I WasA Foster Child And CPS Needs Real Reform

Apr 1, 2014

IMAGE: “”Draped Reclining Mother and Baby” by Henry Moore, Photo by Peter Rivera, Creative Commons

Just like Child Protective Services can suck for parents, foster care can suck for kids too. As someone who spent my pre-teen and teen years in foster care, this is something that my friends and I know all too well.
The following is a letter that I recently wrote to the Texas Senate Committee regarding recommendations for better protecting children in foster care as a follow up to a judicial hearing that was held on 2/20/2014.
In short, when CPS recognizes its limitations, it can prioritize its services for those who can benefit most, and stop wasting time and energy on families who will not benefit at all, such as in households with responsible marijuana using parents.
You don’t have to have been in foster care to agree with this.

Dear Committee Member,
Thank you for including the well-being of foster youth as a topic of discussion during the 83rd Interim Session on 2/20/2014. By allowing public testimony, those who have experienced the foster care system firsthand were able to share their experiences and provide recommendations for how the system can be improved. This email is a follow-up to that testimony.
In 2013, 17,022 children were removed from their homes by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS 2013 Data Book, pg. 48). This is a 40% increase from the 12,107 children removed in 2009, just 2 years after the DFPS started putting regulations in place to house foster youth in hotels due to a lack of available foster homes or other appropriate placements. This increase in removals is no doubt a result of increased funding provided to the department to hire additional investigators to handle referrals that were being made to the Statewide Intake Hotline.
While we – and by “we” I mean all of the people of Texas – have expanded Child Protective Service’s ability to investigate claims of abuse or neglect and separate families by removing children when they deem it to be necessary, we have not placed a strong enough focus on ensuring the well-being of these children once they have entered the foster care system. We have taken great steps in this direction by doing things such as setting up the Foster Care Redesign program and providing greater regulations for psychotropic medicating of youth, but it is simply not enough. This is apparent not only by the experiences shared by former foster youth on 2/20/14, but also because of the fact that other youth currently in care are still sharing these same experiences and could tell many of the same stories we heard.
I aged out of foster care in 2003 and more than 10 years later the stories of those who recently aged out of foster care are still full of the same pain, hurt, and agony my own friends and I experienced. Not enough is changing. We have to do more. But what?
The most important thing we must do to immediately improve the lives of youth in foster care is to hold the department accountable to children the same way the department holds parents and families accountable during investigations of abuse or neglect.
Actually, the Texas Family Code already requires us to do this, we just have to get better at it. Section 153.002 states that “The best interest of the child shall always be the primary consideration of the court in determining the issues of conservator ship and possession of and access to the child”. When the department removes a child from their family, they claim that the removal is in the best interest of the child and that they (the department) can do a better job ensuring the safety and well-being of the child than the family can.
If a child is being abused or even killed in their care, are they really doing a better job of caring for that child than the family was? Maybe, maybe not. Who gets to decide if the state funded abuse or neglect a child has endured is better or worse than the privately funded family abuse or neglect the child received at home? In some cases children were not even being harmed at home but the department did not agree with some other aspect of the parent’s lives. CPS shouldn’t get to decide when they have so much to lose in the decision. If they admit that they are actually more harmful to a child than their biological family, they open themselves up to lawsuits, and could lose funding. None of that is very good for business, but that can’t be the primary concern when we are talking about children’s lives.
What we need is an outside group, agency, committee, or someone to provide an unbiased investigation of claims of abuse or neglect within the foster care system.
This group would communicate with the courts so that judges can really make decisions about what is in the best interest of the child and the most egregious cases of abuse or neglect within the foster care system would be reported to the legislature directly. This would enable the legislature to be more educated regarding the services being provides by Child Protective Services and make the best decisions to protect Texas’ most vulnerable population. While it would be best to establish this group as a formal entity with a budget, we could surely ask people to take this task on voluntarily, or ask an existing Committee (such as the CPS oversight committee that already exists) to take on this great task.
Another way to protect youth in foster care is to stop depending on CPS to report abuse and neglect within it’s own system. We have to start listening to the children.
When CPS receives a report of abuse or neglect, they usually interview the youth involved. They believe what the youth is telling them and use information gained in these interviews to justify removals of children from their homes. Yet once a youth enters the foster care system, their word is no longer considered reliable.
Youth should be taken seriously when reporting abuse or neglect, regardless of whether they are on medications or considered “problem children”. Youth should also have people who periodically talk with them and ask them if they have been abused or neglected since some youth will not tell unless asked. The best way would be for each youth to have a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) that does not change and that they could bond with. This would allow the youth to feel more comfortable and make them more likely to report abuse or neglect if it occurs. However, random yearly interviews of youth to ask about abuse and neglect, as well as the investigation of all claims of abuse and neglect made by youth is a good start. This could also be done by the group established above to investigate these claims anyway.
We can also teach youth who to contact if they do get up the courage to report abuse or neglect and nothing is done. We can establish a hotline similar to (or maybe even the same as) the abuse and neglect line set up for youth in the custody of the Texas Youth Commission.
We should also teach youth how to contact their legisators if they are being abused and neglected in foster care and no one else will help them. The Texas Health and Human Services, including Child Protective Services, is accountable to the legislature for the quality of services it is providing and if anyone can help a youth who is being abused, is it not their legislators? Hopefully we are able to set up a system in which youth are being taken seriously and being protected so that they have nothing to report, but if they do and no one will listen, wouldn’t you like to know about that?
These are just a few of the many things that can be done to better protect youth in the foster care system. To recap, my recommendations are:
1. Holding CPS accountable the same way we hold parents and families accountable.
2. Creating an outside entity to investigate claims of abuse or neglect within the foster care system
3. Stop letting CPS be the sole reporter of abuse or neglect in the foster care system. Listen to the children.
4. Teach children who to contact if their claim of abuse or neglect is not addressed. Also teach youth how to contact their legislator as a last resort.
While foster care can be a better alternative for some youth, Child Protective Services is unable to recognize its own limitations. Unfortunately, the result is that the department ends up harming some youth instead of helping them. And not only while they are in care, but youth continue to be affected by their foster care experience even once they age out. These youth have a 50% chance of becoming homeless once they leave care, and are usually not considered employable. Only 3% graduate college with some sort of degree, even though Texas offers free tuition to those in the foster care system. Over 200,000 prisoners nationwide admit to spending time in foster care. This is arguably the most at risk of all at risk groups, including 1st generation high school graduates, 1st generation college students, single parent homes, youth of incarcerated or drug addicted parents, and minority youth. All of this should be considered when determining what is in the best interest of youth when determining whether to place a youth in foster care or keep them with their family.
Once Child Protective Services starts to do recognize their limitations and truly focus on what is in the best interest of youth, they will be able to priortize their services for those who truly need them. They will be able to reduce caseloads by not focusing on families unnecessarily, and have a reduced demand for services that will allow them to expect quality and not overburden their service providers.
We may not see all of the results right away, but when CPS can provide better care to the youth in foster care, THEY will start creating better adults. They will start creating successful adults that are not being incarcerated and are able to pursue higher education without other trauma standing in their way.
And that will reduce the number of parents who need CPS servcies in the future, which is really the key to lowering the number of youth who need these services in the first place.

