From family law seminar, a first-place paper

Sarah Balogh ’14 had forgotten all about it. She was, after all, busy graduating from SUNY Buffalo Law School, studying for and taking the bar exam, and settling into her first post-law school job.

So when an email arrived from the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, telling her that she had won first place in the organization’s Family Law Writing Competition, it was the very definition of a pleasant surprise.

Balogh had entered the competition in April, submitting a paper she had written for Professor Susan V. Mangold’s seminar called Developments in New York State Family Law. The paper – 22 double-spaced pages, including footnotes – was titled “Imposing Statutory Time Limits for Termination of Parental Rights Proceedings to Improve Permanency Outcomes for Youth in Placement.” “Your submission stood out as insightful and well-written,” competition director Michael Slade wrote from the Hofstra University School of Law.

“She conducted excellent research and worked on several drafts to perfect her organization and writing,” Mangold says. “Her suggested reforms were informed by her social work experience as well as her legal research.” Balogh has a master’s degree in social work and is currently serving as a clinical social worker for a foster care agency while she awaits the results of the bar exam.

Her paper notes that when a youth in New York State has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months, the department that has custody of him is mandated by federal law to file a petition to terminate parental rights. But, Balogh says, no law says the termination proceedings must go any further than that. The paper advocates measures that would expedite the process of permanently resolving the child’s status, whether it’s adoption or a return to his biological parents. She built her argument around the situation of an 8-year-old child who had been in foster care since birth, a true story (with identifying details disguised) from her social work experience.

“Children need and have a right to permanency,” she wrote. “The system that is charged with working towards this goal should not be an impediment to reaching that goal.”

Balogh researched the applicable laws in all 50 states to look for best practices, and found that some, including Wisconsin, impose strict time limits on establishing permanency.

As part of the seminar, she and her classmates presented their papers to an invited audience of lawyers, social workers, faculty and others interested in the field. The presentations took place in the courtroom of state Supreme Court Justice Sharon S. Townsend.

As for the $500 that she won in the Family Law Writing Competition, Balogh will put it to good use. She’s getting into roller derby, starting with a boot camp in October, then a draft for the Queen City Roller Girls organization. She needs some skates.

From Sarah Balogh’s prizewinning paper:

It would be naïve to assume that instituting mandates in an overburdened and underfunded system would automatically resolve the issue. New York State Senate Chairman John L. Sampson, along with other authorities, posits that the Family Court system will not function well until it receives the funding and staff it needs. Nevertheless, professionals in the child welfare system should not be resigned to accepting the status quo. Improvements can be made with existing resources. Progress will begin when there is a culture change in the system: when professionals hold each other accountable and are not content to sit idly by, accepting the current, slow state of affairs. One panel found that the professionals working in Family Court did not view delays as a “noteworthy problem” and believe they are helpless to make changes. Judges thought that “the system does not work, yet they feel powerless to change it…, they are not ensuring justice for children and families…, and lack optimism about changing the system.” It will take more than mandates and sanctions to make changes; internal motivation is more powerful than external motivation. “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”