Month: March 2013
-
Orlando Sentinel: With LGBT groups in Capitol, House briefly debates ’sexual oreintation’ foster care bill
A beautiful moment: It was a rare first-person discussion for the Florida House: two openly gay lawmakers discussing the problems they experienced as teens. The Florida House briefly showed its new, more diverse membership Tuesday when two freshmen openly gay House members supported an amendment to an otherwise non-controversial foster-care bill to prohibit foster parents from…
-
Normalcy Bill Passes!
I’m a day late (and more than a dollar short)–the Normalcy Bill has passed and will be sent to Governor Scott! Congrats to Florida Youth Shine and everyone else who worked together and very hard to make this a reality.
-
DCF to CLS: Seek Attorneys ad Litem for Medicaid Denial Cases
DCF, understandably, sees the futility and waste of paying for medical services that Medicaid should be covering. Medical support is an important component of permanency for families. I wouldn’t limit this advocacy to just out-of-home kids: we should extend this service to parents (as part of case plans and reasonable efforts) and to kids still…
-
“The first thing I lost in law school was the reason I came”
I came across this post at Poverty Law blog: A student who wants to do work on social justice came to my office and after I emailed him Bill Quigley’s essay, Letter to a Law Student Interested in Social Justice, he sent me a link to Dean Spade’s essay, For Those Considering Law School. Both are…
-
Third DCA issues rule to show cause against APD and appellate counsel
The facts are a classic professional responsibility or CivPro fact pattern. APD and M.B. reached a settlement. APD’s trial counsel courteously agreed to have the hearing taken off calendar, but through some snafu the hearing officer entered a default against M.B. The APD trial counsel acknowledged that this was an error and tried to fix…
-
Georgia: Deprived children and youth have no standing independent of GAL
If there is a holding in this case, it’s this: The protector of a child’s best interests is his guardian ad litem. It has previously been held that, “[w]hen a court appoints a guardian ad litem to represent a minor, the minor is in effect made a party to the action and has standing through the guardian ad…
-
Normalcy Bill passes the House!
I’m happy to report that the Normalcy Bill (HB 0215) unanimously passed the House today. Its equivalent Senate Bill (SB 0164) is on its second reading, which means it could pass very soon.
-
What I’m Reading: Parsing Parenthood
PARSING PARENTHOOD Cynthia Godsoe Lewis & Clark Law Review (Approx. 62 pages) The story public family law tells about parenthood is both inaccurate and normatively misguided. Parents are deemed “bad” because of their need for state support, and the parent-child relationship is accordingly devalued. This devaluation has resulted in costly and ineffective child welfare policies,…
-
What I’m Reading: Children’s Health Rights and Family Preservation
Mutcherson, Kimberly M. WHOSE BODY IS IT ANYWAY? AN UPDATED MODEL OF HEALTHCARE DECISION-MAKING RIGHTS FOR ADOLESCENTS, 14 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 251 (2005). Tracy J. Simmons. RELINQUISHING CUSTODY IN EXCHANGE FOR MENTAL HEALTHCARE SERVICES: UNDERMINING THE ADOPTION AND SAFE FAMILIES ACT’S PROMISE OF REASONABLE EFFORTS TOWARDS FAMILY PRESERVATION AND REUNIFICATION, 10 J. L. & Fam. Stud. 377 (2008). Susan…