Matthew Headley, JD, Madison County Deputy Public Defender
INTRODUCTION:
I am a Nebraska fan and have been one my entire life. After the Husker’s heart-breaking loss to Texas a week before I went to Austin for the Achieving Equity for Children and Family Conference put on by the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC), I was a little reluctant to tell anyone that I was from Nebraska. However, by the end of the conference, I had learned that no matter if you wear the burnt orange or you are part of the Big Red, children, parents and the juvenile system are similar all over the United States.
IN THE BEGINNING
I went to this NACC conference with high hopes of learning many things that I could take back to Madison County Public Defender’s Office, where I am employed, as well as to the attorneys in the Madison County Bar. I had high hopes of absorbing everything and being ready to “hit the ground running” when I returned to Nebraska to implement these ideas to make the juvenile system work 100% better for my clients and everyone involved in the juvenile system. This was not meant to be, as was explained by one of the presenters, Robert Schwartz. He explained that most people come to these conferences with the same expectations that I had: radical change and a million good ideas that we were going to implement upon our return home. Mr. Schwartz went on to explain that it is difficult to “break out of our silos” and implement these millions of ideas. He challenged the group to focus on one or two ideas that really had caught our attention. Mr. Schwartz concluded that by focusing our efforts and resources on these few good ideas, the chances of implementing them increase and allows everyone involved to stay motivated. With that message in mind, I looked at my own work at the Madison County Public Defender’s Office and made a decision to focus on the rights of parents involved in the Nebraska juvenile system.
THE PLAN
As is referenced in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-246, the Juvenile Code provides a judicial procedure through which the purposes of the juvenile code are accomplished and in which the parties are assured a fair hearing and recognition and enforcement of their constitutional and other legal rights. I regularly make reference to this section of the Juvenile Code when representing parents to make sure that parents are zealously represented in the juvenile court here in Madison County.
A number of different breakout sessions during the NACC conference made indirect references to the above mentioned Nebraska Statute. There were numerous discussions about Parent to Parent, a program where parents that have been previously involved in the juvenile system help out parents currently involved in the juvenile system. Other sessions dealt with how to provide the parents a voice at dispositional / review hearings. This information gave me an idea to bring back to Nebraska for implementation in Madison County.
My plan started with a discussion about providing the court a report from the parents at a dispositional / review hearing just as the Department of the Health and Human Services (DHHS) provides a report to the court for those same hearings. There is nothing in the Nebraska Statutes that would deny such a document from entering into the dispositional / review hearing. It would give the parents a chance to inform the court of their own progress in regards to the goals and strategies set forth by DHHS and suggest additional services that need to be offered to parents and child(ren).
In addition, the document would give the court a showing of action and active involvement of the parents. Most parents, in the eyes of the Judges and State, are all talk and no action. Giving the parents a plan that they prepared, with the assistance of their attorney, will give them something to work towards that is not only for their own wellbeing but for the best interest of their children.
IMPLIMENTING THE PLAN
The above plan is all well and good in theory, but it does not mean anything until it is implemented in real life in the Madison County court. As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, implementation requires getting individuals who are stuck in their ways to move “outside of the silo”. And I fully understand that I am included in that collection of people. I also understand that I will have to persuade others, including the Judge and county attorney, to implement this plan.
The first issue is getting this parent’s plan in front of the Judge and into evidence at a dispositional / review hearing. As the rules of evidence do not apply in juvenile dispositional / review hearings and are merely guide posts, offer and receipt of the parental report should not be an issue. Of course, if the parents have objections to the case plan prepared by DHHS, an objection will need to be filed and evidence presented by the parents to get DHHS’ plan changed. However, if parents just want to add some additional facts that they feel are important for the court to be aware of, then this parental report is the proper strategy.
The next issue is convincing the court to not just have the parents testify at the dispositional / review hearing to the facts contained in the parental plan. That issue is really just for future hearings as if that testimony is needed, a transcript will need to be ordered and submitted. Asking the court to take judicial notice of a prior exhibit, or even re-offering that exhibit, will be a better use of time and will provide the court with the same information as live testimony. It also keeps the parents off the stand and keeps the other parties from cross examining them.
Finally, the parental plan needs to be used with clients who can follow through and just need some additional motivation to get working on the DHHS plan. The parental plan can easily backfire for a parent who is not taking action or is looking towards a termination in the near future. Not following his / her parental plan will give the State and guardian ad litem more firepower in the termination or dispositional / review hearings. Thus, care must be taken to make sure that I pick out appropriate parents for this plan so I will not be setting them up for continued failure or problems down the road. This is not a plan that should be implemented for all parents involved in the juvenile court system.
CONCLUSION
The 2010 NACC conference was very informative and gave me plenty of ideas that I can bring back to Nebraska and Madison County in order to help the parents involved in the juvenile court system. The plan is to implement a “parental plan’ to submit to the court at dispositional / review hearings. This parental plan will give parents a regular voice during those hearings and allow them to get more involved in their cases. This is the major idea that I hope to implement to continue my zealous representation of parents in the Nebraska juvenile system.
Matthew Headley is a Deputy Public Defender in Madison County representing youth and parents in delinquency and abuse/neglect cases. He may be reached at mheadley8@cableone.net or 402-454-3317.
