FLUSHING, NY, February 09, 2012
More than 500,000 children in the U.S. reside in some form of foster care. Within one year of their initial placement, at least 15 percent of them will experience neglect, abuse, or other harmful conditions. Six times as many children die in foster care than in the general population. Children in placement are also far more likely to suffer physical and sexual abuse than other children. In group homes, where many of the residents abuse each other, there is more than ten times the rate of physical abuse and 28 times the rate of sexual abuse as in the general population. And these are just the reported cases. Since foster care agencies cannot always be relied upon to police themselves, the actual rates are likely to be much higher.
Lawsuits are a necessary consequence of foster care abuse. Often, they provide the only means for victims to seek monetary compensation for grievous harm. They are also instrumental in publicizing these tragedies, forcing state and private foster care providers to account for their actions and, hopefully, rectify them. Here is a sampling of recent foster care abuse lawsuits:
A Florida mother accused state and local child care providers of failing to protect her son from sexual abuse. Placed at age 10, the child was moved to 11 different foster homes in an 18 month period and twice attempted suicide.
Three young Maryland men filed suit against an agency that had notice of a sexually abusing foster father but failed to take action. The agency specialized in placements for children and adolescents with mental disabilities as well as brain and spinal cord injuries.
A lawsuit on behalf of a young girl repeatedly raped in foster care over a period of ten months was filed in Philadelphia. The rapist, who was not supposed to be residing in the home, was the foster mother's teen-aged son.
Lawyers in Colorado sued agency social workers on behalf of three boys placed in an adoptive home. Although the adoptive parents knew the boys had been abused in their biological home, social workers failed to warn them of just how heinous and extensive the abuse had been. The children engaged in incestuous acts with each other, necessitating strenuous efforts on the part of the adoptive parents to prevent the abuse. Ultimately, the strain of caring for the children caused the adoptive parents to divorce.
The payout for such lawsuits can be quite substantial. New Jersey has spent $51.7 million in 317 lawsuits brought on behalf of abused foster children dating as far back as 1996. Since 2005, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) has paid out more than $3.4 million in civil lawsuit settlements. In a recently settled class action lawsuit involving foster care abuse, Oklahoma DHS spent $7 million in outside attorney fees in defense of the lawsuit, with $2 million more set aside for future costs. Additional class action lawsuits are pending on behalf of thousands of foster children in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Texas. Even when such cases do not result in monetary awards to the original plaintiffs, attorney fees can run well into the millions.
Foster care abuse exacts an enormous toll in emotional, psychological and physical damage. Lawsuits filed on behalf of these injured children, while essential, are prohibitively expensive for state and local governments. In a better world, all those tens of millions would be spent on preventing the very problems that put children in foster care in the first place. Sometimes, the price for the harm that results from the remedy is just too high.
Written by Ruth C. Stern on behalf of Orlow, Orlow & Orlow, New York Personal Injury Lawyers located at 7118 Main Street, Flushing, NY 11367
Phone: 212-203-4053
http://www.orlowlaw.com
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.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Connecticut announces program to deal with child neglect
The Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut officials say they are finalizing changes that will soon reform how the state's child welfare agency deals with less serious neglect cases by working more closely with families.
Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz announced Thursday that the department will implement a Differential Response system for reports of child abuse and neglect, beginning in early March.
The Differential Response system allows DCF to respond more appropriately to allegations of neglect and reports of child abuse by considering the factors surrounding a claim.
This system will fall under the department's new Strengthening Families practice model, which focuses on family participation in evaluating reports of neglect and abuse, foster care and other services provided by DCF.
Connecticut officials say they are finalizing changes that will soon reform how the state's child welfare agency deals with less serious neglect cases by working more closely with families.
Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz announced Thursday that the department will implement a Differential Response system for reports of child abuse and neglect, beginning in early March.
The Differential Response system allows DCF to respond more appropriately to allegations of neglect and reports of child abuse by considering the factors surrounding a claim.
This system will fall under the department's new Strengthening Families practice model, which focuses on family participation in evaluating reports of neglect and abuse, foster care and other services provided by DCF.
Source http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x1882849878/Connecticut-announces-program-to-deal-with-child-neglect#axzz1lyf5xDhr
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut officials say they are finalizing changes that will soon reform how the state's child welfare agency deals with less serious neglect cases by working more closely with families.
Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz announced Thursday that the department will implement a Differential Response system for reports of child abuse and neglect, beginning in early March.
