THE LATEST 2010 Annual Report to SC
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Better Courts For Kids and Families Through Judicial Leadership The Children’s Commission 2010 Annual Report to 1 the Supreme Court THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS Wallace B. Jefferson, Chief Justice Justice Nathan L. Hecht Justice Dale Wainwright Justice David Medina Justice Paul W. Green Justice Phil Johnson Justice Don R. Willett Justice Eva Guzman Justice Debra Lehrmann CHILDREN’S COMMISSION STAFF Tina Amberboy Executive Director Tiffany Roper Assistant Director Kristi Taylor Project Manager Katie Fillmore Policy Attorney Teri Moran Communications Manager Mari Aaron Executive Assistant The Honorable John Specia (ret.) Jurist in Residence Office of Court Administration Carl Reynolds Administrative Director Office of Court Administration 2 CHILDREN’S COMMISSION MEMBERS The Honorable Eva Guzman, Chair Justice, Supreme Court of Texas The Honorable Harriet O’Neill, Chair Emeritus The Honorable Patricia A. Macias Justice, Supreme Court of Texas, (ret.) Judge, 388th District Court The Honorable Darlene Byrne, Vice Chair Dr. Octavio Martinez Judge, 126th District Court Executive Director The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health The Honorable Karin Bonicoro Associate Judge Selina Mireles Child Protection Court of Central Texas Attorney At Law Audrey Deckinga Carolyne Rodriguez Assistant Commissioner for Child Protective Services Senior Director, Texas Strategic Consulting Texas Department of Family & Protective Services Casey Family Programs Honorable Camile Glasscock DuBose The Honorable Dean Rucker Judge, 38th District Court Presiding Judge, 7th Region Judge, 318th District Court Bruce Esterline Vice President for Grants Fairy Davenport Rutland The Meadows Foundation Director, Appeals Division Texas Health & Human Services Commission Harper Estes Shareholder, Lynch, Chappell, & Alsup The Honorable Robin Sage Senior District Judge (ret.) Joe Gagen CEO, Texas CASA, Inc. The Honorable Cheryl Lee Shannon Judge, 305th District Court Stewart W. Gagnon Partner, Fulbright & Jaworski The Honorable Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles State Representative, District 35 The Honorable Bonnie Crane Hellums Texas House of Representatives Judge, 247th District Court G. Allan Van Fleet Joyce M. James Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, L.L.P. Associate Deputy Executive Commissioner Center for the Elimination of The Honorable Jeff Wentworth Disproportionality and Disparities State Senator, District 25 Texas Health & Human Services Commission Texas Senate 3 COMMITTEE MEMBERS BASIC PROJECTS TECHNOLOGY TRAINING The Honorable Robin Sage, The Honorable Karin Bonicoro, The Honorable Camile G. DuBose, Chair Chair Chair Joe Gagen Catherine Babbitt Mari Kay Bickett The Honorable Bonnie Hellums Kevin Cox Cathy Cockerham Colleen McCall Barbara Elias‐Perciful The Honorable Oscar Gabaldon The Honorable Mickey Pennington Alice Emerson Jason Hassay Carolyne Rodriguez Debra Emerson The Honorable Gilford Jones The Honorable Elma Salinas Ender The Honorable Richard Garcia Elizabeth Kromrei The Honorable Peter Sakai Tracy Harting Robert Nolen The Honorable Virginia Schnarr Joyce M. James Carl Reynolds The Honorable Cheryl Lee Shannon The Honorable Lamar McCorkle D.J. Tessier The Honorable Olen Underwood Shaneka Odom Linda Uecker The Honorable Doug Warne Pam Parker G. Allan Van Fleet Staff: Tina Amberboy Fairy Davenport Rutland Bryan Wilson Kristi Taylor Randy Sarosdy Staff: Tina Amberboy The Honorable Ellen Smith Staff: Tiffany Roper EDUCATION EXECUTIVE STRATEGIC PLANNING The Honorable Patricia Macias, The Honorable Eva Guzman, Harper Estes, Chair Chair Chair The Honorable Cheryl Shannon The Honorable Harriett O’Neill, The Honorable Darlene Byrne Vice Chair Chair Emeritus Vice Chair Joy Baskin The Honorable Darlene Byrne The Honorable Karin Bonicoro Claudia Canales Vice Chair Audrey Deckinga Jim Crow The Honorable Karin Bonicoro The Honorable Camile G. DuBose Lori Duke Audrey Deckinga The Honorable Patricia A. Macias Joe Gagen The Honorable Camile G. DuBose The Honorable Dean Rucker Anne Heiligenstein The Honorable Dean Rucker The Honorable Robin Sage The Honorable Rob Hofmann The Honorable Patricia A. Macias Carolyne Rodriguez The Honorable Robin Sage Estella Sanchez Robert Scott Dr. Johnny Veselka Staff: Tiffany Roper 4 COLLABORATIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS Emy Lou Baldridge Richard Lavallo Roy Block Stephanie Ledesma Irene Clements Donald Lee William B. Connolly Tracy Levins Penny Cook Rebecca Lightsey Elizabeth Cox Madeline McClure Kevin Cox The Honorable F. Scott Susan Hopkins Craven McCown, (ret.) De Shaun Ealoms Trista Miller Barbara Elias‐Perciful Sandeep Narang, MD Debra Emerson Judy Powell Tomas Esparza, Jr. Chadwick Sapenter Benigno J. Fernandez, MD Johana Scot Mike Foster Janet Sharkis Natalie Furdek Vicki Spriggs Paul E. Furrh, Jr. Armin Steege Eileen Garcia Gene Terry David Halpern Gloria Terry Robert Hartman Kenneth Thompson Leslie Hill Arabia Vargas Chris Hubner Meghan Weller Shannon Ireland Aaron Williams Alicia Key Henrietta Wright 5 OUR MISSION: Strengthen courts for children, youth and families in the child‐protection system and thereby improve the safety, permanency, and well‐being of children. 