Surrogates step up to help special needs

A local judge has developed a program to help volunteers help children in need.

Circuit Court Judge Karen Cole serves in the Family Division of the Fourth Judicial Circuit in Duval County and she conducted a surrogate parent training session Wednesday aimed at educating volunteers who want to help children in the foster care system with special educational needs.

“We have 15 tonight, and that’s start,” said Cole. “We could use a lot more.”

A surrogate parent is “an individual appointed to act in the place of a parent in educational decision making and in safeguarding a child’s rights under the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act” and (Fla. Statute 39.0016).”

The need for surrogate parents was increased in October 2009 when the Florida Supreme Court approved a new Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure. Previously, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) provided that a dependency judge “may” appoint a surrogate parent, but the new Florida rule states that a dependency judge “must” appoint such a surrogate parent for a qualified child and must do so at the first (shelter) hearing.

The surrogate can provide some stability for a child who may be moved to different homes while in the foster system. One of the problems that children placed in the foster system may face is that records may lag behind them as they are processed through the system, according to Cole. This information would be available through the surrogate, who would advocate for the special educational needs of the child.

Minimum qualifications of a surrogate parent include: U.S. citizen, resident of the State of Florida who is over the age of 18; not an employee of any agency involved in the education or care of a student; have knowledge and skills acquired by successfully completing training and utilizing training materials developed and approved by the Department of Education to ensure adequate representation of the student and the person can’t have personal or professional interest which conflicts with the interest of student that they represent.

Circuit Court Judge Jim Daniel shared his experiences presiding over cases in dependency court during the training session, and his decisions affected the interests of the children that could be helped by the surrogate parent rule.

“The APPLA kid (Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement) kids are the most likely to age out of the system, and are the most in need of surrogate parents,” said Daniel. “They don’t have anyone except their caseworker and Guardian ad Litem, possibly.”

Professor Rebekah Gleason of Florida Coastal School of Law, Dr. Michael Sisbarro of the Sisbarro Education and Counseling Center, Dr. Laura Bailet, executive director of the Nemours BrightStart! Dyslexia Initiative and Gail Cook of Family Support Services of North Florida also contributed to the training session.

A future training session has not been scheduled, but more information can be obtained by contacting Cole’s judicial assistant Kristy Bend at 630-2321.

jwilhelm@baileypub.com

356-2466