http://www.ladybud.com/2014/04/01/i-was-a-foster-child-cps-needs-real-reform/

Review Of Child Deaths In Texas Uncovers Lies At Child Protective Services

Associated Press
February 9, 2014

Alexandria Hill, 2, died in CPS custody in 2013 

State records show that mistakes by Child Protective Services caseworkers contributed to the deaths of two children and the serious injury of another during the past year. The Austin American-Statesman reports that investigations by the Office of the Inspector General document the cases. The investigatory body began regularly reviewing child fatalities for the first time in December 2012.
The newspaper obtained records from 95 child death cases that were reviewed by investigators. Of those, 71 indicated that CPS had been involved with the families before the child’s death. CPS was cleared of mistakes in all but two of the cases.

http://www.infowars.com/review-of-child-deaths-in-texas-uncovers-lies-at-child-protective-services/

Stop Child Protective Services From Wrongfully Taking Kids

Petition by
Kevin Kulman
COUNTLESS INNOCENT KIDS AND FAMILIES are victims to CPS’ corrupt power. CPS neglects to do proper investigations before removing a child. And when in shelter or foster care, they refuse to act when the child is being abused or hurt. Countless amounts of children are legally kidnapped over nothing by CPS from the laziness of social workers not doing their job of a proper investigation.


This cause is important because:

1. We need to stop traumatizing kids and tearing apart families.
2. We must help the parents that are dealt brain shattering stress wasting thousands of dollars hiring attorney fees to get their own child back.
3. Lastly, CPS is illegally taking kids. It is sad, it gets me angry knowing this is going on right now, a kid somewhere crying for their mommy or daddy, locked up in a new world with a stranger

IT HAS TO STOP! Please if you support this cause, sign this petition! It’s free and you are legitimately helping, I promise! I am petitioning to President Barack Obama to change the rules and regulations of CPS to moderate how much power they have in taking kids and to ensure a proper investigation is taken place.
Thank you so much for reading this, your signature means a world of hope to me and the kids of America!

MY STORY: I was taken into CPS when I was 16 after my doctors got frustrated that they  did not know how to treat my heart condition and blamed my mom for making me have open heart surgery and said all my pain was in my head.
Three days after being in CPS custody, I collapsed. The days prior, I begged to see a doctor because I was having cruel stabbing chest pain. CPS said it was all in my head and refused to let me go to the doctor. Luckily I had a follow up appt. with my cardiologist made, and when I finally got treated. I came out with  a pericardial effusion, pleural effusion, pericarditis, pneumonia and a 104.2 fever. If I didn’t have that appointment I would have died.
Sign Today. Thank You
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-child-protective-services-from-wrongfully-taking-kids?share_id=EWhCvlmfag&utm_campaign=friend_inviter_chat&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=permissions_dialog_true

Arizona Parent Caims CPS Moved Child 17 Times

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - A harsh spotlight has been shining on Child Protective Services the last few weeks. Now a parent steps forward to talk about her experience with the agency -- sadly, it's not a good one.   She worries about the thousands of children trapped in the system, though there might be better options out there.
It was an emergency when 5-week-old Aurora came to David and April Snow in their Phoenix home nearly five years ago.