The Differential Response system allows DCF to respond more appropriately to allegations of neglect and reports of child abuse by considering the factors surrounding a claim.
This system will fall under the department's new Strengthening Families practice model, which focuses on family participation in evaluating reports of neglect and abuse, foster care and other services provided by DCF.
Connecticut officials say they are finalizing changes that will soon reform how the state's child welfare agency deals with less serious neglect cases by working more closely with families.
Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz announced Thursday that the department will implement a Differential Response system for reports of child abuse and neglect, beginning in early March.
The Differential Response system allows DCF to respond more appropriately to allegations of neglect and reports of child abuse by considering the factors surrounding a claim.
This system will fall under the department's new Strengthening Families practice model, which focuses on family participation in evaluating reports of neglect and abuse, foster care and other services provided by DCF.
Source http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x1882849878/Connecticut-announces-program-to-deal-with-child-neglect#axzz1lyf5xDhr
Judge on emaciated child: Didn’t anyone notice?
Blogger Note:
Now here is a judge that realizes that there are many people culpable in situations where a child is being abused but those in authroity look the other way. Way to go Judge!
CPS is such a failure as is many of the mandated reporters and it amazes me that the federal government continues to fund CPS.
Now, if we could only find a judge that will put a stop to this money machine that could care a less about children!
---
As the case of a 9-year-old boy with malnutrition continued in juvenile court, the emphasis shifted away from the boy’s parents and toward the actions of others who saw him.
By Carol Marbin Miller
Though Marsee Strong and Edward Bailey remain in Miami-Dade jails on aggravated child abuse charges, an inquiry Wednesday into the welfare of their 9-year-old son focused largely on the role of the doctors, therapists and investigators who were intimately involved with the family — yet failed to notice that the boy was profoundly malnourished and displaying visible signs of abuse.
Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman, who presides over child welfare cases at the county’s Children’s Courthouse in Allapattah, had an unusual hearing in the case Wednesday, requiring administrators with the Department of Children & Families to provide a detailed timeline of the agency’s involvement with the parents, as well as the involvement of other professionals. The 9-year-old, who is one of the family’s six children, was picked up by police last week after he was found wandering his North Miami Beach neighborhood naked, emaciated and sporting an injured eye.
“I still don’t understand how the child could get in this condition, how nothing was done, or inadequate things were being done,” Lederman said during the hearing.
The boy, who was described as having the frame of a 3-year-old, remains in the hospital, where doctors are fighting the effects of malnutrition, said DCF’s attorney, Christine Lopez-Acevedo. “He’s doing better,” Lopez-Acevedo said.
Officially, the children have been under the supervision of DCF since 2002, when a physical abuse report to the state’s abuse and neglect hotline led the agency to take custody of them. They remained in DCF’s care until 2004, when they were returned to Strong and Bailey. DCF retained jurisdiction over the case since then.
DCF’s attorney, Lopez-Acevedo, told Lederman the agency had substantial contact with the family in the ensuing years, though it appears much of the scrutiny concerned one of the 9-year-old’s older sisters, who has had significant involvement with the state’s juvenile justice system, and does not currently live with the family. Though investigators had spoken with the family several times over the past two years, no allegations emerged that Strong or Bailey had mistreated the kids, Lopez-Acevedo said.
Indeed, in June of last year Strong asked DCF for help in raising the children, Lopez-Acevedo said.
Neither the 9-year-old nor his siblings are being named by The Miami Herald to protect their privacy.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Lopez-Acevedo did not accuse the parents of mistreating their children. She said the 9-year-old at the center of the case appears to suffer from poorly understood psychiatric and medical conditions that cause him to eat excessively, and then vomit. Though police described him as horrifically malnourished — he weighed only 35 pounds at age 9, and Lederman said in court last week that he looked like a concentration camp survivor with protruding bones — the boy had been under the regular care of pediatricians and mental health workers, Acevedo said.
“There were a number of eyes on this child, and the [state child-abuse hotline] reports that came in did not include the possibility that he was not being fed in the home,” Acevedo told the judge. “To the naked eye, with his clothes on, you could not necessarily tell this child was suffering from malnutrition.”
Rita Doval, a nurse with the state’s Child Protection Team who interviewed the children, said the kids assured her they were well-fed at home. The 9-year-old said that his parents sometimes withheld food from him, but Doval said the parents contend they were told by other doctors to regulate what the boy ate because he would sometimes eat until he made himself sick. Though the withholding of food may have seemed like a punishment, Doval said, it was intended to protect him.
