Columnist Sandy Thompson: Judge committed to foster care changes

Sandy Thompson

Friday, July 6, 2001 | 3:59 a.m.

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com

IF FAMILY COURT Judge Gerald Hardcastle has his way, no child will leave the foster care system without a future.

Hardcastle is taking the lead on designing a process that better prepares foster children for independent living. Children who have been bounced from placement to placement -- sometimes for years -- are "kicked out" of the system at 18 or 19 and are expected to live totally on their own with no financial or family support. How many 18-year-olds do you know who could totally function on their own?

"It's a complex issue," Hardcastle says. "These children are more dependent. We don't give them a chance to grow up."

The foster care system, which is being revamped now that the Legislature has approved a new integrated structure, has been labeled as harmful to children. The emphasis is on moving children from place to place, not on raising them into productive, successful adults.

One issue is the concept of case management and social work, Hardcastle says. Workers in the system are better at case management -- they know how to manage the population, but they don't do social work. "Finding homes is different from making these children into healthy adults," the judge says. "We're stuck in the mode of 'get them to 18 or 19 and our job is done.' It's not."

Hardcastle says children need a support system after they turn 18. "They're all fragile children. The support they have can collapse at any moment. The foster system does not support children. It's too fluid. They go from home to home to home. We need ways of supporting children consistently."

That became painfully clear to Hardcastle shortly after he took the juvenile bench earlier this year. He was reviewing three cases of children aging out of the system. One had no money, the second was in the Nevada state prison and the third "just blew out." They refused to talk to Hardcastle.

"They saw no value in what we were doing," he says. "The fact that they can't turn to us is the saddest commentary of all."

Hardcastle is proposing a three-point program to change that:

* Put more focus on foster children at an earlier age to have "exit plans." Caseworkers would more closely follow their progress in school and do more intensive assessments.

* Redesign the foster care review board with a focus on independent living. Hardcastle is proposing the board be broken up into five panels at each of the suggested community resource sites. Independent living cases would be reviewed twice a year.

* Create a strong mentoring system for each child. "Mentoring means consistent support -- the hand that pushes the child through life," Hardcastle says. Mentors would make a long-term commitment to be there for the children.

One key to implementing these ideas is the involvement of youths, especially on the foster care review boards. "We don't listen to children often enough," Hardcastle says.

The judge says he will make these changes a priority for the next three years "come hell or high water." The timing is right, as foster care services are being transferred from the state to Clark County. County officials, Hardcastle says, are very committed to child welfare services.

Also, the need for quality services for children is increasing. The Adoption and Safe Families Act mandates a 12-month timetable for permanent placement of children in foster care. While the goal is to move children more quickly through the system -- and hopefully out of it into permanent homes -- it ironically has resulted in more terminations of parental rights, which has increased the number of children in the system. Hardcastle, though, is optimistic about the future for these children, if his proposed changes are enacted.

"It's one child at a time," he says.