CASAA CASA is a Court Appointed Special Advocate. CASA's are specially trained volunteers who are appointed by the courts. Courts usually contract through an agency who provides CASA's. These CASA's are trained by the agency and have had background checks completed on them. If you might be interested in becoming a CASA, find out more information here, here, or here.The CASA's job is to be a neutral factor whose main focus is the present and future well being of the child. The CASA gathers information from the biological parents, the foster family, and the caseworker, and delivers to information to the GAL. 
CASA's come in all shapes, forms, and backgrounds. Not all cases have a CASA assigned to them, but most do. The CASA will meet with the child, often at your home and sometimes at the child's school. S/he will attend visits between your child and the biological parents. They will ask a lot of questions and may take a lot of notes, since their primary role is to report their findings to the GAL. The information they provide is used to determine the differences in how the child interacts with the different people in his/her life. Oftentimes, this information can indicate the how safe the child feels with each set of parents. The CASA can often be an excellent advocate for the more appropriate family, which in many social services cases, is the foster or fost-adopt family. Be mindful, however, that CASA's are volunteers who come from many different backgrounds. In other words, there is a chance that the CASA involved in your case may be homophobic. If you feel at all that your CASA may be showing signs of homophobia, tell the caseworker or your Resource Family Team worker immediately. If the caseworker has placed a child in your home, s/he is not homophobic and is an advocate for you. Your caseworker will ask the GAL to have the case reassigned to a different CASA. If they don't offer to do this for you, ask them to do it. You don't want the CASA delivering any misinformation to the GAL as a result of their attitude toward you because you're gay or their misguided beliefs about gay families children. Remember, as a foster family and a possible adoptive placement, although it may not feel like it, you have a lot of power. Every social services agency's goal is to minimize the disruptions a child must endure and therefore minimize the placements. If a caseworker or GAL feels that a placement may be in jeopardy, they will do whatever it takes to make sure the child's stability is maintained. There's more on this in the
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