Today is the day to make recommendations that make sense. . . Today, we want to crystallize our recommendations. . . And we, as a group, have to commit ourselves, as a group, to defend our recommendations. Much of the meeting was spent working in subcommittees, and the chairs of those groups later shared their top recommendations with the full commission. That is the issue.
Some states define dependency much broader.
Opportunities to affect change lie in that system more than in the judiciary. . . . Many times problems are not brought to the surface because no advocate is saying the child needs an individual education plan. . . . To delve into reality, no one is advocating for the children's rights but the judge. And that's an unfair burden to place on any juvenile court judge to beat agencies into submission to do what they're ordered to do. I'd rather have lawyers do that.