First-Grader [ 6-year- old ] Suspended for Sexual Harassment
Boy's Mother Says He's Too Young to Even Understand the Accusation

In a statement, Brockton Superintendent of Schools Basan Nembirkow said the district takes "all allegations of sexual harassment very seriously. An investigation is always conducted when reports of sexual harassment arise. Principals are trained to handle these difficult situations and they are assisted, as needed, by the district's sexual harassment officer in handling each situation." Read more......

Foster care mother speaks out

This isn't the first time we've heard about problems in the foster care system. In February, a lawsuit alleged abuse and neglect in the system. Right now the state legislature is calling for a system-wide audit.We talked to someone inside the system. A foster care mother, caring for three foster children, speaks out about the problems she sees everyday. - "They're trying to survive. All they're trying to do is literally survive from one minute to the next." Brenna James says her foster care children were moved seven times in only 9 months before coming to her home.-" When we got them they were emotionally traumatized. he would sit on the floor and he would scream, if he was awake, he was screaming. I had to just keep telling myself, it's not their fault, it's not their fault, it's not their fault." By Emily Sinovic - Read more.....

Social Workers Immune From Suit Over Investigation - C.A.

The Third District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that social workers who released a minor back into her father's custody less than three days after she had been removed because of his PCP-induced behavior are immune from liability in the minor's suit over her father's subsequent attempt to kill her.By STEVEN M. ELLIS - Read more......

Mother admits breaking own baby's ribs and dropping him on head, say cops

A 7-week-old baby who has been beaten since he was just 2 weeks old is now brain dead at Elmhurst Hospital, after his mother admitted to beating her son and then dropping him on his head.The tragic case is certain to raise new questions about the city's embattled Administration for Children's Services, which visited the Queens home only two days before the final beating, sources said. "The ACS workers were shocked when they found out what happened. They were crying," a law enforcement source said. "But good Lord, how do you miss a baby with a broken leg and broken ribs? It's mind-blowing." BY ALISON GENDAR, RICH SCHAPIRO and TRACY CONNOR - Read more.....

Unfettered Lives of Crime

"They can't hold you. They can't confine you. They can only release you," Dani said. "They call your parents if you have any or the social welfare center, and then you're back in the streets. I knew that - that's why I was stealing." - UNICEF attributes the juvenile crime problem in Bosnia to several factors. First, the human toll taken by the conflicts in the 1990s has left a high percentage of children living in foster care or chronically underfunded public institutions. by Armela Subasic and Amela Bulja - Read more.....

State Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Abused Girl

The State Supreme Court says the government is liable for more than a million dollars for not protecting a girl from her abusive parents.The court ruled that Dasia Morales-Kaho'ohanohano should be awarded $1.1 million from the state's Child Protective Services.After Dasia was abused in 2001, a lawsuit claimed that C.P.S. failed to investigate properly and gave Dasia back to her mom.Two months later, Dasia ended up in the hospital with broken bones and other serious injuries.KGMB9 News

Seven years later, Dasia doing well

The grandfather of a Maui girl at the center of what's being called a landmark Hawai'i Supreme Court case against Child Protective Services says she is doing "as well as can be expected" seven years after she was battered so severely that she nearly died. By Mary Vorsino - Read more........

Father was denied the proper good-bye

Jayci Yaeger: The Death Of A 10 Year Old Girl & The Death Of A Just Criminal Justice System

Jayci Yeager died this morning of brain cancer. She was 10-years-old and had been diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 3. But cancer wasn't the only battle this young girl had to fight. Thanks to the "justice" of our criminal justice system, Jayci and her family spent the last month of her life battling with a warden over Jayci's right to spend the last dies of her 10-year-long life with her father. Jason Yaeger is serving the final year of a five-year sentence for a drug conviction in a minimum security prison camp in South Dakota, a 3�-hour drive from his daughter who was in a Lincoln, Nebraska. And Yaeger had the nerve to ask for a furlough or transfer to a halfway house so he could be closer to his terminally ill daughter. But luckily, the Warden, JD Whitehead, who sits on the board of the United Way, denied the request because he followed the law, which only allows transfers under "extraordinary" circumstances. And there is obviously no extraordinary circumstance in this story. Nothing to see here folks, just a girl dying of cancer who wants to see her dad. Just a guy who is getting out of jail in August, who wants to see his daughter before she dies. Keep it moving folks.Seriously, who do these Yaegers think they are? And where do they think they live? In America? In a democracy? In the land of the free? Mr. Warden Whitehead, I hope you're reading this. I want to commend you for not caving into Jason Yaeger's request for handouts. I toooootally respect your decision. Just for clarity, though, what is an "extraordinary" circumstance which would justify a transfer? Like does the way the child is dying have to be extraordinary? Is cancer just too ordinary a way for a girl to die? Like would the family have a better shot if the girl had suffered from the Ebola virus? Is 10 years old too ordinary an age to die of cancer? Is the family too ordinary? Like would it help if it was a rich and famous family? Was the crime the father committed too ordinary? Like he didn't kill anyone, he wasn't a risk to anyone. Like, does a serial killer make a better furlough candidate?

I wish I knew what it felt like to have your power and insight and understanding, your sense of justice and fairness. You must get the best sleep at night, knowing that you are upholding the law by preventing a dying girl from spending time with her father. Thank you for defending justice and family values.- By Katie Halper - Read more.....

