"Doug" wrote in message hlink.net...
Dan Sullivan wrote:

Every fosterchild with disabilities in NYC who hasn't been checked on in
the
last four weeks should IMMEDIATELY be visited by the supervising agency to
ascertain their safety and living conditions.

Absolutely!

Is it mandated that fosterchildren be seen every four weeks?

In many states, yes.

You are such a bull****ter. You are either leaving the truth out from
malice, or ignorance.

The truth is that in permanent and group home, treatment centers, and
medical placement it can be as much as 90 days. The case recently
discussed here was a medical placement. I wonder what NY police is on
visits in such circumstances.

However, as the many newsstories posted to this
newsgroup attest,

I notice a dirth of news stories that point out when CPS workers are
doing their jobs well. I wonder why that is?

CPS workers are notoriously poor at conforming to home
visit requirements in their own agency polices. The federal USDHHS
investigators noted this failure in state audit after state audit.

And why, pray tell do you conceal the reason for this notoriously poor
performance about home visits? What you leave out is notorious in its
own right for misleading the reader.

Foster caregivers are very poorly supervised, which leads to a great deal of
unreported child abuse and neglect.

You could confine that to probably five states...yours apparently.
Most states have extraordinary supervision of foster parents using
special workers whose work is limited soley to certification and
supervision of those foster parents. They are the ONLY families on the
worker/certifier's case load.

There is a distinct set of reasons for caseworker's relunctance to make
homevisits to their foster caregiver caseload. Even though they are
announced visits, some of the foster caregivers make little effort to
straighten up before the visit.

I've heard that certifiers can make either announced or unannounced
visits. You still living in Lower Slobbovia are yah?

If the caseworker notices some problems in
the home or alarming behavior by the foster caregiver, they are supposed to
report the situation to the special division of the agency charged with
investigating foster establishments and group institutions.

And there is a huge number of "out of home" investigations (jargon for
foster home investigations) that are ongoing all the time. Ask real
foster parents about this, folks, instead of swallowing Doug's crap.

It's a standard rap from old time foster parents to newbies they
mentor that the new foster parent will not go a year without an
allegation and investigation.

Such reports
are frowned upon.

I would imagine it does create a workload problem.

Worse, cases that are reported are handled by the special
division without any feedback to the caseworker -- they are, more or less,
done in "secret."

Yep, for sure....Lower Slobbovia. In fact that is not how it happens
in most places. And investigation starts with a report, a written
narration, by the worker that lodges the allegation or that they have
received notice of an allegation from outside sources. And when the
investigation is completed a report much be placed in the file of the
foster parent. Are you seriously suggesting the worker won't have
access to that file?

Actually the worker, the investigators, and the foster parent get a
copy of the final report, or the foster parent has their licensed
jerked if the allegation is seen as founded.

Why do you continue this crap when you know there are people in this
and other ngs that know the truth, Doug? Just which of the fools here
are you jerkin' off?

The caseworker, who is trained in recognizing problems,
becomes more than a little distraught when the special division does not
appear to have done anything about the problem.

How did the special division suddenly become the supervisor of the
foster family? It is up to the worker or foster certifier to apply any
corrective measures with the foster parent. If the special division
(what a crock, you really aren't a CPS worker at all, are you....NO
one calls it the special division anywhere in the country)

Investigators don't DO anything about the problem, they just
investigate and report.

So, in a real way, many caseworkers dread home visits to fosters because
they don't want to be in a position to see what they anticipate (often,
wrongly) they may see.

I can imagine that is true, but not for the reasons you state. They
have the child to worry about and whether or not to pull the child out
of the home, when there is a terrible shortage of places for the child
to go to. They worry about the foster parent suing for a false
accusation. They worry that the conditions might be so bad they'll
have to not only take the foster children but the bio children of the
foster parent as well. They worry about a lot, Doug, not just the
little part you wish to relate that serves your sick purposes.

Even though office talk about fosters is often very negative and blaming, it
is politically incorrect to rock the boat formally.

