by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Past and present members of the family and juvenile court system filled ceremonial Courtroom No. 4 at the Duval County Courthouse Wednesday to celebrate two adoptions and the proclamation of July 22 as “Explore Adoption Day” with Gov. Charlie Crist.
Circuit Court Judge Jim Daniel was to preside over both of the day’s adoption hearings, but one of the children had a special request: he asked if Judge David Gooding could preside over his final adoption hearing.
Gooding had gotten to know Aaron Cooper during the child’s 10 years in foster care and the judge was able to rearrange his court docket to fulfill the request. Gooding now sits on the bench in the Criminal Division of the Fourth Judicial Circuit. Gooding thanked many colleagues and started off by thanking Daniel for allowing him to step back into juvenile court one more time.
“I want to thank Judges Waddell Wallace, Henry Davis and Jack Schemer for the numbers we were able to produce in adoptions over the last couple of years,” said Gooding. “What we are doing is grafting a branch onto a family tree through adoption. With the help of the governor and the State, if we can graft enough branches we can change the forest.”
Crist was accompanied by Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon and Chief Child Advocate Jim Kallinger as the group visited Jacksonville, Ft. Myers and Ft. Lauderdale to tout the state’s success with adoption.
The State’s public adoption system produced a record breaking 3,776 adoptions in the 2007-08 fiscal year, which broke the record of 3,674 adoptions set the previous fiscal year.
Jacksonville was included on the governor’s itinerary because the Fourth Judicial Circuit contributed 956 adoptions from July 2007–June 2009, setting its own record during that time.
The Fourth Judicial Circuit’s Juvenile and Family Divisions have utilized the unified family court model recognized by the Florida Supreme Court as the best way to handle cases involving children and families.
“The unified court ensures that a family will go before the same judge throughout their experience with the court,” said Wallace, who served for more than three years in the Juvenile Division. “It promotes continuity and allows the judge to become familiar with a family’s background.”
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