Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability
Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability

Multidisciplinary Legal Representation of Parents in Dependency Proceedings: Fiscal Year 2023-24

Report 24-09, November 2024

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Report Summary

  • Multidisciplinary legal representation integrates social services staff into legal representation for low-income clients in child welfare dependency cases. Social workers in this model provide various services, such as helping clients access services ordered in case plans when their children have been removed from their care due to allegations of abuse, abandonment, or neglect. This model may also include the use of parent peer advocates, who are individuals that previously had their child removed from their care, but who have successfully reunified with the child for more than two years and have received specialized training.
  • Over the past two years, the number of cases served by the MLR programs increased, and three of the five RCs added staff. All five RCs began to receive federal Title IV-E funds in Fiscal Year 2023-24 to partially reimburse the costs of MLR services.
  • OPPAGA determined that children in out-of-home care whose parents were served by MLR programs have higher percentages of domestic violence as the reason for entry into care but are similar to children of parents not served by MLR for other maltreatment types. OPPAGA also found that relative to a comparison group, children of parents that participated in MLR programs had higher rates of reunification and lower rates of adoption as a permanency type; however, the dependency cases of children with parents in MLR tended to take longer to achieve permanency.
  • As of July 2024, 46% of children who had a parent participate in a MLR program in Fiscal Years 2020-21 through 2023-24 were discharged from Department of Children and Families custody. For the other 54% of children, their cases were still open, so the length of time to permanency and the final permanency outcome are yet to be determined.

 

    Copies of this report in print or alternate accessible format may be obtained by email OPPAGA@oppaga.fl.gov, telephone (850) 488-0021, or mail 111 W. Madison St., Room 312 Tallahassee, FL 32399-1475.
    Copies of this report in print or alternate accessible format may be obtained by email OPPAGA@oppaga.fl.gov, telephone (850) 488-0021, or mail 111 W. Madison St., Room 312 Tallahassee, FL 32399-1475.
    Child welfare, foster care, dependency proceedings, social workers, multidisciplinary legal representation, regional counsel, forensic social worker, parent-peer specialist, Offices of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, child outcomes, program performance, case management