By ERIN MCAULEY
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CN) - Parents say they lost custody of their children, were identified as child abusers and the father was jailed for more than a year because doctors and state officials falsely attributed their 4-month-old daughter's childhood stroke and congenital rickets to child abuse.
Jamel Billups and Jacqueline Rosario, who are black, sued the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Franklin County and its Office of Children, Youth and Families and a long list of individuals, in Federal Court.
The parents say that when their daughter, L.B., suffered a stroke and showed signs of rickets on Oct. 19, 2009, the Child Safety team at Penn State Hershey Medical Center falsely blamed her condition on child abuse, and the state then seized her and her 2-year-old brother, T.R., and sent them to foster homes.
The parents say L.B.'s abdominal CT scan and skeletal surveys revealed 16 rib fractures, but medical evidence that showed no related internal injuries proved these fractures were the result of "weak bones rather than abusive trauma."
They say that despite medical knowledge that Vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets and weak bones in African Americans, Penn State's Child Safety Team failed to require that L.B.'s blood be tested for abnormal clotting factors or that the child's or mother's blood be tested for vitamin D deficiency.
They add that "no evidence of any injury to L.B.'s spine or any evidence of disruption of her spinal ligaments" was apparent after her stroke, and a report on an MRI exam stated that "thrombosis was a possible explanation."
The parents say, "It is well established in the medical literature that a thrombophilia workup should be performed looking for potential risk factors for clotting when thrombosis is possibility. No such thrombophilia workup was ordered to be performed in 2009 by L.B.'s treating physician or by any member of defendant Penn State's Child Safety Team."
The parents say the Franklin County Office of Children, Youth and Families "has a policy of relying upon doctors affiliated with the American Academy Pediatrics, whose opinions are tainted by a burden shifting medical presumption that the cause of any intracranial injury in a child under the age of one year is caused by abuse unless the parents provide an accidental explanation, to perform the medical investigation into whether injuries suspected to have been caused by child abuse were, in fact, caused by child abuse."
They claim that agents of the Office of Children, Youth and Families, defendants Tammie Lay and Dawn M. Watson, "failed to conduct their own independent non-presumption tainted investigation" and "relied exclusively upon the conclusion of defendant Penn State's Child Safety Team and defendants [Drs. Mark S.] Dias, [Kathryn R.] Crowell and [Arabinda K.] Choudhary that L.B.'s intracranial hemorrhages were caused by abuse on the afternoon of October 19, 2009 and rib fractures were caused by abuse 4 to 8 weeks prior to her hospitalization without conducting any independent medical review or confirmation of their own."
The complaint continues: "On October 21, 2009, eight days before Jamel was arrested, defendant [Lauren] Sulcove emailed defendant Dias to introduce herself as the prosecutor that would be handling the case against Jamel."
Sulcove, an assistant prosecutor, worked for defendant Franklin County District Attorney Matthew Fogel, according to the complaint, which continues: "On October 28, 2009, with reckless indifference to the truth and the Billups' family civil rights, defendant Crowell issued a report on Penn State letterhead falsely concluding that L.B.'s childhood stroke and 16 rib fractures without internal injuries were caused by abuse. Defendant Crowell's report stated that L.B. 'does not have any evidence of coagulopathy or bleeding disorder' and concluded that 16 anterior rib fractures without any associated internal injuries 'occurred as a previous incident of inflicted trauma' concluding that 'this is a clinical picture of inflicted trauma' of 'some event ... likely a short time before [L.B.] had difficulty breathing'." (Brackets and ellipsis in complaint.)
After the report was issued, Jamel Billups was charged with felony aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
The parents say: "As soon as Jamel learned of the issuance of the arrest warrant on the day it was issued, October 29, 2009, he immediately and voluntarily reported to the Chambersburg police station and was taken into custody. The court set a $200,000.00 straight bail for Jamel, a bail that the Billups' family could not post. Jamel's remained in jail from October 29, 2009 until December 17, 2010, when a jury acquitted Jamel of all criminal charges."
According to the complaint, "Penn State created a Child Safety Team on September 1, 2009 for the express purpose, inter alia, of investigating whether injuries reported as suspicious for child abuse were, in fact, caused by child abuse. Penn State has a discriminatory policy that lends the full faith and credit of Penn State to employees who testify for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in criminal prosecutions, for the Commonwealth's county child protection agencies in dependency proceedings and Childline expunction hearings but denies the same full faith and credit of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center to those employees who testify for the accused parents."
Penn State, according to the complaint, received "a 2.8 million dollar grant from the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) for educating parents about shaken baby syndrome."
Defendant Dr. Mark Dias, co-director of the Penn State Child Safety Team, is a neurosurgeon, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and "holds himself out as an expert in child abuse who can determine whether an injury was caused by abuse and frequently testifies with the full faith and credit of Penn State for the prosecution in criminal cases," according to the complaint.
"In 2010, defendant Dias wrote a chapter of a book about child abuse entitled 'The Case for Shaking'." It was Defendant Dias' published efforts that enabled Penn State to receive the CDC 2.8 million dollar grant to 'educate' parents about shaken baby syndrome."
While Dias was never L.B.'s treating physician or surgeon, the parents say that Dias "attributed L.B.'s venous childhood stroke to a congenital anomaly (an anatomic impossibility) and with reckless indifference to the truth wrote a report rendering the false conclusion that L.B.'s injuries were caused by abuse on Penn State letterhead, testified at Jamel's criminal trial that defendant Dias was a professor at Penn State and, upon belief, was paid by, and enjoyed the liability insurance, of Penn State when he participated in the investigation of whether L.B.'s injuries were caused by abuse and testified at Jamel's criminal trial." (Parentheses in complaint.)
The parents add that Dr. Crowell, a member of the Penn State Child Safety Team, "qualified as an expert in child abuse for the first time in her life at the dependency hearing for L.B. and T.R on December 18, 2009. Defendant Crowell was qualified as an expert in child abuse for the second time in her life at Jamel's preliminary criminal hearing on December 28, 2009. Dr. Crowell acknowledged under oath at Jamel's criminal trial that she misrepresented medical evidence critical to L.B.'s case when she testified at Jamel's preliminary hearing."
Thirty paragraphs later, the parents say that Dr. Crowell "testified falsely that L.B. had 'an extensive screening' for 'coagulation problems' and 'an extensive screening for bleeding disorders' that were 'normal' and that L.B.'s 'metabolic workup was normal.'"
The parents add that Crowell testified, erroneously, that the child's rib injuries "were on the posterior side," but that "Contrary to Crowell's testimony, no Penn State radiologist ever reported that any of L.B.'s rib findings were posterior."
Rib injuries in true child abuse cases are "typically lateral or posterior," according to the complaint.
The complaint adds: "Posterior rib fractures have been considered by proponents of the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis as pathognomonic, or having a virtual 100 percent predictive diagnostic value, of the diagnosis of abuse in the medical literature. Whether L.B.'s rib fractures were located posterior, in the back near the spinal column, or anterior in the front, as was L.B.'s rib findings, has been considered by proponents of shaken baby syndrome as critical to making conclusion of child abuse."
The parents say that Crowell was also "paid by, and enjoyed the liability insurance, of Penn State" and was never their daughter's treating physician.
Defendant Dr. Arabinda Choudhary, another member of the Penn State Child Safety Team, "was not board certified by the American Board of Radiology nor does he possess any certificates of additional qualifications in pediatric radiology or neuro-radiology," according to the complaint. The parents say that Dr. Choudhary, "with reckless indifference to the truth, changed his initial diagnosis of L.B.'s venous stroke from possible thrombosis to the anatomically impossible diagnosis of a congenital/developmental anomaly."
Choudhary also was "paid by, and enjoyed the liability insurance, of Penn State" and was never their daughter's treating physician, the parents say.
The chairwoman of Penn State's Radiology Department, defendant Dr. Kathleen D. Eggli, "just before the scheduled criminal trial of Jamel ... implemented a new policy in the radiology department in which defendant Eggli selectively imposed restrictions on a Penn State radiologist who was sought out for a second opinion by the Billups family and rendered an opinion different than that of the Penn State Child Safety Team," the complaint states. "The restrictions imposed on this doctor who was willing to testify for the Billups family were not imposed on the Penn State radiologist who testified for the prosecution, defendant Choudhary, or on any other doctor at Penn State who testified for the prosecution. The restrictions included a prohibition on communicating the doctor's faculty appointment as an assistant professor of radiology at Penn State, denial of liability insurance from Penn State and a prohibition on the use of Penn State logo and letterhead, all prohibitions that were not applied to Defendants Dias, Crowell or Choudhary during their investigation and testimony on behalf of the prosecution and county children and youth agency."
