TPR
Workgroup
Subcommittee
Members
The newly appointed TPR Workgroup
began its work in September 2001. The primary goal of this newest
committee is to implement the TPR Plan of Action established by
the General Assembly in August 2001. The Plan of Action includes
the following initiatives:
- Early identification/parent locator
services;
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
Services;
- Paternity testing;
- Process service;
- Permanency planning liaisons;
and
- State Court Coordinator.
The TPR Court Coordinator (State Court
Coordinator) was hired in September 2002. The Coordinator is charged
with assisting the TPR Workgroup along two major tracks. Track one
- eliminating the identified barriers to the timely processing of TPR cases
and track two - training and coordinating the permanency planning liaisons
from the eight judicial circuits. Permanency planning liaisons have
been hired for the third, seventh and eighth judicial circuit. They
have begun their initial assessments of the barriers to permanency in their
respective jurisdictions. A majority of the Plan of Action
initiatives center around the early identification of both parents including
accurate and current address information. The Workgroup has sought
to address these initiatives through the use of sharing best practices amongst
the jurisdictions including a parent litany adopted from Prince George's
Circuit Court and funding awarded for paternity testing and process service
to several jurisdictions with a backlog of cases. The
TPR Workgroup held a conference on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
and Dependency Court on April 4, 2003 in Columbia, Maryland. The
primary focus of the conference was to bring the various dependency stakeholders,
judges, and masters from around the state together to begin a dialog about
the use of ADR in Dependency Court. The conference topics included:
the Theory of ADR, the Use of ADR in Dependency Court Cases, Start Up
Issues and several jurisdictions spoke about their current ADR programs.
Subsequent to the conference several jurisdictions received funding from
the Foster Care Court Improvement Project to implement their own ADR program.
The Workgroup continues to study the
barriers to the timely processing of TPR cases in order to coordinate
best practices across the State.
For further information, please contact
Beverly Stewart Schulterbrandt, Esq.,
TPR Court Coordinator
Foster Care Court Improvement Project
(410) 260-1428
beverly.schulterbrandt@courts.state.md.us
Subcommittee
Members Chair:
Hon. Martin P. Welch, Circuit Court for Baltimore City
Members:
Hon. Kathleen Gallogly Cox, Circuit
Court for Baltimore County
Hon. Larnzell Martin, Jr., Circuit
Court for Prince George's County
Hon. Dennis McHugh, Circuit Court
for Montgomery County
Hon. David W. Young, Circuit Court
for Baltimore City
Karen Anadol, Permanency Planning
Liaison for the 7th Circuit
Charles Cooper, Administrator, Citizens'
Review Board for Children
Joan Little, Esq., Legal Aid Bureau,
Inc.
M. Theresa McDonough, Esq., Prince
George's County Office of Law
Ann McFadden, Family Support Services
Coordinator for Charles County
Rita McGinley, Esq., Office of the
Public Defender
Bruce Mermelstein, Esq., Baltimore
County Office of Law
Truth Omole, Esq., Legal Aid Bureau,
Inc.
Stephanie Pettaway, Department of
Human Resources
Judith Schagrin, LCSW-C, Baltimore
County Department of Social Services
Steven Smith, Permanency Planning
Liaison for the 8th Circuit
Yolanda Tanner, Esq., Baltimore
City Department of Social Services
Vanita Taylor, Esq., Office of the
Public Defender
Anissa Vila, Permanency Planning
Liaison for the 3rd Circuit
Darlene Wakefield,
Esq., Law Office of Darlene A. Wakefield, P.A.
Project staff:
Beverly S. Schulterbrandt, Esq.,
TPR Court Coordinator, FCCIP
Hope Gary, Esq., Project Administrator, FCCIP
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