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CASA History National Level Concerned with the staggering number of children in foster care, the United States Congress in 1974 enacted Public Law 93-274, the "Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act," which provided financial assistance to states for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. The legislation included a requirement for that assistance: mandatory appointment of a guardian ad litem (GAL) to represent the abused or neglected child' s best interests in every case which resulted in a judicial proceeding. The legislation did not specify that the guardian ad litem had to be an attorney, but usually it was an attorney who was appointed to fill this role.
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In 1976, Judge David W. Soukup, then Presiding Judge of King County Superior Court in Seattle, Washington, searched for alternative ways to ensure that the child' s best interests would be consistently represented to the court. He found that few court-appointed attorneys had the time or the training to carry on the comprehensive investigation that would elicit the information the court needed. Judge Soukup decided to utilize trained community volunteers who would be asked to make a long-term commitment to a child for whom they would serve as guardians ad litem. Judge Soukup' s concept became a successful program in it s first years of operation and word of the program spread quickly.
Following this early model, similar programs were developed across the United States. By 1982, it was clear that a national association was needed to direct CASA' s emerging national presence. The National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (NCASAA) was formed that year. Currently, there are 950 CASA programs with more than 52,000 CASA volunteers throughout the country and U.S. Virgin Islands advocating for 206,000 children.
Website: National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association
In the Southern Tier
CASA of Chemung County, Inc. began in the spring of 1988 when the New York Task Force on Permanency Planning and the Junior League of Elmira approached the Chemung County Family Court with information about the benefits to be gained through the use of CASA volunteers in Family Court. A paid part-time Director was hired in June of 1989; the first volunteer was assigned in January of 1990; the Director’s position increased to full-time in January of 1993. In the summer of 1994, CASA received a Senate Initiative Grant from Senator Kuhl and a Schuyler County Youth Bureau grant to expand services to Schuyler County. CASA started providing services in Schuyler County in November of 1994. In 1996, a part-time Supervisor was hired to cover Chemung and Schuyler Counties. In August 2002, CASA expanded services into Steuben County and in January 2003 became CASA of the Southern Tier, Inc. This expansion increased the service population from 110,200 to over 203,000 to cover over 2100 square miles.