In some areas of the country it is not only negative and blaming. The
workers misuse foster parents terribly, not informing them adequately
about the children coming into their care, forcing the foster parent
to bring the children to visits with hostile and dangerous bio family
members present, requiring the foster parent to do other difficult and
time consuming transport for which the foster parent gets no more than
the current 35.5 cents per mile using federal guidelines. And there is
a great deal more.

Since foster caregivers
are in short supply

Yep, and that helps explain some of the problem, now doesn't it.

and the agencies' funding is based upon how many
children it can keep in state custody, caseworkers perceive that
administrators view them as sacred cows.

Well then caseworkers are very very wrong, as investigations are
reported at the management, and if founded, the administrative level,
and they get their asses kicked out of fostering and maybe even do a
little jail time.

Caseworkers distinct bias against foster caregivers is not always
legitimate.

Ain't it d'truf.

Further, the workers perceptions of these "team" members are
often distorted views based upon an assumption that they oppose the goals
(plan) the caseworker has for the child.

Well, are you really going to pretend that this doesn't happen?

One of the bones of contention, discussed by me recently, was the
issue of moving children every few months. The reason is that foster
parents have lobbied for and gotten intervenor status in many states.
That means that even if a family member wishes to adopt they have to
compete against a foster parent with such status.

Think that doesn't create some friction? Well founded friction?

It often boils down to this: the worker wants what's best for the
child, while the foster parents thinks they know what's best and want
the child to have the best. ... in other words they think that because
they can give the child a better life than the parent they should have
the child. Some foster parents are notorious for this and if they
weren't in such short supply agencies would dump the asses of such
selfish bio-parent enemies.

The most common argument is that a
foster caregiver is interfearing with reunification efforts.

Like I said. Though you are off the mark. It isn't all that common,
just common enough to be a pain in the ass to everyone concerned.
Bios, workers, and other fosters that actually know how to foster and
respect who the child really belongs to until such time as rights are
terminated. Good foster parents also work well with relatives, helping
with visits, and supporting their efforts to adopt.

Again, the
caseworker's constuction of meaning from what they observe in foster
environments can be inaccurate.

Oh, but the foster's would never be, right?

By the way, you are lying. Most workers, unless they are brand new,
make very accurate assessments of what is going on in foster care that
supports or diminishes the direction of they case they must manage.

Nonetheless, mention of foster care within the CPS office usually invites
the language of the bordello.

Liar.

But the office gossip does not get formalized
in documentation and is not exchanged when "higher ups" are around.

Liar. It's a constant exchange between workers and their supervisors,
both about lousy foster parents and about good ones.

Publically, and among higher supervisors, caseworkers must maintain a
demeanor that puts foster caregivers on a pedestal.

Bull****. Consultations about problems with foster caregivers is an
everyday part of the worker and their supervisors and managers. So are
recognition of good foster caregivers.

And, since they are so
concerned about losing foster caregivers (they quit faster than they can be
recruited),

True. Most do so because they have trouble not wanting to wring the
necks of the parents of the injured children they see.

caseworkers maintain a "two-faced" approach to foster care.

You maybe, if you really are a CPS worker.

They are all smiles when a foster is around.

Silly ass. That is standard social behavior for ALL human beings, not
just workers. But if a foster parent is out of line professional
behavior is the rule of the day. Ask any foster parent, asshole. They
take their lumps when they have screwed up, just like anyone else
under supervision in any field.

Naturally, this perceived
neccessity to put on masks takes its toll on caseworkers. None of us like
feeling that we have to act artificially or refrain from saying what we
would like to say.

You need a shrink, badly. You just invoked the standard social skill
required of us all and tried to pass it off as some special burden
that only CPS workers have to shoulder. What an asshole.

Many caseworkers are truly involved in the system to help children.

Most, to my experience. Most are very good at it as well, despite
cruds like you.

Yet
they know first hand the problems within the foster care system overall

Wait a minute. You just got through saying they have trouble
interpreting accurately what goes on in fostering. Which is it?