6 O ne of the most rewarding aspects of serving on the Supreme Court of Texas is the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of everyday Texans through our work on different task forces, commissions, and work groups. When Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson asked me to chair the Children’s Commission, I was excited to join this dynamic group of commissioners, staff and stakeholders who make a profound impact on the lives of Texas children and families. As daunting as it was to follow in the footsteps of the Commission's founder, former Justice Harriet O’Neill, I knew I could count on strong support from the many dedicated state leaders who have rallied around the Children’s Commission. Among the Commission’s most important projects are improving education outcomes for children in foster care and providing special training to judges so that they can be better equipped to make equitable decisions for all children and families. At my first Commission meeting, I saw firsthand the collaboration, partnership, leadership, and absolute commitment by all involved with the Commission to the most vulnerable Texans – children who have been abused or neglected, and their fragile families. I recall my years as a trial court judge presiding over family law cases and the challenges presented by the limited resources and options for the families in my courtroom. I look forward to joining with others to improve child welfare courts at a systemic level, and I am honored to bring leadership to the Commission’s work to provide the judiciary with the tools they need to make the best decisions for these families. Eva Guzman, Chair Children’s Commission 7 Executive Summary T he Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, the great things about the Children’s Commission is its Youth and Families, or the Children’s Commission for ability to react quickly to emerging trends or pressing short, is dedicated to strengthening courts for families of matters. As we prepared to write the annual report for abused and neglected children and youth who are 2010, we looked back at the many projects undertaken by involved in the Texas child‐protection system. Our goal is our subgrantees, our partners, and our staff. One theme to improve outcomes of safety, permanency and well‐ clearly emerged – permanency for the children and youth being for the children and youth who are in foster care – in our foster care system – a theme that pervaded almost about 26,000 at any given time in Texas. It’s an ambitious, every aspect of our work, even though we didn’t start off complicated undertaking made more daunting by Texas’ 2010 with this particular goal in mind. size, decentralized court system, and today’s economic Last year we expanded our already robust training climate. With so many facets of the system needing agenda to include new, cutting edge topics such as attention and improvement, it’s always a challenge to training on how institutional, cultural and individual know how to best allocate our limited resources. biases can influence decisions affecting minority The number of projects or programs initiated, directed or populations in the child welfare system. The Children’s overseen by the Children’s Commission continues to Commission also sponsored the Harris County Beyond the grow, but it is hard to say no to any reasonable effort that Bench Conference, the largest collaborative seminar of its may advance our mission and make a difference in the kind in Texas. We conducted the first multidisciplinary lives of abused and neglected children and their families. Family Drug Court Round Table, and also provided over While we recognize that our resources and energy are 200 attorney scholarships to a world‐class conference finite, we hesitate to slow the momentum we have hosted by the National Association of Counsel for gained. Children (NACC). The period during which we develop our annual report is Some of our most ambitious and innovative projects also one of reflection of the work accomplished during the came to fruition in 2010. In November 2010, the past year and contemplation of future endeavors. One of Children’s Commission launched its web‐based Child 8 Protective Services (CPS) Bench Book. The Bench Book during its first year by the Meadows Foundation, provides direct access to Lexis‐Nexis at no charge to CPS ReesJones Foundation, and Texas Access to Justice judges who access it through the Texas Center for the Foundation.