A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is a trained citizen volunteer who is appointed by a Judge to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children, typically in Juvenile Court. A CASA worker has a similar role as a Guardian ad Litem (GAL), but in TN, a Guardian ad Litem is always an attorney, whereas a CASA worker is not.
A CASA worker, like the GAL, investigates the circumstances of a case, by interviewing parents, teachers, relatives, doctors, and any other people who are familiar with the child and then makes recommendations to the court about where the child should be living.
The CASA worker is an independent appointee of the court and is specially trained to handle dependency and neglect cases and typically carries a very small caseload, of maybe one to two cases. There are currently around 1300 CASA volunteers in the State of Tennessee.
A CASA worker, like the GAL, investigates the circumstances of a case, by interviewing parents, teachers, relatives, doctors, and any other people who are familiar with the child and then makes recommendations to the court about where the child should be living.
The CASA worker is an independent appointee of the court and is specially trained to handle dependency and neglect cases and typically carries a very small caseload, of maybe one to two cases. There are currently around 1300 CASA volunteers in the State of Tennessee.