OFFICIALS SEEK LOCAL DRUG COURT PROGRAM

A drug court program that helps parents overcome addictions and regain
custody of their children could be coming to Benton and Franklin
counties by January.

This would be the third drug court program offered in the Mid-Columbia
in the past two years. The other two are juvenile drug court and adult
drug court programs.

Tri-City child welfare officials say they're motivated to establish a
family dependency treatment court program quickly because the majority
of parents losing custody of their kids are abusing drugs.

About 70 percent of children are removed from their parents' homes
because of drug use, said Shannon Sullivan, a social worker with the
state Department of Social and Health Services.

"What we see is chronic neglect over and over again until the parent
is clean and sober," said Shari Gasperino, coordinator of the
CASA/Guardian Ad Litem program and interim director of the proposed
family drug court program.

Family drug court also could offer a way to reduce the burgeoning
number of Mid-Columbia children in foster care.

"The length of foster care stay will be reduced, thus reducing the
number of foster children," Sullivan said.

In addition to helping parents overcome their addictions, the program
would work to help moms and dads regain custody of their children
within a shorter period of time. However, those parents must
successfully complete the program.

The state generally files a petition to terminate a parent's rights a
year after a child has been out of the home, said Bryan Ovens, an
assistant attorney general in Kennewick. At that point, a trial is set
and the parents have until that date to correct their parental
deficiencies.

On average, 14 percent of parents are reunified with their children
through regular court proceedings. But preliminary statistics show 70
percent of the parents involved in family drug court programs have
been reunited with their children, said Joseph Schneider,
Benton-Franklin Juvenile Court commissioner.

"It's another tool we can use to get families back together," he
said.

Since parents in the family drug court program would meet weekly with
team members, their progress would be intimately tracked. In regular
dependency hearings, parents only attend court every three or six
months, often delaying the return of their children, Schneider said.

There are 112 family drug court programs in America, according to
National Drug Court Institute researchers in Alexandria, Va. In
Washington, there are family drug court programs in Spokane, Thurston,
Whatcom and Kitsap counties.

In Benton and Franklin counties, it's people like Schneider,
Gasperino, Ovens and Sullivan who have been meeting since last fall to
develop and train for the Mid-Columbia program. Other team members
include defense attorneys Jared Paulsen and Diana Anderson; social
worker Pauline Sullivan; CASA/Guardian Ad Litem worker Terry Lawrence;
Shelley Little of the Benton-Franklin Public Health District; Faith
Lutz, director of the Washington State University criminal justice
program; and chemical dependency counselor Connie Simpson.

So far, members of the team have attended two training sessions to
learn skills needed to run the program at the Benton-Franklin Juvenile
Department in Kennewick. A third and final training session is
scheduled in August. A federal grant is paying all expenses of
attending training sessions.

The team plans to apply for a federal grant from the National Drug
Court Initiative this fall that would allow them to work with up to 25
families as soon as next May.

In the meantime, a model program may begin in January with six
families. The costs of the model program will be absorbed by various
county and state departments providing services and through additional
state, federal and private grants the team hopes to obtain.

Social workers and attorneys decide whether a parent is eligible for
the family drug court program and refer the person to the team. All
participants are people who otherwise would be involved in dependency
hearings because their children have been removed from their homes.

The parent must willingly volunteer and agree to enroll in the program
and submit to alcohol assessments.

The team then votes on whether the person will be accepted.

All proceedings for the program would be heard in civil court. In
contrast, the juvenile and adult drug court programs are criminal
proceedings.

In family drug court, the parent would meet weekly with the team and
be involved in intense substance abuse treatment and random urine
tests. The team would monitor how long the parent has been clean and
sober, search for employment prospects and attempt to find suitable
housing for the person's family, Schneider said.

Parents in the family drug court program also would continue to attend
six-month reviews in dependency court, but their appearances likely
would be shorter, Schneider said.

If a parent follows the conditions of the family drug court program,
he or she can receive incentives such as more visits with their
children or being able to leave court early.

The team hopes parents will realize the program isn't just about
kicking the habit for good. It's about saving their family.

"It's not just sobriety that we're looking for," Paulsen said. "It's
that the parent will ensure the health, safety and welfare of the child."