State and federal law requires that minors who are involved in juvenile or family court have a court appointed special advocate (CASA) or guardian-ad-litem (GAL) appointed by the court. The role of the CASA/GAL is to represent and be an advocate for the child's best interests to the court. Advocates are primarily volunteers, but may be paid by the court in certain circumstances. Programs that recruit, train and supervise the volunteer CASA/GALS are linked through a statewide association, Washington State CASA, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support effective volunteer advocacy for the best interests of abused and neglected children involved in the court system.

 

With funding from the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development and other sources, Washington State CASA provides assistance to existing CASA/GAL programs, assistance to new and developing CASA/GAL programs, legal resources and training for local CASA/GAL programs and pro bono counsel, an annual statewide training conference for volunteers and program management, regional program management trainings, and collection and analysis of CASA/GAL program operations data.

Tax dollars are saved by appointing qualified, trained volunteers instead of relying on paid legal representation to meet the state and federal requirements. Perhaps more importantly CASA/GAL representation reduces the number of moves for a child in foster care as well as the length of time a child spends in foster care. This can save the state additional funds and helps reduce the trauma in a child's life that is already impacted by abuse, neglect or domestic violence.

 

The 1995 Legislature through HB 1687 established funding for "state-wide technical support, development, and enhancement of court-appointed special advocate programs." CTED is designated to distribute funding to qualifying organizations, of which there is only one in Washington. That organization is Washington State CASA, a statewide association that provides these services to 28 volunteer CASA/GAL programs around the state.

The impact of this program is two-fold. First, through the direct services provided by Washington State CASA to the local volunteer CASA/GAL programs, local staff are provided with training, support and technical assistance to maintain and build quality volunteer programs. Subsequently, the children of Washington benefit from having quality, individualized representation during court proceedings. Without this volunteer system, state and local governments incur even greater costs because of the requirement to provide representation (by appointing paid attorneys or paid guardian ad litems). Otherwise, state and federal laws regarding representation of minors in abuse and neglect proceedings would be violated.

 

In 2001, 1,915 CASA volunteers represented 6,556 abused children. There were an additional 5,000 children involved in dependency proceedings needing CASA representation. The need for CASA representation continues to rise each year. A conservative projection of need would include the addition of 1,000 trained CASA/GAL volunteers to serve children currently without representation.

 

Current program evaluation consists of output measures at both the state and local levels. For example, documenting the number of children represented by volunteer CASA/GALs and the number of volunteers trained and maintained. A program evaluation conducted in 1998 by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, titled “Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children in Washington State: A Review of Effectiveness”, concluded that, while CASA/GAL programs in Washington State enjoy widespread support and are a relatively inexpensive method of providing representation to dependent children, a more rigorous outcome evaluation is needed to quantify cost savings and improved outcomes for dependent children (i.e. reduced time and transfers within the foster care system). Many within the systems that serve dependent children believe that an outcome-based evaluation of the volunteer CASA/GAL approach would show improved outcomes for children and cost savings to the state, which could support increased funding for volunteer CASA/GAL programs.

 

Bev Emery, Executive Administrator

Office of Crime Victims Advocacy

Office of Crime Victims Advocacy 
(800) 822-1067  Hotline
(866) 857-9889 Contractor Line