Child Welfare Duo Navigates Legal System for Families in Crisis

*Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the last name of case manager John Porter. It also was unclear about the Family Court Project's child-placement efforts amid custody disputes. The project tries to keep children with a family member when those disputes arise. Finally, the article incorrectly identified the documentation a former client tried to obtain. The client was unsuccessful in getting information about her initial psychological testing. This article has been updated to reflect the correct information.

Kathleen DuBois and John Porter* are part of a four-person team determined to guide parents and their children with financial needs through the complexities of the child welfare system.

DuBois, a resident since 2002, is managing attorney for the Family Court Project at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. She started the office 13 years ago. Case manager Porter* is from North County.

Their office is located at the in . The team is rounded out by office manager and paralegal Casey Regular, and staff attorney Carl Seltzer.

DuBois came to Legal Services from Bryan Cave. She worked for about 10 years as a public defender, and she has handled cases involving securities fraud for the state of Arizona.

Porter* performed children's division work for the state of Missouri for 33 years before joining the organization. During that time, he performed welfare checks and handled food stamps, among other responsibilities. He later became a supervisor and trainer.

Office works to untangle legal system for clients

The Missouri child welfare system is complicated, DuBois said. It's the only U.S. state that assigns two groups of social workers—those from the children's division and deputy juvenile officers—to work on those cases. They sit on the opposite side of the table from DuBois and her clients, she said, and those state workers don't always agree with each other about the way to proceed with a case.

That's why clients need legal representation, she said. Another reason: Cases handled by her office can last for two or more years. Her knowledge of the system and that of coworkers is key to navigating the legal process for the duration.

The office is handling between 130 and 150 cases currently.

Porter* sees his role as helping to ensure people get the services a judge has ordered. He pays visits to client's houses to identify issues such as exposed wires and cockroaches that state workers might use as grounds for keeping a child in custody.

Landlords don't always care about those issues, which might mean a family has to find a new place to live in order to get its children back, DuBois said.

"It really seems very unfair," she said.

As much as possible, they also work to keep children in the custody of a family member* when a custody dispute arises.

Closed case illustrates office's work

DuBois describes the work of the Family Court Project by describing a case that closed several years ago. Her client was a mother with two children, a boy and a girl.

One day, while the mother was away from home, her boyfriend broke the girl's leg. The children were taken into custody and put in foster care after a hospital placed a call to a hotline.

DuBois said her client ended her relationship with her boyfriend immediately. She wanted to keep custody of her children or, if the state didn't allow that arrangement, to allow their grandmother to keep them.

Things didn't go as planned. The mother was ordered to get a psychological evaluation from an institute that has since come under scrutiny, DuBois said. The evaluation indicated she apparently had a deeply rooted mental illness and needed to see a psychiatrist.

The Family Court Project sent the mother for a second psychologist, who reported that she had no mental health issues and that she should be able to keep her children.

The judge later granted custody of the children to the mother, who never got to review documentation of her initial psychological testing*. She has been back with her children for four years.

"It was just a matter of being very tenacious," said DuBois, noting that similar delays occur routinely with the cases she handles. It's important to avoid such delays because research has shown that children who spent even a short time in foster care can affect their mental health and bonding ability.

Executive director: Team helps bring

Dan Glazier is executive director of Legal Services. He said the four-person Family Court Project team helps clients in a key way.

"Family stability is an important part of what we do and what we hope to accomplish," Glazier said.

He describes DuBois and Porter* as advocates, the former in the courtroom and the latter as a social worker.

"They're both fighters," Glazier said. "They care deeply about the clients we serve."

Education complements legal representation

Porter* thinks it's important to help these children because, he said, they often lose everything when they have done nothing wrong. They are removed from the churches and preschools they know, and siblings from the same family are not always placed together in foster care.

Nor should their parents be treated as criminals, he said.

Families are appreciative of the work they do, Porter* said. He said DuBois sticks by the families she represents 100 percent.

Porter* also said his office works together with state officials better than in the past.

DuBois is a single parent, and she knows that many of her clients come to the office because of a crisis. A parent might overreact over a report that a child with ADHD is failing at school.

Scenarios like that one point to the need for parental education, something her office also aims to provide.

"Everybody makes mistakes," she said.