From lbeaver at courts.state.wy.us Mon Sep 24 16:44:34 2007 From: lbeaver at courts.state.wy.us (Beaver, Linda) Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:44:34 -0600 Subject: [WyoGAL] ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care - Webcast Message-ID: <1315724FEC91BB43BAC7236F51E9ABB901F913A3@exch01.courts.state.wy.us> FYI I note that the website addresses listed in the email below did not work for me. However, you can go to the ABA's home site http://www.abanet.org/child/home.html. This announcement is about the 4th box down. Linda Beaver ________________________________ From: NACC at yahoogroups.com [mailto:NACC at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Khoury, Andrea Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 01:01 PM To: NACC at yahoogroups.com Cc: Bullock, Shante; Laver, Mimi Subject: [NACC Listserv] ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care - Webcast Hello all, We invite you to join us for the Opening Doors Webcast on Thursday, October 11 from 3 to 4 PM (Eastern time). The ABA will host a one hour webcast for child welfare practitioners on LGBTQ youth in foster care. Project attorneys, Mimi Laver and Andrea Khoury, will give a short presentation and take your questions about attitudes and beliefs towards and representation of LGBTQ youth in foster care. The Opening Doors Project is a 3 year project aimed at increasing the legal community's awareness of LGBTQ youth in foster care the issues they face. The project will provide advocacy tools to help lawyers successfully represent these youth and tools for judges to aid decision making. For more information about this project, visit www.abanet.org/chil/lgbtq.shtml To reserve your spot, sign up online at www.abanet.org/chil.lgbtq , or call Shante Bullock at 202-662-1746. Thanks! Andrea Andrea Khoury ABA Center on Children and the Law 740 15th Street, NW Washington, DC 20005-1022 Ph: (202) 662-1730 Fax: (202) 662-1755 khourya at staff.abanet.org Change is about focusing all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Members The National Association of Counsel for Children does not sponsor or endorse the products advertised on our Yahoo! list serve. All advertisements are automated and distibuted by the Yahoo! network. list serve. All advertisements are automated and distibuted by the Yahoo! network. Yahoo! Groups Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity * 37 New Members Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups HD The official Samsung Y! Group for HDTVs and devices. Yahoo! Groups Moderator Central Connecting a world of moderators Cat Groups on Yahoo! Groups discuss everything related to cats. . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/wyogal/attachments/20070924/a856666b/attachment-0001.htm From lbeaver at courts.state.wy.us Mon Sep 24 16:51:01 2007 From: lbeaver at courts.state.wy.us (Beaver, Linda) Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:51:01 -0600 Subject: [WyoGAL] FW: ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care -Webcast Message-ID: <1315724FEC91BB43BAC7236F51E9ABB901F913A9@exch01.courts.state.wy.us> What does LGBTQ stand for? " lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth." ________________________________ From: wyogal-bounces at lists.washlaw.edu [mailto:wyogal-bounces at lists.washlaw.edu] On Behalf Of Beaver, Linda Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 03:45 PM To: WyoGAL at lists.washlaw.edu Subject: [WyoGAL] ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care -Webcast FYI I note that the website addresses listed in the email below did not work for me. However, you can go to the ABA's home site http://www.abanet.org/child/home.html. This announcement is about the 4th box down. Linda Beaver ________________________________ From: NACC at yahoogroups.com [mailto:NACC at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Khoury, Andrea Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 01:01 PM To: NACC at yahoogroups.com Cc: Bullock, Shante; Laver, Mimi Subject: [NACC Listserv] ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care - Webcast Hello all, We invite you to join us for the Opening Doors Webcast on Thursday, October 11 from 3 to 4 PM (Eastern time). The ABA will host a one hour webcast for child welfare practitioners on LGBTQ youth in foster care. Project attorneys, Mimi Laver and Andrea Khoury, will give a short presentation and take your questions about attitudes and beliefs towards and representation of LGBTQ youth in foster care. The Opening Doors Project is a 3 year project aimed at increasing the legal community's awareness of LGBTQ youth in foster care the issues they face. The project will provide advocacy tools to help lawyers successfully represent these youth and tools for judges to aid decision making. For more information about this project, visit www.abanet.org/chil/lgbtq.shtml To reserve your spot, sign up online at www.abanet.org/chil.lgbtq , or call Shante Bullock at 202-662-1746. Thanks! Andrea Andrea Khoury ABA Center on Children and the Law 740 15th Street, NW Washington, DC 20005-1022 Ph: (202) 662-1730 Fax: (202) 662-1755 khourya at staff.abanet.org Change is about focusing all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Members The National Association of Counsel for Children does not sponsor or endorse the products advertised on our Yahoo! list serve. All advertisements are automated and distibuted by the Yahoo! network. list serve. All advertisements are automated and distibuted by the Yahoo! network. Yahoo! Groups Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity * 37 New Members Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups HD The official Samsung Y! Group for HDTVs and devices. Yahoo! Groups Moderator Central Connecting a world of moderators Cat Groups on Yahoo! Groups discuss everything related to cats. . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/wyogal/attachments/20070924/f9ddff59/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT791704.txt Url: http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/wyogal/attachments/20070924/f9ddff59/attachment-0001.txt From tolin at tribcsp.com Mon Sep 24 22:44:51 2007 From: tolin at tribcsp.com (Don Tolin) Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:44:51 -0600 Subject: [WyoGAL] ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care -Webcast In-Reply-To: <1315724FEC91BB43BAC7236F51E9ABB901F913A3@exch01.courts.state.wy.us> References: <1315724FEC91BB43BAC7236F51E9ABB901F913A3@exch01.courts.state.wy.us> Message-ID: <001801c7ff26$7058dae0$657ba8c0@dell8200> FYI: LGBTQ youth in foster care usual refers to: "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or questioning individuals between the ages of 12 to 21" Regards, Don Tolin Law Offices of Donald Tolin 2105 CY Avenue P.O. Box 50007 Casper, WY 82605-0007 Telephone 307.234.0864 Fax 307.235.0519 E-mail: tolin at tribcsp.com http://w3.tribcsp.com/~dont/ CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email transmission, along with any attachments, is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed, and may contain information that is confidential, privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable state and federal law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, duplication, distribution or use of any of the information contained in this transmission is strictly PROHIBITED. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify me immediately, and delete all copies from your computer. _____ From: wyogal-bounces at lists.washlaw.edu [mailto:wyogal-bounces at lists.washlaw.edu] On Behalf Of Beaver, Linda Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 3:45 PM To: WyoGAL at lists.washlaw.edu Subject: [WyoGAL] ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care -Webcast FYI I note that the website addresses listed in the email below did not work for me. However, you can go to the ABA's home site http://www.abanet.org/child/home.html. This announcement is about the 4th box down. Linda Beaver _____ From: NACC at yahoogroups.com [mailto:NACC at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Khoury, Andrea Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 01:01 PM To: NACC at yahoogroups.com Cc: Bullock, Shante; Laver, Mimi Subject: [NACC Listserv] ABA Opening Doors Project - LGBTQ youth in foster care - Webcast Hello all, We invite you to join us for the Opening Doors Webcast on Thursday, October 11 from 3 to 4 PM (Eastern time). The ABA will host a one hour webcast for child welfare practitioners on LGBTQ youth in foster care. Project attorneys, Mimi Laver and Andrea Khoury, will give a short presentation and take your questions about attitudes and beliefs towards and representation of LGBTQ youth in foster care. The Opening Doors Project is a 3 year project aimed at increasing the legal community's awareness of LGBTQ youth in foster care the issues they face. The project will provide advocacy tools to help lawyers successfully represent these youth and tools for judges to aid decision making. For more information about this project, visit www.abanet.org/ chil/lgbtq.shtml To reserve your spot, sign up online at www.abanet.org/ chil.lgbtq, or call Shante Bullock at 202-662-1746. Thanks! Andrea Andrea Khoury ABA Center on Children and the Law 740 15th Street, NW Washington, DC 20005-1022 Ph: (202) 662-1730 Fax: (202) 662-1755 khourya at staff.abanet.org Change is about focusing all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Members The National Association of Counsel for Children does not sponsor or endorse the products advertised on our Yahoo! list serve. All advertisements are automated and distibuted by the Yahoo! network. list serve. All advertisements are automated and distibuted by the Yahoo! network. Yahoo! Groups Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity * 37 New Members Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups HD The official Samsung Y! Group for HDTVs and devices. Yahoo! Groups Moderator Central Connecting a world of moderators Cat Groups on Yahoo! Groups discuss everything related to cats. . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/wyogal/attachments/20070924/8020ca43/attachment-0001.htm From jkbwyo at yahoo.com Wed Sep 26 12:29:25 2007 From: jkbwyo at yahoo.com (jackie brown) Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:29:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [WyoGAL] Fw: Fwd: FW: Clark County, NV child placement case Message-ID: <786764.47502.qm@web30702.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I thought you all would be interested in this Nevada Supreme Court Case (foster parents vs relatives in who gets to adopt). Jacqueline K. Brown FAMILY LAW CENTER, LLC P.O. Box 937 Casper, WY 82601 (307) 237-1300 ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: KENNETH HANS To: "Harris, Jerri" Cc: Allison Sage ; Ann Robinson ; Ann Rochelle ; "Baden, Mike" ; "Blonigan, Mike" ; Bonnie McNulty ; "Brown, Jacqueline" ; Carolyn Yeaman ; Carrie Silveira ; Christy Cleavland ; Doris Lowe ; Doug Goodwin ; "Fritzler, Paul" ; "Jerding, Jeannie" ; Kristie DePoorter ; Lisa Bauman-Brown ; "McDowel, Terry" ; "Renne, Jennifer" ; "Robertson, Ralph" ; "vrhode at state.wy.us" Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:17:10 AM Subject: Fwd: FW: Clark County, NV child placement case FYI Pat Hans President Wyoming Foster/Adopt Parents Assoc. P.O.Box 1102 Casper, WY 82602 Power shows in lifting a person up, not putting them down. --- the forwarded message follows --- Sep. 22, 2007 Copyright ? Las Vegas Review-Journal State high court alters child placement criteria Best interest, not family preference, takes precedence, justices decree By ED VOGEL REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY -- In what is being called a precedent-setting decision, the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that judges must consider the best interests of the child over other factors in deciding where to place children removed from their parents. Judges in the past have relied on a 1991 law that relatives of children permanently removed from their parents should be given a "family preference" in determining where children should be placed. In a 7-0 decision filed Thursday, the court ordered Clark County District Judge Gerald Hardcastle to drop his decision to place a now 4-year-old girl with her aunt and uncle. The judge still could decide to place the girl with her relatives. Under the high court's decision, however, such an order must be based on whether it is in the girl's best interests. Hardcastle no longer handles such cases so the case might be referred to another judge. His placement decision came after a couple, identified only as Mario C. and Gena C., had been appointed as foster parents and told the Clark County Department of Family Services that they wanted to adopt the girl. The Supreme Court stayed the decision, pending the appeal by Mario and Gena, so the child never was removed from their home. "My clients are very happy with the decision," said their Las Vegas lawyer, Paul Gaudet, on Friday. "They have every intention to adopt the child. They love the child." But Marvin Longabaugh, the lawyer for Michael R. and Teresa R., the child's aunt and uncle, said that as a baby the child was placed with another foster family in Clark County. That first foster family was able to dictate to the Department of Family Services that the child when she was 1 year old should be moved to new foster parents, Mario and Gena, who live in Texas, he added. "She was moved from one foster family to another in another state when her relatives were willing and able to take her," Longabaugh said. "This is an absolute mess for my clients. They realize the child has bonded with the foster parents, but that bonding was created by screw-ups by DFS. The bonding was created by DFS that ignored the relatives." The child's aunt and uncle live in New York and never have seen the child. Gaudet said neither he nor the foster parents bear any animosity toward Hardcastle over his decision. In his order, Hardcastle wrote that it would be in the child's best interests to remain with the foster parents, but that he could not make that decision because of the legal presumption that such children must be placed with relatives, according to Gaudet. Longabaugh, however, said Hardcastle stated his decision on where to place the child was "an excruciatingly close call," but he noted the child had bonded with the foster parents. He added that his clients had not decided yet whether to continue to fight for the child. They realize the foster parents fell in love with the girl and it would be "horrible for them" if the child was given to the relatives. The aunt and uncle are not rich or poor, but middle-class people who also would be good parents for the girl, Longabaugh said. "DFS has butchered them," he added. According to a legal source, the decision will have at least a peripheral effect on a celebrated case involving 15-year-old Brittney Bergeron. Bergeron, paralyzed from the waist down in a 2003 attack by Beau and Monique Maestas, has announced she wants to be adopted by her foster parents. But Hardcastle, the judge presiding over her case, has refused to extinguish the parental rights of her mother, Tamara Schmidt, who is serving a four- to 10-year term in prison for neglect and leaving her children alone in an RV. Brittney was paralyzed and her 3-year-old sister, Krisyanna, was killed when the Maestas siblings busted into their RV in Mesquite. They contended that Schmidt had burned them in a methamphetamine deal. Beau Maestas received the death penalty, while his sister must spend at least 67 years behind bars. Brittney's foster parents, Judy and Bill Himel, want to adopt her. Hardcastle's decision in that case also has been appealed to the Supreme Court. The decision in the 4-year-old child's case clarifies an earlier Supreme Court decision that a legal source said caused family court judges to reject the "best interests" factor and almost always place a child with relatives of parents whose parental rights have been extinguished. In that case, the mother of the child suffered from drug addiction and the father was in prison. While acknowledging that there is a family preference, Justice Nancy Saitta wrote in the decision that "when placement with non-relatives best serves the child's best interest, the familial preference is negated." Saitta checked records of a 1991 legislative hearing on the family preference bill and found legislators still gave judges "discretion not to use the preference." "The Legislature's use of the word 'preference,' rather than 'presumption,' suggests its concern that relatives who are 'ready, willing and able' to keep a family together be favored for placement over non-relatives, but that suitable relatives are not necessarily entitled to custody," Saitta stated. The decision does not require Hardcastle or another judge to return the child to the foster parents but to reconsider facts and circumstances and determine which placement would be in the "child's best interest." Based on how Hardcastle mentioned in his order that the best interests of the child would be a placement with the foster parents, Gaudet said he is confident the judge now will make that placement. Child advocates and representatives from the state Division of Family Services and Clark County Legal Services declined comment, saying they had not yet reviewed the decision. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/wyogal/attachments/20070926/29a781d1/attachment.htm