Emancipation

Gary just got a call from CASA. Roland spoke to them briefly. I was in the bath.

I spoke to Gary and he said that they were going to be supporting emancipation as his goal. Since he lived in a juvenile justice facility and some of the residents did emancipate at 17, he was a little confused about what that meant. While some of the kids at the facility were able to get job and become emancipated minors (on probation), they were not already foster kids.

So I explained that for foster kids having emancipation as a goal meant that the plan was to keep him in foster care until he was 18. The only ways for him to stop being a ward of the state was by guardianship or adoption. So he started talking again about taking extra classes and graduating at the end of his junior year. That is fine with me, but more difficult than he thinks it will be.

At least now he doesn't want to do anything that would entail notifying his father, and that is okay with me.

His permanency hearing is next week. I have learned that his judge has a reputation for incredibly short permanency hearings. What we experienced last time was typical. If everyone shows up agreeing to a plan, the judge won't do more than ask Gary if he needs anything and we will be out of there.