The Alliance for Children's Rights will be hosting a Foster Care Benefits Advocacy training on Monday, October 3, 2011, at The Alliance's offices. The training will begin at 5:00 PM and will last approximately 1.5 hours. Attendees will receive 1.5 hours of CLE credit for attending this training. A short description of the foster care benefits program follows :

Alliance for Children's Rights Foster Care Benefits Advocacy

Many children in foster care are entitled to receive financial assistance in the form of State Foster Care Funding. This assistance is provided to meet a child's most basic needs. Additional funding may be given to help meet any special medical, developmental or emotional needs the child might have. This increase in funding helps pay for support services such as physical therapy, counseling, or medical aides. Unfortunately, this increased level of funding is often denied, while in others cases, funding is denied altogether. While such denials involve technical grounds outside of their control, it is the caregivers and children that ultimately bear the burden. Without such funding, caregivers must pay for services out of their own pocket, a situation which forces some to undertake multiple mortgages, sell their possessions, and exhaust what little savings they have. The only other recourse would be to have the child return to foster care. Volunteer attorneys work on these matters to help avoid such tragic results. In addition to securing prospective funding for the child, the attorneys work to secure extensive amounts of back-pay owed money that can range from $4,000 to as much as $100,000 in some cases.

Advocacy in this realm may consist of:

• Collecting evidence to prove the child's eligibility for particular levels of funding.
• Negotiating with LA County Dept. of Children and Family Services for the provision of funding.
• Marshalling evidence and law in a brief submitted to an administrative law judge.
• Arguing the brief before an administrative law judge.
• Monitoring the case to ensure compliance after a successful decision

In preparation for advocating on a case, volunteers are provided manuals, legal resources, and sample briefs and documents, and receive ongoing support and guidance from Alliance staff attorneys. Foster care benefits cases typically require a time commitment of approximately 65 to 75 hours over a period of about three to four months. Matters are argued at an administrative fair hearing, where rules of evidence do not apply. Finally, individuals interested in volunteering do not need to be licensed in California to undertake this advocacy.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP with Diego Cartagena at d.cartagena@kids-alliance.org. Please feel free to pass this along to any of your friends or colleagues that might be interested in attending.