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Education
Raised Bill No. 159
An
Act Concerning Foster Placement and Education
This new bill seeks to improve educational outcomes for youth committed
to the Department of Children and Families by permitting them to
attend their schools of origin while in foster care.
Why
do Foster Children need Educational Stability?
Frequent school changes are traumatic for foster children. These
children are frequently uprooted from their schools when they are
removed from their families or shuffled between foster homes or
institutions. Children in the child protection system already have
been traumatized by abuse or neglect in their homes and removal
from their families. Uprooting a child from her school community
deepens this trauma. Not only does this child lose her parents and
possibly her siblings, but she also loses connections to classmates,
a favorite teacher, coach, and school activities – the aspects of
daily life that create a sense of security, self-worth and belonging.
School disruptions have devastating short and long-term effects
on the education of foster children. Abused and neglected youth
are particularly vulnerable to school failure, a fact compounded
by frequent school transfers.
Download: Document
containing above text or Bill
Fact Sheet
Testimony
of the Center for Children's Advocacy in Support of Raised Bill
No. 159, An Act Concerning Foster Placement and Education
February 28, 2008
This testimony is submitted on behalf of the Center
for Children's Advocacy, a non-profit organization based at the
University of Connecticut School of Law. The Center provides holistic
legal services for poor children in Connecticut's communities through
individual representation and systemic advocacy. I am an attorney
at the Center and the Director of the Center's Teen Legal Advocacy
Clinic, which provides legal services to teens at Hartford Public
High School, Harding High School, as well as youth shelters and
group homes throughout the state.
I am here today to urge you to pass Raised Bill
No. 159, An Act Concerning Foster Placement and Education. This
Bill was initiated by a coalition of advocates including the Office
of the Child Advocate, Connecticut Voices for Children, and the
Center for Children's Advocacy. However, the real impetus for this
bill was the kids, some of whom are here today.
The Center represents abused and neglected children
and youth throughout the state of Connecticut. We see them move
from one foster home to another, from one therapist to another,
from one social worker to another, and also from one school to another.
The effects of educational instability are so damaging that many
youth choose to give up. Recently, the Center began representing
a youth named "Samantha". Between May 2007 and November 2007 Samantha
was moved 13 times. When we got her case, she was anxious about
the future and unable to connect with people for fear of being taken
away from them.
Another client of the Center was "Adam." He was fourteen
when he came into foster care. At that time he told us that his
favorite class was history, that he wanted to try out for the football
and baseball teams, and that he wanted to join the Marines and play
college football. Over the course of the next three years, he lived
in nine different placements (including two shelters and an emergency
foster home) and changed schools at least eight times. After he
failed the 10th grade, he described college as a "place I just can't
see myself."
School disruptions have devastating short and long-term
effects on the education of foster children. Abused and neglected
youth are particularly vulnerable to school failure, a fact compounded
by frequent school transfers.
Health Care and Benefits
Raised Bill No. 5498
An
Act Concerning a Catastrophic Illness in Children Relief Program
Catastrophic relief funds for children are safety nets for families
who have excessive expenses related to a child’s medical needs.
These funds can be accessed when medical expenses not covered by
public or private insurance, or some other source, exceed 10% of
a family’s income.
Why
does Connecticut need a Catastrophic Relief Fund for Children?
Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy nationally. An unexpected
medical crisis, such as a care accident, can financially devastate
an otherwise stable working family. When children have chronic medical
conditions, the cost of caring for that child can be thousands of
dollars each month, beyond what insurance will cover.
Testimony
of the Center for Children's Advocacy in Opposition to Raised Bill
No. 5499, An Act Concerning the Required Age for Counseling
February 26, 2008
This testimony is submitted on behalf of the Center
for Children's Advocacy, a private, non-profit legal organization
based at the University of Connecticut School of Law. The Center
provides holistic legal services for poor children in Connecticut's
communities through individual representation and systemic advocacy.
I am an attorney at the Center and the Director of the Center's
Teen Legal Advocacy Clinic, which provides legal services to teenagers
at Hartford Public High School, as well as youth shelters, group
homes, and residential facilities throughout the state.
