A CASA provides a judge with carefully researched background details about the child to help the court make a sound decision about that child's future. Each home placement case is as unique as the child involved. The CASA must determine if the best interest of the child is staying with their parents or guardians, being placed in foster care, or being freed for permanent adoption.

A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is a trained citizen who is appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of a child in court. Most of the children are victims of abuse and neglect, and have been removed from their homes. Children helped by CASAs include those for whom placement is being determined in juvenile court.

The CASA volunteer first completes a rigorous 30-hour training program. The CASA is also expected to attend brief 'in-service' seminars in order to learn about changes in the legal and social services environments.

A CASA volunteer provides a judge with carefully researched background details about the child to help the court make a sound decision about that child's future. Each home placement case is as unique as the child involved. The CASA volunteer must determine if the best interest of the child is staying with their parents or guardians, being placed in foster care, or being freed for permanent adoption.

The CASA volunteer does not provide legal representation in the courtroom. That is the role of an attorney. A CASA volunteer does not represent the child's wishes in court. Rather, they speak to the child's best interests.

In Arizona, the CASA program fund receives 30 percent of unclaimed state lottery prize money pursuant to A.R.S. §§ 5-518 and 8-524. Funds are appropriated annually by the Arizona state legislature.

Once appointed to a case, the CASA volunteer is assigned a case supervisor who provides ongoing support and supervision.

Did you know that 32 million (14 percent) of the people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home? For example in California, 0.6 million people speak Chinese and 5.5 million speak Spanish at home. Over 17 million (8 percent) of the people living in the U.S. speak Spanish at home. Understand cultural diversity. Many cultural groups depend upon fishing to augment their diet either because of poverty or tradition.

CASAs come from all walks of life and possess a variety of professional, educational and ethnic backgrounds. There are more than 70,000 CASAs nationally. Local programs vary in number of volunteers they utilize. Aside from their CASA work, 64 percent are employed in full- or part-time jobs; the majority tend to be professionals with 58% being college or university graduates. The majority (82%) of the advocates nationwide are women.

There are now 930 CASA programs in every state across the country, including Washington DC and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Arizona has a program for each county or a total of 15 offices.

Preliminary findings show that children who have been assigned CASAs tend to spend less time in the foster care system and received more services than those who do not have CASA representation. Judges have observed that children with a CASA also have better chances of finding permanent homes.

The most important difference between reports results from CASA and CoCASA is the option to Apply ACIP Recommendations. This option is applied by default in CoCASA and means that only valid doses are considered in the calculation of report results. If a dose is determined as “invalid” by CoCASA, then it is as if that dose never occurred. This can result in a very different categorization of a patient included in the Summary Report.

Yes. Juvenile and family court judges implement the CASA program in their courtrooms and appoint advocates. CASA has been endorsed by the American Bar Association, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice. CASA is a priority project of the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The volunteer continues until the case is permanently resolved. One of the primary benefits of the CASA program is that, unlike other court principals who often rotate through cases, the CASA is a consistent figure in the proceedings and provides continuity for a child.

The State CASA Office assists the county offices by tracking legislature bills, maintains an information web site, provides training to CASAs and staff, facilitates development of outreach campaigns and provides general support to the county programs.

The County CASA programs handle the nuts and bolts of the program. They recruit and screen applicants, assist CASAs in case selection, management, training, mentoring. and communication.

Casa Palmera residents enjoy a full schedule that keeps them busy all day long. Feel free to view a sample weekly schedule