State grant has no takers

Listen to this article

A state agency couldn’t find a county willing to accept $2.6 million to help poor parents in Family Court.

Last year, Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo turned down the funding because the money would have paid for attorneys to represent indigent parents much earlier in Family Court cases, which county officials claimed would interfere with child neglect and abuse investigations.

After Monroe County declined the funding, officials at the granting agency — the state Office of Indigent Legal Services (ILS) — offered the money to Dutchess County, which scored just below Monroe County in the application rating process.

But Dutchess County also turned the money down.

“Following much consideration and due diligence on the county’s part, we concluded we’d be unable to fulfill the goals of the grant without certain conditions. We discussed those conditions with the state, but they were not able to make the requested changes,” Dutchess County spokesman Sean T. McMann said in an email.

McMann never responded to a request for more information about the “conditions” that Dutchess County officials found unacceptable.

In January, Monroe County officials claimed the initiatives funded by the grant “could have unintended consequences on the county’s efforts to keep children and families safe.”

The program “would have injected lawyers into cases of abuse and neglect much earlier, potentially intimidating child victims and limiting access by CPS workers who would otherwise assess and monitor the child’s safety,” county spokesman Jesse Sleezer said in a statement released at the time.

The grant would provide parents with an attorney from the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office as soon as a neglect case was opened and there was the possibility of the children being removed from their home.

Currently, parents who can’t afford a lawyer don’t get one appointed in Family Court until after the children are taken away and after their first court appearance.

ILS Director William J. Leahy said it was “extremely discouraging” to have both counties turn down the money.

“We are firmly committed to prompt and appropriate and early representation for parents, often whose family integrity is at stake,” Leahy said.

“That’s absolutely equally, if not more important than the provision of counsel at first appearance in criminal cases, which Monroe County has done a fantastic job of doing and many counties around the state have either accomplished or they’re on their way to accomplishing it,” he said.

ILS couldn’t offer the funding to a third county because no other counties scored high enough in the application process to qualify for the money.

“What we’ve been doing is just taking stock of the experience and figuring out how we can utilize the funding in the best way to improve the quality of representation of parents in Family Court,” Leahy said.

The Monroe County Public Defender’s Office applied for the grant in response to request for proposals (RFP) from ILS.

ILS sought to establish “a model Parental Representation Office” outside of New York City to provide legal representation and other services to parents in Article 10 child neglect termination of parental rights cases.

In addition to hiring four new attorneys for the Public Defender’s Office, the funding would have paid for four new social workers.

The idea was to create a multidisciplinary model offering legal assistance and social services help. The program would have paired a lawyer and social worker to help indigent parents navigate the child welfare and court systems.

And parent advocates would provide emotional support, accompany parents to meetings, and offer encouragement and motivation to stay engaged.

Parents are not required to be to be advised of their right to a court-appointed if they can’t afford one, until their first court appearance. But that could be weeks after having their children taken into state custody.

[email protected] / (585) 232-2035