The district attorney and assistant district attorney of Franklin County, Matthew Fogel and Lauren Sulcove, are also named as defendants. Sulcove is "sued solely in her role of investigating the false allegations of abuse prior to the arrest of Jamel." According to the complaint, "Pennsylvania law mandated that Defendant Fogel convene an investigative team upon the report of L.B.'s suspected abuse in October of 2009 to avoid duplication of fact-finding efforts with such team consisting of a minimum of a health care provider, county caseworker and law enforcement official. Defendant Sulcove led and/or was a member of the team and either followed the policy of the District Attorney's office to exclusively rely upon doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics to make conclusions about whether suspected child abuse was, in fact, child abuse or defendant Sulcove individually failed to ensure that the investigation into allegations of abuse against Jamel was not tainted with the burden shifting medical presumption of doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics."
Also sued is William C. Frisby Jr., an employee of the defendant Borough of Chambersburg. "Frisby was the detective assigned to investigate the allegations of abuse against Jamel and is sued solely in his role of investigating the allegations against Jamel. Defendant Frisby either followed the policy of defendant Chambersburg to rely upon doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics for child abuse investigations or defendant Frisby individually failed to ensure that the investigation into allegations of abuse against Jamel was not tainted with the burden shifting medical presumption of doctors affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics."
The parents say that even after Jamel was acquitted of criminal charges, "FCCYS agents Kari Coccagna and Minnie Tuner threatened to immediately send the police to forcibly remove T.R. and L.B. from Jamel and Jackie if Jamel and Jackie did not agree to a 'voluntary' safety plan. The 'voluntary' safety plan required that Jamel 'agree' that he would not be alone with his children and required Jackie and Jamel to 'agree' to unannounced visits from employees of defendant FCCYS or suffer the immediate removal of their children from their care by the police. At all times relevant to this complaint, defendant Franklin County and defendant FCCYS had a policy of using safety plans as voluntary placement agreements and extending those agreements beyond 30 days in violation of 55 Pa. Code §3130.65. Defendants Franklin County, FCCYS, Coccagna and Tuner extended the voluntary placement agreement beyond 30 days without obtaining a court order in violation of Pennsylvania law and Jamel's and Jackie's right to due process pursuant to Franklin County and FCCYS policy or, in the alternative, defendants Coccagna and Watson violated the due process protection provided in 55 Pa. Code §3130.65 and failed to obtain a court order to extend the 'voluntary' safety plan beyond 30 days on their own."
The parents add: "On June 18, 2011, FCCYS closed its case with the Billups family and terminated the 'voluntary' safety plan."
The parents and their children seek punitive damages for reckless indifference to civil rights, due process violations, negligence, failure to train, extending voluntary placement agreements beyond 30 days, unconstitutionally favoring expert witnesses for the prosecution and disadvantaging expert witnesses for the defendants, and for the 414 days that Jamel was jailed for a crime he did not commit.
They are represented by Mark Freeman of Media, Pa.
Source http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/03/40229.htm
CPS corruption hurts and destroys families worldwide. Please use caution posting about CPS here or anyplace on the internet. For your protection, using your full, real name and precise location is not advised. CPS has eyes everywhere and CPS is notorious for taking what people say, twisting it, embellishing on it and then using it against them in CPS "investigations" and at court proceedings.
Showing posts with label therapeutic foster homes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label therapeutic foster homes. Show all posts
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
State’s child, family welfare reforms collapse
by George Lauby (North Platte Bulletin) - 10/1/2011
First, three top private companies backed out of their deals to provide child and family welfare services in Nebraska.
Second, the Nebraska State Auditor found severe financial problems with the two-year-old “privatized” program.
Third, the man at the top resigned.
That was how a sweeping state welfare reform collapsed in just two years.
Director Todd Reckling announced his resignation one week after a state audit of the program’s finances reported serious problems.
Reckling, 44, said he is resigning for health reasons effective Oct. 14. Already thin, he had been losing weight, coworkers told an Omaha news reporter.
Reckling was in charge of Nebraska’s controversial child welfare privatization, which put the child welfare system in the hands of five privately-owned "lead" agencies.
The system-wide reform was aimed at decreasing the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services’s hand, while allowing the department to retain oversight.
The idea was capitalism and competition, with government supervision, would drive costs down while ensuring the quality of care stayed high.
It never worked in most of Nebraska.
Early on, trouble appeared. Only one company applied to lead the programs in central and western Nebraska, so there was no competition.
Small-scale group homes for vulnerable children were closed in western and central Nebraska, such as the Alliance Boys Ranch, North Platte’s Boy’s and Girl’s Home and two Salvation Army group homes.
When the North Platte group homes closed, employees told the Bulletin that the program was taking a giant step backward -- eliminating existing programs and moving already alienated children to new and strange places.
Officials, including Reckling, were reassuring. When the Salvation Army homes closed, officials said children would be cared for in an expanded Boys and Girls Home in North Platte, or in Cedars Home near Broken Bow.
But those homes closed too.
Big scale
In contrast to small group homes, the Nebraska division of children and family services is a large unit -- employing more than 1,800 people.
It is the largest of six state health and human services divisions, including not only child welfare and juvenile services, but also adult protective services, economic assistance/welfare programs, the refugee program and child support enforcement activities.
As the privatization got underway, Reckling signed contracts with five large companies in 2009 to oversee those programs. The state program came to be called “Families Matter.”
The program suffered an astonishing drop out rate at the top level. By October 2010, three of the five lead companies had withdrawn, including the agency handling all of central and western Nebraska, the Boys and Girls Home.
Prompted by complaints, Nebraska State Auditors investigated the Families Matter program during the summer, and released their findings Sept. 7.
They found the costs of the program had gone up 27 percent in two years, with millions of dollars improperly accounted. At the same time, the top agencies said they didn’t have enough money to operate.
The audit made headlines all over the state. Democrats pointed blame at Gov. Dave Heineman, who made no comment for several days. But eight days after the audit was released, Reckling announced his resignation and Heineman spoke.
Heineman said the state will continue trying to privatize Nebraska's child welfare system, but must do better.
"I want to help our children and families, but this reform effort has not been easy to implement,” he said in a news conference. “We can and we must do better.”
"I believe in accountability, so I'm not going to make excuses for what has occurred. I expect better results and I expect them soon," he said.
Heineman expressed special disappointment with Boys and Girls Home of Sioux City, Iowa, which failed to pay subcontractors after it dropped out of the program last October.
Boys and Girls Home was in charge of central and western Nebraska, including North Platte.
Heineman said BGH’s failure to pay its bills was "irresponsible and very disappointing."
And he compared the failure to a bad performance on the football field.
"I think we have the right idea, but we've got to execute it better,” Heineman said. “It's like a football team. If you don't execute the play, you don't score a touchdown. Well, we've lost a lot of yards here lately because we're not executing as well as we should have. But I still believe we can make this work."
Scramble
When the BGH pulled out, local providers scrambled to come up with alternatives. The North Platte School District created an educational program for students in grades 6-12 during the school year, hiring a teacher and an aide and setting up a classroom at the high school.
The county sheriff made plans to transport kids across the state to the nearest place, in Columbus.
In June, Family Skill Building Services re-opened one of the Salvation Army homes that had been closed during the reshuffling and now operates the Nebraska Youth Center, a home for about a dozen boys on the north side of town.
Not in these parts
Sen. Tom Hansen of North Platte said privatization shouldn’t be tried again now in central and western Nebraska, and never have been tried throughout the state in the first place.
“It probably should have been done on a smaller level (in southeastern Nebraska). Out here, we don’t have a lot of providers,” Hansen said. “Out here, Boys and Girls Home was the only bidder for lead agency. Looking back, that was a clue that we had a problem.”
Profiteering
It seems logical that the Boys and Girls Home building on 2300 E. Second might reopen for vulnerable children under better management, but the price of the empty building is too high, Hansen said. The Boys and Girls Home, Inc. inherited the building, and is now asking $1 million for it, even though its taxable value is about $400,000.
