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If attorneys and state court officials could appreciate
the harm that the lack of a permanent home can do to a foster child's
psyche, they would probably be more favorably disposed toward a
bill that would expedite the time an adoption takes to get through
the legal system.
The proposal would make appeals of cases involving
the termination of parents' rights a higher priority for the appellate
courts. Judges would attempt to resolve those cases within six months.
Another provision in the bill would authorize the use of retired
judges and other legal professionals to mediate parental rights
cases and require lawyers for the parents and the state to make
use of the mediation program, which moves cases through the system
faster.
That's a small price to pay for getting children into
safe, nurturing, permanent homes more quickly.
Sponsors of the bill aren't proposing to tamper with
the court's decision-making authority, only with the speed at which
it is exercised. In an ideal world, court officials would have taken
the initiative to accelerate the pace at which the cases are heard
on their own.
Court officials are instead complaining that additional
mediation is unnecessary, would cost too much and be harder to manage.
They also object to what they consider a legislative attempt to
interfere with their court schedules.
Certainly, lawmakers should provide funding to cover
the cost of additional mediators. But inconvenience to public officials,
in and of itself, is never a good reason to oppose any proposal
that is intended to accomplish genuine good.
Over the past decade, the General Assembly and the
federal government have passed several measures to speed up the
adoption process. They include laws that reduced the time that biological
parents have to prove they are fit to regain custody, established
a central registry of adoptable children and authorized the state
Department of Children and Families to seek adoptive parents during
the process of terminating parental rights.
Still, there remain obstacles in the process that
can lengthen a child's stay in foster care by months and years.
Courts should not contribute to that delay.
Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant.
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