From tragedy to Hollywood

"The safety I fear was the abuse in foster homes, because I wasn't abused and raped on the streets the message I got was that the streets were safer in my mind; when your young you think that your immortal." "When I speak of the system, the system consists of several components, there was the police, the school system, neighbours, medical personnel that's to me that's what entails all the system and I was collectively let down by that," she said. Rather than hear her pleas, the system according to Cupcake had turned a blind eye on and she feels that it's a problem that still needs addressing. " The system is still broke and the reason why it is, is that society still has a stereotype of what an abuser looks like and the abuser knows that the more violent the abuse is, the less believable it is." By Maxine Myers - Read more.....

Court rules state failed duty to aid injured tot
'Landmark case' denied claim that officials had no duty to protect girl

The girl's first serious injury happened in February 2001, when she was 2 years old.Her left femur - the upper leg bone that is one of the strongest in the human body - had snapped.

Doctors at Maui Memorial Medical Center who treated Dasia Morales-Kaho'ohanohano uniformly believed she was the victim of child abuse and reported their suspicions to Maui police and to the state office of Child Protective Services.Two months later, the little girl was back in the hospital, nearly dead from new injuries.

Last month, the Hawai'i Supreme Court denied claims by the state that it had no legal duty to protect Dasia from abuse and found the agency liable for as much as $1.1 million in damages.

Calling it "a landmark case," attorney Vladimir Devens, who represented Dasia, said the Supreme Court has made it clear that "Child Protective Services has a duty to protect a child when given notice that the child has been a victim of abuse." DHS attorneys had argued that the state was not liable for damages because the child had not been taken into state custody when the injuries occurred. - By Jim Dooley - Read more.....

"The Child Youth and Family system has done nothing but torture me since I lost her."

"When my daughter left, I was lost. There was no explanation of why she was taken. When they took her it felt like someone had raped me and left me to die," she says.Intense media coverage forced her to abandon the parenting course she had been attending in Manurewa since the day baby Cyene was born.Shattered, and with no support, Mona turned to alcohol."Sometimes I just didn't want to wake up. I did talk about suicide and I wanted to hang myself. But my daughter stopped me. I had to be strong for her.- By JUSTINE GLUCINA - Read more......

Ailene's 11 years and Homless - Where will she and 13,000 others go to school today?

"If this doesn't scream No Child Left Behind, I don't know what does."

Ailene Cuenca - 11 years old, quiet but with a maturity beyond her years - is talking about how she has a tough time doing homework at the shelter, where she and her family share a room with three other families. Ailene's situation is a lot better than it was two-and-a-half years ago, though, when she and her family were homeless for a year and moved from motel to motel every four months, forcing her to switch schools each time."I fell behind . when I go to one school I learn something, and I go to another school I learn the same thing, and when I go to another it's harder," she says, fidgeting with her hands. Forty-one percent of homeless children will attend two different schools in a normal year, and 28 percent will attend three or more different schools. In the Los Angeles Unified School District alone, Ailene is just one of 13,521 homeless students in K-12 who have been identified. In California, she's just one of 178,014, and in the country she's one of 907,000 - all of these numbers are drastic undercounts because it's hard to track and identify the students.The amount of money doled out by the federal government to help these students is inadequate. Funded through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, in 2007-08 homeless students received only $61.9 million. That works out to less than $70 per identified student, far short of the money they need to overcome the significant obstacles presented by their living situations. - By Matthew Mundy - Read more.....

Hundreds feel child abuse shame

Children were taken to parties at private homes that involved sex, drugs and alcohol.

HUNDREDS of children in state care in South Australia were sexually abused by their carers and exploited by pedophile rings in a "foul undercurrent" laid bare yesterday.Former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan warned that his three-year commission of inquiry had uncovered only the "tip of the iceberg" of the shameful abuse. His report, tabled in the South Australian parliament yesterday, details how the most vulnerable children have been failed yet again by a system that was supposed to protect them. By Jamie Walker and Jeremy Roberts - Read more.....

A fancy system for losing kids

A damning Plain Dealer story Sunday by Statehouse reporter Aaron Marshall about Ohio's (dysfunctional) Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System reminds everybody that state and county bureaucrats' No. 1 rule is, "Cover your rump." Not to worry, said the General Assembly's dimmer lights: By sharing foster-care information statewide (though only with insiders), SACWIS will be just as good a watchdog as the Open Records Act. Now, however, Ohioans come to find out SACWIS doesn't work. The insiders hoped we'd forget. We didn't. - Read more.....

County Says No To Foster Kids Computer System

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Cuyahoga County officials are refusing to join a new statewide computer system for tracking abused and neglected foster children because of continued technical problems. The state has ordered the county to sign onto the program by June 23rd. - Read more....

Governor Strickland vows to solve child-welfare information system problems

Columbus -- Calling concerns raised by Cuyahoga County officials "substantive and serious," Gov. Ted Strickland vowed Tuesday to solve problems plaguing a new statewide child-welfare information system. "We will do what we have got to do to solve the problems," Strickland said Tuesday from his Statehouse office following an unrelated news conference. "I'm not in a position, because I'm not an IT person, to tell you how quickly we can solve the problems, but I can say that we will solve the problems." Read more.....

Gary Zerola, a lawyer well-known for his work with foster children.

The youngest of seven children, Zerola was placed in foster care at age 3 after his parents split up and his mother became ill. Over the next decade, he was shuffled among a dozen foster families until he was placed permanently with a suburban Boston lawyer and his wife.Zerola, 36, attended Suffolk University, where he earned degrees in law and public administration. He delivered his law school commencement address.He worked as a state prosecutor on child abuse and domestic violence cases and became well-known in philanthropic circles as an advocate for foster children.Zerola was named one of People's 50 most eligible bachelors.In the 2004 case, Zerola stands accused of repeatedly raping a woman in his apartment. -By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writer - Read more.....