A court-appointed psychologist, Michael DiTomasso, said neither the 9-year-old nor his siblings suggested they had been abused by Bailey or Strong, though some of the children said they had been allowed to beat each other.
“Three of the children all made clear they had a good mommy and a good daddy,” DiTomasso said. “They were really defensive. They felt really bad, and they saw their parents get arrested. They miss the little one, too. They worry about him in the hospital.”
DiTomasso said he asked the 9-year-old pointedly to explain the marks and bruises police found on his body, but was unable to get an explanation. “My God, you look at the little boy and say, what happened to him? I saw the pictures, and then I saw the child. My first impression was, My God, who did this to him?”
The psychologist said the 9-year-old was in dire need of a comprehensive medical and psychiatric evaluation, and he was surprised that such a battery of tests had not yet been performed. “Something was really wrong physically with this child,” DiTomaso said. “He needs a thorough physical work-up. He’ll get it now, right?”
Source http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/08/2631712/judge-on-emaciated-child-didnt.html
Now here is a judge that realizes that there are many people culpable in situations where a child is being abused but those in authroity look the other way. Way to go Judge!
CPS is such a failure as is many of the mandated reporters and it amazes me that the federal government continues to fund CPS.
Now, if we could only find a judge that will put a stop to this money machine that could care a less about children!
---
As the case of a 9-year-old boy with malnutrition continued in juvenile court, the emphasis shifted away from the boy’s parents and toward the actions of others who saw him.
By Carol Marbin Miller
Though Marsee Strong and Edward Bailey remain in Miami-Dade jails on aggravated child abuse charges, an inquiry Wednesday into the welfare of their 9-year-old son focused largely on the role of the doctors, therapists and investigators who were intimately involved with the family — yet failed to notice that the boy was profoundly malnourished and displaying visible signs of abuse.
Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman, who presides over child welfare cases at the county’s Children’s Courthouse in Allapattah, had an unusual hearing in the case Wednesday, requiring administrators with the Department of Children & Families to provide a detailed timeline of the agency’s involvement with the parents, as well as the involvement of other professionals. The 9-year-old, who is one of the family’s six children, was picked up by police last week after he was found wandering his North Miami Beach neighborhood naked, emaciated and sporting an injured eye.
“I still don’t understand how the child could get in this condition, how nothing was done, or inadequate things were being done,” Lederman said during the hearing.
The boy, who was described as having the frame of a 3-year-old, remains in the hospital, where doctors are fighting the effects of malnutrition, said DCF’s attorney, Christine Lopez-Acevedo. “He’s doing better,” Lopez-Acevedo said.
Officially, the children have been under the supervision of DCF since 2002, when a physical abuse report to the state’s abuse and neglect hotline led the agency to take custody of them. They remained in DCF’s care until 2004, when they were returned to Strong and Bailey. DCF retained jurisdiction over the case since then.
DCF’s attorney, Lopez-Acevedo, told Lederman the agency had substantial contact with the family in the ensuing years, though it appears much of the scrutiny concerned one of the 9-year-old’s older sisters, who has had significant involvement with the state’s juvenile justice system, and does not currently live with the family. Though investigators had spoken with the family several times over the past two years, no allegations emerged that Strong or Bailey had mistreated the kids, Lopez-Acevedo said.
Indeed, in June of last year Strong asked DCF for help in raising the children, Lopez-Acevedo said.
Neither the 9-year-old nor his siblings are being named by The Miami Herald to protect their privacy.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Lopez-Acevedo did not accuse the parents of mistreating their children. She said the 9-year-old at the center of the case appears to suffer from poorly understood psychiatric and medical conditions that cause him to eat excessively, and then vomit. Though police described him as horrifically malnourished — he weighed only 35 pounds at age 9, and Lederman said in court last week that he looked like a concentration camp survivor with protruding bones — the boy had been under the regular care of pediatricians and mental health workers, Acevedo said.
“There were a number of eyes on this child, and the [state child-abuse hotline] reports that came in did not include the possibility that he was not being fed in the home,” Acevedo told the judge. “To the naked eye, with his clothes on, you could not necessarily tell this child was suffering from malnutrition.”
Rita Doval, a nurse with the state’s Child Protection Team who interviewed the children, said the kids assured her they were well-fed at home. The 9-year-old said that his parents sometimes withheld food from him, but Doval said the parents contend they were told by other doctors to regulate what the boy ate because he would sometimes eat until he made himself sick. Though the withholding of food may have seemed like a punishment, Doval said, it was intended to protect him.