Among the financial scandals, as private agencies failed to deliver and collapsed, foster parents were not paid or were underpaid, especially those with children with special needs, Hansen said.
Foster parents dropped out in droves. For example, the number of foster homes in Dawson County dwindled from 45 to 11, according to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.
“There are lots of upset foster parents,” Hansen said. “These are wards of the state. The state needs to take responsibility.”
State auditors also found that some subcontractors – smaller companies with workers on the front lines – hired workers with no experience or education and paid them around $10 an hour.
However, the subcontractors turned around and billed the state $47 an hour for the work.
Staggering along
How it is all reformed will “depend on what the governor wants to do,” Hansen said, but he and some other senators think the HHS child and family division should be separated from the overall HHS department, so authorities can keep better watch.
Auditors complained of their struggle to get facts and figures from HHS, even though state law explicitly requires state departments to open their books for a public audit.
Hansen has often experienced the same problems -- it is difficult for legislators to study the HHS operation, even a legislator such as Hansen on the health and human services or appropriations committees, which have the duty to oversee the HHS.
Hansen said breaking up the Health and Human Services department would make it more transparent.
“As legislators, we don’t think we’re being very accountable,” he said.
Local critics
Counselors, clients, parents and foster parents have long expressed dissatisfaction with HHS services.
Ongoing dissatisfaction led them to go to lengths to arrange a meeting in early August with Todd Reckling and other state officials.
Lisa Zlomke of North Platte’s Aurora Counseling and Jenny Olson of Liberty House in North Platte attended. The meeting was arranged by Melanie Williams-Smotherman, the owner of Family Advocacy Movement, headquartered in Lincoln.
The meeting lasted three-and-a-half hours, and “we had the ability to share examples of specific cases to illustrate points and to show three short videos during that time, including two regarding the harmful practice of drugging foster care children - which is becoming quite routine,” Williams-Smotherman said afterwards.
At the meeting, Williams-Smotherman said the number of Nebraska children taken from parents and put into the foster care and group home system is too high.
Most of those cases do not involve abuse, she said, but rather alleged neglect, she said.
Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va. also says that too many children are taken from too many homes in the state.
According to the organization’s numbers, Nebraska removed 3,373 children from their natural homes last year. That’s nearly 7.5 of every 1,000 children, based on 2009 population numbers.
The national average is 3.4 per 1,000.
The only state that rates higher than Nebraska, according to Wexler, is West Virginia with a rate of 7.7.
Zlomke and Olson also said that HHS officials in the North Platte region do not contract services with private companies such as theirs.
Zlomke and Olson allege that Region II officials keep welfare recipients – particularly those with mental and behavioral disabilities -- in a tight circle of select caregivers who really don’t have any competition, don’t do a good job, but are well paid.
Source http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=21588&pageID=3
First, three top private companies backed out of their deals to provide child and family welfare services in Nebraska.
Second, the Nebraska State Auditor found severe financial problems with the two-year-old “privatized” program.
Third, the man at the top resigned.
That was how a sweeping state welfare reform collapsed in just two years.
Director Todd Reckling announced his resignation one week after a state audit of the program’s finances reported serious problems.
Reckling, 44, said he is resigning for health reasons effective Oct. 14. Already thin, he had been losing weight, coworkers told an Omaha news reporter.
Reckling was in charge of Nebraska’s controversial child welfare privatization, which put the child welfare system in the hands of five privately-owned "lead" agencies.
The system-wide reform was aimed at decreasing the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services’s hand, while allowing the department to retain oversight.
The idea was capitalism and competition, with government supervision, would drive costs down while ensuring the quality of care stayed high.
It never worked in most of Nebraska.
Early on, trouble appeared. Only one company applied to lead the programs in central and western Nebraska, so there was no competition.
Small-scale group homes for vulnerable children were closed in western and central Nebraska, such as the Alliance Boys Ranch, North Platte’s Boy’s and Girl’s Home and two Salvation Army group homes.
When the North Platte group homes closed, employees told the Bulletin that the program was taking a giant step backward -- eliminating existing programs and moving already alienated children to new and strange places.
Officials, including Reckling, were reassuring. When the Salvation Army homes closed, officials said children would be cared for in an expanded Boys and Girls Home in North Platte, or in Cedars Home near Broken Bow.
But those homes closed too.
Big scale
In contrast to small group homes, the Nebraska division of children and family services is a large unit -- employing more than 1,800 people.
It is the largest of six state health and human services divisions, including not only child welfare and juvenile services, but also adult protective services, economic assistance/welfare programs, the refugee program and child support enforcement activities.
As the privatization got underway, Reckling signed contracts with five large companies in 2009 to oversee those programs. The state program came to be called “Families Matter.”
The program suffered an astonishing drop out rate at the top level. By October 2010, three of the five lead companies had withdrawn, including the agency handling all of central and western Nebraska, the Boys and Girls Home.
Prompted by complaints, Nebraska State Auditors investigated the Families Matter program during the summer, and released their findings Sept. 7.
They found the costs of the program had gone up 27 percent in two years, with millions of dollars improperly accounted. At the same time, the top agencies said they didn’t have enough money to operate.
The audit made headlines all over the state. Democrats pointed blame at Gov. Dave Heineman, who made no comment for several days. But eight days after the audit was released, Reckling announced his resignation and Heineman spoke.
Heineman said the state will continue trying to privatize Nebraska's child welfare system, but must do better.
"I want to help our children and families, but this reform effort has not been easy to implement,” he said in a news conference. “We can and we must do better.”
"I believe in accountability, so I'm not going to make excuses for what has occurred. I expect better results and I expect them soon," he said.
Heineman expressed special disappointment with Boys and Girls Home of Sioux City, Iowa, which failed to pay subcontractors after it dropped out of the program last October.
Boys and Girls Home was in charge of central and western Nebraska, including North Platte.
Heineman said BGH’s failure to pay its bills was "irresponsible and very disappointing."
And he compared the failure to a bad performance on the football field.
"I think we have the right idea, but we've got to execute it better,” Heineman said. “It's like a football team. If you don't execute the play, you don't score a touchdown. Well, we've lost a lot of yards here lately because we're not executing as well as we should have. But I still believe we can make this work."
Scramble
When the BGH pulled out, local providers scrambled to come up with alternatives. The North Platte School District created an educational program for students in grades 6-12 during the school year, hiring a teacher and an aide and setting up a classroom at the high school.
The county sheriff made plans to transport kids across the state to the nearest place, in Columbus.
In June, Family Skill Building Services re-opened one of the Salvation Army homes that had been closed during the reshuffling and now operates the Nebraska Youth Center, a home for about a dozen boys on the north side of town.
Not in these parts
Sen. Tom Hansen of North Platte said privatization shouldn’t be tried again now in central and western Nebraska, and never have been tried throughout the state in the first place.
“It probably should have been done on a smaller level (in southeastern Nebraska). Out here, we don’t have a lot of providers,” Hansen said. “Out here, Boys and Girls Home was the only bidder for lead agency. Looking back, that was a clue that we had a problem.”
Profiteering
It seems logical that the Boys and Girls Home building on 2300 E. Second might reopen for vulnerable children under better management, but the price of the empty building is too high, Hansen said. The Boys and Girls Home, Inc. inherited the building, and is now asking $1 million for it, even though its taxable value is about $400,000.
Among the financial scandals, as private agencies failed to deliver and collapsed, foster parents were not paid or were underpaid, especially those with children with special needs, Hansen said.
Foster parents dropped out in droves. For example, the number of foster homes in Dawson County dwindled from 45 to 11, according to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.
“There are lots of upset foster parents,” Hansen said. “These are wards of the state. The state needs to take responsibility.”
State auditors also found that some subcontractors – smaller companies with workers on the front lines – hired workers with no experience or education and paid them around $10 an hour.
However, the subcontractors turned around and billed the state $47 an hour for the work.
Staggering along
How it is all reformed will “depend on what the governor wants to do,” Hansen said, but he and some other senators think the HHS child and family division should be separated from the overall HHS department, so authorities can keep better watch.
Auditors complained of their struggle to get facts and figures from HHS, even though state law explicitly requires state departments to open their books for a public audit.
Hansen has often experienced the same problems -- it is difficult for legislators to study the HHS operation, even a legislator such as Hansen on the health and human services or appropriations committees, which have the duty to oversee the HHS.
Hansen said breaking up the Health and Human Services department would make it more transparent.