Who is Luke Aday ?
Foster parent tried often to get help for accused.

Accused killer Luke Aday lied, stole and was clearly troubled as a child, but despite repeated pleas from a foster parent he got little help from child welfare, B.C. Supreme Court heard yesterday.Laura Luz, foster parent and operator of an assessment centre, testified that Aday as a boy was a thief with a violent temper. And as time went on she found him cutting his own arms with a knife.Luz said she repeatedly pleaded with social workers for extra help for the boy, such as a psychiatric assessment or medication. But "glitches" in the system always held up any promised help, she added. "I was very frustrated at the way the care was going," said Luz. - By Richard Watts - Read more....

Anti-spanking message doesn't reach the parents who need it most

Do you seriously think a bumper sticker or a one-day "SpankOut" would have gotten through to Terence Potts, the DeSoto man charged last week with beating his 12-year-old son to death in a savage attack he told police was a "spanking"? Let's stop the beatings, the murders, the sexual abuse of kids first. Then we'll have the luxury to argue about spanking. - By Jacquielynn Floyd - Read more......

State's Mistake Denies Father Rights To His Child

In April 2006, Eggleston got a surprising letter from the Foster Care Review Board saying his child's mother had attempted suicide the previous summer and the child had been made a ward of the state. "They told me that she had been in foster care with her grandmother for almost a year. Wow. I had no clue, and by that time -- well, they knew where I was to take my money, but how come no one ever notified me?" Eggleston said. - Read more....

Budget cuts put drug addict's lifelines on the line

Faced with as much as $9 billion in state revenue shortfalls, Florida lawmakers are considering at least $40 million in cuts to drug treatment centers throughout Florida. The Village's program may be forced to shutter.

Said Broward Circuit Judge Marcia Beach, who oversees Drug Court in Fort Lauderdale: ``This is going to be pretty severe. Without addiction treatment, we better be ready to build more jails and prisons. This is turning the clock back.''

Another possible consequence: Thousands of children already in foster care may be unable to return to their parents, and some will have to be adopted by substitute families, advocates say. Other children likely would enter state care for the first time, and remain there. ''This is a nightmare,'' said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, who presides over a drug court for parents accused of abusing or neglecting their children, and refers hundreds of parents every year into drug treatment in an effort to improve their parenting skills. ``This will cause a flood of parents into court, and it will cause more children to enter care.'' BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER - Read more.....

Foster kids fill poor nabes

Don't expect to find foster parents in SoHo or Greenwich Village. There are fewer than 10.
But stop by East New York, Brooklyn, and you could find more than 600, according to statistics from the Administration for Children's Services. The city's foster-care children are overwhelmingly housed in high-poverty neighborhoods while child-welfare agencies avoid recruiting parents in wealthy areas.
Child advocates say it is part of a push to keep abused children in their home communities - but that happens less than 12% of the time, ACS data show. In reality, vulnerable children are moving from one struggling neighborhood to another with 52% remaining in their home borough. "The rate is not where we'd like it to be," said Erick Nicklas, associate commissioner of the Family Permanency Division. " The whole idea of foster care is not to disrupt children's lives." ???? - BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO - Read more.....

Senator kills bill on child deaths

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The chairwoman on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee has blocked legislation that would have created a system for reviewing child deaths.That means Idaho will remain the only state in the nation with no such system.Senator Patti Anne Lodge, a Republican from Huston, asked the Senate to return House Bill 511 to her committee, where it's now dead.She says she has concerns that parents could end up being charged for allowing what she says are normal childhood activities.She also says Idaho can get information from review panels in other states.Representative Margaret Henbest, a Democrat from Boise, is a pediatric nurse practitioner who works with abused children.She says she has trouble understanding how lawmakers can talk about family values but not support the bill.Associated Press - March 27, 2008

Our Kids: Our Business campaign kicks off

Organizers of the Our Kids: Our Business Campaign are ecstatic that the Spokane community is finally recognizing that child abuse exists in Spokane. However, it is sad and devastating that several children's lives were lost to child abuse before Spokane finally started to pay attention.Thanks to Raffy, Tyler, Summer, and Neveah, our community, our law enforcement, and our media is paying attention. Now, it's time to act. - Read more....

DOCS under fire as dying girl left with abusive carers - 27 disabled children died under DOCS care in 2006

A DYING five-year-old girl who is chronically disabled has been left in the care of abusive foster carers who are banned from caring for any more children. A number of children have already been removed from the western Sydney couple, who at one stage requested only girls to foster. Both the New South Wales Department of Community Services (DOCS) and the police have investigated the carers, who have been categorised as dangerous, yet the State Government has done nothing to remove five-year-old "Susie" (not her real name) from their care. The horrifying case comes after new statistics show 27 disabled children died under the care of DOCS in 2006. By Clare Masters - Read more......

Foster care forges strong link between women

Ms. Jenkins and two of her sisters were placed in a foster home that she described as "not very nice at all."She didn't want me to call her mamma. She would say to me: 'I'm not your mamma.' When she took me places with her, she would talk mean to me in public - in a condescending way. I didn't stay there very long. I was in two foster homes during the year I was four." Ms. Jenkins said she was then placed with "a man and a woman" and was the only Jenkins child to be placed in that home, although there were other foster children.Her case worker removed her from that home when the man began touching her inappropriately, she said.- By Sandra Cason - Read more.....

