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Children In News Please Read....
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Message To Children Protective Services
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Child (or agency) Protection?
"You guys do more damage to kids than the parents!"
The above observation uttered by a loving parent is echoed by many. Most Child Protective Services Supervisors and caseworkers would consider it malicious slander.
As a Child Protective Services caseworker of eight years, however, I know it to be true.
I'm not alone.
".in the name of saving children from the harm that their parents and guardians are thought to pose, states ultimately cause more harm to many children than they ever help."
Few in the field argue that Child Protective Services ("CPS") nationally has myriad problems that are well documented in the form of media, research, congressional sub-committees and expert reports. Documentation supporting this fact is ubiquitous and readily available on-line.
However, the most grievous problem is that those who can most benefit from this knowledge, those who might use it pragmatically to improve the lives of children and families - the caseworkers and supervisors of CPS - appear either ignorant of or indifferent to the damage that removal of children perpetuates.
That is: the most profound problem with "Child Welfare" is that it is not about the welfare of the child.
Rather, it is about the welfare of the agency itself.
The internal paranoia that a "Cover-Your-Agency" (CYA) mentality creates has become so pervasive that most caseworkers and supervisors are determined not to make any decision that might jeopardize their career. and the children are afterthoughts.
The agency hierarchy itself reinforces this CYA mentality due to its' understandable desire to remain off the front page of newspapers.
This "defensive social work" is helpful in preventing bureaucrat heads from rolling.
The tragic wake of this status quo, however, is strewn with the lives of children and parents.
Estimates I've come across in my research reckon that between one-third and two-thirds of those children currently in foster care nationally should be living with their parents.
Furthermore, it has become undeniable that despite many saintly foster parents, the government makes a poor parent. The research shows unequivocally that CPS should be loathe to remove kids from their homes because, in most cases, there is nowhere better to put them.
As a result, the state is stuck between a rock and a hard place: remove children from marginal parents, causing well documented, irrevocable emotional damage (not to mention the physical and sexual abuse that occurs more frequently in foster care), or leave these children with parents who, arguably, should never have had kids in the first place? the "lesser of two evils" if you will.
Enter the "Safety Model."
The state of Oregon has become one of the last ten percent of our nation's states to adopt a "Safety Model" guide to protecting our children, created by Wayne Holder, the man Oregon CPS has called the "foremost expert in child protection in the nation." (I encourage anyone interested to visit his website at www.actionchildprotection.org to understand Mr. Holder's credentials and the Safety Model as a whole.)
"What do I have to do to get my kids back?"
Those of us in CPS have all heard it. It is inevitably the first question our clients have and it is echoed frequently until the kids are returned.
The Safety Model forces Child Welfare to quantify their answer to this question.
In my experience, most families don't care how long CPS monitors (or micromanages) their family as long as their kids can live with them in the process. Mr. Holder would probably cite this as THE driving force behind the creation of the Safety Model.
In quantifying their answer to parents' most pressing question, CPS must delineate for all parties and the court, the necessary "behaviors, conditions or circumstances" in the home required to "manage"- not eliminate- the safety threats that necessitated the removal of the children.
The agency's answers must be "specific" (i.e. quantifiable). They must be "well articulated." They must be "least intrusive." They must be "well defined." They must provide a "benchmark" (i.e. they must be measurable). They represent the "official record and expectation" for parent-child reunification.
The parents themselves need not change at all prior to the children being returned to the home.
The Safety Model, in addition to its dictates that CPS be as "least intrusive" as possible in intervening to control threats to child safety, requires that these threats be "observable and specific," "out of control," "imminent" and expected to cause "severe" harm to a "vulnerable" child.
No doubt for many of you this is a hard pill to swallow. These are unreasonably low standards for our most precious resource.
You, like me, think children deserve more.
The fact remains, it is irresponsible at best and abusive at worst to remove and/or withhold a child from his or her home upon the speculation that a "threat" of danger exists, when we know from the research that removal and placement of children in foster care is always detrimental.
I'm not talking here about severe neglect or physical/sexual abuse.
