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

Shocking Report Of Abuse: Kids Harmed While In State Custody

Boston Herald front page - Dec. 3, 2013

 

Children supposedly out of harm’s way in foster homes were abused and neglected at a higher rate than their counterparts in schools or day care facilities under the state’s watch, according to an alarming new report one outraged lawmaker called “unacceptable.”
State officials found evidence supporting 249 allegations of physical and sexual abuse and poor care involving youngsters in state-watched settings last year, according to the Office of the Child Advocate’s 2013 report, a copy of which was obtained by the Herald.
Among those shocking cases, 30 percent were in foster homes — more than 70 instances.
The report adds 29 percent of the cases were in treatment programs; 19 percent in day cares; 18 percent from schools; and 4 percent from “others.”
The stunning report comes just months after the state trumpeted its victory in a lawsuit over its foster care system.
“You’re talking about a child-and-a-half a week who is in state custody and nonetheless is maltreated. That has to be a red flag,” said Sara Bartosz, an attorney for the advocacy group Children’s Rights, which unsuccessfully sued the Department of Children and Families for failing to protect kids in its care. Bartosz said the group is appealing a judge’s October ruling dismissing their suit.
“Unlike homes where unfortunately some individuals become parents and they’re not prepared to do so well, when you’re dealing with foster care, these are hand-selected providers to be trained and overseen by the state,” she said. “The appropriate standard is zero tolerance. This should be a safe harbor.”
DCF officials said the total number of abuse and neglect reports — often referred to as 51A reports — in the out-of-home settings has remained steady in recent years.
But Bartosz, citing data provided to the group during its lawsuit, said the number of those generated from foster homes has ticked back up — all while fewer kids enter the system — from 64 in federal fiscal year 2011, which ended that October. The state, she said, recorded 84 in 2010.
The state, meanwhile, has touted reducing its foster care population by 2,000 kids over the past five years, bringing it down to 7,300 youngsters last year.
“DCF has worked hard to build a strong system for protecting children and families across the commonwealth,” DCF spokeswoman Cayenne Isaksen said in a statement.
State Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton), who sits on the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, said she demanded more be done at the top of the state’s health agencies.
“It’s been a pattern with this administration with failed oversight — we saw it in the drug lab scandal and the New England Compounding scandal,” O’Connell said. “We’ve had a lack of oversight in these various agencies, and it’s a very alarming pattern and deaths have resulted. ... These numbers are unacceptable when it comes to protecting our children.”

 

DCFS’s Real Crime? Breaking Up families

By Diane L. Redleaf November 24, 2013 8:16PM

The recent news that DCFS investigations are missing the mark isn’t news to me. I have sued DCFS more than a dozen times and have established, through federal court findings, that the state’s child-welfare system has a staggering rate of error in its investigations. But the mistakes my cases have demonstrated are much different from the ones highlighted by recent news stories about child deaths. In fact, they are just the opposite: They show a DCFS too quick on the trigger to pull children from the care of suitable parents.

Without any oversight, review, or lawfully vested authority, DCFS regularly removes children from their homes and places them with relatives — a coercive separation that is often based on nothing the parent has actually done to harm the child.

DCFS also rampantly labels parents as guilty by innuendo, only to have its determinations overturned once a neutral judge reviews the evidence. These widespread errors never see the light of day because they don’t even make it to a juvenile courtroom, let alone a newsroom.

In other words, DCFS finds abuse where it doesn’t exist, while real abusers fall through the cracks.

The pain and trauma caused by the overly intrusive investigative practices leave long-lasting scars for the families and children DCFS touches.

In fact, in 2012, the Illinois Supreme Court declared void a policy under which DCFS investigates nearly a third of its cases annually. Instead of tightening its investigations in the face of this ruling and complying with the companion changes in state law, DCFS has continued to investigate and label more than 6,000 parents as child neglectors without any evidence of actual neglectful conduct in many of these cases. As a result, the Family Defense Center had to sue DCFS again in September to compel the agency to follow the clear mandate of the law.

The cases our office defends are not at all like the horrendous death cases recently reported. Our cases often involve a parent who turned her head at the same moment a child fell, or a false allegation made by a disgruntled spouse in a bitter divorce proceeding. This is the typical fare for DCFS. In fact, such situations account for more than two-thirds of the DCFS caseload.

In the wake of the recent tragedies, it’s important to keep in mind that calls for more DCFS investigators won’t fix the problem. That’s because DCFS resources are being misallocated by targeting too many families that shouldn’t be swept into the system in the first place. DCFS simply cannot investigate its way out of a lack of standards for assessing child abuse and neglect, insufficient training, failure to coordinate services (or to provide appropriate follow-up services) and lack of accountability.

The real challenge is to pare down the DCFS caseload in order to allow DCFS to focus on the serious abuse cases, so that tragic deaths do not recur. One step in the right direction would be for DCFS to renew its efforts to deflect cases based on poverty into support services so that it can concentrate precious investigative resources on serious physical and sexual abuse cases.

Children deserve protection from abusive parents and caregivers, and the public is entitled to demand such protection from DCFS. But accountability starts with having a clear definition of abuse and neglect and an ability to recognize which cases should be investigated and which families should be left alone. Not all Hotline calls are credible, and only a fraction of DCFS calls involve actual or serious threats of harm to a child.

To better protect children from dangerous parents, DCFS needs to stop trying to protect children from good parents who have not abused or neglected them. On both sides of getting it right, there is much room for improvement.

Diane L. Redleaf is the founder and executive director of the Family Defense Center, an organization that advocates for justice for families in the child welfare system.

 http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/23929829-452/dcfss-real-crime-breaking-up-families.html#!

249 Children Abused In State Custody In Massachusetts: Report

Massachusettes Gov. Deval Patrick answers a question after addressing a campaign rally in New Brunswick, N.J., Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013 (AP Photo/Mel Evans) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Massachusettes Gov. Deval Patrick

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In one year, more than 200 children were abused while under the state of Massachusetts' care, according to a new report.
The Boston Herald reports:

State officials found evidence supporting 249 allegations of physical and sexual abuse and poor care involving youngsters in state-watched settings last year, according to the Office of the Child Advocate’s 2013 report, a copy of which was obtained by the Herald.

Thirty percent of those cases were in foster homes, 29 percent in treatment programs, 19 percent in day cares, 18 percent from schools and 4 percent from “others.”
The Associated Press reports that a Department of Children and Families spokeswoman said "the state works hard to protect all children."
The Herald's report comes just as officials in Arizona grapple with their own child abuse scandal.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is under heavy criticism after it was revealed the state's Child Protective Services department failed to investigate more than 6,000 abuse reports.
The American Humane Association has more information on child abuse and how to report it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/children-abused-massachusetts_n_4379305.html