Keeping Families Together Act reduces dependency cases in Grant Co.

MOSES LAKE — Grant County Juvenile Court has seen a decrease in dependency cases in the last couple of months. Dependency cases involve issues with guardians of minors, which includes minors in the foster care system and minors being relocated to other family members.

According to Suhail Palacios, the county’s juvenile court administrator, July only had 149 active cases compared to the beginning of the year at 179 cases. Palacious said the cases in previous years were as high as 220.

“I have never seen cases as low as 149,” Palacios said. “It's been one of the lowest for a long time.”

In 2021, Washington State passed the “Keeping Families Together Act” which makes it so a minor will not be removed from a home until six months after the report and resources are offered to guardians to help them keep custody of the minor. The reduced caseload is due, at least in part, to that law.

According to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families, the intent of the act was to reduce the number of children placed in foster care, reduce racial disproportionality in the child welfare system and support relatives to take care of children when they must be placed out of their home to protect the child.

The act went into effect on July 1, 2023. Palacios said the act has had positive impacts on their numbers of monthly dependency cases.

“We have less cases because of the act but we also have less volunteers right now,” Teresa Crawford, the Guardian Ad Litem Program Administrator at Grant County Youth Services said. “We can take all the help we can get.”

The Dependency Unit functions predominantly with volunteers who do an initial 30 hours of training and follow-up training. The volunteers do check-ins with minors to make sure they are safe. They also are the minor’s advocate and help file court reports. Volunteers can also speak in court and advocate on behalf of a minor but are not required.

“Volunteers are the eyes and ears of the court and serve as the best interest for children,” Crawford said.

The Juvenile Court will be at the fair this year looking for community members to volunteer in their dependency unit. They will have a booth at the fair from Aug. 13 to 17 at the Grant County Fair. However, more information on volunteering is available at wachhildadvocates.org for those interested in pitching in sooner.

They are looking for volunteers for as many hours as possible, and training is provided. To apply volunteers must be over the age of 21, pass a background check and get their fingerprints taken.

A diversion program also helps young people find better outcomes when dealing with the legal system.

The diversions program is an alternative intervention to the court process. Minors with offenses such as shoplifting, theft, minor assaults, malicious mischief, trespassing and drug and alcohol offenses are referred to the diversion program. Typically, a minor is referred to diversion for a first-time misdemeanor offense. Grant County may sometimes allow a minor two diversion opportunities. However, if the minor continues to re-offend then the prosecutor has the option of filing charges in court.

Although the dependency numbers have decreased, offenders' cases have stayed pretty consistent. In July, there were 264 cases with 152 in the diversions program. In June there were 263 cases with 163 in the diversions program. In May there were 280 cases with 186 in the diversions program.

If a minor enters into a diversion agreement, they avoid the court process. The offense will show on the minor’s criminal history record for a while but not as a conviction. If the minor completes the diversion program obligations then a court proceeding can occur to seal or destroy the minor’s diversion records.

A diversion agreement holds the minor accountable by assigning him or her to community service work to benefit their community, reimbursing victims for loss, providing and referring youth to information, educational and counseling programs and assigning fees and fines. Palacios said they are working with the minors to ensure that they won’t have repeat offenses on their record. The diversions program is one way they are trying to achieve that.

“We should be giving these kids a chance. We should be rehabilitating them and helping them make better decisions and work better with the community and themselves,” Palacios said. “We try to work with them to make sure they can be successful in the future. We try not to focus on punitive actions, especially for the juvenile unit.”

The third branch of the juvenile court is the truancy unit, which happens when a minor has missed too much school. The truancy unit no longer has a central person, like they have had in previous years. So each school will hold its own truancy meetings while looping in the Juvenile Court.

Palacios said she was concerned about the new system because her department’s staffing is limited, there will be training needed for each school district’s staff and the scheduling is somewhat difficult to manage.