Referencing “State must find real answers for vulnerable youth,” The Astorian, Jan. 23: As a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for many years, I applaud Richard Wexler’s insightful analysis of how the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) deals with the state’s most vulnerable families.

He is correct — the parents whose children become wards of the state are largely low-income, if not actually living in poverty. This is often their only offense. I would add to this that the demands family court puts on these parents make it impossible for them to get their children back.

It is already clear that these parents have virtually no resources to keep all the appointments the court orders them to maintain: substance use rehabilitation, parenting classes, court appearances, functional family classes and DHS visitations, just to name a few. They often have no transportation to get to these appointments, and lose their jobs if they try to keep them.

I urge CASA to use its power to force DHS to amend its system to be fair to these families by not setting them up to fail, but to thrive. Poverty should not be a reason to separate families. Surely DHS could take an incisive look at the criteria it uses to separate families and come up with truly significant and reasonable guidelines. Oregon families deserve this.

TESS CHEDSEY

Warrenton