Tennessee Activists
Debbie Jones Ph#:901-837-0537 - LVN who works with special needs children. Debbie wrote: "When will it end???? Thank God my sister's case was dismissed........but not before almost two years of hell...I am in the State of Tennesee north of Memphis........should anyone living in this area need some of my free assistance..."
| Found on the Child Court mailing list:
I practice in Tennessee and work for a legal services agency. We provide representation mainly to parents in D and N cases although occasionally I act as GAL for children. HHs and Congress as well as TN have tried to better define when and what reasonable efforts are. I am presenting at an adoption conference and the audience is both Dept. of Children Services and private attys. I have done a lexis search and there is NO CASE LAW, at least not recently, on reasonable efforts and certainly I see NO CASE LAW findings that indicate that the efforts of the state were not reasonable. I would assert that the standard is basically meaningless for defense purposes because 1. No Court will ever find no reasonable efforts because the sanction is loss of federal dollars- a rather draconian sanction with no in betweens. 2. Even if there are not reasonable efforts, the Judge can always give the agency another shot at the apple (article by Judge L. Edwards indicates that frequently Judges can "craft" an order or finding to ensure that services are provided without penalizing the agency and an effective alternative to a no reasonable efforts would be to state that there will be such a finding unless certain services are provided.) 3. Even in the unlikely circumstance that a Judge would find no reasonable efforts, it means nothing to the parents because it does not mean that the child returns home. As to the preventative nature of the standard, given the "aggravated circumstances" list, I doubt any attorney could successfully attack the affidavit of any case worker. Rarely are the affidavits in our jurisdiction more than a very bare bones recitation that the circumstances are aggravated and most of the attorneys do not use reasonable efforts to prevent in their defense, more likely they use that there has been NO neglect or abuse. I was wondering about the use of the failure to provide reasonable efforts to prevent removal as a defense to a removal, or as a defense to non-return of a child. Any reply would be helpful and thanks for your suggestions Linda Seely [Linda@wtls.org] (Found on the Child Court mailing list.) |