A court-appointed psychologist, Michael DiTomasso, said neither the 9-year-old nor his siblings suggested they had been abused by Bailey or Strong, though some of the children said they had been allowed to beat each other.
“Three of the children all made clear they had a good mommy and a good daddy,” DiTomasso said. “They were really defensive. They felt really bad, and they saw their parents get arrested. They miss the little one, too. They worry about him in the hospital.”
DiTomasso said he asked the 9-year-old pointedly to explain the marks and bruises police found on his body, but was unable to get an explanation. “My God, you look at the little boy and say, what happened to him? I saw the pictures, and then I saw the child. My first impression was, My God, who did this to him?”
The psychologist said the 9-year-old was in dire need of a comprehensive medical and psychiatric evaluation, and he was surprised that such a battery of tests had not yet been performed. “Something was really wrong physically with this child,” DiTomaso said. “He needs a thorough physical work-up. He’ll get it now, right?”
Source http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/08/2631712/judge-on-emaciated-child-didnt.html
NJ Child Welfare Officials Faulted In Handling Slain Toddler’s Case, Says DYFS Commissioner
TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) – Child welfare officials in New Jersey failed to connect concerns of child abuse and domestic violence in the case of a 2-year-old whose father is accused of tossing her to her death still strapped in her car seat.
Children and Families Commissioner Allison Blake on Tuesday released a review over how the agency handled the case of Tierra Morgan-Glover.
The girl was found dead in a creek in Wall Township on Nov. 22. Prosecutors said the toddler’s father, Arthur Morgan III, killed her during a court-approved visit by attaching a tire iron to her car seat to weigh it down before throwing it into the creek from an overpass.
The cause of death was determined to be homicidal violence, including submersion in water.
Morgan was later arrested on Nov. 29 by U.S. Marshals in California after receiving a tip he was staying with friends in the San Diego area.
Child welfare officials investigated the turbulent relationship between Morgan and the child’s mother four times in 13 months before she was found dead.
In Dec., the toddler’s great grandfather blamed the court system for not doing enough to prevent Tierra’s death.
“My granddaughter pleaded with these people not to allow an unsupervised visit. Yet in spite of her request it was denied,” the man said.
The girl’s mother, Imani Benton, said a case worker told the courts there was no reason to deny Morgan unsupervised visitation.
“I reached out to the Department of Youth and Family Services when he hit her and he admitted to hitting her and they still deemed him fit as a parent,” Benton said.
Blake now says caseworkers never consulted with the agency’s domestic violence liaison. They and supervisors also failed to follow-up on recommendations made by the special response unit which first investigated child abuse claims.
Morgan is charged with murder.
Source http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/08/nj-child-welfare-officials-faulted-in-handling-slain-toddlers-case-says-dyfs-commissioner/
Children and Families Commissioner Allison Blake on Tuesday released a review over how the agency handled the case of Tierra Morgan-Glover.
The girl was found dead in a creek in Wall Township on Nov. 22. Prosecutors said the toddler’s father, Arthur Morgan III, killed her during a court-approved visit by attaching a tire iron to her car seat to weigh it down before throwing it into the creek from an overpass.
The cause of death was determined to be homicidal violence, including submersion in water.
Morgan was later arrested on Nov. 29 by U.S. Marshals in California after receiving a tip he was staying with friends in the San Diego area.
Child welfare officials investigated the turbulent relationship between Morgan and the child’s mother four times in 13 months before she was found dead.
In Dec., the toddler’s great grandfather blamed the court system for not doing enough to prevent Tierra’s death.
“My granddaughter pleaded with these people not to allow an unsupervised visit. Yet in spite of her request it was denied,” the man said.
The girl’s mother, Imani Benton, said a case worker told the courts there was no reason to deny Morgan unsupervised visitation.
“I reached out to the Department of Youth and Family Services when he hit her and he admitted to hitting her and they still deemed him fit as a parent,” Benton said.
Blake now says caseworkers never consulted with the agency’s domestic violence liaison. They and supervisors also failed to follow-up on recommendations made by the special response unit which first investigated child abuse claims.
Morgan is charged with murder.
Source http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/08/nj-child-welfare-officials-faulted-in-handling-slain-toddlers-case-says-dyfs-commissioner/
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