As I See It: Worcester County advocates work to prevent cases like missing Harmony Montgomery

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) can change the trajectory of a foster child’s life.

Appointed by a judge in the Juvenile Court, a CASA is a carefully trained and screened community volunteer who, with support from programmatic staff, make recommendations to the court based on a child’s best interest.

As an extension of the court system, these volunteers are unbiased independent investigators who advocate for children in protective custody.

In contrast, a guardian ad litem (GAL) is a hired and trained specialist who can investigate and report to the court recommendations relative to outcome of the case.

Children in the foster care system are often not the top priority of any one individual or group. Despite the best intentions and dedication of those involved, foster children represent only one of many responsibilities that a social worker, attorney or caregiver have.

Often, social workers and placements change multiple times during a child’s journey through the foster system. Conversely, a CASA is only assigned to one child or sibling set at a time, giving them the unique ability to monitor the situation more closely.

In the recent heavily publicized interstate case of Harmony Montgomery, neither a CASA nor GAL were ever assigned. While young Harmony never resided in Worcester County, it is important to note that only about 22% of the open care and protection cases within our county currently have a CASA assigned to them.

GALs also report on numerous cases within the jurisdiction. Children without a CASA or a GAL on their case are more susceptible to “slipping through the cracks” like Harmony.

The goal of a CASA program is to help to maximize growth and minimize harm of these impacted children, enabling them to thrive in a safe, healthy and stable environment throughout and until their case is resolved.

The instability that can occur during a child’s time in foster care only compounds any preexisting trauma from the factors that placed them there initially.

While a CASA cannot erase that damage, they can serve as an extra set of eyes and ears as the case unfolds. An assigned CASA will follow a case throughout its final ruling, which can take years.

Like Harmony Montgomery, many children under age 6 have spent a larger portion of their lives in foster care than in their home of origin. Harmony was removed from her home at 2 months old and remained in the system, despite brief and unsuccessful reunification attempts, until she was ultimately placed with her biological father in New Hampshire in 2019 and subsequently went missing.

CASA volunteers are required to visit their child or children monthly at a minimum, so if one had been assigned to her case, it would have been clear within that period that she was missing rather than a year and a half later.

In 1997, Congress made significant changes to the federal child abuse and neglect law. These changes became the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). This law requires a permanency hearing prior to the 15th month after a child is removed from home. At this hearing, a concurrent plan may become the goal for the child and should be put into place quickly.

However, many children in Worcester County are currently spending upwards of two years or more in foster care, resulting in a substantial percentage of their young lives spent in instability.

Meanwhile, over three years after Gov. Charlie Baker signed legislation in 2019 adding a sixth judge to hear cases in Worcester, the state's busiest juvenile system, it remains understaffed.

Worcester County, of the state's 11 county courts (Franklin and Hampshire are combined), has the highest number of children under its care. With more than 2,000 juvenile cases currently in its jurisdiction, the capacity for trial dates is more than the current five sitting judges can keep up with, regardless of their tireless efforts.

Sadly, we will never know how Harmony Montgomery’s circumstances may have been altered if she had been assigned a CASA or GAL and, tragically, her whereabouts remain unknown two and a half years later.

What we do know, however, is that the work of a CASA is imperative.

While our state government navigates ways to better support children impacted by abuse and neglect, CASA will continue our work of steadfastly advocating for efficient and safe permanent outcomes. Please contact your local legislators and remind them of this fact.

Julie Bowditch is executive director of CASA Project Worcester County.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: As I See It: Worcester County advocates work to prevent cases like missing Harmony Montgomery