I write today in opposition to Raised Bill No.
5499, An Act Concerning the Required Age for Counseling. The
Center for Children's Advocacy opposes the bill because we believe
an increase in the age for mandatory counseling is an unnecessary
encroachment on teens' access to confidential healthcare. In fact,
it is our belief that Connecticut's current law, and the related
body of law regarding teens' access to confidential health care,
is a carefully coordinated statutory scheme which has for decades
protected adolescents' access to sensitive health care.
This carefully crafted statutory scheme was an intentional
choice made by the legislature in interpreting federal constitutional
protections for teens' access to reproductive healthcare. It works
in concert with many other laws painstakingly enacted by this legislature,
including laws protecting a teen's right to testing and treatment
for sexually transmitted diseases (Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-216), HIV
testing and treatment (Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-582 et seq.), substance
abuse counseling (Conn. Gen. Stat. §17a-688(d)), outpatient mental
health counseling (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-14c), and family planning
(see e.g. Carey v. Population Service Int'l, 431 U.S. 678
(1977), Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U.S. 622 (1979)). Together, this
body of law works to give vulnerable teens in need of medical services
access to sensitive and confidential health care, while still mandating
a level of protection for younger adolescents. To change our law
on abortion by mandating counseling for sixteen and seventeen year
olds would make it anachronistic in that it would no longer fit
within the carefully crafted statutory scheme that promotes healthcare
access.
Often overlooked are additional statutory protections
including Connecticut's body of law regarding mandated reporting
of child abuse and neglect. Our mandated reporting laws require
a long list of professionals who have reasonable cause to suspect
or believe that a child has been abused or neglected, or is at imminent
risk of serious harm, to report such to the Department of Children
and Families (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17a-101a). Taken in concert with
the body of law allowing teens access to confidential healthcare,
mental healthcare, and substance abuse counseling, we have an existing
continuum of laws aimed at protecting teens.
Minors who have reached sixteen and seventeen years
of age have traditionally been afforded the indicia of maturity
by the healthcare community when seeking reproductive healthcare,
and when accessing the mental healthcare system. This makes sense
as older teens are moving closer to the age of majority. The current
statute regarding abortion, Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-601, does so,
as does the statute regarding inpatient mental health care, Conn.
Gen. Stat. § 17a-75. Both of these work well by drawing an appropriate
line between giving access and protecting our youngest adolescents.
Connecticut's current law is a model that should be
followed as an example of a state that encourages access to safe
and confidential healthcare for teens. It gives teens access to
critical healthcare in order to maximize their ability to obtain
appropriate treatment. In doing so, the current law draws an appropriate
line between protection and encouraging teens to access health care
services. The current treatment scheme allows licensed, trained
healthcare professionals to make an individualized assessment as
to where counseling is needed for sixteen and seventeen year olds.
To further mandate such treatment for older teens is not only unnecessary,
but could work to frustrate the provider-teen relationship. In general,
decisions regarding counseling are best decided on an individual
basis, and are best left to licensed, experienced healthcare providers.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Respectfully submitted,
Stacey Violante Cote, Esq.
Director, Teen Legal Advocacy Clinic
Center for Children's Advocacy
Juvenile Justice
Raised Bill No. 5491
An
Act Concerning Youthful Offenders and Delinquent Children
This bill would mandate that youth charged (not convicted) in juvenile
court cannot be shackled in the courtroom unless a judge orders
it.
Click here
for CCA testimony on this bill.
Raised Bill No. 342
An
Act Appropriating Funds for the Establishment of Six Additional
Family Support Centers
This bill would appropriate funds for the establishment of six additional
family support centers so that high-risk and high-need children
and their families receive necessary diversionary services in or
close to their local community.
Click
here for CCA testimony on this bill.
Raised Bill No. 5926
An Act Concerning Families with Service Needs
This bill would make minor revisions to the family with service
needs statutes in accordance with the recommendations of the Family
with Service Needs Advisory Board and establish pilot programs and
provide funding in accordance with the recommendations of said board.
Click here for
CCA testimony on this bill.
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