Rising juvenile court caseloads are creating scrambles around the state to find and fund court-appointed special advocates and guardians ad litem. Millions more dollars also will be needed for public defenders who soon will be required for the first time in many more delinquency cases.
Marion Superior Juvenile Judge Marilyn Moores blames an epidemic of parental heroin use for a recent surge in child in need of services filings, compounding a chronic financial shortfall for guardians ad litem in Indianapolis.
Judges are pleading with the state to budget another $6 million to $7 million annually to address these current and future needs. But they say that won’t begin to meet the full costs, so the remainder still will have to be picked up by counties.