by Bailey White
Staff Writer
Coming this January, the Jacksonville Guardian Ad Litem program will look a lot different — and it won’t just be the new office at the City Hall Annex.
The 4th Circuit Guardian Ad Litem program, which includes Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, will add eight new staff members and begin full implementation of new mandates passed down from State Legislature in September. And two more new staff members will be added in April.
“We’re now required to represent 100 percent of children in dependent care,” said Lisa Moore, the director of the 4th Circuit’s program.
Moore said the program, which acts as an advocate for children in the court system, has been trying to ease into the new requirements since they learned about them two months ago.
Another new challenge is to supply volunteers and case workers for a child’s initial shelter hearing, which takes place within 24 hours of the child’s removal from his or her home.
“The ultimate goal is the shortest route to permanency for the child,” said Jeanne Pittman, the assistant director of Guardian Ad Litem.
Permanency was often delayed by the previous system, when Guardian Ad Litem workers had to sift through weighty documentation to determine case priority. Workers used a standardized matrix system to determine which cases were most worthy of immediate attention, even though as Pittman points out, “they are all horrendous.”
The program’s new model of activity is called the legally enhanced model, because as Pittman said, “the lawyers take the lead.”
Guardian Ad Litem attorneys will now be required to attend every function of the court, from the hearing to the deposition to the judicial review.
“In the past, we were working reactively,” said Moore. “When a case worker or guardian felt that he might need extra help with a case he would call upon the attorney. Now we will be able to be more proactive, hopefully allowing us to move towards the best interest of the child more rapidly.”
Roles of other staff members will also be changing in the next few months, to make it “more like team work,” said Pittman.
Case coordinators will continue to work closely with volunteers, but will take on more responsibility in each case, meaning they will work the entire case if a volunteer hasn’t been assigned to it. Ideally, the case coordinator and the volunteer will each take on different aspects of the case depending on its difficulty and the volunteer’s experience.
“Overseeing an entire case is a very daunting task,” said Pittman. “Our veterans will continue to take on an entire case, but this will improve our retention of volunteers since they won’t be so overwhelmed too early on,” said Moore.
The new mandates are the result of a smattering of high profile cases in Florida involving negligence on the part of Department of Children and Families workers in truthfully reporting their findings at foster homes — cases like Rilya Wilson, the five-year-old Miami girl who disappeared from foster care.
Unfortunately, said both Moore and Pittman, the only thing that makes these cases unusual is that they were reported so close together and made the public aware of the severity of problems DCF encounters in keeping up with so many cases.
“There are 532 children reported missing statewide,”said Moore. “We’re like the mosquito in DCF’s ear, making sure they get done what they need to.”
To address these issues, Gov. Jeb Bush formed the Blue Ribbon Panel in May 2002, with the goal of a quick turn around of reports and recommendations.
In July, the panel produced its first report and formed the Guardian Ad Litem work group, which included Circuit Court Judge Brian Davis.
Legislators set aside $7.5 million for statewide Guardian Ad Litem programs and used a formula to figure out who should get what. New staffing will be funded through this money.
The legislative session’s new mandate requirements are based on a pilot program in Osceola County that has had success since it was implemented two years ago.
Moore said that with Guardian Ad Litem workers being able to cover 35 percent of cases now, and 24 percent of foster homes over-capped, the goal of full representation won’t happen overnight.
“This is a long-term goal,” said Moore, who appeared before the Duval Delegation Wednesday to give them a message.
“We wanted to thank them for their vote of confidence and to let them know that we are going to do the best we can to do what they expect of us,” said Moore.