Story of Child Abuse Shocks Brazil

It's a story that has sent shock waves across Brazil: A 12-year-old was rescued by Brazilian police in the central state of Goiania with severe signs of abuse all over her body. A 49-year-old businesswoman, Silvia Calabrese, has since been charged with torturing the child.The details the 12-year-old girl has offered are spine-chilling: being strangled, having parts of her tongue cut off while being pulled with different tools, at one point being forced to eat dog feces. Such stories of domestic abuse of minors are not uncommon in Brazil. Many families who are too poor to care for their sons and daughters leave them in the care of wealthier households, hoping for better opportunities for the children. That result is not always the case. Many of these children often become virtual slaves.- By Sonia Gallego - Read more.....

Child Welfare in Philadelphia

Report shows how DHS failed

Children have died needlessly because of "significant system failures" that plague the city Department of Human Services, a panel of experts said in a wrenching report made public today. Carol Wilson Spigner, co-chair of the DHS review committee, said major reforms are "urgent and doable." - By John Sullivan and Craig R. McCoy - Read more.....

Wide-ranging probes launched - Financial relationships spurred audit

An ongoing audit of the Southeast Child and Family Services Agency was partly triggered over concerns about inappropriate financial and other relationships with Southeast Resource Development Council, the Free Press has learned. To this point, the Southern First Nations Child and Family Services Authority -- which is conducting the audit -- has said the trigger for the review was the inquest into the death of 14-year-old Tracia Owen. That inquest raised concerns about the services provided by Southeast CFS to the teenager - who committed suicide in 2005 after spending her entire life in and out of foster care. - By: Mia Rabson - Read more......

Sagkeeng CFS faces scrutiny over deaths

In August 2006, the children went to live in foster care while Sagkeeng CFS tried to find a family member they could live with. The kids' paternal grandmother was chosen, even though she had missed repeated scheduled visits with the kids, had left them with strangers on one of those visits, had a history of alcohol abuse and told the agency she did not want to take care of them because she didn't think she could.They moved in with her in March 2007. Weeks later, a social worker visiting the kids found them in the aftermath of a drinking party.So the agency had to find a new home. It didn't send the kids back to the foster home where they had been thriving. This time it chose a great aunt with a criminal record. Six weeks later he was dead of a massive brain injury. By: Mia Rabson - Read more......

Mom Stabs Son During Supervised Visit, Police Say

Without giving any warning, a Dunedin woman pulled two long knives from her purse and began stabbing her 15-year-old son during a court-ordered visit today at a Largo psychiatry office, police said.When police arrived, the teen was covered in blood and slipping in and out of consciousness, Young said."He told me, 'My mom stabbed me,'" Young said. "Then he looks up at me and said, 'I don't ever want to see her again,' and then he passed out."As of this afternoon, the boy, whose name was not released, was being treated at Bayfront Medical Center in critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery. - By Mike Wells - Read more....

DSS chief admits agency failed boy; mother is arrested

MIDDLEBOROUGH - As the head of the state Department of Social Services admitted to a litany of mistakes, police arrested the mother of a 7-year-old boy yesterday, accusing her of letting her son be repeatedly beaten, bloodied, and burned with cigarettes by her boyfriend.By Michael Levenson and John R. Ellement - Read more......

Let kids' deaths haunt debate for CPS reform

Their voices cry out from across the years and beyond the grave. TaJuana, and China Marie, who died in 1993 - just two weeks after a state child-welfare official declared that she was "thriving."And there were more voices. Henry and Odessa and 5-year-old Donovan, who was left in an unsafe home despite a pattern of abuse and a pediatrician's warning that if he died "it will be the result of neglect on the part of CPS." Donovan died in April 1996, during Child Abuse Prevention Month, and CPS vowed to change.But nothing changed. Only the names of dead.

This, after all, is Sunshine Week, when we in the media explain your right to know what your government is doing. It's a week when we outline all the things we're doing to further the grand goal of a truly open government.But we can't do it alone. When it comes to CPS, we can only tell the stories. We can only appeal to the community's collective outrage and to a firm belief that these children shouldn't so silently slip away. The rest, really, is up to you. - By Laurie Roberts - Read more......

Dear Hillary, I Read the News Today

It was the news stories, Hillary, not the news about you, but the other stories, the stories you weren't in. The stories you too rarely speak of, the stories that should have been the heart of your campaign, but aren't. I didn't vote for you because you said so little about the stories, the lives behind the news. "A junior high schooler gunned down another boy. The dead boy had taken to coming to school bravely adorned in jewelry, makeup, heeled boots...." What is this story to you, Hillary? Do these children, the child-killer and the child killed, fit into your scholarly articles on children and the law? When you stand next to Madeleine Albright, who spoke of dead children as collateral damage, do you remember the story of the murdering and murdered children from this small farm community? - by Leslie Radford - Read more.....

Who is Richard Widdecombe Jr. ? - Or - Do You still believe it takes a village to raise a child ?

As accused double murderer Richard Widdecombe Jr. sits in jail awaiting a trial that's likely several months away, those who know him were stunned to learn he might be responsible for the horrific crimes.A former foster parent of Widdecombe's, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the young man's childhood as one marred by tragedy, neglect and far too many residential treatment facilities."I can't help but feel that Richard may have felt overwhelmed by the - real world' and somehow, subconsciously, needed to do something to get back into the only secure situation he'd ever experienced - being locked up," she said in an interview. "I wish he'd chosen to rob a liquor store [instead]." - By Eric Russell - Read more.....

