Juvenile court proceedings are confidential. Unless you work in the system or a serious tragedy reaches the news, you will not see the significant role poverty frequently plays. In juvenile court proceedings, the vast majority of the children and families are indigent, and many have trauma histories or additional disabilities. Often, families of color are disproportionately involved.
Poverty Barriers Prevent Progress
While a mother receives treatment for postnatal depression, her toddler goes into foster care. She improves considerably, but she is often late to weekly visits and has missed some appointments. The social worker wonders if this mother is a responsible parent, stalling the reunification plans. The mother explains that she can’t afford the two trains and a bus required to visit her child several towns away. No funding exists to pay for transportation, so the child stays in foster care, and the termination of parental rights trial remains on track.
Lack of resources results in unsatisfactory, inequitable, and traumatic outcomes: more foster care, more family breakups, more court intervention, and more criminal consequences. As many of these low-income families are families of color, racial justice and equity principles are profoundly evident.
It is almost impossible for professionals to advocate for a client zealously and effectively when poverty barriers prevent progress. The attorneys and social workers working with this population know that better outcomes follow when vital resources are available. For example:
- $30 for an ID card so a teen aging out of foster care can get a job;
- $250 for a father to attend a court-required parenting course;
- $500 for car repairs so a family does not fall apart because mom cannot get the kids to school or medical appointments.
Many court-appointed attorneys find themselves reaching into their own pockets because they cannot stand to see families fail because of poverty. This is not a tenable approach.