"The biological mother had some substance abuse issues and so we had our work cut out for us at the get go," said April.
CPS placed the baby with the Snows because Aurora is April's cousin.
From the time she was a baby to when she was taken four years later, Aurora was moved by CPS 17 times, according to April.
"She had 17 transitions in and out of our home, in and out of shelters, in and out of emergency placement, in and out of other foster homes," said April.
Aurora was placed with the Snows in February of 2009, but 13 months later, April says CPS deemed that the biological mother was able to care for her daughter again. The mother had since given birth to a baby boy and had moved to Tucson.
The Snows had to let Aurora go, but disagreed with CPS' decision.
"They returned Aurora to her biological mother, who now had a younger child and they were all homeless," said April, who adds that she could tell Aurora was losing her sparkle.
"My husband used to drive down every week to see them and would pick up Aurora and take her to eat, go to the store, buy food, clothes, whatever he could do because you hands are tied."
April says on one visit in July of 2010, they saw Aurora had cigarette burns on her.  They called CPS.
"They would reassure us everything was fine and no, the mother didn't burn the child on purpose.. the wind blew the cigarette, you know, things to us that weren't right."
The very next month, April says something finally happened in Tucson with Aurora's biological mother that could not be explained away or ignored.
"Her biological mother stabbed the boyfriend multiple times in the hotel room and when Tucson Police responded, they found both children in there.. blood everywhere and they removed the children."
Aurora went back to the Snows, but she was not the same child who had left them.
"Aurora who had left our home developmentally on task no longer spoke, she only grunted and screamed.. she had completely shut down," said April.
CPS would remove Aurora one more time from the Snows in September of 2011 when the couple said they couldn't take both Aurora and her baby brother -- just her.
Then a fourth CPS worker got the case, who April says was their guardian angel.
"She wasn't burned out, she was one of the good ones that still had a fight in her."
April says the CPS worker listened to their whole story, connected the dots, severed parental rights of the mother to Aurora and her baby brother.
The brother went to another family member and in March of 2012, the Snows officially adopted Aurora.
A happy ending on the surface, but the Snows will tell you the pictures of their adorable little girl with a pink feather boa doesn't reveal the whole truth.
"She wakes up every night crying.  Two nights ago, we found her in a closet hiding and these are things that are long lasting.  She used to scream every time the doorbell would ring and hide because she would be afraid," said April.
Aurora is in counseling, but the Snows know the damage runs deep.
They worry about the thousands of children in Arizona that are either trapped in a nightmare of abuse or bouncing around the system within a community that can't find a way to save them.
We asked CPS about the Snow's case.  The couple feels the agency can't or won't look at the big picture and do what's best for children in crisis.
CPS responded that it cannot comment on cases like this one.

Read more: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/24246917/2013/12/17/cps-adoption#ixzz2oCjv79Tm

Father Shot And Killed As Police Try To Take Child

William Reddie, a 32-year-old single father from Michigan, was shot and killed as local Child Protective Services (CPS) officials and police officers attempted to remove his 3-year-old son from the home.
An anonymous tipster claiming that Reddie had marijuana in the home set off a string of incidents which turned a happy toddler into an orphan – and led a local newspaper to conduct its own investigation and issue its own report.
A police officer who followed up on the tip stated he smelled marijuana at William Reddie’s home. Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor, unless law enforcement officers find large amounts or an intent to sell. Michigan Child Protective Services staffers did not have any indication of any type of child abuse or neglect inside the home and felt the drug possession was justification enough to remove the toddler.
Reddie’s action when Michigan police officers attempted to remove the child surely played a role in his death, but the entire incident could have been avoided if CPS and the investigators had not overreacted to possible marijuana smoking, Reddie’s family and friends say.
City of Grayling police officer Alan Somero went to Reddie’s home for an alleged domestic disturbance earlier the day of the shooting, but did not make any arrests. Reddie allegedly became “agitated” when accused of smoking pot in front of his son. He was reportedly on the phone in a heated conversation with a woman when the police and CPS workers arrived. The man fighting for custody of his child understandably did not agree with what was being done.
The social services workers asked for a police escort during the removal.

An excerpt from the court order allowing the removal of the child reads:
“There are reasonable grounds for this court to remove the child(ren) from the parent… because conditions or surroundings of the child(ren), and is contrary to the welfare of the child(ren) to remain in the home because: It is alleged that the father used marijuana in the home in the presence of the child. In addition, there is concern for the safety of the child due to a domestic disturbance and threats made toward law enforcement by the father.”
When the Michigan Child Protective Services workers and law enforcement officers tried to remove the child, Reddie reportedly displayed his 4-inch pocketknife and lunged at the group. The officers had been holding their Taser guns during the altercation, but ultimately holstered their non-lethal weapons and grabbed their firearms. Crawford County Deputy John Klepadlo shot and killed Reddie during the incident.
Crawford County Sheriff Kirk Wakefield called for a Michigan State Police investigation into the use of deadly force by the deputy. Despite a state police investigator’s desire to charge Deputy Klepado, the prosecuting attorney decided that the shooting was justified, according to Reason Magazine.
County prosecutor Mark Jernigan had this to say about the use of deadly force ruling:
“The deceased was in possession of an edged weapon. The deceased pulled a knife and hid it behind his back. At the point where he pulls his hand forward and lunges at the officer, he is in such close proximity, and presents a clear danger of deadly force, the officer is left with no option other than to use deadly force to protect himself, the other officer and the three civilians that were present. The use of deadly force is completely justified and therefore, the homicide was justified.”
But friends and family say CPS and state official should not have been at the home in the first place: Toxicology reports found no alcohol or marijuana in his system.
“Where was protect and serve?” his mom, Michelle VanBuren said to a local newspaper. “The officers always have to stick together and for them to do this is just totally uncalled for. …They took the only thing he ever loved.”
http://brainsyntax.com/Home/MessageDetail/1129

Three CPS Workers Arrested In Connection To Greenville Teen's Murder Investigation

