Child-Welfare System In Disarray In Overcrowded Queens Family Court

At present, eight judges sit in the run-down Court at 89-14 Parsons Blvd. in Jamaica. The facility is one judge short, but manages four calendar sessions a day. The frenetic Court disposed of 35,727 cases in the past year.
Court observers have called the physical plant a "chaotic environment in which to deal with the shattered lives of children and families." However, a new Queens Family Court building is currently being built.
Whether the Queens Family Court adds a ninth judge is up to Judge Joseph M. Lauria, supervising judge of the Queens Family Court.
"It depends on where the need is greatest in the system," said Fitzmaurice.
A spokesperson for the Foster Care Network, sponsor of Foster Care Month, said that agencies are seeking stable homes for children in Queens.
"The summer is always slow for us," said David Schild, president of the Network. "We have no doubt the next couple of months will be ruthless."
Last week Public Advocate Mark Green released a report detailing increasing risks to the safety of children in foster care.
The report charged that abuse of children in foster care is up 144 percent over the last four years. He called for substantive reforms.
Green said that while there have been overall improvements in the foster care system there are continuing dangers to children from abuse, neglect and poor supervision.
"Substantiated reports of maltreatment of children in foster homes more than doubled from 1996 compared to 2000, despite a 24 percent decline in the number of children in care," the Green report charged.
Another critical report on foster-care came recently from Little Flower Childrens Services, a social service agency, which announced its campaign to recruit adults as foster parents.
"Every day, throughout Queens, there are children in desperate need of safe, nurturing foster families," said Mary G. Ryder, Little Flower executive director. "Our mission is to reach people in the community and demonstrate how taking in a foster child can provide benefits that will last a lifetime."
Meanwhile, help is on the way to the beleaguered Family Court as CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) take their places in the court. These trained volunteers will help monitor cases and improve communication between various parties.
According to Amy Feldman, executive director of CASA, her organization will help the Queens Family Court fill the gap in judges and attorneys and expedite the Courts orders and achieve the goal of permanent care for children coming before the Court.
The CASA program in Queens Family Court is directed by Crystal Collier, a former Queens assistant district attorney who left that position in 1999. She told The Queens Courier that cramped space at the court will require her to work out of CASAs Manhattan offices. She plans on spending Tuesdays at the Court.
"Im not surprised at Mark Greens study of foster children," Collier said. "There are lots of kids in the system now."
Collier said she will be assisted by volunteers to bring permanency to the lives of the children who come before the Queens Family Court.
The situation in Queens is mirrored in The Lost Children of Wilder, Nina Bernsteins wrenching account of the foster care systems disasters, oversights and tragedies. She tracks a bright little Black girl named Shirley Wilder and the dogged lawyer, Marcia Lowry, who tried to find her a home. The child, motherless at four, gave birth at 14, and mother and son became hopelessly enmeshed in the 1970s in New York States foster care system. The book details the class action suit brought by a young attorney to assure that Black children are not discriminated against by the States foster-care placements.
"We still have some of those problems," said CASAs Feldman, adding, "the foster agencies have a high turnover of staff including attorneys."