Butler Co. custody in US court - Mom, denied visits, sues Children Services agency

HAMILTON - A mother who lost visitation with her 10-year-old daughter after Butler County Children Services got involved in her private custody case has taken her long-time battle with the agency to federal court.Joetta Street, of Hamilton, filed a civil rights suit in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati against Butler County commissioners; her ex-husband's wife, Michelle Money-Richardson, who worked for Children Services; former agency director Jann Heffner; former deputy director Donna Saunders; former clinical director Kathy Hayes; current intake director Judy Stadler; and several other agency employees - .By SHEILA MCLAUGHLIN - Read more.....

No more apologies from DSS

It is no longer open to debate: the state Department of Social Services is a dysfunctional agency whose collective actions and systemic negligence are intolerable and border on criminal.The case involving the 7-year-old Middleboro boy who was beaten and burned by someone is just the latest fiasco that has DSS officials admitting they made errors.DSS counseled the mother and her boyfriend against corporal punishment but, in the very accurate assessment of Middleboro Police Chief Gary Russell, "this little boy was sent home to be tortured for another 13 days." But admitting problems after the fact is no longer good enough. Children are dying and being maimed for life because of - take your pick - budgetary underfunding, politicized administration, inept training and overwhelmed case workers.Money doesn't appear to be a problem. Last year, DSS officials returned $24 million in unspent funds. - The Patriot Ledger - Read more....

Lose weight or we'll take all six of your children away: Outrage over social workers' 'draconian' ultimatum to parents

Six young brothers and sisters face being taken from their parents and put into care because they are overweight. If the children are put into foster homes it opens up the possibility they could be adopted, which would leave them unable to make contact with their birth parents until they were adults.The constant questioning by social workers has left the children aware that they may be taken from their mother and father. By Jane Simpson - Read more.....

Parent is no longer allowed to discipline their own child.

A nurse at a leading independent girls school was sacked after smacking her 10 year old son at home because he swore at her. Susan Pope, 45, was arrested, questioned and spent a night in the cells but no charges were brought. But the incident did lead to social services placing the boy and his younger sister on the Child Protection Register. And then Mrs Pope was suspended as senior nurse at Malvern St James Girls School in Worcestershire before being sacked for gross misconduct. By David Wilkes - Read more....

Abuse, Custody Battle Enrages Family

A Northwest Washington couple, wrongly accused of child abuse, is speaking out about their personal nightmare, including having their infant daughters taken away and their desperate fight to get them back.
"Without an investigation, without a medical diagnosis, without interviewing any of the doctors, they had made a decision that my daughter had been abused," said Greg. "A social worker said to me, we're going to remove the other child," said Julianna. After midnight, with one baby at Children's Hospital, Greg Caplan was at home, waking up his other daughter who was about to be taken away and put in foster care. "I took her outside and she was fine in my arms. And there were these four police officers and the CFSA social worker didn't even have an infant car seat," said Greg. - Read more.....

Boys Thrown Off Bridge Had History Of Being Abused

CBS 11 News has learned new information about the two boys thrown from a Dallas bridge by their mother earlier this month. Court documents are alleging that other family members may have abused the boys. Papers show Ford, and his 6-year-old brother Derrick Tennison, have had a long history of physical abuse. According to the documents, in fall of 2004, Tennison had an, "old burn on his upper left arm" and "a bruise on his eye." For those injuries Child Protective Services determined neglectful supervision and the family received CPS services until January 2005. In March of 2005, the boys were placed into foster care after their mother was arrested for assaulting her ex-boyfriend. The kids were returned to her in November. "When she was out of jail, and she was able to complete some of the things the court asked her to do, the judge approved for the children to go back home," explained Marissa Gonzales with CPS. By Marianne Martinez - Read more...

Police file new charges in Middleborough child abuse case

DSS officials had known of neglect in the home as far back as 2002 and were informed of three reports of possible physical abuse since late last year, including reports of a beating with a belt in December and burns with a cigarette on March 4. But DSS did not notify law enforcement officials until Monday, when teachers discovered burn marks on his genitals, pelvis, and buttocks.By John R. Ellement and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff - Read more......

House approves CPS bills - Measures would require child-protection agency to release records

Child Protective Services is the state agency charged with protecting Arizona's children, but exactly what they do in most cases - even those in which the child has died from abuse - has remained largely hidden from public view.A bill approved by the Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday would change that. It would require the agency to release records when a child is killed or seriously injured from abuse or neglect, unless the prosecutor determines this would cause material harm to an investigation. By Amanda J. Crawford - Read more.....

3 social workers face drug charges

ALBEMARLE --Two Stanly County Department of Social Services employees whose job it is to protect kids face drug charges. A former Stanly County DSS employee has also been arrested and charged.
Police say they got medications with fake prescriptions.
They also say the arrests came as a result of a separate drug investigation. The names of the current and former DSS employees popped up. By Tony Burbeck - Read more.....

Foster care performance lags

More than 30 children were physically abused or neglected while in Milwaukee's foster care system last year, according to a new report released Monday.In one of the cases, a young boy was allowed to bathe and share a room with an older brother who had sexually abused him in the past, a fact known by the foster mother, the report says.In another case, a foster parent used physical discipline by striking a child on the hand and arm with a plastic golf club, according to the report.Most of the 36 maltreatment cases in the report, issued by the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, occurred with children between the ages of 5 and 11, but some also involved children 2 and younger. By Felicia Thomas - Linn - Read more......

