Judge Fransein touches on better outcomes for children with lawyers and proposed legislation to create a centralized office to remove the barriers that currently exist for children and parents to obtain high-quality legal representation.
Doris Fransein l February 16, 2023
Every child in every family in every community deserves the chance to thrive. Often the best way to help a child is to make sure children and their families are supported and have access to high-quality legal representation in court-involved child welfare cases.
Yet access to high-quality legal representation continues to vary dramatically across Oklahoma.
National research shows that high-quality legal representation can help keep families together by preventing unnecessary removal and increasing reunification of families if they are separated. It increases the rate of children being safely returned to their parents and their extended families.
It decreases trauma resulting from family separation. It provides our juvenile judges with critical information so they can make the best possible decisions for families. It saves the state money by reducing the costs of foster care for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.