Here’s your periodic child welfare update. If you have any tips or suggestions, please let us know at rlatham@law.miami.edu.

What’s going on in child welfare world

Moving and shaking. Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan has been nominated for US Attorney in Miami. News reports have called her a “divorce court judge” and a “family court judge.” Until recently, however, she was a dependency court judge in Unified Family Court.

International relations. International adoptions are down, largely due to changes in policy by Russia, China, and the DRC. A report by Axios shows that domestic adoptions are back  to the levels they were before the financial crisis. Probably because the cost of living is one factor that determines foster care volunteer rates.

Hallmark doesn’t have cards for “I’m not legally allowed to know where my family is.” In honor of foster care month (which I guess was last month), here’s an essay that complicates the standard marketing messages a whole lot: Black Children and Foster Care: On surviving trauma of a system that doesn’t care about keeping families together. And meanwhile another foster child has died in custody.

Timeout. Hillsborough County’s foster care agencies got “blasted” by peer and OIG reports, and DCF is cracking down by making them write their own Corrective Action Plan and submit it in a month or so. That’s some tough justice. And if you think one peer report is “getting blasted,” Miami has two or three and can’t go out to play until it says it’s sorry.

Not it. Manatee County is trying not to be next, even though it is running a $3.8 million shortfall.

RSVP. A Hillsborough judge laid into case managers who do not appear in court to report on their cases. Be careful, judges — if case managers are sitting in your courtroom waiting on a hearing, they’re not out in the community getting kids to appointments and meeting with parents about their issues. Unless court calendars are very predictable or you set up a way for case managers to work in the courthouse itself, having them sit all day in a waiting room is likely not an efficient use of their time.

Everything is terrible. ProPublica reports that foster kids in Illinois are being held in psychiatric facilities longer than they legally should. So basically everything is terrible everywhere.

Mixed feelings martial arts. Justin Willis, an MMA fighter, explains how he learned to fight in foster care when staff encouraged pit fights among the kids.  He now aims to raise awareness about violence and conditions in foster care.  Says Willis, “If you take these kids out of their homes, you have to offer them something better. And what I received was not better. I wouldn’t say it was worse, but it created what I am today and that’s a monster when it comes to getting in that cage.”

Ok, not everything is terrible.  A trans kid got adopted in a costume party themed ceremony and it is awesome.

And now for some court opinions…

Sometimes you just lose. The Fifth DCA ruled that the failure of a trial court to make specific findings when denying a TPR under Chapter 63 is not necessarily reversible error. You don’t get to make the judge work late just so you can quibble over findings.  D.M. v. M.D., 5D18-473, 2018 WL 2448618 (Fla. 5th DCA May 30, 2018).

Daddy’s maybe? The Fourth DCA held that a biological father could not challenge an adoption more than one year after it was finalized. That’s normal, and where the opinion could have stopped. It also held, however, that he was not the legal father because the children were born during the mother’s intact marriage with another man, even though the trial court gave custody of the children to the biological father for a period of time as a non-relative. To assert his rights, the DCA ruled the father had to file a paternity action, a requirement I’m confident he probably did not anticipate given he had custody of his own kids. J.G. v. State, 4D18-0090, 2018 WL 2434817 (Fla. 4th DCA May 30, 2018).

So apparently there is a best interest of defaults. The Fourth DCA declined to set aside the default of a mother who was not personally served with a dependency petition, which was only filed the day before her arraignment. The court held that her appearance at the shelter hearing, where she was advised of her arraignment hearing date, obviated the need for personal service thereafter.  C.J.L-M. v. Dep’t of Children & Families, 4D18-836, 2018 WL 2716717 (Fla. 4th DCA June 6, 2018). I note that DCF conceded error but the GAL Program did not. I understand that, in general, needless delays can be bad. But I’m curious how the Program could determine that it was in this child’s best interest for their parent to be defaulted on a one-day old petition before any discovery had likely even been done. I mean, what if the allegations in the petition were actually wrong and the child is now in care for no reason?

Because sometimes DCF gets it wrong. The Third DCA took the rare step of reversing a dependency that was based solely on (1) the mother leaving her child with a relative who had previously been through the system and had her own children successfully reunified, and (2) the discharge of a firearm in the presence of the child. The DCA held that neither situation constituted risk of harm to the child without additional facts.  C.H. v. Dep’t of Children & Families, 3D18-291, 2018 WL 2422891 (Fla. 3d DCA May 30, 2018). Good thing she didn’t default.

A complete waste of everyone’s time. The Second DCA was put in the common position of reversing a change of goal and TOS to permanent guardianship for lack of proper notice. I get that you (DCF, GAL, child’s attorney, whoever), hint and grouse about changing the goal in hearings and hallways all the time. But threats are not notice. File the paperwork and set it out a week like you’re supposed to. In Interest of T.C., 239 So. 3d 1266, 1267 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018).

Speaking of wasting time. The Third DCA punted on the question of whether the Miami Herald can get access to an audio recording of a court hearing that its reporters were not present at. The opinion dismissed the appellate challenges from the family and child as premature because the trial court had not yet reviewed the record and determined what, if anything, the Herald would have access to. C.H.-C. v. Miami Herald Publ’g Co., 3D18-504, 2018 WL 2708374 (Fla. 3d DCA June 6, 2018). UPDATE: The Herald is reporting that the trial judge has reviewed the audio and ordered it released today. No word yet on whether the family will appeal.