Three Child Protective Services workers were arrested Tuesday in connection with an investigation into the murder of a teenager in 2012. The arrests include a supervisor, a case worker and a retired investigator.
Laura Ard, Natalie Reynolds and Rebekah Ross are charged with official oppression and tampering with evidence. Some of those charges are reportedly related to the Alicia Moore murder investigation.
The body of the 16-year-old Moore was found along a road near Canton in Van Zandt County in Nov. 2012. Moore had disappeared four days earlier after getting off a school bus in Greenville, which is in Hunt County.
Alicia Moore's family said they only dealt with CPS last summer after Alicia was sexually assaulted.
They said CPS was never involved in her disappearance or murder in November. However, Hunt County Sheriff's Deputies still arrested the three women for tampering with evidence.
CPS confirms Ard was CPS's Investigative Program Director in the Greenville office. She was hired in 1992 and retired this past March.
CPS records show Natalie Reynolds, 33, was hired in 2002 and worked as an Investigative Supervisor. She's charged with oppression and tampering or fabricating evidence with a $40,000 bond.
Alicia Moore's aunt tells FOX4 she dealt with Reynolds trying to get a copy of a report related to Alicia's sexual assault case last summer. She believes these arrests are only related to that case, not the murder case.
"I don't have no problem with them. They did what they could do. My main focus is trying to find see what's going to happen with her murder. I mean, if my uncle, if they have more evidence that shows that he did it. I'm not even thinking about this."
Moore's uncle, Michael Vincent Moore, 57, was arrested and charged with capital murder in the case.

Read more: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/23520286/three-cps-workers-arrested-in-connection-to-greenville-teens-murder-investigation#ixzz2h90SRXcE

California Promotes Cps Caseworkers

California Promotes CPS Caseworkers Who Lie to Judges and then teaches other Caseworkers how to do the Same

April 27, 2011

by Kimberly Edds, Staff Writer

An Orange County social worker who lied to a juvenile court commissioner in order to take away a woman’s two daughters — and cost the county $4.9 million in a court judgment — was later promoted to a supervisor, county officials confirmed.
She now trains other social workers.

 It took Seal Beach mother Deanna Fogarty-Hardwick six-and-a-half years to regain custody of her children, who were 6 and 9 when they were taken from her in 2000.
Fogarty-Hardwick’s oldest daughter, Kendall, is now 20, and filed her own lawsuit against the county and three of its social workers for depriving her of a relationship with her mother.
Orange County Social Services social workers Marcie Vreeken and Helen Dwojak filed false reports and held back evidence which would have cleared Fogarty-Hardwick, an Orange County jury found in 2007. A third social worker was cleared of liability.
The jury awarded Fogarty-Hardwick $4.9 million in damages, with the county responsible for the bulk of the award. The county appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied the county’s request to be heard last week.
Vreeken and Dwojak were never disciplined.
In fact, Vreeken was later promoted, according to county records. She earned $103,441.48 last year as a senior social services supervisor, according to county records.

Dwojak, who was Vreeken’s supervisor, retired from the county in 2006, according to county records.
“I am certain and I stand by my social workers that they did not fabricate, they did not suppress any information and they did not perjure themselves,” said Dr. Michael Riley, director of the Orange County Social Services Agency. “If they had I would have dismissed them.”
Social Services conducted an investigation into how the social workers handled the case and found no wrongdoing, Riley said. “This woman is the epitome of integrity,” Riley said of Dwojak. “They did nothing wrong.”
According to court papers, Vreeken threatened that if Fogarty-Hardwick did not “submit” to her will, she would never see her children again. The social workers also tried in 2000 to coerce Fogarty-Hardwick to sign a document saying she was a bad parent by threatening to take her daughters away, Fogarty-Hardwick alleged.
Fogarty-Hardwick refused.
According to daughter Kendall Hardwick’s lawsuit, Vreeken “attempted to coerce Kendall into visiting her father by threatening that if Kendall did not visit with her father she would be taken away from her mother and ‘put in a home.’ ”
Kendall Hardiwick’s lawuit accuses Vreeken of lying in a Feb. 17, 2000 court report, including failing to disclose her threats against Kendall and her sister that left the two girls in tears and a subsequent argument between Vreeken and Fogarty-Hardwick.
A county commissioner ordered Fogarty-Hardwick’s daughters taken from their mother and put in Orangewood Children’s Home immediately. Vreeken and another social worker went with a uniformed police officer to to take Kendall’s younger sister, who was “screaming and crying for her mother as she hid under the principal’s desk,” according to Kendall’s lawsuit. Kendall was also forcibly removed, leaving her “devastated.”

 The girls were later put in foster care.
Kendall Hardwick’s lawsuit also accuses Vreeken of repeatedly lying in court reports and on the stand to thwart Fogarty-Hardwick’s attempts to regain custody of her daughters.
In a March 31, 2000 letter, a therapist wrote to the agency that “Kendall … shows signs of emotional regression. She was tearful throughout the session, begging to go home. … She doesn’t know how much longer she can cope and visibly shook while relating this.”
“Defendants knew of Plaintiffs emotional collapse,” the suit reads. “Yet, while testifying in the juvenile court trial, Vreeken refused to acknowledge the children were mentally deteriorating.”
The social workers instead reported the children “were doing well,” according to the lawsuit.
Fogarty-Hardwick gave her ex-husband full custody in 2002, hoping to protect her daughters. She was then allowed two supervised visits a month for two years. She eventually won 50-50 custody in 2006.
Fogarty-Hardwick sued the county in 2002, arguing the Social Services Agency and its two social workers violated her civil rights. A jury ruled against her.

 She sued again, arguing this time county’s policies violated her constitutional rights, including her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Fogarty-Hardwick’s accused the county of violating her constitutional rights by removing her children without making a finding of imminent danger or serious physical injury; interviewing her daughters without a parent present; holding her children without cause; fabricating evidence; and failing to properly train employees about parents’ constitutional rights.
The jury voted 10-2 in favor of Fogarty-Hardwick. The county appealed.
In the Fourth District Court of Appeal opinion, Justice William Bedsworth wrote, “the evidence adduced at trial obviously caused both the jury and the judge to conclude not only that something seriously wrong was done to Fogarty-Hardwick in this case, but also that the wrongful conduct was not an isolated incident.”