“As legislators, we don’t think we’re being very accountable,” he said.
Local critics
Counselors, clients, parents and foster parents have long expressed dissatisfaction with HHS services.
Ongoing dissatisfaction led them to go to lengths to arrange a meeting in early August with Todd Reckling and other state officials.
Lisa Zlomke of North Platte’s Aurora Counseling and Jenny Olson of Liberty House in North Platte attended. The meeting was arranged by Melanie Williams-Smotherman, the owner of Family Advocacy Movement, headquartered in Lincoln.
The meeting lasted three-and-a-half hours, and “we had the ability to share examples of specific cases to illustrate points and to show three short videos during that time, including two regarding the harmful practice of drugging foster care children - which is becoming quite routine,” Williams-Smotherman said afterwards.
At the meeting, Williams-Smotherman said the number of Nebraska children taken from parents and put into the foster care and group home system is too high.
Most of those cases do not involve abuse, she said, but rather alleged neglect, she said.
Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va. also says that too many children are taken from too many homes in the state.
According to the organization’s numbers, Nebraska removed 3,373 children from their natural homes last year. That’s nearly 7.5 of every 1,000 children, based on 2009 population numbers.
The national average is 3.4 per 1,000.
The only state that rates higher than Nebraska, according to Wexler, is West Virginia with a rate of 7.7.
Zlomke and Olson also said that HHS officials in the North Platte region do not contract services with private companies such as theirs.
Zlomke and Olson allege that Region II officials keep welfare recipients – particularly those with mental and behavioral disabilities -- in a tight circle of select caregivers who really don’t have any competition, don’t do a good job, but are well paid.
Source http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=21588&pageID=3
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Reseda family reunited after year of foster care
Blog author note:
It's interesting to note that this article comments that reunification of children with their family is a "recent" policy. Then why does CPS state that they always try to reunify and they have said that for years? Also, this article makes note that CPS knows that they are ripping families apart. Why would they do that? There are other ways to handle situations rather than add other issues to families by ripping them apart. And what is missing from this story is how false allegations and other strange situations can cause this ripping apart of families. They don't bother to note that many families have done nothing wrong, yet their children are removed. Futhermore, why isn't the number of children abused, neglected and killed in foster care noted? Such dirty secrets....
---
Pablo Nino smiled proudly while posing for pictures with his family on a patch of grass in downtown Los Angeles.
All but one of the Reseda construction worker's six children had spent about a year in foster care, and he was deeply grateful to have them back.
"I'm so happy," the father said in halting English.
Nino is a beneficiary of the county Department of Children and Family Services' relatively recent drive to reunite children with biological parents and relatives who have consistently shown desire and ability to once again safely care for them.
"I think it's important for families to be together," said Phillip Browning, who took over as interim director of the DCFS three weeks ago.
"So often, we've taken families and pulled them apart," he said. "Now, I think there's a renewed emphasis to make sure that we can provide the support that is needed to keep a family together."
Nino was among several parents and social workers honored by the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for being "Family Reunification Heroes."
During the fiscal year that ended in June, DCFS reunited 9,730 children with their families, though 977 of them were in foster care again as of Tuesday.
DCFS had more than 35,000 open cases as of Aug. 31, including about 9,100 who are receiving family reunification services.
Another 15,500 are in out-of-home placement, such as foster homes and group homes. Five years ago, that number was around 50,000.
Sometimes returning children to families that harmed or neglected them in the past can lead again to tragic outcomes, acknowledged Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.
Still, he contends that returning them is less risky than keeping them in prolonged foster care, citing research from 2007 and 2008 that involved more than 15,000 children.
The studies found that children who were left in their own homes fared better in later life than comparably maltreated children placed in foster care.
"When you think about how traumatic it is to be completely uprooted from everyone you know, and bounced from one home to another, and then another, the findings should not surprise anyone," Wexler said.
"Some children really do have to be taken away, but foster care is an extremely toxic intervention that has to be used sparingly and in small doses," he added.
The DCFS was unable to provide statistics on the number of children who died from abuse or neglect after being returned to their families.
Wexler said when such tragedies do occur, they can be blamed on lack of sufficient staffing at the DCFS.
About 34,000 children entered its system during the last fiscal year.
"By and large, when you have the cases that go wrong, it's because workers don't have time to investigate carefully enough because they're so overloaded, they can't make that extra phone call or check with that extra source, or review the child's history carefully enough," Wexler said.
Browning said he intends to have more employees handle casework.
"We're looking at all the positions within the department that can be moved to do frontline work, move them from administrative role back to a case-carrying situation," he said.
He also intends to provide them with better technology so they can have as much data as possible to make an informed decision about cases.
In Nino's case, DCFS intervened to take custody over his children after his only daughter, then age 6, came to school with a bloody gash at the top of her head.
Nino had hit her with a belt buckle for telling a lie.
DCFS placed the five children in two separate foster homes. Nino's sixth child had not been born at the time.
"I felt bad, I was so sad," Nino said Tuesday while recalling the incident.
He spent about a year trying to win his children back, including attending parenting and anger management classes.
Finally, last November, DCFS deemed it safe to reunite the family.
Judge Michael Nash, presiding judge of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court, said parents should be given a chance to redeem themselves.
"A family that is unfit at a particular point in time may not be unfit forever," he said. "Families are the cornerstone, the foundation of our community in this country, and we should do everything possible to maintain families when we can safely do so."
Source http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18941445
It's interesting to note that this article comments that reunification of children with their family is a "recent" policy. Then why does CPS state that they always try to reunify and they have said that for years? Also, this article makes note that CPS knows that they are ripping families apart. Why would they do that? There are other ways to handle situations rather than add other issues to families by ripping them apart. And what is missing from this story is how false allegations and other strange situations can cause this ripping apart of families. They don't bother to note that many families have done nothing wrong, yet their children are removed. Futhermore, why isn't the number of children abused, neglected and killed in foster care noted? Such dirty secrets....
---
Pablo Nino smiled proudly while posing for pictures with his family on a patch of grass in downtown Los Angeles.
All but one of the Reseda construction worker's six children had spent about a year in foster care, and he was deeply grateful to have them back.
"I'm so happy," the father said in halting English.
Nino is a beneficiary of the county Department of Children and Family Services' relatively recent drive to reunite children with biological parents and relatives who have consistently shown desire and ability to once again safely care for them.
"I think it's important for families to be together," said Phillip Browning, who took over as interim director of the DCFS three weeks ago.
"So often, we've taken families and pulled them apart," he said. "Now, I think there's a renewed emphasis to make sure that we can provide the support that is needed to keep a family together."
Nino was among several parents and social workers honored by the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for being "Family Reunification Heroes."
During the fiscal year that ended in June, DCFS reunited 9,730 children with their families, though 977 of them were in foster care again as of Tuesday.
DCFS had more than 35,000 open cases as of Aug. 31, including about 9,100 who are receiving family reunification services.
Another 15,500 are in out-of-home placement, such as foster homes and group homes. Five years ago, that number was around 50,000.
Sometimes returning children to families that harmed or neglected them in the past can lead again to tragic outcomes, acknowledged Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.
Still, he contends that returning them is less risky than keeping them in prolonged foster care, citing research from 2007 and 2008 that involved more than 15,000 children.
The studies found that children who were left in their own homes fared better in later life than comparably maltreated children placed in foster care.
"When you think about how traumatic it is to be completely uprooted from everyone you know, and bounced from one home to another, and then another, the findings should not surprise anyone," Wexler said.
"Some children really do have to be taken away, but foster care is an extremely toxic intervention that has to be used sparingly and in small doses," he added.
The DCFS was unable to provide statistics on the number of children who died from abuse or neglect after being returned to their families.
Wexler said when such tragedies do occur, they can be blamed on lack of sufficient staffing at the DCFS.
About 34,000 children entered its system during the last fiscal year.
"By and large, when you have the cases that go wrong, it's because workers don't have time to investigate carefully enough because they're so overloaded, they can't make that extra phone call or check with that extra source, or review the child's history carefully enough," Wexler said.
Browning said he intends to have more employees handle casework.
"We're looking at all the positions within the department that can be moved to do frontline work, move them from administrative role back to a case-carrying situation," he said.
He also intends to provide them with better technology so they can have as much data as possible to make an informed decision about cases.
In Nino's case, DCFS intervened to take custody over his children after his only daughter, then age 6, came to school with a bloody gash at the top of her head.