No Social Workers, No Progres

Two years ago a hue and cry resounded throughout the land condemning the actions or inaction of the social services department at the San Fernando General Hospital in regard to the brutal murder of Amy Anamunthodo. By Diego Martin - Read more.....

What shall we say when history asks how such crimes came to be committed in the name "In the best interest of our Children" Will we say that we stood silently by, shrugging our shoulders, filling our bellies, closing our eyes ? Or will we be able to say: We saw. We dissented. We resisted. We condemned.

Killed Bulgarian Orphan Was Witness in Fornication Case against Shooter

The fatal shooting in the orphanage in Trun was the worst in a series of incidents at state homes for handicapped or abandoned children, where neglect and abuse are believed to be widespread.The man was a former supervisor who was fired from the orphanage over "heavy violations". Read more.....

DSHS official allegedly failed to report abuse

High-ranking children's protective services supervisor in the Yakima office of the Department of Social and Health Services failed last year to properly investigate or report at least five allegations of child abuse and neglect at two day care centers, according to a whistleblower investigation by the state Auditor's Office. - By Leah Beth Ward - Read more.....

Commission calls California dependency courts 'overstressed, underresourced'

A state commission concluded its two-year study of California's juvenile dependency courts Friday by calling for sweeping reforms to make sure children and parents caught in the system are better informed and better served. The Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care recommended critical changes to ensure that lawyers meet with their clients well in advance of their hearings, that judges preside over all court cases and that children are present and active when their life in foster care is being decided.The recommendations address several of the critical problems highlighted by the series "Broken Families, Broken Courts," a Mercury News investigation published last month that exposed widespread problems in the courts that oversee 75,000 California children in foster care. "If we don't help children and families during these most difficult times," Steinberg said, "they will bear the consequences and so will we." By Karen de S� - Read more....

The criminalization of parents

During the Clinton years, the trend toward turning children into tools for expanding government power increased rapidly. Otherwise indefensible programs and regulations are now rationalized as "for the children." As a result, government now has so many ways to incarcerate parents that hardly a family in America has not been touched. The criminalization of parents is highly bureaucratic, effected through a bureaucratic judiciary and supported by a vast "social services" machinery that few understand until it strikes them. They then find themselves against a faceless government behemoth from which they are powerless to protect their children or defend themselves. By Stephen Baskerville - Read more....

Family was on a rocky road before mother flung boys, self from I-30 overpass

According to relatives and court records, the mother and her children had a troubled history. Child Protective Services officials were investigating Wednesday afternoon while the children remained in the hospital, but they had not taken the two into protective custody.In 2004, CPS investigators found that the boys were unkempt and wore dirty clothes. Officials provided Ms. Busby with services including day care, food, clothing, help with utilities, and parenting skills training.The following year, investigators received a report of a domestic violence incident between Ms. Busby and her then-boyfriend. She was arrested, and the two boys were placed in foster care.They remained there for several months until a judge returned them to Ms. Busby, who was then living with her father. By Steve Thompson - Read more...

Man charged in infant sex assault case

This isn't the first time Friddle has been under investigation for child abuse.
Nearly five years ago, child protective services placed Friddle's two young sons in foster care after confirming he threatened harm to them.The boys were later released to their mother, who then moved back to the mainland, and the case was closed. Police say the thirteen charges stem from two separate incidents that involve the same young victim. - By Marisa Yamane - Read more.....

Draft Recommendations for Foster Care Reform

To better serve children in foster care and their families, Chief Justice Ronald M. George appointed the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care in March 2006. The commission's charge was to develop recommendations to improve outcomes related to safety, permanency, well-being, and fairness.The commission issued draft recommendations for public comment on March 14, 2008. The recommendations focus on four areas: 1) efforts to prevent removal and achieve permanency; 2) court reforms; 3) collaboration between the courts and their child welfare partners; and 4) resources and funding. The recommendations will be finalized by August and presented to the Judicial Council along with an implementation plan. - Read more....

Man accused of molesting child commits suicide

FAIRLEE, Vt.-Vermont State Police say a former foster parent accused of child molestation has died of an apparent suicide.Police say 59-year-old Frank C. Taplin, of Norwich, shot himself Tuesday in a roadside pull-off.Taplin, formerly of Bethel, was charged last year with aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child. His trial was expected to start in April.On Wednesday, a Westminster man charged with animal cruelty for beating a dog and burying it in a snow bank committed suicide.State Police say 61-year-old Edward Paul Grysko (Griss-KO) was despondent over the death of his youngest son three years ago and his arrest last week in the highly publicized cruelty case in Bellows Falls - Boston.com

Foster parent charged with sexual assault

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. --A Bethel man has been charged with sexually assaulting his adopted daughter.Frank C. Taplin, 58, was held in lieu of $40,000 bail after being arraigned on charges of aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child Friday. The alleged victim was 13, police said.If released, Taplin, who is also a foster parent, must have no contact with the alleged victim or any minors

4 years on, boy reunited with family as foster parents lose legal battle

A two-year-old boy goes missing while playing... is spotted by the police and handed over to a child welfare organisation... finds a new home as another family adopts him... his biological parents trace him and go to court to have him back... after a four-year battle, the boy is reunited with his original family in a courtroom. The court came down heavily on the police and said: "The manner in which the case was handled shows that the agencies which are bound to safeguard the interest of such destitute and lost children have not only failed in their duty but are also aiding and abetting illegality... This appears to be a classic example of a system's failure to come to the rescue of a child, who accidentally got separated from his parents." - Read more....

