The Effectiveness of Court Appointed Special Advocates to Assist in Permanency Planning

The effectiveness of permanency planning, which refers to efforts to move children through the court system in a timely and efficient manner, was analyzed by comparing outcome measures from a group of children having a court appointed special advocate (CASA) ordered and assigned to their case, and from a group of children who had no CASA assigned to their case. It was found that those cases having CASA involvement had significantly fewer placements, tended to be more likely to achieve permanency, and spent less overall time under wardship of the court.