Although many may be skeptical of parents whose children are removed from their care, statistics show that nearly 67% of Hoosier youths exit foster care and are successfully reunited with their moms and dads. Those stories of resilience inspired the Marion Superior Court Juvenile Division and the Marion County Public Defender Agency to celebrate National Reunification Month for the first time in Indiana.
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Christina Kovats and Kristina Byers previously served time at the Indiana Women’s Prison, and this year they became advocates who worked to draft Indiana legislation aimed at dismantling the black-and-white mentality regarding termination of parental rights for incarcerated mothers. A new law now gives judges discretion in TPR cases involving parents behind bars.
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Children going into the state’s child welfare system end up more broken, attorneys suing the Department of Child Services say, because they are not being provided with therapy and treatment to help them heal. Rather, the lawyers contend, DCS is just finding beds to stick the kids in and forgetting about their other needs.
Read MoreA father who disregarded court-mandated drug screens, left his child with a relative and refused to participate in services lost his termination of parental rights appeal Tuesday. One judge, however, would have reversed based on the facts of a case that began with the child’s removal due to mother’s drug use and what the dissenting judge saw as “an effort to punish Father.”
The Indiana Public Defender Commission last month released an analysis of caseloads in Indiana, showing disparities between actual and ideal workloads. That data has led public defense experts to one conclusion: there’s still work to be done to ensure indigent Hoosiers receive quality defense.
A father who twice was convicted of criminal charges related to domestic violence episodes against the mother of his toddler lost his appeal challenging a child in need of services determination as it relates to him.
An Evansville man who was proven to be the father of a child adopted by foster parents, but whose paternity was never formally established by a court, lost his appeal Wednesday challenging the adoption.
Caseload standards imposed by the Indiana Public Defender Commission are likely higher than the caseloads public defenders should carry, meaning current practices do not give public defenders sufficient time to provide effective representation.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed a child in need of services finding after concluding that the child’s mother, while admitting to using marijuana, was not proven to have used it in the child’s presence or seriously endangered the child as a result.
Less than a month after a federal court denied a motion to dismiss, the Indiana Department of Child Services is asking the judge to reconsider the original motion as well as review a second motion to dismiss in an attempt to derail a lawsuit alleging the state violated the constitutional rights of children in its care.
A lawsuit alleging harm and constitutional violations by the Department of Child Services has survived a motion for summary judgment after a federal judge found the children plaintiffs have sufficiently claimed the state failed to protect them.
An Indiana Court of Appeals panel has reversed for two parents in a termination of parental rights case after finding that reasonable efforts were not made by the Department of Child Services to reunify them with their children.
Criticizing the Department of Child Services for attempting to take a “second bite of the proverbial apple” by filing a successive CHINS petition, the Indiana Supreme Court has reversed a CHINS adjudication and instead dismissed the petition with prejudice.
A child in need of services adjudication was upheld Thursday by the Indiana Court of Appeals after it found that the admission of testimony by phone from a doctor amounted to harmless error.
A unanimous Indiana Supreme Court has affirmed the denial of a mother’s motion to dismiss her termination of parental rights petition after finding she wasn’t entitled to a dismissal under the circumstances.
An Indianapolis mother convicted of felony battery after striking her son with an electrical cord failed to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that the charges against her could be defeated by the concept of parental privilege.
The admission of positive drug test results under the business-records exception was affirmed by the Indiana Court of Appeals in a Monday child in need of services case, despite a father’s argument that admission of the evidence was erroneous.
Compassion. Persistence. Patience. These are shared qualities that Indiana’s court appointed special advocates have when working with thousands of Hoosier kids in the child welfare system each year. Indiana Lawyer spoke with a few of those advocates about their personal experiences as CASAs following a 30th anniversary celebration of the Indiana Office of GAL/CASA on March 4.
Hundreds of CASA volunteers formed a wave of blue at the Indiana Statehouse on Wednesday in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Indiana State Office of GAL/CASA.
A lawsuit filed by 10 Hoosier children who argued Indiana should be required to provide legal counsel to youngsters involved in children in need of services proceedings was dismissed Tuesday in federal court. Attorneys who filed the case, however, indicated the matter is far from over.
Hoosiers who volunteer their time and energy advocating on behalf of kids in the child welfare system will have a chance next week to celebrate more than three decades of effort.
The Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear 19 cases out of 23 petitions for transfer last week but agreed to hear cases involving post-conviction relief and termination of parental rights, among others.
A father will have his parental rights restored after an Indiana Court of Appeals ruling that reiterated the Department of Child Services does not have the authority to set policy inconsistent with the law.