Very few who have spent any amount of time in Family Court would debate the idea that it is a place of tremendous suffering. There is scarcely any type of case that is handled there that does not have as its genesis some form of profound suffering. Child abuse and neglect, termination of parental rights, juvenile delinquency, custody and visitation, orders of protection and even child support cases rightly invoke the images of a family that has been fractured and that the familiar places to which we instinctively retreat for safety, our homes, have been torn asunder. In this void, suffering steps in and can overwhelm us. It lays bare deep personal and emotional wounds that, unfortunately, may never heal.
David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, has crafted a beautiful essay that explores the purpose and result of suffering. The article can be found here. Mr. Brooks poses the question we have all considered at times in our lives which is: what is the point of my suffering.
Sadly, much of the suffering endured in the Family Court is self-inflicted. Parents who have come to despise one another inflict lifelong wounds on their children by continuing a battle for custody. Indeed, in just about every case pending in Family Court, it is the children who simultaneously suffer the most and have the least ability to address the causes. And so their suffering is without purpose, without end and without justification. And the repercussions of this suffering are far too wide ranging to address here. Suffice to say, litigants in Family Court will not, as Mr. Brooks suggests, find the suffering they and their families endure there to be ennobling in any way. And this is why it is often safest and in the best interests of their families to put an end to it with all due haste.
Showing posts with label family court information; pro se litigants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family court information; pro se litigants. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
Breaking the Cycle of Foster Care Through Education
It does not take an inordinate amount of insight nor a wealth of experience in Family Court to appreciate the fact that foster children generally are deprived of what most of us would consider a "normal" childhood. It is this life of severe, punitive and utterly undeserved deprivation that often results in foster children themselves growing up to become juvenile delinquents, criminal defendants and neglectful parents themselves. Having had the benefit of practicing in Family Court for nearly 20 years, I have been there long enough to have represented children placed in foster care, only to come across them again, years later, as either juvenile delinquents or respondents themselves in child abuse and neglect cases.
The ones I never see again, in court anyway, are generally the ones that, in spite of overwhelming odds, and without a great deal of outside support, demonstrate the grit, determination and will to get educations. As a general rule, it is often challenging enough to get many foster children through high school. But, as more fully discussed in an article in the New York Times here, some colleges are trying to get children in foster care to aspire to more than that by offering special programs that cater to their needs. These programs include counseling, support groups, programs for career development and, of course, financial aid. These are extremely laudable efforts by higher institutions which are trying to bring a previously deprived demographic into their academic fold.
What is also not commonly known is that as a foster child, the child is entitled to have the foster care agency contribute to the cost of a college education. Moreover, they can assist children in securing other financial assistance, housing, employment and a host of other services. And as more fully discussed here, that assistance does not end once the child is adopted.
Having a safe, secure home is obviously the top priority for an abused or neglected child. But once that child is safe, all of us who are charged with helping that child reach his or her fullest potential (judges, referees, case workers, social workers, therapists, attorneys for children, foster parents, etc.) must do more to bring that potential to fruition and, once and for all, break the cycle of foster care.
The ones I never see again, in court anyway, are generally the ones that, in spite of overwhelming odds, and without a great deal of outside support, demonstrate the grit, determination and will to get educations. As a general rule, it is often challenging enough to get many foster children through high school. But, as more fully discussed in an article in the New York Times here, some colleges are trying to get children in foster care to aspire to more than that by offering special programs that cater to their needs. These programs include counseling, support groups, programs for career development and, of course, financial aid. These are extremely laudable efforts by higher institutions which are trying to bring a previously deprived demographic into their academic fold.
What is also not commonly known is that as a foster child, the child is entitled to have the foster care agency contribute to the cost of a college education. Moreover, they can assist children in securing other financial assistance, housing, employment and a host of other services. And as more fully discussed here, that assistance does not end once the child is adopted.
Having a safe, secure home is obviously the top priority for an abused or neglected child. But once that child is safe, all of us who are charged with helping that child reach his or her fullest potential (judges, referees, case workers, social workers, therapists, attorneys for children, foster parents, etc.) must do more to bring that potential to fruition and, once and for all, break the cycle of foster care.
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