Court gives foster children space to relax
ALBANY — Family Court judges preside over some of the saddest cases in the Capital Region.
And outside their courtrooms, it might be just as bleak — especially for a child in foster care. The children often wait on benches around distressed litigants preparing for cases that involve child custody and visitation rights, juvenile delinquenbookshelf, cy, abuse and neglect, contested matrimonial issues and possibly the loss of parental rights. It can get ugly.
Which is why on Friday, Albany County Executive Daniel Mccoy, a county commissioner and several judges were in Family Court on Clinton Avenue to unveil a program to steer foster youth away from such ugliness and into a designated space just for them on the second floor of the courthouse. The room has a rug, curtains, chairs, a stacked healthy snacks, a board game and two old-school video game systems: Nintendo and Super Nintendo.
“Everything that would give a young person an opportunity to try to relax and remain cool before they go see their judge,” said Family Court Judge Susan Kushner, the lead judge for the county’s Court Improvement Project, a federally funded program that supports the court’s mandate to promote safety, permanency and wellbeing of abused and neglected children.
On a lighter note, Mccoy tried his hand at Donkey Kong, one of the games now available for the foster children (and advanced further in the game than Law Beat).
The county executive said that most of the time, the children are not going to the courthouse for good reasons.
“This gives an opportunity, especially for the older kids, to sit in a room away from everyone ... and just forget about the
real reason they are here and just kind of get lost in the moment,” Mccoy said.
The gathering drew the appearance of acting Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly, the administrative judge for the seven-county Third Judicial District; Family Court Judge Richard Rivera, the supervisory judge of Family Court across the district, which covers Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene, Schoharie, Ulster and Sullivan counties.
Also present were Moira Manning, commissioner of the county’s Department of Children, Youth and Families and Kristen Anne Conklin, executive director of the state’s Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, which is chaired by retired Appellate Division Presiding Justice Karen Peters.
Kushner explained that when children who are removed from their homes and placed in foster care turn seven years old, they have the opportunity to speak to a Family Court judge every six months.
“That’s where their parents are outside waiting in the big waiting area — which can get noisy, which can get crowded, which sometimes on rare occasions can get violent,” Kushner said, noting the children may or may not want to see their parents.
“This is about getting them off the beaten path to a quiet, secluded home-like atmosphere where hopefully they can relax and get their wits about them before they go into talk to a judge,” Kushner said. “Because no matter how welcoming a judge is, children are children and they are going to be nervous. It’s as simple as that.”
The room is the result of a three-year plan made possible, in part, by a $15,000 grant through the Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children. The Albany Community Action Partnership, Red Shelf Book Club and Court Appointed Special Advocates helped make the room possible.
Kushner said the room is geared for youths between the ages of 10 and 18. The judge performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the room.
Connolly lauded Kushner and the other judges for working to make sure foster youth do not have a location where decisions on their lives are being made that is cold and heartless.
“This is what this is all about,” Connolly said, “to give them that feeling of welcome and protection.”