Nino had hit her with a belt buckle for telling a lie.
DCFS placed the five children in two separate foster homes. Nino's sixth child had not been born at the time.
"I felt bad, I was so sad," Nino said Tuesday while recalling the incident.
He spent about a year trying to win his children back, including attending parenting and anger management classes.
Finally, last November, DCFS deemed it safe to reunite the family.
Judge Michael Nash, presiding judge of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court, said parents should be given a chance to redeem themselves.
"A family that is unfit at a particular point in time may not be unfit forever," he said. "Families are the cornerstone, the foundation of our community in this country, and we should do everything possible to maintain families when we can safely do so."
Source http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18941445
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Testimony agrees that child welfare system needs reform
Note from blog author:
This article shows that CPS is mostly about removal and money. It is obvious from our experience with CPS that they are not truly worried about the best interest of the child and they do not support families. CPS does it's best to rip families apart. Why? The almighty buck!!
---
By: MAUNETTE LOEKS, Staff Reporter
Published: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 10:08 PM CDT
The child welfare system needs fixed.
That was the overwhelming message during testimony Tuesday at a hearing as a legislative committee examines the Department of Health and Human Services.
From a Department of Health and Human Services standpoint, few issues were identified as problems within the department itself in local operations.
Nathan Busch, western service area administrator, highlighted the successes of the Department of Health and Human Services in the western service area, which includes the 11 counties of the Panhandle. Since Busch was appointed as western service administrator in October 2007, he said, he believes the area has seen improvements.
Over a four-year-period, the number of children identified as state wards has decreased by 245 children, he said. Busch said the western service area serves 605 state wards, with 73 percent of those children placed out of their home. Seventy-three percent of those children are placed out of their home. Of those children, 41 percent are placed with a relative or someone known to the area. The service area also provides services to 172 children outside the formal court via a non-court involved process.
“Though children aren’t a commodity to be counted, I believe this means children are achieving permanency in an expedient matter,” Busch said.
He said the western service area has also improved in meeting federal benchmarks put into place to measure outcomes to assure protection and safety of children in the child welfare or juvenile services system. In October 2007, he said, the western service area had been meeting only one of the six federal outcomes. However, the western service area is now meeting three of the six guidelines, with strengths in absence of maltreatment in foster care, timeliness of adoption and permanency for children in foster care. He said areas needing improvement include absence of maltreatment recurrence, timeliness and permanency of reunification and placement stability.
The western service agency has put into place efforts to try to improve in those areas, including the formation of a permanency planning committee.
“The challenge is to take an area where good things are happening and make an area where great things are happening,” he said.
However, for all the successes touted by the Health and Human Services, there were also issues presented during testimony. Just some of the issues touched on were:
-- In citing challenges faced by the western service area, Busch cited that there are not enough resources to provide services to children close to their home communities.
As of October 2009, he said, the western service area had 317 foster homes, which has grown slightly to 348 foster homes. Busch said there is a gap in the number of foster homes willing or able to provide for children with severe behaviors, such as mental health issues, infants or teenagers.
Over the last two years, the number of group homes in the district have decreased. Non-payment of services by the Boys and Girls Home had been cited as a problem by some of the providers, though Busch simply said that the reduction “is the result of terminations of contract or (the providers) choosing not to renew contracts.”
The western service area has only one youth shelter within its district, with 12 beds in Scottsbluff.
Some of the reduction in providers is a direct result of strained relations after the Boys and Girls Home had been contracted to provide services. Non-payment of services, a reduction in payment or non-referral of services to specific providers resulted in a loss of providers within the district. One provider said that the Boys and Girls Home situation has presented a distrust between providers and DHHS.
Foster families have also seen a decrease in payment and services, including the loss of respite and clothing payments for children. Foster parents and providers have said they have had to fight for services that were needed for children. In some cases, parents or providers give up. In other cases, they continue lobbying for the services or children have had to be placed into emergency protective custody situations for lengthy periods of times.
-- With a lack of services, children are being placed out of state. In one instance, cited by Busch, a child has been placed in Ohio because he said adequate services were unable to be obtained. Judge James Worden, who testified regarding observations seen in the juvenile justice system, said he has had to have at least three children placed outside of state because placement for the children had not been found within a 60-90 day time frame. He said he knew that placement for two children, placed in Colorado, and is in excess of $1,200 a month. Services could be provided within communities, if funded, he said.
Both Busch and Worden, as well as other people testifying throughout the hearing, said that reunification with parents is made more difficult when children have to be placed in other areas of the state or out-of-state. Access to familiar services, schools and visitation with parents becomes problematic.
-- Testimony cited needs for improvement in transparency and communication. Busch testified that local officials were notified by e-mail, at 5 p.m., on a Friday, that the Boys and Girls Home would be discontinuing services and had to rush to make placements. Other agencies cited that parents, workers and other officials partnering with DHHS initially didn’t have questions answered about the Boys and Girls Home coming into the community. This also resulted in questions and then problems. Problems have continued with other companies that functions have been outsourced since the Boys and Girls Home ended its contract.
While DHHS represents itself as transparent – “It does not benefit the children, the families, to play hide the ball” — families with cases involved in the system, foster families and other cooperating agencies named a need to improve transparency most often when commenting on improvements that needed to be made within the system.
-- Though the DHHS is tasked by law with focusing on reunification, some of the people testifying stated that they believed that the system focuses on foster services and adoption. Often, comments were made that the DHHS had failed to focus on children and families in providing services. Suggestions were made to help families by establishing early intervention programs, such as parenting classes, and continuing to provide support to families after children have been re-united with parents or adopted.
-- Current policies and procedures do not allow for flexibility within the system. Repeatedly, testifiers cited a difference in being able to provide services in rural areas. Some regulations do not allow multiple providers. Some regulations do not allow for flexible options, such as a proposal by Worden to have day treatment or reporting centers where children could receive services during the day, but return to home in the evenings. Routinely, the need to allow innovative programs was identified as a need of child welfare reform services.
-- Some problems were identified with the people working within the system. In three incidents cited during the hearing, prosecutors made decisions to remove children and at least one person cited that it was felt that the removal of children had been done as punishment to a parent for not testifying in a case. All three individuals testified that they believed more than one individual should be responsible for determining if a child is removed from a home to avoid conflicts.
One of those individuals testified about being involved in a case in Keith County, called the “collaboration” between agencies “collusion,” saying that officials within different agencies conspired to create falsehoods to remove children from home and keep them from homes. Two of those individuals testified that caseworkers had committed perjury in court hearings and that they had evidence from law enforcement and school officials proving such.
Cases where guardian ad litems or caseworkers had little knowledge of cases, having not met with children or families, were noted. Visitation issues were cited by Worden, CASA workers and families with cases in the court system were cited as problems because providers were not showing up or were canceling pre-scheduled appointments. Meetings designed to discuss and examine cases also had similar complaints, with case workers or others canceling appointments and not notifying parents or other persons working on the cases in a timely fashion.
-- Lack of training and low wages.
Everyone from foster parents to persons within agencies that partner with DHHS testified that training for caseworkers to foster parents is needed. People also testified that low wages to people working with children, such as visitation aids, were low and resulted in unqualified individuals supervising children and cases.
Caseworkers were also cited as being overworked, with too few caseworkers and too many cases assigned to workers.
Support services for families, and for foster children and children returned to homes, were also cited as needs.
-- More oversight, both fiscal and in operations. Waste and redundancy within the system where identified throughout the hearing. One testifier noted that she and her daughter had received 12 letters regarding a reduction in services. Other examples of waste and redundancy were also cited.
Testimony during Tuesday’s hearings came during open and closed sessions.
“We came out here to get your stories and what you would like to convey,” Sen. Kathy Campbell told the crowd attending the hearing. She regularly encouraged people testifying or attending the hearings to contact local representative Sen. John Harms with follow up testimony or information or to contact members of the committees overseeing the legislative study process
Source http://www.starherald.com/articles/2011/09/14/news/doc4e701a0aa84d9420064313.txt
This article shows that CPS is mostly about removal and money. It is obvious from our experience with CPS that they are not truly worried about the best interest of the child and they do not support families. CPS does it's best to rip families apart. Why? The almighty buck!!
---
By: MAUNETTE LOEKS, Staff Reporter
Published: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 10:08 PM CDT
The child welfare system needs fixed.
