She was killed two weeks later. Her godmother is charged in the slaying, and her mother is accused of being an accomplice. But problems in the city's care of its most vulnerable children have festered for years, child advocates say. The District has 5,000 children in foster care, and they spend an average of 42 months in the system before the court makes a final decision about their futures. The National Adoption and Safe Families Act now mandates that decisions be made in 14 months, requiring the court to make vast changes or risk losing federal funding.
Structural problems abound.
The court assigns 12 judges to the family division, but asks all 59 judges on the bench to oversee a total of 4,000 neglect cases. The court's proposal would change that by returning neglect cases to the family division, then establishing teams of judges, magistrates, court clerks and social workers to speed up court hearings. A new family law center would be created in the courthouse, requiring the D.C. Court of Appeals or a large division of Superior Court to move to a neighboring annex, Walton said. The proposal contains no financial estimates or timetable. It's not necessarily whether the family court stands alone or stays as a division within the court . . .