by Circuit Court Judge Karen Cole
Family Court Division
In October 2009, the Florida Supreme Court approved a new Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure on “surrogate parents,” educational advocates appointed under federal law for dependent (abused, neglected, abandoned) children who have, or are suspected of having, a disability that adversely affects the ability to learn, but who have no available, willing, and able parent to advocate for their special educational needs. As a parent could, an appointed surrogate parent can authorize public schools to conduct psychoeducational testing to identify disabilities; can attend and participate in meetings to prepare an Individualized Education Plan to meet the child’s educational needs; etc. SPs do not tutor, do homework, sign field trip permission slips, or do other similar tasks. SPs deal only with the “big picture,” truly consequential education issues.
Where federal law (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) provides that a dependency judge “may” appoint a SP, the new Florida rule states that a dependency judge “must” appoint such a SP for a qualified child and must do so at the first (shelter) hearing. As you might imagine, there are more children in need than there are trained volunteer SPs for our judges to appoint. Qualified children who do not have an appointed SP are highly likely to drop out of school and suffer all the unpleasant sequelae that typically accompany that event.
The new Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure on “surrogate parents” can be viewed at www.floridasupremecourt.org/clerk/.../2009/09-1266_072009_Petition.pdf.