Kids caught in the middle of domestic violence cases offered support, solace by Cook County court

There is a room for children at Cook County’s Domestic Violence Courthouse filled with toys, books and TVs.

The hope is to protect them from the sensitive details being shared in the courtrooms, though it’s unlikely they’ve been unaffected by violence in their homes.

Seeking an order of protection against an abuser can be a challenging process, but even more so when there’s a child involved.

For nearly a decade, Cook County has employed someone whose entire job is to navigate these situations and address the safety of those seeking an order of protection against a co-parent.

This position has been deemed so successful that it has expanded within the county and will soon be implemented in courthouses across the country.

“To help other municipalities to replicate this program has been a great recognition for us of this work, which is, now — it's hard to believe — been going on for 10 years,” said Judith Rice, presiding judge of the Domestic Violence Division.

“In the past, there was a view that if someone was in the home causing harm (and) there's an order of protection, they just didn't get to see their kids anymore," she said. "And what we saw is something that we call magical thinking, to think that these parties are not going to see their kids, are not going to want to be involved and not want to be in their life.”

Addressing a growing problem

Before the program, there was a disturbing pattern in which a parent would violate an order of protection to see a child, or a parent would drop an order of protection because they needed assistance with a child.

According to Judge Rice, there was a disconnect. People were “not understanding that if you could work out some sort of plan for how the other parent would be in that child's life, that they could still have their (protective) order.”

In 2013, Cook County was one of four sites selected to participate in the Family Court Enhancement Project, aimed at addressing some of these issues parents were facing in domestic violence court.

Through the project, Cook County conducted training, improved its help desk and created the role of the child relief expediter — a person who would help parents develop a safe, well-supervised co-parenting plan to be incorporated into their order of protection.

“There were a lot of folks involved in dialoguing around how to set up this program here in a way where safety was really at the core of everything,” child relief expediter Stephanie Senuta said.

“We can develop customized safe parenting plans for families that aren't just one size fits all, that really look at what's happening with this family.”

The process begins with a screening conducted by a judge. If guns or weapons are involved, or a child is severely injured, the case will not be referred to Senuta.

In the first six months of the program, judges referred just 24 cases to her. From August 2023 to this August, there were 414 cases referred. Since the program's inception, the child relief expediter has worked with a total of 2,333 families.

After a case is referred, Senuta meets separately with each party to determine if co-parenting could be done safely and what options are available: Is there a relative who can facilitate and supervise a visit, or is there a visitation center the parents could use?

These meetings can sometimes last two or three hours, and for many, it's the first — and sometimes only — opportunity they have to just talk about their case.

“When they come back, you will see a change,” Rice said.

Legal advocates who often sit in on meetings with their clients saw the impact firsthand. For Tessa Kuipers, legal advocacy program director at the service agency Family Rescue, one particular case always comes to mind.

She was working with a survivor who had experienced stalking but was “determined to advocate for herself” and throughout initial proceedings had remained “stoic.”

But when the survivor met with Senuta and began to discuss her children and their safety, she became emotional for the first time.

The woman told Kuipers, “This is the first time I really have been heard by the court about the abuse that I've experienced.”

The ‘Cook County model’

Once the parties come up with a plan, those “child relief remedies” are incorporated into the order of protection.

“We have a lot more clients that I think are getting a co-parenting relationship on paper that is safe than they did before, which means orders of protection are working better for people,” Kuipers said.

And if changes need to be made while the protective order is in effect, Senuta is there to help.

“It might be because something's not working … or it could be that things are going really well, and the parents actually want to progress this to the next step,” she said. “ As long as their order of protection is still in effect, we can continue to work with them.”

Loyola University researchers analyzed the first two years of the Family Court Enhancement Project and found individuals were asking for more child-related remedies in orders of protection and judges were asking more child-related questions during civil hearings.

Researchers interviewed over 50 judges, attorneys, advocates and litigants and determined the role of the child relief expediter was “an invaluable addition.”

For a while, Senuta was the only one. But the county has since hired a second and is in the process of hiring a third, to address the increase in cases.

The program now takes cases from two suburban courthouses with plans to expand to more.

Through funding from the U.S. Office on Violence Against Women, the “Cook County model” will also be implemented in two or three other jurisdictions next year.

Applications were open to courthouses across the country over the summer, and sites will be selected by the end of December.

The site will receive funding for three years along with technical support from Cook County and other experts.