That was the overwhelming message during testimony Tuesday at a hearing as a legislative committee examines the Department of Health and Human Services.
From a Department of Health and Human Services standpoint, few issues were identified as problems within the department itself in local operations.
Nathan Busch, western service area administrator, highlighted the successes of the Department of Health and Human Services in the western service area, which includes the 11 counties of the Panhandle. Since Busch was appointed as western service administrator in October 2007, he said, he believes the area has seen improvements.
Over a four-year-period, the number of children identified as state wards has decreased by 245 children, he said. Busch said the western service area serves 605 state wards, with 73 percent of those children placed out of their home. Seventy-three percent of those children are placed out of their home. Of those children, 41 percent are placed with a relative or someone known to the area. The service area also provides services to 172 children outside the formal court via a non-court involved process.
“Though children aren’t a commodity to be counted, I believe this means children are achieving permanency in an expedient matter,” Busch said.
He said the western service area has also improved in meeting federal benchmarks put into place to measure outcomes to assure protection and safety of children in the child welfare or juvenile services system. In October 2007, he said, the western service area had been meeting only one of the six federal outcomes. However, the western service area is now meeting three of the six guidelines, with strengths in absence of maltreatment in foster care, timeliness of adoption and permanency for children in foster care. He said areas needing improvement include absence of maltreatment recurrence, timeliness and permanency of reunification and placement stability.
The western service agency has put into place efforts to try to improve in those areas, including the formation of a permanency planning committee.
“The challenge is to take an area where good things are happening and make an area where great things are happening,” he said.
However, for all the successes touted by the Health and Human Services, there were also issues presented during testimony. Just some of the issues touched on were:
-- In citing challenges faced by the western service area, Busch cited that there are not enough resources to provide services to children close to their home communities.
As of October 2009, he said, the western service area had 317 foster homes, which has grown slightly to 348 foster homes. Busch said there is a gap in the number of foster homes willing or able to provide for children with severe behaviors, such as mental health issues, infants or teenagers.
Over the last two years, the number of group homes in the district have decreased. Non-payment of services by the Boys and Girls Home had been cited as a problem by some of the providers, though Busch simply said that the reduction “is the result of terminations of contract or (the providers) choosing not to renew contracts.”
The western service area has only one youth shelter within its district, with 12 beds in Scottsbluff.
Some of the reduction in providers is a direct result of strained relations after the Boys and Girls Home had been contracted to provide services. Non-payment of services, a reduction in payment or non-referral of services to specific providers resulted in a loss of providers within the district. One provider said that the Boys and Girls Home situation has presented a distrust between providers and DHHS.
Foster families have also seen a decrease in payment and services, including the loss of respite and clothing payments for children. Foster parents and providers have said they have had to fight for services that were needed for children. In some cases, parents or providers give up. In other cases, they continue lobbying for the services or children have had to be placed into emergency protective custody situations for lengthy periods of times.
-- With a lack of services, children are being placed out of state. In one instance, cited by Busch, a child has been placed in Ohio because he said adequate services were unable to be obtained. Judge James Worden, who testified regarding observations seen in the juvenile justice system, said he has had to have at least three children placed outside of state because placement for the children had not been found within a 60-90 day time frame. He said he knew that placement for two children, placed in Colorado, and is in excess of $1,200 a month. Services could be provided within communities, if funded, he said.
Both Busch and Worden, as well as other people testifying throughout the hearing, said that reunification with parents is made more difficult when children have to be placed in other areas of the state or out-of-state. Access to familiar services, schools and visitation with parents becomes problematic.
-- Testimony cited needs for improvement in transparency and communication. Busch testified that local officials were notified by e-mail, at 5 p.m., on a Friday, that the Boys and Girls Home would be discontinuing services and had to rush to make placements. Other agencies cited that parents, workers and other officials partnering with DHHS initially didn’t have questions answered about the Boys and Girls Home coming into the community. This also resulted in questions and then problems. Problems have continued with other companies that functions have been outsourced since the Boys and Girls Home ended its contract.
While DHHS represents itself as transparent – “It does not benefit the children, the families, to play hide the ball” — families with cases involved in the system, foster families and other cooperating agencies named a need to improve transparency most often when commenting on improvements that needed to be made within the system.
-- Though the DHHS is tasked by law with focusing on reunification, some of the people testifying stated that they believed that the system focuses on foster services and adoption. Often, comments were made that the DHHS had failed to focus on children and families in providing services. Suggestions were made to help families by establishing early intervention programs, such as parenting classes, and continuing to provide support to families after children have been re-united with parents or adopted.
-- Current policies and procedures do not allow for flexibility within the system. Repeatedly, testifiers cited a difference in being able to provide services in rural areas. Some regulations do not allow multiple providers. Some regulations do not allow for flexible options, such as a proposal by Worden to have day treatment or reporting centers where children could receive services during the day, but return to home in the evenings. Routinely, the need to allow innovative programs was identified as a need of child welfare reform services.
-- Some problems were identified with the people working within the system. In three incidents cited during the hearing, prosecutors made decisions to remove children and at least one person cited that it was felt that the removal of children had been done as punishment to a parent for not testifying in a case. All three individuals testified that they believed more than one individual should be responsible for determining if a child is removed from a home to avoid conflicts.
One of those individuals testified about being involved in a case in Keith County, called the “collaboration” between agencies “collusion,” saying that officials within different agencies conspired to create falsehoods to remove children from home and keep them from homes. Two of those individuals testified that caseworkers had committed perjury in court hearings and that they had evidence from law enforcement and school officials proving such.
Cases where guardian ad litems or caseworkers had little knowledge of cases, having not met with children or families, were noted. Visitation issues were cited by Worden, CASA workers and families with cases in the court system were cited as problems because providers were not showing up or were canceling pre-scheduled appointments. Meetings designed to discuss and examine cases also had similar complaints, with case workers or others canceling appointments and not notifying parents or other persons working on the cases in a timely fashion.
-- Lack of training and low wages.
Everyone from foster parents to persons within agencies that partner with DHHS testified that training for caseworkers to foster parents is needed. People also testified that low wages to people working with children, such as visitation aids, were low and resulted in unqualified individuals supervising children and cases.
Caseworkers were also cited as being overworked, with too few caseworkers and too many cases assigned to workers.
Support services for families, and for foster children and children returned to homes, were also cited as needs.
-- More oversight, both fiscal and in operations. Waste and redundancy within the system where identified throughout the hearing. One testifier noted that she and her daughter had received 12 letters regarding a reduction in services. Other examples of waste and redundancy were also cited.
Testimony during Tuesday’s hearings came during open and closed sessions.
“We came out here to get your stories and what you would like to convey,” Sen. Kathy Campbell told the crowd attending the hearing. She regularly encouraged people testifying or attending the hearings to contact local representative Sen. John Harms with follow up testimony or information or to contact members of the committees overseeing the legislative study process
Source http://www.starherald.com/articles/2011/09/14/news/doc4e701a0aa84d9420064313.txt
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Oregon - Girl’s death spurs lawsuit
The state Department of Human Services faces a $1.5 million case over the abuse suffered by Jeanette Maples
By Karen McCowan
The Register-Guard
Oregon’s child protective services agency faces a $1.5 million lawsuit for failing to prevent the 2009 starvation, torture and beating death of north Eugene teenager Jeanette Maples.
Portland attorney David Paul mailed the wrongful death complaint Monday to Lane County Circuit Court. The court clerk had not received or filed the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon, but Paul’s legal assistant provided a copy to The Register-Guard. Paul has successfully represented children injured in state foster care, including a record-breaking $2 million settlement for twins injured by poor foster care.
The suit on behalf of Jeanette’s estate targets the state Department of Human Services, which is responsible for investigating reports of child abuse and neglect. The complaint accuses the agency of failing to reasonably respond to multiple reports over four years that Jeanette was being abused. It called the state’s inaction “a substantial factor” in her death at age 15.
Jeanette’s mother, Angela McAnulty, is on Oregon’s death row after pleading guilty in February to the aggravated murder of her daughter. The dead teen’s stepfather, Richard McAnulty, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to murder by abuse. He denied inflicting harm, but admitted failing to protect Jeanette from her mother or to report her injuries and starvation to authorities.
