By Reggie O’Rourke and Melissa Love
The North Carolina Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Program collaborates with child welfare stakeholders at the State and local levels. The N.C. GAL Program is the State agency that advocates in district court proceeding for the best interests of juveniles who are named in petitions as having been abused, neglected, and/or dependent. It does this through the appointment of a GAL attorney advocate, a GAL volunteer advocate, and GAL staff. Among the Program’s duties are conducting an independent investigation, informing the court about the needs of the juvenile and the circumstances surrounding the child, protecting the juvenile’s legal rights, and protecting and promoting the child’s best interests. To perform these and other important duties, the N.C. GAL Program will balance the need to partner with individuals and agencies with the imperative to remain independent.
One of the chief duties of the Program is to conduct an independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the child and the needs of the juvenile and identifying resources to meet those needs. Collaboration and partnership are key principles that guide the Program’s work. While these principles may seem at odds with the Program’s duties to provide independent legal representation and best interests advocacy, they are not. These principles recognize that many individuals and agencies play positive, significant roles in the child’s life and in the child’s overall wellbeing.
In each case, the collaboration begins for the Program when it is appointed upon the filing of a juvenile petition. While the county department of social services (DSS) agency is typically the first agency that the N.C. GAL Program works with, it is only the beginning. At the beginning of the case, the DSS case workers have information about the services that were provided to the family up to that point and contact information for the child, the child’s parents, and other people who have a close relationship with the child and their family. Throughout the life of a case, the DSS case workers maintain a wealth of information about the child, the child’s parents, and service providers who support the child and family. As the GAL contacts those agencies and individuals, the GAL will communicate with the DSS caseworker about the success of services, gaps in services, and met and unmet needs of the child and family.
In each case, the GAL team works with the child’s parents, immediate family, extended family, and nonrelative kin to identify things like the parents’ wishes for their child, the child’s needs, and resources within the family and the community to assist the child. GALs work with these individuals throughout the case.
GALs are trained to consider all aspects of the child’s life when investigating and making recommendations to the court. Many individuals and agencies provide services and supports for children and families involved in child welfare proceedings. GALs work with educators, mental health professionals, medical professionals, and others who provide services and support for the child and family. These groups have critical information about the child’s needs and wellbeing.
Where a child is placed might be the single most important factor in a child’s life, because the child’s placement impacts every aspect of the child’s life, like the child’s connection with their parents, siblings, extended family, school, and their community. Because of this, it is essential for the GAL to communicate effectively with the child’s placement provider who may be the child’s parent, relative, foster parent, nonrelative kin, federally or State-recognized tribe, or the individuals who supervise and support the child in a congregate care setting. Resource parents, like the other placement providers, have critical first-hand information and insights. Resource parents have a unique perspective about the child and family, especially when they are practicing shared parenting. Resource parents, like the other placement providers, have the right to be heard at permanency planning hearings even when they are not parties in the case.
The GAL Program also collaborates with agencies and individuals who encounter the Program’s child clients in other systems and court-related processes. The N.C. GAL team works with educators, school counselors, and agencies and individuals that help young people navigate the State’s education system. While all children need support in their educational or school setting, children involved in child welfare proceedings need additional support when placement changes cause disruptions and barriers to education. This reality underscores the importance of the Program’s work and collaborations in this area. When N.C. GAL child clients are involved in the juvenile justice system, N.C. GAL team members communicate with juvenile court counselors, attorneys, law enforcement agencies, and other court personnel who are involved in delinquency and undisciplined courts.
North Carolina is fortunate to have many specialty courts that provide specialized support and services for its participants like youth, adult, and family treatment courts and Safe Babies Courts. North Carolina currently has 35 adult treatment courts, 14 family treatment courts, and 3 youth treatment courts and there are 7 Safe Babies Court sites. The N.C. GAL Program collaborates with these courts at both the State and local levels to protect and promote the best interests and wellbeing of N.C. GAL child clients.
A lesser-known responsibility of the N.C. GAL Program is the duty to facilitate the settlement of disputed issues when it is appropriate. Whether it is during a meeting convened by DSS, a meeting regarding the child’s education, or elsewhere, the GAL will collaborate to resolve disputed issues. N.C. GAL attorney advocates collaborate with the other parties’ attorneys to facilitate the resolution of disputed issues. While the court process can be adversarial, the attorneys often work together to resolve disputed issues.
After the court order for each hearing is finalized, the Juvenile Code requires the GAL team to make follow-up investigations to ensure that the court’s orders are being executed properly. To fulfill this duty, the N.C. GAL team will collaborate with child welfare stakeholders throughout the case.
The N.C. GAL Program also collaborates with child welfare stakeholders on State and local committees like child fatality task forces, multi-disciplinary teams, Court Improvement Program committees, and permanency collaboratives. While the N.C. GAL Program provides independent legal representation and best interests advocacy for its child clients, collaboration and partnership are integral aspects of the N.C. GAL Program’s work.
Reggie O’ Rourke is an attorney with the North Carolina Guardian ad Litem Program and Melissa Love is a North Carolina Guardian ad Litem District Administrator
