****ning light on child welfare system
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/052508/opinion_20080525029.shtml
By Tom Rawlings | Commentary | Story updated at 10:39 PM on
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sometimes it takes someone from the outside making a little noise to
draw our attention to necessary changes. And that's just what a national
child advocacy organization did recently when it issued a re****t
critiquing all 50 states' laws on the release of information about
deaths and serious injuries from child abuse.
In a re****t titled "State Secrecy and Child Deaths in the United
States," First Star and the Children's Advocacy Institute at the
University of San Diego School of Law graded each state on two main
issues. The first was whether the state allows public access to juvenile
court abuse and neglect proceedings. The second was whether the state is
in compliance with a federal law allowing public disclosure of
information about cases of child abuse that have resulted in fatalities
or "near fatalities."
More than half the states received no better than a "gentleman's C."
Georgia, along with nine other states, received a failing grade.
As I sometimes have to remind my children, when you receive a poor
grade, that's not the time to start making excuses. It is, rather, the
time to focus attention on building the skills at issue and figuring out
how to improve. And that's what Georgia will be doing in the coming
months.
This state already has good laws allowing public access to information
about children who died from abuse or neglect. When a child dies from
abuse or neglect in Georgia, the child abuse records that otherwise
would be confidential under state and federal law are opened up and are
accessible to the media and the public. The results of that law have
been seen in the heavy news coverage that follows the death of a child
involved with our child protective services system. A federal law, the
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, provides for our state to make
those records public.
The idea behind public access is that if citizens and policymakers
understand the situations causing these children to suffer so horribly,
we will be in a better position to research and find ways to prevent
these deaths. More information yields better policies and better laws.
More public information also helps reassure Georgians that the child
welfare system they pay for with their tax dollars is working.
Those same purposes motivated the Georgia legislature in 1990 to create
statewide child fatality review panels to study the causes of child
deaths and work toward better child death and injury prevention
programs. Much of our public focus on such issues as sudden infant death
syndrome, the proper use of seat belts and proper fencing for swimming
pools has grown out of the child fatality review process.
A major reason Georgia fared poorly in the First Star study is that we
have not updated our state laws to comply with another part of CAPTA.
As part of the 1996 amendments to this law, Congress provided that
states also must allow access to child abuse records when abuse results
in a serious or critical injury. That makes sense, especially when you
consider the fact that whether a child dies from abuse or lives through
a serious injury may be a matter of fortune or divine mercy.
Now that First Star and the Children's Advocacy Institute have pointed
out this gap in our state law, we will begin working to fix the problem.
In collaboration with Commissioner B.J. Walker and the Department of
Human Resources, the Office of Child Advocate will work for the passage
of legislation in the 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly to
put us in compliance with this federal CAPTA provision.
As we make plans for that legislation, we welcome suggestions on how
best to balance the public's right to this information against the
child's right to privacy.
Another issue the First Star re****t raises is whether abuse and neglect
proceedings in juvenile court should be open to the public. For many
years, the consensus was that these proceedings should be closed to
protect the child. More recently, many juvenile courts across the
country have been opening up these proceedings on the principle that the
public should know more about how children suffer and how we work to
protect them through our courts and our child welfare system. Judges,
policymakers and child advocates in Georgia remain conflicted on the
issue, but the First Star re****t will help focus our attention on this
needed debate.
I have a friend who, before his retirement, was the longest-serving
Superior Court judge in Georgia. When parties to a domestic or divorce
dispute would appear before him and start going back and forth about who
had done what in the past, he would always stop them and say: "I'm not
so much concerned about what happened as I am about what you're going to
do about it from now on."
When it comes to making state child welfare policy, that advice is as
sound as any.
• Tom Rawlings, Georgia's Child Advocate for the Protection of Children,
was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to assure quality and efficiency in
Georgia's child protective systems. The Office of Child Advocate is a
resource for those interested in the welfare of our state's neglected
and abused children. Rawlings can be reached through the OCA Web site at
www.gachildadvocate.org.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 052508
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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