“Despite Fogarty-Hardwick’s complaints, and the concerns expressed by others about the handling of this dependency case, SSA did not investigate the situation or consider assigning different social workers to the matter. Neither of the social workers involved was disciplined. Instead, Vreeken was promoted to supervisor in 2001,” Bedsworth wrote.
Child Protective Services cases are not open to the public, a fact which Riley says prevents him from providing the whole picture.
“We have no agenda to disrupt families,” Riley said. “Our goal is to keep families together.”
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/04/25/lying-social-worker-promoted-now-trains-others/81173/#comment-150701

Categories: Abuse by CPS Tags: Abuse by CPS, corruption by cps, greed by cps, Helen Dwojak, Marcie Vreeken, stolen children for profit, 

Federal Judge Should Hear Arlington CPS Case



Judge George Varoutsos



One of the most disturbing stories I've ever written for The Washington Examiner was about a 3-week-old baby girl who was snatched from her mother's arms and placed in foster care by Arlington County Child Protective Services because she lost 10 ounces after birth. Baby Sabrina's story hit me hard in the gut because that could have been me; my youngest daughter lost a whole pound postpartum.

Newborn weight loss is normal, Sabrina was under a doctor's care and had even regained all of her lost birth weight when she was taken. Kit Slitor, a freelance video editor, and his wife, Nancy Hey, a federal employee, were never charged with or convicted of child abuse or neglect, and the Virginia Department of Social Services exonerated them of any wrongdoing. It didn't matter.

After doing everything social workers and the Arlington Domestic and Juvenile Relations Court, or DJR, demanded of them -- including home inspections, supervised visitation, and psychological testing -- their parental rights were terminated and Sabrina was put up for adoption. They spent more than $250,000 fighting for her, all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court, which declined to hear their case.

Four years later, their story still haunts me.

On Sept. 16, a class-action lawsuit modeled after a similar pleading in Massachusetts was filed in federal court in Alexandria on behalf of eight children -- including Sabrina -- who have been placed in foster care by Arlington County.

The list of serious accusations contained in the lawsuit against DJR Judges George Varoutsos and Esther Wiggins, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Jason McCandless, and various Arlington CPS officials is long: perjury, RICO violations of civil rights, fraud upon the court, obstruction of justice, unconstitutional "ex parte" hearings, court orders that were never served, depriving parents of their due process rights, "missing" court orders, illegal searches and seizures, and felony removal of documents from court files, to name just a few.



Judge James Cacheris



Arlington CPS "has not implemented the reforms necessary to remedy the severe and persistent legal violations within its foster care system, despite its longstanding knowledge of these systemic ills," the lawsuit alleges. The allegations are so grave that if the judicial system were working properly, an emergency restraining order against DJR would be issued immediately.

Don't hold your breath. The "next friend" lawsuit was filed by nonlawyer James Renwick Manship, a disabled Navy cryptologist and court-appointed special advocate, on behalf of foster children and their impoverished parents. It's the longest of long shots aimed directly at a corrupt, unaccountable system that holds every card in the deck.

Or almost every card. Judge James Cacheris caused quite a legal stir in May when he cited the landmark Supreme Court Citizens United ruling to strike down a ban on corporate political donations. Campaign finance is an important issue, but it pales in comparison with judicial kidnapping, which strikes at the very heart of Americans' God-given rights.

If social workers and judges can take your child away without due process, the Constitution is nothing more than a piece of paper the powerful can continue to ignore with impunity.

There's still a chance that Cacheris, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan, will search his conscience, rise to the occasion, and allow this David vs. Goliath case to proceed to trial despite tremendous pressure from the legal establishment to ignore the compelling evidence of official misconduct and continue covering up this rot.

Stay tuned.

Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner's local opinion editor.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/federal-judge-should-hear-arlington-cps-case#ixzz1elNcKuFc

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/federal-judge-should-hear-arlington-cps-case

Child Welfare in New York: Everyday Horrors

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

UPDATE, OCTOBER 6: At the end of this post see why the organizers of today's webinar will NOT be answering the questions raised in this post

  I read about a horror story last month.

            It wasn’t one of those cases where a child died even though the case file had more “red flags” than a Soviet May Day parade.  Nor was it one of those cases where a child was taken from parents who could have been mother- and father-of-the-year only to die in foster care.

            Those horrors are the extremes and they are very rare.

            What made this case so horrible is the fact that it’s so typical.  It’s also the kind of case child protective services (CPS) agencies almost always hide behind confidentiality rules.

            This one became public – minus identifying information and with all names changed – thanks to a webinar about ChildStat, the pride and joy of John Mattingly, former commissioner of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS).  At ChildStat meetings, ACS officials go over data from one region and pour over one case, chosen at random.



John Mattingly

  It’s the 12-page narrative of that one case that provides this rare x-ray of the soul of a CPS agency.   They never got to it during the webinar, but they might during a follow-up webinar tomorrow.  They asked for questions in advance.  I've put mine at the end of this post.

To really get the picture, the entire narrative needs to be read, because, in every sense of the term, the devil is in the details.  I hope readers will take the time to go through it, and then compare this example of typical practice to an example of best practice from the latest newsletter of one of the smartest groups helping child welfare agencies improve, the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group.  Readers also might want to consider these questions:

●How would your own family rate under the kind of scrutiny the family in the New York City case was forced to endure? 

●Can you imagine a government agency trying to micromanage a white, middle-class family the way ACS did in this case?

            Meanwhile, I’ll try to summarize.