In five years with Oregon CPS (I worked for three in California previously) I have had only one case with such abuse (and the research puts this type of abuse at about 15 percent combined).
The Safety Model is merely a tool, an attempt to minimize the trauma to children inflicted by their own government. There is no tool or legislation that will ever completely expunge child maltreatment or child deaths so long as the only requirement for parenthood is a capacity for coitus.
I believe that if the state institutes a model, a tool envisioned by the "foremost expert in child protection in the nation," the state should actually use it.
That is, if CPS is making the rules, they should follow them.
Currently CPS (at least in Oregon) is not, or not consistently.
The sad yet necessary truth is that it is not the job of Child Protective Services to pick the best available situation for kids and place them there permanently.
That would literally be kidnapping.
Rather, it is the job of CPS to work with marginal parents and make them "safe" or capable of providing a "minimum standard of adequate care." It is CPS's job to make parents "safe," not "good." Again, it is also our job to be "least intrusive" in our intervention.
In America we must accept freedom's costs with its benefits. As Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said, "There is nothing new in the realization that the Fourth Amendment [illegal search and seizure] protections come with a price." This is true of many other "protections," such as the right to procreate and parent.
Unfortunately, Child Welfare is not held accountable for the unattributable damage to children caused by removal from their families to foster care.
However, it is well-documented damage.
Shouldn't we, like doctors, use our professional judgment to "first, do no harm," rather than using it to forecast the future?
It is the children who pay the ultimate price for this unqualified prophesying.
The Safety Model provides a useful tool that, if used correctly, can save many children from the fate of CPS being their only perpetrator.
Rich Rigney
Child Protective Services
Coos Bay, Oregon
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In Loving Memory Of Children Who Didn't Have to Die - 2007
Patricia Feeny spokeswoman for The Department of Human Services said it's "extraordinarily rare" for children to be killed while in foster care. But when it does happen, "nothing prepares you for such a tragic loss," - "Extraordinarily rare" ??? -
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January-February-March-April
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Jasmine Nicole Bowman
8-year-old
2007
Aspen Hill, Maryland
Minnet Cecila Bowman
10-year-old
2007
Aspen Hill, Maryland
Baby Mamino
newborn
2007
Columbia, Illinois
Kimerlie Sullivan
6-week-old
2007
Tucson,Arizona
January
Randy Beaver
14-year-old
January 2007
Bethel,Alaska
Alizay Koepf
2-year-old
January 3,2007
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Chelsey Essex
2-monrth-old
January 7,2007
Rotherham
United Kingdom
Charlene Makaza
10-year-old
January 7,2007
New Zealand
Jezebel Donnell
2-year-old
January 14, 2007
El Reno,Oklahoma
Brooklyn Holcomb
5-year-old
January 17, 2007
Princeton,West Virgina
Tanner Jurisch
18-month-old
January 18, 2007
Rapid City,South Dakota
Foster Boy
3-year-old
January 27, 2007
Edmonton,Canada
February
Arabella Rose Moreno
7-year-old
February 3,2007
Las Vegas,Nevada
Casey Leigh Mullen
2-year-old
February 11, 2007
Leeds, United Kingdom
Madison Ariel Coley
4-week-old
February 15,2007
Opa-locka,Florida
Mariah Alvarez
2-year-old
February 17, 2007
Harlingen, Texas
Caleb Hearne
2-year-old
February 22, 2007
Phoenix, Arizona
Sheldean Human
7-year-old
February 18, 2007
Pretoria,South Africa
March
Blake Ragsdale
3-year-old
March 2007
Tulsa,Oklahoma
Antwan Bowman
4-year-old
March 8,2007
Columbus,Ohio
Christopher Michael
Barrios Jr.
