The Coalition’s Legal Services & Information For Families To Uphold Protections program, LIFT-UP, aims to assist underserved and/or low- to moderate-income families in New York who are involved in civil legal issues related to adoption, foster care, and kinship guardianship.

: Legal Services And Information For Families To Uphold Protections for Foster, Kinship Care, and Adopted Youth

 

The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York currently has a very small pilot ad hoc program, which is able to provide the most impacted families with full legal representation, usually those involved in the foster care system.  On a case-by-case basis, we support families most in need with their legal cases (for example, hiring attorneys and paying fees) with our small legal fund, which is allocated by the board yearly from the organization’s general funds. The majority of families supported have been based in New York City so far.

  • In 2022, with authorization from our Board, AFFCNY spent $2,500 from our general funds to hire attorneys to work on a particular personal advocacy case.
  • In 2023, our Board allocated $7,000 to continue to provide these services for families most in need.

We are currently seeking additional funding to expand this program on Long Island, New York City and, eventually, throughout the state so we can assist more families’ needs.

Why New York Families Need these Legal Services

The expansion of the Coalition’s legal services program will fill a major gap in civil legal services for this high-need community and will enable us to address the challenges that many adoptive, foster, and kinship guardianship families face. Due to the specific nature of these cases and the scarcity of legal support available, adoptive, foster, and kinship guardians/parents often must navigate complex systems and court processes on their own.

Most commonly, these challenges include:

  • Children being removed from their home without 10-day notice;
  • Children being eligible for high/exceptional stipend due to their extensive needs, yet the parent has no guidance on how to secure the appropriate rate;
  • Receiving orders for how to spend a foster care stipend (which is not legal);
  • Not having agreements with caseworkers in writing to help resolve legal matters;
  • Not giving foster parents information needed to claim children in their care as dependents on their tax returns as allowed by law; and
  • Resolving issues regarding “prudent” parenting when agency caseworkers, for example, will not approve a family trip to an amusement park in New Jersey because it crosses state lines.

Other cases involve advocating for children’s needs with schools, social service agencies, or with the courts, such as when foster parents seek permanency for children who are languishing in the system or when the child requires special education services. Many parents/guardians also have to navigate child protective services when the child is involved in child abuse/mistreatment cases. For other parents, they may need support in ensuring the well-being of their children, which may include visitation agreements with biological parents, advocating for their rights to provide or seek appropriate care, and fair hearings.

The Next Steps to Expand this Legal Services Program

Here’s the Problem: 

As documented for decades, BIPOC children and those from underserved and/or low- to moderate-income households are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system. The most recent Monitoring and Analysis Profiles report from NYS’ Office for Children and Family Services (OCFS), which includes data from 2018 to 2022, shows that in 2022 NYS had 13,636 children in foster care. Of the total children placed in foster care, over 62% were Black (36.3%) or Latinx (25.9%), 26.9% White, 9.2% unknown, 1.5% Asian, and 0.2% Native American/Alaska Native. 

More than half (57%) were under the age of 10 (26.2% were children ages 2-5, 18.6% ages 6-9, and 12.1% were under 2 years old). Many more children residing in the state have been adopted domestically as infants or internationally as toddlers or older children from socially and economically disadvantaged countries, and are not included in these statistics. 

Due to the factors above, the population we serve is “high-need” and requires extensive support to address the complex issues they face. For example, foster parents and families often need to navigate the child welfare administrative, social services, and legal systems to ensure the well-being of the children in their care. They attend court hearings, provide testimony, submit written filings, proceed with adoption, among others. Most foster parents and families do this on their own, without legal counsel, due to the high cost of securing legal representation, limited number of capable attorneys, and few pro bono programs. The result is that the vast majority of these families are left in crisis and without any support.

Families need a LIFT-UP!

This proposed expansion of AFFCNY’s legal services program will allow us to serve families through the hiring of a staff attorney competent in adoption, foster care, and kinship guardianship issues who will help AFFCNY accomplish the following next steps to expand the legal services program:

  • Increased legal guidance to adoptive, foster, and kinship families in New York including occasional court representation of select cases as required.
  • Oversite to ensure all legal information and materials shared through our programs are always accurate, accessible, and up-to-date.
  • Growth of the legal resources on AFFCNY’s website, including, but not limited to an increase Pro Bono legal network.

This endeavor will address emerging and recurring legal information needs, including any new policies and laws that would affect adoptive, foster, and kinship families and children in New York and beyond.

Can you help the Coalition give a legal LIFT-UP to families? 
Donate directly to the general fund here:

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