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more serious family problems, and they involve proportionally more <br /> very young children. Both factors increase risks of harm to <br /> children, and the need for out-of-home core. <br />?) Our staff of social workers who ore responsible for providing <br /> foster core and adoptions services hove been so heavily involved in <br /> arranging for and supervising the core of this growing caseload of <br /> children in foster core, that not enough staff time has been <br /> available for oil the efforts that need to be mode to return <br /> children to their families where possible, or to pursue adoption or <br /> other permanent plans where necessary. We ore identifying <br /> additional resources needed to give us the capacity to work <br /> intensively with the cases of children whose home situations can be <br /> corrected so they con be returned home, and to provide adoption <br /> services to others who need adoption as their Permanent plans. I <br /> will bring this plan and any associated budget revision or <br /> amendment with o separate memorandum soon. <br />$) In some cases of abuse or serious neglect where parents will not <br /> be able to core for their children in the future, o legal process <br /> coiled Termination of Parental Rights is undertaken. In more cases <br /> than ever before, where the court has ordered o termination of <br /> parental rights, parents are appealing these decisions, leading to <br /> protracted periods during which the appeals ore being considered, <br /> and the children remain in our care. <br />4) A shortage of attorney and court resources has also contributed <br /> to the increasing census of children in the care of the Deportment. <br /> The single staff Attorney we have hod at the Deportment has not <br /> been able to complete all of the legal work needed for the children <br /> now in care. To this point, the District Court has ~is~ not been <br /> able to afford all of the court time needed to consider and resolve <br /> oil of the issues and reviews required by Iow in the cases of these <br /> children in core. A recent review we completed of oil cases we <br /> currently have before the Court reflected that, because of these <br /> shortages of attorney services and court time, in 5070 of these <br /> cases, we had not met timelines for steps in the legal process that <br /> ore required by federal and State laws. Some of these cases <br /> involve children for whom plans and arrangements for leaving the <br /> Department's care have been slowed. The BOC added a second <br /> staff Attorney at its ,Tonuory meeting. We are in recruitment for <br /> <br />Cabarrus County DSS 1303 South Cannon Blvd Kannapolis, North Carolina 28083 <br /> Telephone Number: 704-920-1400 FAX Number: 704-920-1401 <br /> <br /> <br />