6-year-old
March 8, 2007
Brunswick, Georgia
Johnny Dragomir
9-year-old
March 9, 2007
Detroit,Michigan
Loreyna Barea
7-year-old
March 9,2007
Weld County,Colorado
Caspian Steinmetz
5-year-old
March 10, 2007
Fountain Hill,Pennsylvania
Summer Lytle Phelps
4-year-old
March 11, 2007
Spokane,Washington
Michaela Watkins
10-years-old
March 11, 2007
Winchester,Kentucky
Anthony Westbrooks
2-year-old
March 12, 2007
Nashville,Tennessee
Landon Eitel
8-month-old
March 12,2007
Springfield,Missouri
Melanie Beltran
5-year-old
March 14, 2007
Chicago,Illinois
Christopher Reeser
14-year-old
March 15, 2007
Green Bank, West Virginia
Mia Jorris
2-year-old
March 23,2007
Lima,Ohio
Keynen Vanhardenberg
23-month-old
March 24, 2007
Copperas Cove,TX
Sean Luke
6-year-old
March 26 ,2007
Trinidad,Spain
Jayla Fox
2-year-old
March 28,2007
Sacramento,California
Isaiah Amari Vargas
3-year-old
March 29,2007
Mesa,Arizona
Eric Mohat
17-year-old
March 29, 2007
Mentor, Ohio
Darnel Angel Rodriguez
4-month-old
March 30,2007
Queens, New York
April
Jordan Peterson
8-year-old
April 11, 2007
Uruma, Okinawa
Japan
James Earl Bradley Jr.
3-year-old
April 12, 2007
Van Buren Township ,Michigan
Angel Montiel
2-year-old
April 21,2007
San Pedro,California
Leanne Dunne
5-year-old
April 23,2007
Wexford,Ireland
Shania Dunne
3-year-old
April 23,2007
Wexford,Ireland
Hylene Essilife
6-month-old
April 29, 2007
Redbridge, UK
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May - June -July - August
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May
N'Kiah Fogel
6-year-old
May 2007
Washington, DC
Aja Fogel
5-year-old
May 2007
Washington, DC
Brittany Jacks
17-year-old
May 2007
Washington, DC
Tatianna Jacks
11-year-old
May 2007
Washington, DC
Carly Townsend
16-year-old
May 2,2007
Llanelli, United Kingdom
Alexis Board
14-month-old
May 6,2007
Cincinnati,Ohio
Chandler Grafner
7-year-old
May 6,2007
Denver,Colorado
Dymond McGowan
14-year-old
May 10, 2007
Springfield,
Massachusetts
Joshua Minton
2-year-old
May 17, 2007
Tulsa,Oklahoma
Javon Simpson
9-month-old
May 20, 2007
Columbia,South Carolina
Denis Manuel Maltez
12-year-old
May 23,2007
Miami, Florida
Luigi Askew
1-month-old
May 26,2007
Ipswich,England
Teresa Maria Estrada
5-year-old
May 29, 2007
Oak Hills,Texas
Yaneth Frayre
3-year-old
May 29, 2007
Oak Hills,Texas
Magaly Frayre
2-year-old
May 29, 2007
Oak Hills,Texas
Zahid Jones Jr
3-year-old
May 29, 2007
Cape Coral,Florida
Mandie Coco
12-year-old
May 30,2007
Stroudsburg,Pennsylvania
June
Bryanna Harris
2-year-old
June 2007
Baltimore City, MD
Alyssa Raven Gomez
15-year-old
June 4, 2007
Hollywood,California
Amya Porter
7-month-old
June 7,2007
Knoxville,Tennessee
Sean Sowards
2-year-old
June 11,2007
Warren,Michigan
Jonathan H Boudonck
23-month-old
June 23, 2007
Lebanon, Missouri
Jason Clay Clark
Anderson Jr
11-week-old
June 23, 2007
Fairmont,W.Virginia
Liquarry Jefferson
8-year-old
June 24, 2007
Boston,Massachusetts
Roanna Meagan
Fontaine
14-year-old
June 24, 2007
Winnipeg Manitoba
Canada
Jayden Davidson
8-month-old
June 26,2007
Lorain County, Ohio
Stephanie Amber Moss
23-year-old
June 29, 2007
Cottage Grove,Oregon