            For starters, in half the states, this case never would have brought a CPS agency to the family’s door at all.  The allegation was “educational neglect,” something discussed often on this Blog.  According to a comprehensive study by the Vera Institute of Justice, a study commissioned by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, half the states wisely leave such cases to the schools to sort out.

            The allegation was that the older child, age 8, missed 25 days of school between September and early April, and was late 44 times.  The parents had gotten lots of warnings and they allegedly were too lenient when the child said she was sick. 

            That’s it.  No allegations of beating, torture, or starvation.  Nothing about sexual abuse or parental drug abuse.

            The parents are Hispanic, their income is about 140 percent of the national poverty line – and remember, this is New York City.  They sleep on a queen size bed.  (I have no idea why that is relevant to anything, but it’s included in the narrative.)

Clearly the family has plenty of reason for stress to begin with.  Nevertheless, the picture that emerges, in spite of the narrative, is of parents who love their children, have been trying their best and are guilty of, at worst, human fallibility.  They also had tried, without success, to get the school to help with the children’s problems – possibly engendering the hostility of the teacher who, by the mother’s account, treated her like dirt – and then reported her to ACS.

LIVES TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN

But this one allegation against this admirable family was enough to turn their lives upside down for at least a month (the case was still open when the narrative was written).  There was one inspection visit after another.  Over and over the children were questioned about the most intimate aspects of their lives.  Had anyone touched them inappropriately? (No.) Did their parents ever hit them? (Yes, they got spankings.) Did the parents ever hit each other? (No.)  Do they argue? (Yes – imagine that.)   Because of the spankings the caseworker was ordered to be sure she “assessed the children for marks and bruises each time she visited.”  I wonder what the children had to endure to meet that requirement?

           

            The parents underwent a similar grilling.  When ACS wasn’t at the door at all hours, ACS was dragging them down to the borough office.

            Though best practice in child welfare says you assess a family’s strengths as well as their weaknesses, from day one these parents were treated only as suspects.  Every alleged failing was documented in the most minute detail, creating a 12-page litany of finger-wagging. 

            “The parents denied any domestic violence substance abuse or problems with physical and mental health,” the narrative says.  Denied?  They’d never been accused of anything like that in the first place. Yet throughout the narrative that word, - denied - is used over and over to describe the parents’ responses.  The same information could have been conveyed to the ChildStat meeting by writing “the parents said they did not…” 

            And the denials were never enough.  When asked, the younger child, age 6, says Dad sometimes drinks alcohol.  So the caseworker is instructed to go back and grill the child about “what he drank and his behavior.”  The children repeatedly say there’s no domestic violence.   But a supervisor says “domestic violence assistance was also a possibility.” Another supervisor tells the worker to “inquire more about Joy’s [the older child’s] exposure to her parents’ arguments and how it might affect her.” 

            The Child Protective Manager (CPM), the highest-ranking official to look at the case,  

noted that her concern was that Joy held herself responsible for getting her mother into trouble because she did not want to go to school. The CPM added that the mother should have provided Joy with more structure regarding her school attendance.  … She added that [the mother] should take full responsibility for having not provided structure for her children.

            The caseworker concluded that the parents did not “demonstrate developmentally appropriate expectations of all children” and did not “attend to the needs of all children and prioritizes [sic] the children’s needs above his/her own desires.”  Apparently this was based on the fact that when the bus was late, they didn’t find another way to get the children to school.

 It wasn’t just the parents put through the wringer.  The amount of time put into the case by the caseworker boggles the mind.  At one point, the caseworker came out of a meeting with her supervisor with “a list of at least 22 follow-ups … to complete” including “counseling the parents about inappropriate uses of corporal punishment” though there was no allegation or evidence that this was a problem.  No wonder caseworkers are drowning in the demands placed upon them and may well miss a child in real danger, as is well documented in an excellent New York Magazine story.  According to the Vera Institute study, fully 19 percent of the cases investigated by ACS are allegations of “educational neglect.”

THE PRICE OF “SUCCESS”

At no time were the children taken from the home.  What happened to this family was probably the minimum amount of trauma a CPS investigation can inflict. In the end, the intervention by ACS may have improved the children’s attendance and prompted the school to get them some help the parents couldn’t get on their own. 

            But the family paid way too high a price for this “success” - and it was entirely unnecessary.

            In one of the seminal works of the 20^th Century about child welfare, the late Joseph Goldstein, Anna Freud, and Albert J. Solnit write that:

Children react even to temporary infringement of parental autonomy with anxiety, diminishing trust, loosening of emotional ties, or an increasing tendency to be out of control. The younger the child, and the greater his own helplessness and dependence, the stronger is his need to experience his parents as his lawgivers, safe, reliable, all-powerful, and independent.

And that’s even without all those assessments looking for bruises from spankings.

            In this case mom is faulted for being too lenient, too willing to accept it when her daughter said she was too sick to go to school.  But what happens now, when she tries to be more assertive, after ACS has spent a month badgering the family and undermining mom’s authority?

            And then there’s the incident with the lamp.

            Sometime after the investigation began, the older child explained that Danny, the six-year-old, “burned himself on a lamp when he attempted to fix a light bulb that blew out. She said that Danny’s teacher told him that he needed to help his mother more and so her brother wanted to fix the light bulb. Joy said that the lamp hit Danny in his face, but he did not cry. Joy denied that her parents have been arguing.”

Yes, Danny explained the incident the same way, a pediatrician confirmed that this was a credible explanation and, fortunately, the caseworker accepted it.  But try to imagine the fear this family endured when it happened, knowing they were in the middle of a CPS investigation.

            The rationale for doing all this to a family, of course, boils down to “you never know.”  Like the fanatical drug warriors who see marijuana as a “gateway drug” today’s “child savers” to use the term their 19^th Century counterparts gave themselves, see educational neglect as a gateway allegation. The child missed school.  So maybe mom’s a drunk and dad’s a pervert – you never know, right?


