Advocacy program for kids placed in child welfare brace for cuts after federal funding slash

The latest spree of federal budget slashing could mean some of Oregon’s most vulnerable kids, those placed in the child welfare system, have even fewer people looking out for them.

The Trump administration announced it would be slashing millions of dollars that normally flow to a program that helps foster youth match with Court Appointed Special Advocates. The advocate helps kids navigate court appointments and life in foster care. The total loss of funding remains unclear, but the national CASA group was set to receive $25 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice that have now been rescinded. Those dollars flow to CASA programs in Oregon.

The CASA program helps coordinate hundreds of trained volunteers who get to know a child in care and help advocate for their best interest. They also provide judges with reports and information about the child. Despite CASAs being unpaid volunteers, the federal dollars help paid staff train the volunteers, offer translation services, and offer a host of other services to keep the program running.

CASA volunteers are often a source of stability for kids in child welfare as they bounce around to different living situations, have several caseworkers and have limited contact with their attorneys. CASAs often stay with a child for years and work with them until they are 21 years old.

The CASA is often the only adult the child in the welfare system sees consistently, Stark Miller said.

“When you have a CASA on the case, the CASA only has that case,” said Betsy Stark Miller, the executive director of CASA for Children of Multnomah, Washington, Columbia and Tillamook counties.

The National CASA/GAL Association for Children (the latter acronym, guardian ad litem, is a term for a court-appointed person who advocates for a party’s best interest) received notice April 22 that the federal justice department was ending grants to their organization. According to quotes of a termination notice that were posted on the CASA group’s website, the grants were eliminated because they “no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities,” which includes “protecting American children.”

Since protecting children is the mission, the national CASA group wrote on their website, they “strongly disagree with the decision to terminate the grants.”

The national CASA association is appealing the decision.

Federal justice officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Northwest Oregon, Stark Miller’s CASA branch was approved for a $50,000 federal grant only a week ago. That grant has also been rescinded.

The latest hit to federal funding comes on the heels of the removal of a separate $1.7 million community grant project the Oregon CASA Network was depending on to help foster youth.

CASAs date back more than a half-century and the concept was developed in the Pacific Northwest.

A Seattle juvenile court judge in the 1970s didn’t feel equipped to make a life-altering decision for a 3-year-old girl. He came up with the idea of having trained volunteers who knew the children in foster care to advocate for their best interest and help them navigate the court system.

Now, there are more than 900 CASA programs nationwide.

Oregon’s child welfare program has struggled for years. Last year, the state settled a class-action lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Human Services. The plaintiffs were asking for better care for kids placed in foster care and lower rates of mistreatment.

There is currently a “neutral,” or an independent expert overseeing the state’s foster care system who is charged with improving the system.

State lawmakers are currently working to approve the next two-year budget and will be considering whether to add more to the local CASA program to help offset federal losses. In Oregon, the Multnomah, Washington, Columbia and Tillamook CASA programs currently rely on state funding for about 20% of their approximately $3 million budget.