Malachi Jermaine
McBride-Roberts
2-year-old
June 29,2007
San Diego,California
Baby Girl Ka-sing
3-month-old
June 30, 2007
Hong Kong,China
July
Travis DeSimone
17-year-old
July 3,2007
Marlborough,Massachusetts
Evelyn Beltran
5-year-old
July 6, 2007
Woodridge,Illinois
Jesse Weaver
11-year-old
July 8,2007
Lincoln County,Colorado
Zander Martino
3-year-old
July 10,2007
Las Vegas,Nevada
Deborah Melville
12-year-old
July 12,2007
Palmerston, Australia
Logan Acord
2-year-old
July 17, 2007
Clifton,New Jersey
Mackenzie VandenHeede
4-year-old
July 17,2007
Marshall, Michigan
Rio Ross
14-month old
July 21,2007
Bristol,UK
Gage Guimond
2-year-old
July 22,2007
Winnipeg,Canada
Josue Contreras-Velasco
9-year-old
July 22, 2007
Salt Lake City, Utah
Jamiya DeLoach
3-year-old
July 28, 2007
Palm Beach,Florida
Anna Hider
17-month-old
July 29,2007
Hampshire, England
Lo Fung- ying
4-year-old
July 30, 2007
Hong Kong, China
Wayne Anderson Jr
7-month-old
July 31,2007
Iberia,Missouri
August
Fonessa Bruyere
17-year-old
August 2007
Winnipeg,Canada
Baby P
Peter Connelly
17-month-old
August 3, 2007
Haringey, United Kingdom
Nia Glassie
3-year old
August 3,2007
Rotorua,New Zealand
Shauna Erin Griffiths
7-year-old
August 14,2007
North Wales,UK
Trycia Balhous
2-year-old
August 14,2007
London,UK
Rachel Clintsman
6-month-old
August 15,2007
Yankton,South Dakota
Delyza Alyze
Ortiz Hernandez
3-year-old
August 17,2007
Houston,Texas
Francesca St. Pierre
14-year-old
August 18, 2007
Montreal,Canada
Kayla Reynolds
13-year-old
August 21,2007
Spotsylvania,Virginia
Chrystal Ramirez
8-year-old
August 23,2007
Gonzales,Texas
Tahir Francis
11-month-old
August 23, 2007
Woodbridge,New Jersey
Mar'riel Lucas
6-year-old
August 29,2007
Elizabethtown,Kentucky
Fonassa Lynn Bruyere
17-year-old
August 30,2007
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada
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Sept - Oct - Nov - Decem
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September
Asteve "Cookie" Thomas
12-year-old
September 1,2007
Slavic Village ,Cleveland
Hei Min Chung
Chaeli Kyrie
13-month-old
September 4, 2007
Sheridan, Indiana
Christian Lee
6-year-old
September 4,2007
Victoria,British Columbia
Canada
Brianna Simon
1-year-old
September 6,2007
Steamboat Springs,Colorado
Eiam Enchrist Halliburton
4-month-old
September 6,2007
Fort Worth,Texas
Coder Vance
15-year-old
September 7,2007
Jyniah Mary Te Awa
10-month-old
September 7,2007
Manurewa,New Zealand
Hanna Marie Mack
6-year-old
September 9,2007
Navarro Mills,Texas
Caroline Touchie
4-month-old
September 11, 2007
Nanaimo,British Columbia
Ruby Spink
11-month-old
September 16,2007
Norfolk,UK
Ian Wesley Landers
2-year-old
September 21,2007
Houston,Texas
Emma Louise Mitchell
15-year-old
September 23,2007
Cramlington,England
Neveah Gallegos
3-year-old
September 24,2007
Denver,Colorado
Baby Boy
2-year-old
September 25, 2007
Brisbane, Australia
Damien Lewis
5-month-old
September 26,2007
Springfield,Michigan
Christopher McIntyre
14-year-old
September 26,2007
Tucson,Arizona
Davion Winrow
1-year-old
September 27,2007
Omaha,Nebraska
Oscar Zuniga Jr.
