Dear Friends,

I wanted to be sure to bring your attention to an important topic today.  On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times featured an op-ed on my Assembly Bill 73, which would open up dependency court hearings to public scrutiny.  Children's futures are at stake in the Juvenile Dependency Court system, which decides cases involving child abuse or neglect. Although these courts make life-altering decisions for foster kids, they are currently closed to the public. 

Numerous reports have shown that the child welfare system needs greater accountability and oversight. My bill would change dependency courts from being presumptively closed to presumptively open. Judges would have the discretion to close sensitive proceedings, such as those in which children testify about abuse.  This bill provides crucial openness to a system that desperately needs reform, without the use of additional precious taxpayer dollars.  Here’s an excerpt from the op-ed:

In California today, 60,000 children are wards of the state's foster-care system. They have been abused or neglected by their parents or guardians, and foster care is intended to be a crucial lifeline.

Instead, kids thrown into the maw of a well-meaning but often callous bureaucracy continue to suffer. [...]  The tragic confluence of family abuse and official negligence, hidden from the public by a culture of secrecy, has persisted for years despite pleading by advocates inside and outside the system. Thankfully, it may soon change.

Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) … has introduced a bill to open the state's dependency courts, where these cases are heard, to the public.  His proposal got its first public airing last week at a remarkable hearing in Sacramento in which witness after witness testified to a broken system.

[...]

Under Feuer's proposal, the privacy of children could still be protected. The bill would simply change dependency courts from being presumptively closed to being presumptively open. Judges could, as they do in adult criminal courts, close some proceedings — those, for instance, in which children might be asked to testify about abuse — or take other measures to protect children.

You can read the full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-newton-column-foster-care-20110308,0,6114360.column. 

Additionally, The Orange County Register, Mercury News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, and The Daily Breeze have written editorials in support of this bill.

If you’d like more information about Assembly Bill 73 or other topics, please sign up for my e-newsletter here, send me an email, or contact my district office at (310) 285-5490.

Thanks,

Mike Feuer

Assemblymember, 42nd District

Website: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Feuer
Email: Assemblymember Mike Feuer