 "Photo: Carson Werner/The Daily Texan")
Judge Darlene Byrne of the 126th District Court applauded the creation the Travis County Office of Child Representation and the Office of Parental Representation at an open house Wednesday.
“A baby is born cocaine-positive at Brackenridge Hospital — the mom is positive at the time of birth as well,” Byrne said. “Typically that would result in a call to Child Protection Services. That will result in this office, the Office of Child Representation, and more than likely the Office of Parental Representation being involved with that parent and that child immediately.”
Byrne is the vice chair of the Supreme Court of Texas Permanent Judicial Commission on Children, Youth and Families, which recently awarded a grant to establish the offices. The shared goal of the two offices will be to voice the needs of underrepresented children and parents who find themselves entangled within Child Protection Services court cases. The ultimate vision is a family unity built upon a safe environment that is socially and economically stable, Byrne said.
Byrne said the grant will provide each office with $300,000 in their first year. They will apply for another $100,000 in the next year and an additional $50,000 in the following fiscal year.
“One, we are going to reduce the number of children in foster care by assisting the families in healing themselves and coming back together,” Byrne said.
Leslie Hill, the managing attorney for the Office of Child Representation, said the cases the office encounters involve family complications.
“The cases we deal with are all abuse and neglect allegations,” Hill said. “We will have conditions where [parents] can’t take care of children. We have a lot of mental health issues, substance abuse and domestic violence.”
To ensure that the progress made by attorneys instills itself into the personal lives of their clients, each office will have a social worker aided by UT interns.
Mary Mulvaney, a UT social work clinical professor, assigns and supervises the interns, who will be able to address issues troubling children and parents.
“They need a lot of support, and our social work students are there to help them with whatever they need,” Mulvaney said. “If they need to be referred to counseling or if they need basic things like food or clothing, the students are there to be support. To make surethe family is getting what they need.”
Some Child Protection Services cases involve parents who feel their children were removed from their care without adequately assessing one or both parents’ ability to raise their children. The Office of Parental Representation aims to ensure parents’ rights are not forgotten and that their children are eventually returned to their care, said Stephanie Smith Ledesma, the managing attorney of the Office of Parental Representation.
Ledesma said children require an established home with adequate support by parents.
“Every child deserves permanency, safety and having their well-being met,” Ledesma said. “We, as an office, also believe that parents are in a unique position to do that. Sometimes they need education, sometimes they need case management, sometimes they just need a little extra hand. And maybe that extra hand is protecting their rights so all these things can come into place.”
Lamont Fisher said he became involved with CPS a year ago when his two daughters were removed from his care after his ex-wife started abusing drugs. Soon after, his wife began to fight for custody and made false allegations that Fisher was also involved in drug use. Fisher said because Ledesma was appointed to his case, he was able to regain custody of his children.
“Parents got to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough. I’m doing the right thing. Don’t judge me for what I did in the past. I’m going to fight for my kids,’” Fisher said.