20-month-old
September 28, 2007
Indio,California
Tiffany Wright
3-year-old
September 30,2007
Sheffield,UK
October
Teremoana Jacobs
22-year-old
October 2007
Masterton,New Zealand
Milken McGarity
3-year-old
October, 2007
Binghamton,New York
Cecess Hill
2-year-old
October 1,2007
Cleveland,Ohio
Jannelle Cintron
4-year-old
October 1,2007
Cleveland,Ohio
Kimyana Licon
13-month-old
October 3, 2007
Lubbock,Texas
Trenton Jones
2-year-old
October 5,2007
Bidwell, Ohio
Kayla Dutcher
5-year-old
October 7,2007
El Paso County,Colorado
Sophia Monteguado
3-month-old
October 7, 2007
Bronx,New York
Khamerin Antwine
2-year-old
October 9,2007
Bronx,New York
Alizé Vick
2-year-old
October 10,2007
Colorado Springs ,Colorado
Nicholas Braman
9-year-old
October 16,2007
Douglass Township,Michigan
Nithaniel Hill
2-year-old
October 23,2007
Las Vegas,Nevada
Francecca Hardwick
18-year-old
October 24, 2007
Barwell, Leicestershire
United Kingdom
Milan Tanna
16-year-old
October 25, 2007
Ahmedabad,India
Sean Denton
18-month-old
October 26, 2007
London,UK
Zion Smith
2-year-old
October 27,2007
Harris County,Texas
Rosalia Alexia Garcia Quintana
4-year old
October 31,2007
La Junta, Colorado
November
Joshua Quinn Tart
7-month-old
November 1,2007
Johnston County, NC
Ebony
7-year-old
November 3,2007
Hawks Nest,Australia
Jessica O'Keeffe
13-month-old
November 3,2007
Queens, New York
Aaron John Harwood
8-year-old
November 4 2007
Christchurch,New Zealand
Destinie Martinez
7-year-old
November 5,2007
Las Cruces,New Mexico
Ajay Kumar
14-year-old
November 6, 2007
Delhi,India
Joshua Jones
2-year-old
November 6,2007
Runcorn
United Kingdom
Justin Fellers
2-year-old
November 7, 2007
Gregory,Texas
Rhiya Malin
2-year-old
November 7,2007
Chigwel,England
Georgina Sharman Shaw
10-year-old
November 10,2007
Aberystwyth,UK
Zy'Marion Dwayne
29-day-old
November 11,2007
Salisbury,North Carolina
Colbi Bullock
7-month-old
November 14,2007
Greenwich,New Jersey
Brittany Hampton
3-year-old
November 17,2007
Jacksonville, Florida
Kenzie Lee Miller
3-month-old
November 18,2007
Bolton,UK
Jacqueline Gonzalez
3-year-old
November 19,2007
Lower Valley,Texas
Jocelyn Mae
Ward-Anderson
9-month old
November 21,2007
Peabody,Massachusetts
Naomi Hill
4-year-old
November 26,2007
Flintshire,UK
TaJanay Bailey
3-year-old
November 27,2008
Indianapolis
Dennis Lindberg
14-year-old
Novemer 28, 2007
Mount Vernon,Washington
Jordan Iacovetta
8-year-old
November 28, 2007
Tucson,Arizona
Girl
15-year-old
November 29, 2007
Mackay, Australia
December
Child A - Boy
10-month-old
December 2007
Doncaster
South Yorkshire,UK
Cherrell Ardle- Evans
13-year-old
December 2007
Ton Pentre,Wales,UK
Ezekiel "Zeke" Berry
21-month-old
December 2007
Omaha,Nebraska
Starla Antoine
12-year-old
December 3, 2007
Burns Lake
British Columbia
David Crocker
10-year-old
December 3, 2007
Burns Lake
British Columbia
Keanan Thomas
11-year-old
December 3, 2007
Burns Lake
British Columbia
Dean Thomas
9-year-old
December 3, 2007
Burns Lake
British Columbia
London Marie Sherwood
3-month-old
December 4,2007
Star Prairie, Wisconsin
Tkai Marcelle
3-year-old
December 5,2007
Brooklyn,NY
Zoe Garcia
7-year-old
December 6, 2007
Johnstown, Colorado
Rashad Maxey
8-month-old
December 6,2007
Arapahoe County,Colorado
Aleena Vetere
12-year-old
December 7,2007
Miami,Florida
Dylan Louviere
7-year-old
December 7,2007
New Iberia, Louisiana
Israel Gordon
14-month-old
December,9 2007
Janesville,Wisconsin
Triston Dobbins
21-month-old
December 9, 2007
Evadale,Texas
Alexis Matheson
6-week-old
December 10,2007
Aberdeen,Scotland
Jordan Alonzo Deneal
4-year-old
December 10, 2007
Somers Point,New Jersey
Adrian Ruybal
1-month-old
December 13,2007
Phillips County,Colorado
Magnus Bernsdorff
2-year-old
December 14, 2007
Clearwater, Florida
Olivia Bernsdorff
4-year-old
December 14, 2007
Clearwater, Florida
Brandon Nelson-Murph
2-year-old
December 15,2007
Chicago,Illinois
Sharkia Handy
14-year-old