            But there is no evidence that children suffer more abuse in the states that don’t require their CPS agencies to investigate “educational neglect.”  And after doing a comprehensive reading of a random sample of cases, the Vera Institute researchers found that the notion that educational neglect is the "tip of the iceberg," is nonsense. The study found that generally, "educational neglect" is the tip of nothing except some kind of school problem, often one that is not the parent's fault.  Sending a CPS worker to the door only makes the family defensive and makes it harder to solve whatever problem may be causing absenteeism.

  As regular readers of this Blog know, the study authors recommended that if New York must keep investigating “educational neglect” it should be done through “differential response” in which either the CPS agency or a private contractor sends out a worker to offer a helping hand instead of a wagging finger.   Had that been done here, the same potential positive results would have been achieved with no cross-examination of young children, no comprehensive visual inspections for bruises and no documentation in the case file of the size bed on which the parents sleep.

            State after state has adopted this approach.  Every study finds no compromise of child safety and some find that safety improves. 

            But for at least a decade, since before he ever got to ACS, John Mattingly has opposed differential response.  Finally, late in 2009, he agreed to pilot it in some educational neglect cases.  Several months later, and without announcing it publicly, he put the pilot on hold indefinitely, something uncovered by some enterprising journalism students.

            So right now, some other New York City family is enduring the same trauma as the one in this narrative.  It happens all the time.  That’s why it’s a horror story.

http://www.nccprblog.org/2011/10/child-welfare-in-new-york-everyday.html

An abridged version of this post is available on the website of the trade journal Youth Today.  

Child Protective Services in Brazoria County, HOUSTON Texas Is Being Ordered To Stay Away From A Child

Mother accuses CPS of neglecting child

by Jeremy Desel / KHOU 11 News

khou.com

Posted on September 29, 2011 at 12:12 AM

Updated yesterday at 12:21 AM

HOUSTON – Child Protective Services is being ordered to stay away from a child, due to what happened to the girl while she was in the agency’s custody.

Jaime Brown, the girl’s mother, said it’s been a long fight.

"I felt very helpless. Very helpless, and very alone," she said.

Brown’s daughter was taken from her by Child Protective Services in July of 2009, because of allegations of neglect.

Brown claims it is all a big mix-up.

"I was horrified. I did not know what was happening. I wanted to help her and I couldn't," she said.

After 18 months in a CPS overseen group home 14-year-old Christianne ran.

”The case worker called (her) mom and said she ran away, but you find her, you can keep her," said Julie Ketterman, the Brown’s attorney.

That is exactly what her mother did. After Brown found her daughter and made sure that she was safe, her attorney went to court turning the tables on CPS asking for a protective order against Child Protective Services, because of what allegedly happened when Christianne was in CPS's care.

"She was beat up quite a bit. There was the running away. She has braces and the wires were literally falling off of her teeth," Ketterman said.

In August of this year the Brazoria County court ruled in her favor granting a protective order saying:

"(CPS) engaged in conduct constituting family violence and good cause exists for issuance of a protective order...in best interest of the child."

It is a one-page ruling with big potential impact.

"It could snowball," said Ketterman.

That is because if you apply CPS's own rules when it comes to child placement, CPS may now have a problem.

"If there is a finding of child abuse or neglect or family violence, then you no longer qualify to have a child placed," said Ketterman.

Now it is the agency itself that now has this finding of abuse. A hearing in Brazoria County could make the order against CPS permanent for two years. We contacted CPS and the agency told us simply that they would be answering the allegations in court.

http://www.khou.com/news/Mother-accuses-CPS-of-neglecting-child-130758708.html

Houston Texas

CSB Policies Questioned In Ohio

By Ed Runyan
runyan@vindy.com
WARREN
About 10 members of the public attended a Trumbull County Children Services Board meeting Tuesday to question the board about policies that protect the rights of the parents of children who come into the CSB system.
Harold L. Smith of Massillon said he became involved in the project after talking with Ulanda Waiters of Canton, who rents an apartment off of him, about her problems with the Children Services Board in Stark County.
Waiters has been in contact with people in Trumbull County, mostly on Facebook, and that has led her and Smith to see a pattern of problems that they believe exist at CSB agencies throughout the region, Waiters said.
First, they believe Trumbull CSB isn’t following one of the Ohio Rules of Juvenile Procedure when a child is removed from a home over allegations of abuse or neglect.
Smith said he believes the rules require a judge or magistrate to rule on whether there is probable cause for a child to be removed from a home, but no judge is involved in such cases in Trumbull County.

Click on the link for the rest of the story.
http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/aug/17/csb-policies-questioned/

Texas Cps Destroys Another Family

A special little girl, Emma Routh, has been diagnosed with Fanconi’s Anemia. Fanconi's Anemia is disease passed down through families (inherited) that mainly affects the bone marrow. It results in decreased production of all types of blood cells. She needs a bone marrow transplant in order to save her life. At age four she is very small for her age. She is about the size of a two year old. She is the loving sister David and Dalton. Emma is dearly loved by her family and all those who know her. This child, like every other child, deserves to live a long, happy and healthy life. You can see in her eyes the hand of the illness that is upon her, yet there is a bright smile of hope on her face. Emma has gotten to know many people just like you who have gotten tested and helped with bone marrow drives and fundraisers. She knows we will not give up without a fight and we are fighting for her life. At the age of three she was diagnosed. Within a few short months she had to get blood to help her maintain a healthy life. She understands fully what is happening to her. She calls it bad blood, but truly it is the lack of blood being made properly. Only 2 out of every 10 patients will receive the transplant that could save their lives, and less than 30% of patients in need of a transplant can find a match within their own family. The other 70% depend on YOU!!!!! Emma can no longer attend the drives that her life depends on. Her little body is no longer producing stem cells and it would put her life at risk to be in the public. If you would like to be tested to see if you can help save Emma or someone else on the national list for a bone marrow transplant you may. There are two methods of transplants. The patient’s physician will request a preferred donation method. One way is a surgical procedure using a special needle inserted into the hip bone. The other way is a collection of blood stem cells. The donor will take medication for 4-5 days to increase the number of stem cells released into the blood stream. Then they are collected through the process of apheresis.                             