“Jeanette Maples’ death could have been prevented if the State of Oregon exercised reasonable care in responding to reports that Jeanette Maples was being abused,” the suit charges. It alleges that state workers failed to “investigate and heed” allegations of abuse from reliable sources beginning in 2006, four years before Jeanette died. It also accuses the agency of failing to consider Angela McAnulty’s documented history of child abuse in California before moving to Oregon.
The suit also faults the agency for failing to adequately assess Jeanette’s “vulnerability to abuse.” It says workers wrongfully concluded that Jeanette “could fend for herself as a young teenager” despite “a history of abuse and neglect by the adult parents in her home.”
Those charges echoed the January 2010 findings of an internal Department of Human Services critical incident team.
The suit says state “negligence” was a substantial factor in Jeanette’s “suffering, humiliation, pain, fear, anguish, and torture” and ultimately in her violent death. As a result, she suffered “severe hunger, starvation, anemia, dehydration, alienation of affection, distress and a lack of the enjoyment of her short life, to her non-economic damage in the amount of $500,000.”
Siblings not considered heirs
The Oregon Attorney General’s Office, which will defend the Department of Human Services in the case, declined comment on the suit Tuesday.
“It is the policy of the Department of Justice not to comment on pending litigation,” spokesman Tony Green said.
The bulk of the lawsuit’s damages would go to Jeanette’s father, Anthony Maples, of California. The suit seeks $1 million in noneconomic damages for his loss of Jeanette’s “society, love and companionship.” As her “lone qualified heir” under Oregon law, Anthony Maples would also receive $500,000 the suit seeks as the value of the estate his daughter would probably have accumulated in her lifetime if not for her wrongful death.
The suit seeks an additional $7,000 to cover the teen’s burial and related expenses.
Anthony Maples could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He told The Register-Guard shortly after Jeanette’s death that he had not been in touch with his daughter for nearly a decade. According to his unsuccessful February 2010 court petition to be appointed personal representative of her estate, he had nine drug possession convictions — at least five involving methamphetamine — between 1990 and 2008. The petition shows that he was in and out of jail until late 2008, when he entered and completed a one-year residential treatment program. According to a June 2010 declaration in support of that petition, Maples had been clean and sober for 16 months.
Lane County Circuit Judge Lauren Holland in August 2010 denied Maples’ request, instead appointing Portland attorney Erin Olson as the estate’s personal representative.
Step-grandmother speaks out
The prospect of Anthony Maples collecting damages from the suit distressed Jeanette’s step-grandmother, Lynn McAnulty. She testified during Angela McAnulty’s trial that she made multiple — and apparently futile — abuse reports to the Department of Human Services in the last months of the teen’s life.
“Why should he profit off Jeanette’s death?” the Leaburg woman said. “He doesn’t deserve it because he wasn’t involved in her life. He didn’t know her. He didn’t even come to her memorial service.”
Lynn McAnulty said lawsuit proceeds would more rightfully go to Jeanette’s surviving half-siblings — a 14-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy — both in foster homes and in state protective custody. Absent a will, however, only a deceased person’s parents, spouse or children are legal heirs under Oregon law.
In a interview this month, McAnulty elaborated on her trial testimony that she repeatedly and unsuccessfully phoned child protective service workers in 2009, urging them to investigate Jeanette’s emaciation and injuries. She acknowledged posing as a concerned neighbor, saying she feared losing the limited access she had to her grandchildren if Angela McAnulty learned she’d reported abuse. (According to child protection caseworkers, the agency protects the confidentiality of people who report abuse.)
Lynn McAnulty said she told one phone screener, “This child looks like an Ethiopian (famine victim),” only to have the screener respond with “something like, ‘You’re telling us she needs medical help — that’s not us,’ and, ‘Are you sure she’s not anorexic?’ ”
McAnulty said she placed her last call to the agency the week before Jeanette died, after her son called to tell her he’d caught the girl drinking from the toilet.
“I said, ‘Someone needs to go there. Something’s wrong with this child. It’s urgent,’” McAnulty said. “I told her, ‘I’ve called several times,’ and she said, ‘We don’t just drop everything — we have to go through channels.’ ”
McAnulty also reiterated her trial testimony that she asked one screener if she should call the police, but was advised that child protection workers could more effectively investigate.
The agency’s internal investigation, now posted on its website (www.oregon.gov/DHS/abuse/publications/children/cirt-jm-initial-report.pdf) without the redactions that originally blacked out information that might have compromised Angela McAnulty’s trial, reports only two calls in 2009, both from “the same individual” on Dec. 1. It says the person reported that Angela McAnulty’s children were being “abused and neglected, especially the older one.”
Report details decisions
The newly public material says the caller reported that the older child — Jeanette — was not attending school, had “current marks and bruises” and “appeared malnourished.” It also said the caller reported that the child was “not allowed to speak with her.”
“The (caller) initially would not provide the last name of the children or an address,” the state’s internal report said. “In a subsequent call that same day, the reporter called back and provided the last name and address for the family. Concluding that the call did not constitute a report of abuse or neglect, the matter was closed at screening.”
The critical incident team found that conclusion to be in error, the internal report said.
“This report in fact constituted abuse or neglect and should have been assigned for child protective service assessment,” it said.
The team’s report also acknowledged that additional calls “may have been made but not documented” if they “did not rise to the level of abuse or neglect.”
The newly public material from the internal report shows that the agency responded to two 2006 reports that Jeanette was “being punished by being forced to kneel on the tile floor with her nose to the wall and hands behind her back for extended periods of time, that she was being forced to eat chili peppers, and that her hair was being pulled making her head sore.” But the agency “could not determine whether there was a safety threat” to the girl because of inconsistent information about food deprivation and punishment from Angela and Richard McAnulty, Jeanette’s sister, and Jeanette herself.
The new material also details the agency’s response to a 2007 report from “a credible source” that Jeanette had a bruise on her chin. It says the critical incident team found that the agency erred in closing that case without further assessment, based on Jeanette’s “denial that abuse had occurred.”
The agency has adopted new protocols in response to the internal report — including a policy of more thoroughly investigating cases involving children such as Jeanette, who are not in school or other settings where other adults can see their condition.
Source http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/26794414-55/jeanette-maples-death-oregon-paul.html.csp
By Karen McCowan
The Register-Guard
Oregon’s child protective services agency faces a $1.5 million lawsuit for failing to prevent the 2009 starvation, torture and beating death of north Eugene teenager Jeanette Maples.
Portland attorney David Paul mailed the wrongful death complaint Monday to Lane County Circuit Court. The court clerk had not received or filed the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon, but Paul’s legal assistant provided a copy to The Register-Guard. Paul has successfully represented children injured in state foster care, including a record-breaking $2 million settlement for twins injured by poor foster care.
The suit on behalf of Jeanette’s estate targets the state Department of Human Services, which is responsible for investigating reports of child abuse and neglect. The complaint accuses the agency of failing to reasonably respond to multiple reports over four years that Jeanette was being abused. It called the state’s inaction “a substantial factor” in her death at age 15.
Jeanette’s mother, Angela McAnulty, is on Oregon’s death row after pleading guilty in February to the aggravated murder of her daughter. The dead teen’s stepfather, Richard McAnulty, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to murder by abuse. He denied inflicting harm, but admitted failing to protect Jeanette from her mother or to report her injuries and starvation to authorities.
“Jeanette Maples’ death could have been prevented if the State of Oregon exercised reasonable care in responding to reports that Jeanette Maples was being abused,” the suit charges. It alleges that state workers failed to “investigate and heed” allegations of abuse from reliable sources beginning in 2006, four years before Jeanette died. It also accuses the agency of failing to consider Angela McAnulty’s documented history of child abuse in California before moving to Oregon.
The suit also faults the agency for failing to adequately assess Jeanette’s “vulnerability to abuse.” It says workers wrongfully concluded that Jeanette “could fend for herself as a young teenager” despite “a history of abuse and neglect by the adult parents in her home.”
Those charges echoed the January 2010 findings of an internal Department of Human Services critical incident team.
The suit says state “negligence” was a substantial factor in Jeanette’s “suffering, humiliation, pain, fear, anguish, and torture” and ultimately in her violent death. As a result, she suffered “severe hunger, starvation, anemia, dehydration, alienation of affection, distress and a lack of the enjoyment of her short life, to her non-economic damage in the amount of $500,000.”
Siblings not considered heirs
The Oregon Attorney General’s Office, which will defend the Department of Human Services in the case, declined comment on the suit Tuesday.