December 21, 2007
Robinvale,Victoria
Australia
Amy Howson
16-month-old
December 23,2007
Doncaster,England
Shawn Leggette
17-month-old
December 24,2007
Harvey, Illinois
Andrew Patrick Griffin
2-year-old
December 26,2007
Rodgers Forge,Maryland
Maxwell Owen Eyer
2-year-old
December 28,2007
Alton,Illinois
Luz Valdez
4-month-old
December 30,2007
Denver,Texas
Miyanna Chowning
3-year-old
December 31,2007
Indiana
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It's Our Fault
"... these children throw their despair and distrust into a black plastic trash bag, along with their few belongings, and head off to the next place... the next let-down. They are abused and neglected long before they ever reach our abusive and neglectful foster care system - and once in, things often only get worse. Children are dying, Mr. Speaker, inside and out... and it's our fault." By Tom DeLay
Secret And Dysfunctional System
Professor Robert Fellmeth of Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, says children are harmed every day by a secret and dysfunctional system. In a letter to the court, he said 40 kids died in foster care in California over a six-month period last year, yet the public can't find out why or how because the system is so secretive. "Lack of public accountability insulates public officials from the consequences of their policies and undermines democratic responsibility - to the profound detriment of children." By - Robert Fellmeth
Societal Ignorance
"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."
Cupcake's story is about system failure, societal ignorance, and a little girl who, as a result, resigned to degradation, depression, deprivation, and defeat. Her story is also about choices -- good ones and bad ones -- and about the possibilities that are there if only we "Pray, trust, work hard, and grab hold!" - By Cupcake Brown
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Abused children are not being protected
The amount of neglect and abuse cases against children in this country is shocking. Child Protective Services looks into millions of cases every day and removes hundreds of children. These children in most cases reunite with their family within 48 hours. Some children remain in foster care until the parents prove that they are ready to be responsible. However, what is more concerning to me is the high numbers of children who need help and do not receive any in a timely fashion.
As an elementary teacher, I encounter children that live in stomach-turning situations. I have contacted Child Protective Services on more than one occasion. Usually the response is that they will look into it as soon as possible. As weeks go by and nothing happens, I recruit help from other child service professionals and we make a barrage of phone calls.
Once these hordes of phone calls are made it takes only a few days before we then see someone take on the case. Why does it take five child-care professionals to contact before a real valid concern is addressed? Is the lack of response because Child Protective Services is understaffed or is it because the whole system is under funded?
As the song states, "children are our future"; what are we doing to ensure that these children have a future? They have no voice unless someone listens. What is it going to take before someone listens and saves our children? - by Chandra M. McLaughlin
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We urge legislators to take a closer look at funding child protection issues and authorities to use wisdom in investigating abuse cases.
Is there someone to speak for children so that their unfinished lives do not slip silently away ?
If hundreds and hundreds of predictably and preventably dead children is not enough to inspire action, what is ? If you choose not to act, who will ? If not now, when ?
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