Adoption Fraud Probe Strands Babies

Luciany Ball's adoption file says she was born 14 months ago by Caesarean section to a single mother who gave her up so she could be raised by a loving family in a six-bedroom Indiana farmhouse.But now some of the documents appear to be fraudulent, part of a slew of irregularities at the agency handling Luciany's adoption that have left dozens of babies in danger of being seized from their anguished American adoptive parents. The probe also casts a cloud of uncertainty over some 2,900 pending U.S. adoptions.Prosecutors describe their probe of Casa Quivira -- considered Guatemala's best adoption agency -- as their first serious attempt to investigate a $100 million industry that has made tiny Guatemala the largest source of American babies after China.By Juan Carlos - Read more.....

What Are We Doing To Our Children?

So once "protective" services are involved the money making clock starts ticking and then the priority is not in uniting families, there is no bonus for that, but in making sure those children get through the system quickly and get placed into new families. Now if these children all came from terribly abusive families, I would agree that the system works, but it doesn�t take long on the Internet to find out how families and children are suffering over this law. We must remember this is a business and businesses don�t make money without a product and in this case, the product is children.And once many of these kids are taken away from their homes and placed into state care, their chances of abuse increase. During a two-year period, one foster child died every 7 and � weeks in the state of Arizona. By Victoria Hardy - Read more.....

Mom gets back girl - & $125K

When the Lititz woman took her toddler to the hospital more than two years ago, she had no idea of the legal fight she was about to face.Patricia M. Shope was sitting at her daughter's hospital bedside in June 2006 when, she says, a caseworker for Lancaster County Children & Youth Agency announced he was taking custody of her child, according to court documents.For two months, Shope fought to have her child returned, in spite, she claims in documents, of a caseworker's false accusations that she was suffering from a mental illness and his threats to put the child up for adoption if she didn't cooperate. - By Janet Kelley - Read more....

Cabal of leading Jersey figures is trying to wreck abuse inquiry, police say

Corrupt police officers, politicians and a leading businessman are attempting to discredit the investigation into child abuse at a Jersey care home, the island's police said today. Search teams are attempting to break into a second underground chamber at the Haut de la Garenne home where former residents said that they were tortured and sexually abused from the 1960s to 1986. States of Jersey Police said that at least one of its former officers has made threats against those co-operating with the inquiry. It was also investigating claims that victims were being threatened by former child care staff. - By David Brown - Read more.....

Child protection? No, ruination
Two men are incarcerated by the State, when they should be the stability in two children's lives

Prisoner # 1

A court stipulated that the boy should be returned to his mother once she had "sorted her life out" and found them a new home. But even as she cleared every hurdle, social workers dreamt up new ones. The offers of her own mother and sister, both professionals with good incomes, to foster the boy, were apparently ignored. A psychologist cautioned that the boy was suffering dreadfully in care. One night in September, the boy let himself out of his foster home and ran back to his mother. Prisoner X, now her husband, drove them to Dover and on to Paris. Many people would call this an act of love, a mercy mission. But this man is now serving 16 months in jail. Child abduction is undoubtedly a serious crime. But this was a strange kind of abduction. At the hearing it was made clear that the boy had packed his own suitcase, set his alarm clock for 4am and run away of his own accord to be reunited with his mother.

Prisoner # 2

Mr Taylor is a 71-year-old with a heart condition. He was sent to prison for 20 months for being in contact with his stepgrandson, who has been in care since his mother died and who has repeatedly run away to see his grandparents. By breaching an agreement not to answer the door to him, Mr Taylor stands accused of "undermining the care plan". But he and the boy's grandmother are the teenager's only living relatives. They will presumably be his first port of call when he comes of age and is thrown out of the care system. Mr Taylor may not survive that long: last week he suffered an angina attack that put him in hospital for four days. Is that in the interests of the boy? - By Camilla Cavendish - Read more....

Neighbors saw warning signs in foster parents charged with molestation. - Neighbors called to complain but were "blown off."

The men, Sedonio Rodriques, 57, and Raymond Grenier, 53, were arrested Friday, Feb. 22, and charged with 11 counts of child molestation and attempted molestation over a three-year span. The men, who before their arrest were foster parents licensed by the state Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), had four children: two adopted teenage siblings and two young boys they were fostering.At the time of their arrest, the two men apparently ran an explicit massage business [ erotic massage geared toward male customers.] - By Jeremy Rosen - Read more.....

Foster Father Accused Of Child Endangerment Remains Free On Bond

A Johnstown man accused of severely beating three children in his custody remains free on bond.

Christopher Ellis, 31, is expected to face a county judge on several child endangerment charges. A court date had not been set as of Thursday.The three children, who Ellis was trying to adopt, are all under the age of 10. The children reportedly had numerous sores on their bodies as a result of being beaten.According to a police report, school staff members noticed a problem when one of the children couldn't sit down in his chair at school. The children are quoted in the police report describing the paddle they said Ellis used on them.

"It was a gift from our pap to our dad. Dad laughed about how hard he could hit with it because the holes wouldn't let any air in," one child told police.Another one of the children said, "It hurt so bad I just stopped counting. My butt was cut and there was bleeding. I couldn't lay on it. It felt worse than it ever did."

The children have all been placed back into foster care. Stay with Channel 6 News for continuing coverage.