Come to think of it I've rarely seen you post when you didn't trip
yourself up this way. It show so clearly what you are about.

and
the damage it often does to its wards.

They know that any taking of a child from his or her family, friends,
surroundings, always has risk of harm. It's standard CPS worker
training information. If they are MSW's with a speciality in child
welfare there is considerable education on the subject. The trick is
to way that harm against the possibility of greater harm including
risking death of the child.

You'd like people to believe (and you know you have a more than
willing audience here) that CPS workers, and the system is some
juryrigged off hand catch as catch can with no direction, no order, no
education, and nothing but inexperienced ninnies running it and
working at it.

Liar.

How did you learn to be so smarmy?

In some cases, obviously, a child
must be removed from her home and the caseworker makes the gut wrenching
decision to do so not unmindful of the possible danger the child faces in
state care.

Hyperbolic nonsense, unless you are talking about the gut wrenching
that happens to the parent and the child. CPS workers, like other
professionals, develop skills of coping that preclude having their
"guts wrenched." I don't like to think of people making such decisions
as being so sensitive and reactive...just like the surgeon that
operated on me. I wouldn't have let him had he been all emotional
about what he was about to do.

And I wouldn't want a CPS worker that was that unable to deal with his
or her feelings OUT OUT OUT. It will get people hurt or killed just as
surely as a quesy surgeon.

Have you the least idea of how sick you are?

The reaction to this classical "rock and a hard place" delemna
is often to blame individuals within the foster care system.

What a crock of ****. Most workers know perfectly well where the
problem actually lies. It lies with abusive neglectful parents that
create the situation in the first place. They know perfectly well that
the foster parents are caught in the same meat grinder they are.

Rather a lot of workers have extremely good working relationships with
foster parents as they know they have to rely on each other to get
through all the **** that comes with trying to clean up after the scum
that abuse their children.

Resentments
toward certain institutions and group homes ("residential treatment
centers") is even more pronounced among caseworkers.

The caseworkers you know must be extremely low class scum. There is
nothing but the usual professional respect and cautions attendant on
using any service among the treatment people and workers I know. Some
are good, some aren't, like in every other profession and business.

In the end, caseworkers are responsible for each child in their caseload.
They often feel uncomfortable about how some of the children are being
treated in alternative care. They hate to learn any specifics about it,
however, because there are no options available to rectify the situation.
Rock and a hard place.

Crock. A worker can pull a kid out of a treatment facility in the wink
of an eye if they think it's the wrong place for the child. I
counselled one to do that just a few months back. It took her 15
minutes to call and cancel all therapy and dispatch an aide to move
the child.

You are so full of it.

That aside, if there is one issue that comes out more than any other during
discussions of child welfare reform, it is the fact that CPS agency workers
are not visiting foster children enough.

And you've run out a line of **** that is supposed to explain that
with blame to the worker, instead of discussing exactly why they have
NO TIME to do all the visiting they are supposed to, plus court dates,
plus in service training, plus paperwork deadlines, plus the number of
cases they carry.

The feds have insisted that audited states improve in this area or loose
federal funding.

It's call "jump higher or we'll break the other leg."

The states where audits disclosed that visits were not
being made often enough (almost, if not all the states audited thus far)
must submit a written plan explaining how they are going to rectify the
problem.

Wait until the truth comes out.


If it isn't, then it should be.

How 'bout we all email staff writers Patricia Hurtado and Sean Gardiner at
Newsday and let them know how ACS let this child fall through the cracks.

Best, Dan Sullivan


Once upon a time caseworkers had time to see all their clients in any
given month. It was back about 1975. My first run in with a CPS worker
took place about then and I was amazed at how much time she had for
the case I was involved in. Astounding.

Caseloads now typically run upwards of 35, 40, even in some areas, 65
or more cases.

And the incidence of abuse isn't getting any better, though I note
that in sex abuse and child deaths the workers seem to just be holding
the line, nationally.

Given the increases in population what does that tell you about the
quality of worker and foster parent?

You have no shame at all, do you Doug?

Kane