There is still a lot of different issues going on between states at the time of writing this blog.  I have a case where Massachusetts closes the cases out because the mother moved to Rhode Island and then the Rhode Island DCF closed the case out because the father got custody in Massachusetts. 

It is very easy for the situation to fall through the cracks where one state will say that they don’t have authority and will not coordinate with the other state.  There are different mechanisms in place, but on a realistic level there can still be a lot of difficulties with the coordination.  Even getting DCF or DCYF worker to testify in Massachusetts from Rhode Island or vice versa can be problematic.  For them to share the information can be challenging and is something that might need a strong advocate to be able to address because it is not as automatic or as simple as many times people would think and sometimes it will leave children in an unsafe situation because of the lack of coordination between the States Child Welfare Agencies, the court and the due process restrictions.