Court Opinion

ID: 9640872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:17:26.038216+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:33.454280
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. This case is the second appeal this court has received where certain services required by law have not been furnished to families. See Ark. Code Ann. § 9-27-303(17) (Supp. 1989). In both cases, the chancery judges have done their best to assure required and needed services would be given the families in the future. In the present case, the chancellor ordered DHS to provide medication to the mother in this matter. The mother suffers from dysthymia and a borderline personality disorder and requires Prozac, an anti-depressant medication, which can be provided at a cost of $5.50 per month. The judge also directed DHS to provide the mother and her two children with bus tokens so the family could make their required counseling sessions. Such transportation could be provided at a cost of $36.00 per month. In my view, DHS’s decision to appeal the chancellor’s order in this case is not only meritless, but incredulous as well. DHS concedes this family has failed to receive even the small $800.00 per year amount it, by its own policy, has deemed to be the maximum available financial assistance this family could receive from certain so-called “preventive funds.” Without her medication, the mother in this case could well have a relapse which would in turn jeopardize her ability to care for the children. Without transportation, she and her children are left with the inability to obtain counseling, which is part of the case plan established by DHS. Both the medication and transportation can be provided for a total sum of $41.50 per month. The mother in this case has made substantial improvements which have rewarded her the return of her children by the court. If she fails to continue her progress because of no medication and transportation and, as a result, her children are returned to foster care, this state’s economic burden will far exceed the disputed costs in this case. The judge in this matter was patient and thorough, and I agree with the majority that her order clearly should be affirmed. DHS’s energies would be better placed if it spent its time and efforts in trying to meet the needs and services required by families, such as the one here, than in challenging entitlements from preventive funds which are clearly within DHS’s authority to pay. This mother, who donates plasma to meet her monthly rent, surely is entitled to better treatment than what she has received in this case. In conclusion, I would add that the chancellor noted that she had some difficulty in determining who, in DHS, was accountable for assuring this family received the required services. The judge looked to the caseworker for DHS/DCFS. However, that caseworker conceded that because of her caseload, she was unable to do the needed work on this family’s case. The caseworker further testified that another DHS official, Billye Burke, has the purse strings and nothing could be done without her approval. Here, Burke apparently decided no more preventive funds should go to this family. No explanation was given for the cutting off of these funds even though the maximum entitlement amount had not been reached. And finally, a third person, a social worker and employee of Mental Health Center, was assigned to and assisted this family. While this social worker said that she did what she could for the family, she related the services that were not forthcoming, stating as follows: “I would like for her [the mother] to get all the resources that she needs so that she can get on with the business of parenting and living her life, with her training, where she can eventually get off of assistance. She wants to do that and that’s positive.” The chancellor, too, was frustrated in assigning accountability in this matter, especially, I would think, because only $41.50 per month would have resolved the immediate needs of this family. The judge has entered her order to assure those needs are met and this court, on appeal, emphasizes that the judge has that power. No separation of powers issue exists in this case, as DHS seems to argue. Our law assures that all children brought to the attention of the courts shall receive the guidance, care, and control, preferably in the child’s own home, which will best serve the emotional, mental and physical welfare of the child and the state. Ark. Code. Ann. § 9-27-302(1) (Supp. 1989). The family and children in the present case require transportation, counseling and treatment which are provided by law. Ark. Code Ann. § 9-27-303(17). When DHS and the state fail to provide those services required by law, then the judiciary’s responsibility is to assure the law is complied with. That is all there is to this case. The trial judge was correct in entering her order, and this court is correct in expeditiously upholding the order.