Department's care of our most truly needy children by opening a channel of dialogue between the advocacy community and the Department. Commissioner Martinez's appointment to oversee the Department has at last actualized this hope. There is still much work to be done, but I am confident that with Ms. Martinez at the helm, we are sailing in the right direction."

Frank Cervone, Executive Director of the Support Center for Child Advocates and who acted as a next-friend for one of the named plaintiffs throughout the course of this litigation, adds: "The Department has made remarkable reforms in its attention to due process and in responding to the individual needs of children and families. While the work is not done, this administration is clearly interested in continuing the structural changes needed to insure that no child goes unserved."

Mary Kohart, of Drinker Biddle & Reath, a litigant in the case, expresses: "Drinker Biddle & Reath is pleased to have had the opportunity to play a significant role in this case and gratified that we have helped in improving the child welfare system in Philadelphia. We congratulate the Department of Humans Services, the ACLU, Children's Rights Inc., and the Support Center for Child Advocates for the result in this case and thank them for all their hard work on behalf of Philadelphia's children."

Marcia Lowry, Executive Director of Children's Rights, Inc., the chief litigator in the case, follows with: "The lawsuit has accomplished a great deal by bringing the Department to the realization of the many changes it needed to make. We hope that Commissioner Martinez will rely heavily on the joint analysis of the current functioning of the agency in effectuating her plan to reform DHS."

Finally, Alba Martinez, DHS Commissioner describes the opportunities for change and reform that the litigation and settlement discussions presented: "The Baby Neal lawsuit provided DHS the opportunity to critically self-examine its practices, identify strengths and weaknesses, and develop plans to improve areas that clearly needed attention. This is a new day now at DHS. We are using the information produced by the reports and the new collaborative relationship with the advocates to move forward with an agenda that has a clear emphasis on the PREVENTION of abuse and neglect through multiple strategies. We want to create a model child welfare system that balances targeted prevention strategies - to keep children and families from coming into our system in the first place - WITH efficient and effective practices when children's safety is at stake and DHS needs to be involved."

DHS initiatives, changes, and current programs that reflect a renewed focus on PREVENTION are:

*Establishment of the Division of Community-Based Prevention Services to better coordinate the Department's wide array of services designed to prevent the abuse, neglect and delinquency of children in Philadelphia. For the first time, programs implemented by the Children &Youth and Juvenile Justice divisions have been brought together in one administrative unit, which will allow more coherent planning and more efficient use of resources.
*Office of Community Family Centers, which provides a variety of preventive services for children and families in 19 locations throughout the city.
*Office of School & Community-Based Truancy Prevention, which helps families of children who are truant both before and after referral to Truancy Courts, and which facilitates a broad truancy prevention partnership involving the police, the courts, the school district, other city departments, and community-based organizations.
*Office of Delinquency Prevention, which provides day treatment and other alternative programs for children and youth whose circumstances put them at special risk of more intensive involvement with the juvenile justice system.
*Parenting Collaborative, a new effort involving our longstanding Parent Action Network as well as new community-based programs which will be based on best practices research and targeted to the families most in need of parenting education and support services.

Collaboration with Department of Social Services, Philadelphia Safe & Sound and other key collaborators on the implementation of several of the Mayor's initiatives for children and families including: the expansion of after-school programs, the implementation of home-visiting programs for new mothers, and the expansion of the School Attendance Improvement Project to provide social service support to absent students before they are excessively truant.

The press conference will be held at 2:00 PM at the Hawthorne Family Center at 1100 Catherine Street (entrance closest to 12th St.). Press is welcome.

Contacts:

Liza Rodriguez, DHS
(215) 683-6012, (215) 906-6785
Stephan Presser, ACLU
(215) 592-1513, ext. 116

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.