Justine: 'I really want to not be afraid of the world'

"That night I can remember waking up to emergency personnel outside of the house and my mom standing at the door. They would not allow me to talk to my mom. I screamed, "Where the hell is my sister?" No one replied. I was just put into a CAS worker's car. ..."I did have to change schools, obviously homes, and I had to make new friends. I was mostly just really confused, and I just wanted to go home to my mom. ... I had already lost my sister to a tragic event and then I lose my mom. I really didn't understand what was happening ... It was hard to focus on school or care about friends ... when I just felt sad, scared, and confused for most of the time. I know it sounds silly, but even having a different kind of food, having different clothing or a different way to be tucked into bed can make a big difference to a kid. - Read more......

Review finds gaps in Denver child-abuse investigations

An outside review found Denver's child protection authorities do not interview boyfriends in allegations of abuse, even though such non-family members of a household are often the source of abuse.The review was requested by Denver child protection after a 7-year-old boy was starved to death and a young girl was subjected to sexual abuse and then died. In both cases, the city's Department of Human Services had been warned of the children's danger.By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News - Read more.....

Protect the children, not CPS

A handful of legislators are lining up to protect Child Protective Services from the prying eyes of the public when kids die on the agency's watch.This is not exactly a shock. Certain legislators have long fought any attempt to hold CPS accountable, and for good reason. They work for agencies that score millions of dollars in CPS contracts.I am surprised, however, that this year's chief muscle for CPS secrecy would come from Tucson. Tucson: home of the three tragedies that led two state legislators to craft proposals aimed at better protecting the most vulnerable among us.Or not, if Rep. Linda Lopez has her way. By Laurie Roberts - Read more.....

State, families at odds over mental care for foster kids

A lamp cord is noosed around the top tier of a bunk bed. For a troubled 13-year-old girl, it is a desperate cry for help - her latest suicide plot. For her adoptive mother, it is an indictment of the state's mental-health system and proof of a promise broken. "When I agreed to adopt a foster child, they told me the state would provide care for her," the 46-year-old single mother says.Instead, the mother says her daughter got a revolving door of therapists, inexperienced counselors, delayed treatment, unnecessarily long hospital stays and contradictory medical decisions. She also says her daughter was denied services recommended by a psychiatrist."They are more concerned with containing costs than providing care," she says.Robert Anglen ,The Arizona Republic - Read more.....

Bill would strengthen kids' voices in foster care court

BILL WOULD REQUIRE THEY'RE TOLD ABOUT RIGHT TO ATTEND HEARINGS

"This bill sends a strong message that kids need to be a more integral part of the system," said Dave Jones, a Sacramento Democrat who chairs the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Jones said the bill is designed to address one of the key findings of the series "Broken Families, Broken Courts" - that throughout California, hearings in the courts that oversee the foster care system are often held without the child present. Current law gives children the legal right to attend but does not require officials to make a strong effort to get the children there. Outside of Los Angeles County, children are not routinely present at their hearings.By Karen de S� - Read more......

Major improvements needed within DDHS

DENVER - A third party review of the Denver Department of Human Services has determined that the agency needs to make some improvements in the way they handle cases involving at-risk children.

The review was prompted in part by three high-profile deaths of at-risk children who had been referred to the department in the past. Those cases were the deaths of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner, 3-year-old Nevaeh Gallegos and 9-month-old Luz Valdez. By Shawn Patrick - Read more.....

CPS takes child found through Amber Alert
Dad was neglectful, didn't check nanny's background, officials say

According to police, CPS took Michael from his father late Thursday afternoon after Brett Wolfe spoke to media at Surprise police headquarters. At that point, Wolfe implied he was taking the toddler home. But Ortega said the father had already been informed that CPS was going to take Michael until a full investigation was complete."CPS took the boy in the afternoon after we reunited the father and the child," Ortega said. "We did tell him that we'd let him hold him and see the child one more time. We never said that we were going to release the child with him."Surprise police contacted the agency after the boy was found regarding the circumstances leading up to this week's Amber Alert for the child. "CPS came down, talked to us and concurred with us that his actions were neglectful," Ortega said. -By Lily Leung - Read more.....

False accusation that changed mother's young family for ever
Louise Mason is reunited with two of three children taken into care but it may be too late for the third ever to return. Louise Mason is finally a mother again, leading a family life for the first time in more than five years. She presents a calm - if brittle - front as she talks of her ordeal since she was falsely accused of harming her baby and having her children disappear into the care system one by one. By David Sharrock - Read more....

British justice: a family ruined
A chilling example of our secret State where a mother and child are forced into hiding

Last autumn a small English congregation was rocked by the news that two of its parishioners had fled abroad. A 56-year-old man had helped his pregnant wife to flee from social workers, who had already taken her son into care and were threatening to seize their baby.Most people had no idea why. For the process that led this couple to such a desperate act was entirely secret. The local authority had warned the mother not to talk to her friends or even her MP. By Camilla Cavendish - Read more....

Children can sue over abuse claims

Children who are wrongly diagnosed as suffering from child abuse can sue doctors and social workers, the Court of Appeal has ruled. However the judges ruled that the parents of those children have no right to sue. - Read more....

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Two families suffer from a doctor's best intentions."It was bad enough that our son had a serious injury," she says. "But to be accused of causing it?" .... "You're not taking this baby," But it was no use. They were armed with a court order. The social worker pried Rachel from Sega's arms and disappeared. "It was one of the most horrible days of my life." By Denise Grollmus - Read more.....

A molester among th