“It is the policy of the Department of Justice not to comment on pending litigation,” spokesman Tony Green said.
The bulk of the lawsuit’s damages would go to Jeanette’s father, Anthony Maples, of California. The suit seeks $1 million in noneconomic damages for his loss of Jeanette’s “society, love and companionship.” As her “lone qualified heir” under Oregon law, Anthony Maples would also receive $500,000 the suit seeks as the value of the estate his daughter would probably have accumulated in her lifetime if not for her wrongful death.
The suit seeks an additional $7,000 to cover the teen’s burial and related expenses.
Anthony Maples could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He told The Register-Guard shortly after Jeanette’s death that he had not been in touch with his daughter for nearly a decade. According to his unsuccessful February 2010 court petition to be appointed personal representative of her estate, he had nine drug possession convictions — at least five involving methamphetamine — between 1990 and 2008. The petition shows that he was in and out of jail until late 2008, when he entered and completed a one-year residential treatment program. According to a June 2010 declaration in support of that petition, Maples had been clean and sober for 16 months.
Lane County Circuit Judge Lauren Holland in August 2010 denied Maples’ request, instead appointing Portland attorney Erin Olson as the estate’s personal representative.
Step-grandmother speaks out
The prospect of Anthony Maples collecting damages from the suit distressed Jeanette’s step-grandmother, Lynn McAnulty. She testified during Angela McAnulty’s trial that she made multiple — and apparently futile — abuse reports to the Department of Human Services in the last months of the teen’s life.
“Why should he profit off Jeanette’s death?” the Leaburg woman said. “He doesn’t deserve it because he wasn’t involved in her life. He didn’t know her. He didn’t even come to her memorial service.”
Lynn McAnulty said lawsuit proceeds would more rightfully go to Jeanette’s surviving half-siblings — a 14-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy — both in foster homes and in state protective custody. Absent a will, however, only a deceased person’s parents, spouse or children are legal heirs under Oregon law.
In a interview this month, McAnulty elaborated on her trial testimony that she repeatedly and unsuccessfully phoned child protective service workers in 2009, urging them to investigate Jeanette’s emaciation and injuries. She acknowledged posing as a concerned neighbor, saying she feared losing the limited access she had to her grandchildren if Angela McAnulty learned she’d reported abuse. (According to child protection caseworkers, the agency protects the confidentiality of people who report abuse.)
Lynn McAnulty said she told one phone screener, “This child looks like an Ethiopian (famine victim),” only to have the screener respond with “something like, ‘You’re telling us she needs medical help — that’s not us,’ and, ‘Are you sure she’s not anorexic?’ ”
McAnulty said she placed her last call to the agency the week before Jeanette died, after her son called to tell her he’d caught the girl drinking from the toilet.
“I said, ‘Someone needs to go there. Something’s wrong with this child. It’s urgent,’” McAnulty said. “I told her, ‘I’ve called several times,’ and she said, ‘We don’t just drop everything — we have to go through channels.’ ”
McAnulty also reiterated her trial testimony that she asked one screener if she should call the police, but was advised that child protection workers could more effectively investigate.
The agency’s internal investigation, now posted on its website (www.oregon.gov/DHS/abuse/publications/children/cirt-jm-initial-report.pdf) without the redactions that originally blacked out information that might have compromised Angela McAnulty’s trial, reports only two calls in 2009, both from “the same individual” on Dec. 1. It says the person reported that Angela McAnulty’s children were being “abused and neglected, especially the older one.”
Report details decisions
The newly public material says the caller reported that the older child — Jeanette — was not attending school, had “current marks and bruises” and “appeared malnourished.” It also said the caller reported that the child was “not allowed to speak with her.”
“The (caller) initially would not provide the last name of the children or an address,” the state’s internal report said. “In a subsequent call that same day, the reporter called back and provided the last name and address for the family. Concluding that the call did not constitute a report of abuse or neglect, the matter was closed at screening.”
The critical incident team found that conclusion to be in error, the internal report said.
“This report in fact constituted abuse or neglect and should have been assigned for child protective service assessment,” it said.
The team’s report also acknowledged that additional calls “may have been made but not documented” if they “did not rise to the level of abuse or neglect.”
The newly public material from the internal report shows that the agency responded to two 2006 reports that Jeanette was “being punished by being forced to kneel on the tile floor with her nose to the wall and hands behind her back for extended periods of time, that she was being forced to eat chili peppers, and that her hair was being pulled making her head sore.” But the agency “could not determine whether there was a safety threat” to the girl because of inconsistent information about food deprivation and punishment from Angela and Richard McAnulty, Jeanette’s sister, and Jeanette herself.
The new material also details the agency’s response to a 2007 report from “a credible source” that Jeanette had a bruise on her chin. It says the critical incident team found that the agency erred in closing that case without further assessment, based on Jeanette’s “denial that abuse had occurred.”
The agency has adopted new protocols in response to the internal report — including a policy of more thoroughly investigating cases involving children such as Jeanette, who are not in school or other settings where other adults can see their condition.
Source http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/26794414-55/jeanette-maples-death-oregon-paul.html.csp
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Ashley
Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Ashley I took my video camera to a Foster Care Alumni meeting and asked seven foster kids to tell me about there experiences in Child Protective Services while wards of the state. One thing they all had in common was massive over drugging with psychiatric drugs. Child placement agencies, foster parents, RTCs (Residential Treatment Centers) and Therapeutic Foster Homes get paid a certain amount of money each day for taking care of a foster child. The amount of money they get paid depends on a level of care system. The more difficult the child or the more problems that child has, the more money you get. A child at the basic level of care is worth about 17 dollars a day where as a child in the highest level of care could be worth as much as a 1000 dollars a day. This puts the incentive on diagnosing children with behavior problems to justify raising their level of care. A child on psychiatric drugs is worth more than a child without problems. It is not uncommon for a foster child to be placed on many different psychotropic drugs at the same time. Some investigations have found children on as many as 13 mind altering drugs prescribed by a psychiatrists at one time. These drugs include all categories of psychiatric drugs; antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications, anticonvulsants medications, etc. The SSRI drugs are commons such as Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, etc. Also a number of these children described taking …
Source http://health5news.com/?p=2728
Friday, August 19, 2011
Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Tristen
Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Tristen I took my video camera to a Foster Care Alumni meeting and asked seven foster kids to tell me about there experiences in Child Protective Services while wards of the state. One thing they all had in common was massive over drugging with psychiatric drugs. Child placement agencies, foster parents, RTCs (Residential Treatment Centers) and Therapeutic Foster Homes get paid a certain amount of money each day for taking care of a foster child. The amount of money they get paid depends on a level of care system. The more difficult the child or the more problems that child has, the more money you get. A child at the basic level of care is worth about 17 dollars a day where as a child in the highest level of care could be worth as much as a 1000 dollars a day. This puts the incentive on diagnosing children with behavior problems to justify raising their level of care. A child on psychiatric drugs is worth more than a child without problems. It is not uncommon for a foster child to be placed on many different psychotropic drugs at the same time. Some investigations have found children on as many as 13 mind altering drugs prescribed by a psychiatrists at one time. These drugs include all categories of psychiatric drugs; antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications, anticonvulsants medications, etc. The SSRI drugs are commons such as Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, etc. Also a number of these children described taking …
Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Aisha
Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Aisha I took my video camera to a Foster Care Alumni meeting and asked seven foster kids to tell me about there experiences in Child Protective Services while wards of the state. One thing they all had in common was massive over drugging with psychiatric drugs. Child placement agencies, foster parents, RTCs (Residential Treatment Centers) and Therapeutic Foster Homes get paid a certain amount of money each day for taking care of a foster child. The amount of money they get paid depends on a level of care system. The more difficult the child or the more problems that child has, the more money you get. A child at the basic level of care is worth about 17 dollars a day where as a child in the highest level of care could be worth as much as a 1000 dollars a day. This puts the incentive on diagnosing children with behavior problems to justify raising their level of care. A child on psychiatric drugs is worth more than a child without problems. It is not uncommon for a foster child to be placed on many different psychotropic drugs at the same time. Some investigations have found children on as many as 13 mind altering drugs prescribed by a psychiatrists at one time. These drugs include all categories of psychiatric drugs; antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications, anticonvulsants medications, etc. The SSRI drugs are commons such as Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, etc. Also a number of these children described taking …
Source: http://health5news.com/?p=1631
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)