Fix Texas' foster care fix
What's next for children in system?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5786985.html
By STEWART GAGNON and RON LEWIS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
As the state labors to find "the best temp-orary placements" for the 463
children recently removed from the Eldorado polygamist compound, Texas'
overburdened foster care system is under scrutiny once again.
The influx of so many children at one time is straining a foster care
system already struggling with funding shortages, high staff turnover
and a patchwork approach to advocating for children already in the system.
The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) re****ts that
roughly a quarter of its completed investigations in 2007 resulted in
confirmed cases of abuse or neglect involving 71,344 Texas children.
Today, about 31,000 are the legal responsibility of DFPS and reside in
tem****ary or permanent foster care or other supervised living
arrangements. About half, almost 15,000 children, are in the permanent
care of the state. As a practical matter, the state must now "parent"
these children who, on average, will spend almost four years in foster
care and experience multiple foster care placements. Many of them will
not leave foster care until they are considered adults by the system at
age 18.
In 2005, state lawmakers tried to address the front end of the crisis
facing Texas children by providing another $250 million to Texas Child
Protective Services to hire more than 3,200 new investigative
caseworkers, supervisors and sup****t staff to better handle mushrooming
investigative caseloads.
As a result, the number of children removed from dangerous situations
increased by 4,000 between 2004 and 2006. Unfortunately, there was no
corresponding increase in the number of caseworkers to check on
children's progress once in foster care. Texas CPS caseworkers monitor,
on average, more than 40 children in foster care, while the national
average caseload is closer to 25.
As a state, Texas is accountable for ensuring that the children in our
foster care system receive the services they need. Already victims of
family separation and trauma, these children face a host of other
problems:
• Disruption due to multiple foster care placements — with one young
woman re****ting as many as 15 placements and 11 caseworkers during her
four years in Texas foster care.
• A corresponding increase in school transfers for foster children, with
greater potential for learning disabilities to go undiagnosed and
special education needs to go unmet.
• Greater likelihood of disciplinary referrals at school — 37 percent
of
Texas' foster children are disciplined at school compared with 15
percent of the general school population. If unaddressed, these
behavioral issues can lead to later involvement in the juvenile justice
system.
• Inadequate services and insufficient advocacy for foster children
around medical treatment, visitation with separately placed siblings,
mental health issues and living environments.
• Inadequate sup****t services once they "age out" of the foster care
system at age 18.
Texas' foster care system faces critical challenges — including
inadequate funding, a shortage of caseworkers to advocate for children
in the foster care system, caseworker turnover rates approaching 35
percent and lack of sup****t for foster children once they "age out" of
the system.
In coming months, the newly created Supreme Court Permanent Judicial
Commission for Children, Youth and Families and its collaborative
council of experts from state and nonprofit child welfare agencies and
advocacy groups will examine ways to better serve children in the
state's foster care system.
The Eldorado case presents an unprecedented, one-time challenge to find
foster care placements for hundreds of children. However, the 463
children removed represent only 1.5 percent of the total number of
children in the legal custody of DFPS in 2007. Foster care in Texas has
ongoing, systemic challenges that must be addressed if we are to ensure
that no child is forgotten.
We must ask ourselves, is the state doing as good a job as we would
expect of ourselves in parenting our own children? If the answer is no,
we need to ask, "Why not?"
If we don't speak up to improve the lives of foster children, we are
failing in our most basic of responsibilities — and these children do
not have anyone else.
Gagnon, a Houston-based attorney, is a member of the Texas Supreme Court
Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families. Lewis,
also an attorney, is chair of Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit,
public-interest law organization based in Austin.
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and ***ual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6
This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relation****ps. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Sup****t
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent
housing.
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLI****NG CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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