             Emma desperately needed a bone marrow transplant or she would die. The causes of death are bone marrow failure, leukemia, cancer, tumors. F A affects every single cell in the body.  Her mother Brandy searched everywhere from june 2008 until Dec 2009.  She found one.
                                    In her search she did 56 bone marrow drives and signed up 25,000 people to the bone marrow registry
                                                                        helping to save others like her daughter.
             Emma’s mother followed every doctor’s orders. While in Boston hospital the doctors wanted to keep giving Emma a drug that she was allergic to causing her to have pus pockets on every part of her body, extreme pain . because of the experimental transplant these doctors knowing the pain Emma was in wanted to keep giving her this medicine for 7 more days on top of the 6 days she already went through to get their data, Her mother Brandy said no ON THE 6TH day so doctors called cps on her so they could keep Emma as a guinea pig and get their data. Cps removed mother from her very sick child at the hospital FOR NO REASON. There was no neglect. THERE WAS THE ABSOLUTE LOVE A PARENT HAS FOR HER CHILD TO PROTECT, now here is child protective services not caring about Emma’s health or her life. Just the dollars they will get for her and her brother which is in the millions.  Emma’s mother did all to help save her child and for that LOVE EMMA IS WITHOUT HER FAMILY AND SUPPORT SHE DESPERATELY NEEDS ALL DUE TO CPS FRAUD TO GET  THEIR BONUSES.
                                                  While in mother’s care she had 2 diagnoses NOT 7 {that we know of}.
While in CPS care Emma now has 7 diagnosis, one report stated on 12-23-2010, states that Emma has increased thoughts and talks about her death and others.When mother asked  the nurse practitioner what this report meant ,she said:
                                             ~ Emma was told that she was going to die by others taking care of her ~

Fanconi Anemia                                  

Anemia

GVH~Graph Vs. Host disorder if graph takes over the bone marrow will completely fail

Strain 1 HSV-HERPES

ADENOVIRUS

ALOPECIA

PTSD-POST TRAMATIC STRESS DISORDER

LUNG PROBLEMS FROM SMOKERS IN THE HOUSE WHERE SHE IS IN CARE

6 yr. old Emma Routh’s chances NOW IN CPScares, is the transplants failing.

                                                           
                                                      EMMA NEEDS ALL OF YOUR HELP TO SAVE HER LIFE.

WE THE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE ASKING YOU TO REPORT THE TRUTH TO SAVE EMMA’S LIFE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. EMMA HAS PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD FIGHTING TO SAVE HER AND ARE CALLING EVERY NEWSPAPER NATIONWIDE.
  _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Although Emma was erroneously abducted by Texas CPS while she was having tests done at Boston Hospital, of the most recent, ongoing neglect of the families rights, but not limited too, are as followed: 
  1. Denial of medical records and information (example-Dalton/Emma appointments, treatments, outcomes, drugs like Clonidine).

  2. CPS's demand that Brandy see their contracted counselor even though she has one and will pay for it herself. Multiple violations of CPS policies and ethics laws.

  3. Denial of either Family Team Meeting (before removal) and Family Group Conference (after removal).

  4. Visitations are in a hostile environment and too infrequent for such a young child (Dalton) and for a medically fragile child (Emma) because of the stress the separation is causing especially relating to Emma's recovery.

  5. Homeschooling was vehemently attacked by DFPS and now that Emma is in public school she's being exposed to a host germ. Furthermore, Dalton has NOT received his speech therapies that the mother Brandy was performing with both at home. {Might it be noted the child Dalton is #3 yrs. of age-technically ,he's not even met legal school age requirements. How could she be penalized for something she's not even required, by law, to do yet}..

  6. EMMA'S MEDICAL CONDITION!! Most important and paramount. Emma is probably rejecting her transplant at least in part due to the cessation of all the sterile precautions. CPS denied this information to the mother and (even to the judge). The caregiver also informed Brandy that Amy was no longer giving Emma the anti-rejection drugs. Mother has no way of knowing (since she's denied medical records) who is making the call and why. EMMA COULD DIE AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THIS PROTECTION INTERVENTION (removal) and the department's lack of following even the most basic policies and procedures that codified in the law.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                                                  NEWS STATION NO.'S IN TEXAS {FEEL FREE TO CALL YOUR OWN CONTACTS}
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

tyler morning telegraph (903)- 597-8111
410 W. Erwin St, Tyler, Texas 75702

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dallas morning news 
Main phone number: (214) 977-8222 ...
508 Young St. Dallas, TX 75202.  

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Palestine Herald PressPalestine Herald Press
519 North Elm Street
Palestine, TX 75801-2927
          (903) 729-0281
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KTBC FOX 7
119 E. 10th Street
Austin, TX  78701
  News Hotline: (512) 472-0988
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Contact KYTX-TV
CBS19 & MYTX2211 ESE Loop 323
Tyler, TX 75701

Phone (903) 581-2211
Fax (903) 581-5769
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http://emmarouth.weebly.com/index.html