Mary Collard asked 5 years ago
Which programs address the issue of if CASAs can simultaneously be a foster parent, and what is your policy? Is there something somewhere that addresses this formally? I know since the day I became director 17 years ago (and was an active foster parent for about 15 of those years) there has been discussion-pro and con-on this. If you have anything on this, could you please send it my way? THANKS!!! MaryC
Renee Buchanan answered 5 years ago
Summary of Responses:
Columbia Gorge CASA (Susan Erickson) has a part-time employee who is also a foster parent and these are the boundaries that we put into place:
- Cannot supervise CASA volunteers who currently advocate for kids in her home
- Access to case related files for all current and past foster children in her home is not permitted.
It can sometimes get tricky particularly with DHS perception of her role and because we are such a small office, but it is worth it because of the perspective and knowledge (and other skills) that she brings.
Shari Fromm of Clackamas County indicates their program considers being a CASA and a foster parent at the same time a conflict of interest. DHS is the employer of foster parents, providing foster parents payment for their services. Sometimes, CASAs have to recommend to the court a “no reasonable efforts” finding for DHS, the which is the employer of foster parents. This is a conflict between the volunteer and their employer. Frequently but respectfully CASAs need to disagree with DHS. This would be difficult to do if DHS were also the employer. Foster parents and CASAs have very important, but very different roles in dependency cases and we need our CASAs to be objective and not part of the agency of DHS.
This program does accept volunteers who are no longer foster parents and appreciate the value and experience they can bring to their CASA role.
Nothing in the 2018 National CASA Standards explicitly addresses this issue. However, standard 16 addresses the need for conflict of interest policies.
I (Renee) am not aware of any policies specific to this on the Oregon level.
Programs may want to create a policy for their specific program, addressing the conflicts of interest that being both a foster parent and a CASA would create, and how they will be mitigated. Setting boundaries in writing that can be referred to if any party questions an action or decision may be a good strategy to address this issue. This situation is probably more prevalent in rural areas, where fewer people serve in overlapping roles. This happens with staff, foster parents, conflicts of interests in cases where you know parties personally.
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Thanks for bringing this up Mary. I would like to see the state perspective instead of just our local district perspective.