On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:11:16 -0700, fx wrote:

Missing-child report pins bulk of blame on agency

By MELANIE AVE
Published July 18, 2007

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/18/St..._report_.shtml

The foster girl's caseworker may have been the one who failed to report
her missing to Florida law enforcement for four months.

But it was the state's child welfare system - and its lax procedures and
oversight - that bears most of the responsibility for errors in the case
of Courtney Clark, a 2-year-old former Pinellas County foster child who
disappeared with her mother for nine months, according to a state report
released Tuesday.

The interesting thing about this little article, is that if you trace
the story back, in an earlier rendition, the argument was that the
worker didn't report to the police "properly.
"

My guess? The cops monkey jumped. The claim they weren't told
"properly."

What crap.

The worker, as I recall, most certainly DID file a missing child
report with the police, with all the details needed to look for her.

The real question should be, just what do the police DO with that
information when they are told IT'S A FAMILY MEMBER THAT HAS THE
CHILD, A MOTHER IN FACT?

Do you think they put out a high priority alert? No puckering way, my
friend. A routine, watch for the following, etc. etc. etc. with NO
public release of information.

At that point, it's OUT of CPS hands. CPS has NO mandate to go looking
for missing children.

It's about time you assholes stopped your lying about such things.

You remind me of Fern, that insisted that CPS do Midnight Basketball
programs.

CPS hires nor are they allowed to hire, employees to do missing
persons detective work. THEY ARE MANDATED TO HAND IT OVER TO THE
POLICE AND THEY DO.

And paperwork wise, and response wise, there is not a lick of
difference between the "special form" for reporting a child missing
out of foster care, and a missing child report with a family member
involved.

And there is not a lick of difference in how the police handle it.

They just covered their ass with, 'well you didn't turn in the proper
form.'

I suspect you knew that if you actually read the article. And followed
this at all.

The Florida Department of Children and Families, its nonprofit
contractor, the Sarasota Family YMCA, and the YMCA's subcontractor,
Directions for Mental Health in Clearwater, all failed to care for and
protect Courtney, according to a 39-page report released by the DCF
inspector general's office.

Picking someone to throw to the wolves, politically. If I was the
worker, I'd sue the **** out of the inspector general.

The mother showed up and KIDNAPPED the child. NO ARMED GUARDS are kept
over foster homes. No foster parent should even attempt to stop a
parent showing up, but simply call the cops.

Did that foster parent? Check the news, bunky.

While some individuals "should be held accountable" for mistakes, the
report attributed the ultimate failure to be "poorly established
protocols within the provisions of the contract, lack of proper
oversight, weak internal controls, and ineffective communication by all
parties involved."

LACK OF RESOURCES WRITTEN ALL OVER IT. You have to have people, you
have to have infrastructure...ways to get the information from one
place to another. It COST PUCKERING MONEY. A great lot of it in these
times of inflation.

All three agencies lacked due diligence and a sense of urgency, the
report concluded.

Among its recommended changes:

* DCF should oversee its subcontractors more closely and
specifically be required to approve a subcontractor's policies.

I'd like to see the actual contracts and the wording that shows there
is no approval of the subs policies. I think it's bull****.

* Workers should take immediate action when a child's safety is in
question.

R R R R R .... really now. WHAT immediate action? They get a report
the mother has the child. Of course the mother is waiting around for
the worker and cops to show up. Brother.

* Employees should be trained on how to properly report missing
children.

And have time to do it.

And the cops need to be trained not to waffle. They damn well KNEW it
was a foster child abduction by a parent from the missing child report
that WAS turned in.

Gosh, if the worker used the right form and forgot to cross two t's
would that also apply?

The review also faulted a home study, done by the Seminole County
Sheriff's Office, for not being "detailed enough" about previous
allegations of sexual abuse at the foster home where Courtney was living.

But but but, right in this newsgroup a family rights advocate claimed
that POLICE are better trained to investigate than CPS investigators.
How could this possibly BE? (of course we know that when the LE
investigators began their child protection work THEY HAD TO HIRE
WORKERS AWAY FROM DCF TO PARTNER UP WITH THEM.)

The problem is not the agency or the workers. IT'S THE PUCKERING
POLITICIANS AND THEIR sycophants that constantly demand more and more
of what makes CPS run less and less well.

Why must anyone "fill out the right form" with the LE when a child
goes missing for them to take action?

Because of "inexcusable" errors in the case, DCF Secretary Bob
Butterworth previously announced the hiring of five missing-children
workers and the formation of a committee to study cracks in the foster
system.

Oh brother. POLITICS AGAIN. No bobbie boy. Leave the missing children
problem to the proper agency THE PUCKERING POLICE.

Hire more REGULAR workers so the ones that are overloaded with have
their case numbers reduced and well be less prone to error thereby.

The case is a wake-up call that shows DCF needs to hold the 20 private
agencies that provide foster care, like the YMCA, more accountable, he said.

Well, duh!

"I don't think we have been as hands-on as we should have been,"
Butterworth said. "I do not believe we are providing the oversight ...
or requiring as much accountability as we should."

The whole idea of moving foster care to the private sector was to
improve services and cut costs. Did they?

NO, of course not. The improvement could have been done more cheaply
by investing in MORE WORKERS WITH LESS CASELOAD to more closely follow
placement families.

This has been the stupid pattern for 30 years and more. Keep diddling
about instead of simply dealing with what IS the problem. Too many
cases, too few workers.

Stop changing what workers do and giving away money to contractors
that do NOT follow through. They will NEVER be accountable because if
they screw up, they can and do walk away, then open up under another
name after disolving the first corporation. That's how it works.

And shouldn't.

The one thing you can be sure of is that if the person responsible for
oversight of a foster home IS A PUCKERING EMPLOYEE is that you can
make them accountable.

And they can't walk away, change their name, and come back for their
old job.

In June, police found Courtney and two younger sisters safe, but living
amid a grisly scene in a two-story rental home in Wisconsin. Police also
discovered there a scalded and starving 11-year-old boy and the buried
body of his 36-year-old mother.

Four people, including Courtney's mother, Candice Farris, 23, who took
the girl from foster care in Lake County, are jailed on murder and child
abuse charges. The children are in the custody of Wisconsin child welfare.

So we have a mother that is a criminal, and likely not a little
skilled at avoiding detection, takes her child, runs, and IT'S
PUCKERING CPS FAULT. An agency that has NO police force internally?

They cannot put a guard on foster homes and the children in them.

They cannot put "detectives out there," nor should they...bobbie boy
is doing the 'gesture' genuflect to the legislature.

CPS missing child investigators......R R R R R R R R R R

Well I suppose he could hire the cops who were supposed to respond to
a missing child report no matter what form was used. And train them.

The inspector general report is the third review of the case. A June 20
YMCA report called for additional training of workers.

When I knew workers one of the greatest bitches they had was that when
they went to trainings NO ONE COVERED THEIR CASELOAD. Come back three
days later and their actual workload was so bad they had to do 60-80
weeks to catch up.

Why? WORKER SHORTAGE.

DCF's internal June 26 review faulted several agencies, including itself
and the YMCA for failing to follow proper procedures.

I think it's long past time for CPS and their adminstrators to stand
up on their hind legs and tell all these critical assholes to SHOVE IT
UP THEIR SORRY ASSES.

Do NOT tell CPS to do things it can't by way of shortages, and LACK OF
PROPER MANDATE, unless the critics are willing to come in and DO THE
PUCKERING WORK for a few months.


[Last modified July 18, 2007, 01:33:29]


The population CPS deals with is not a controlled body of people.

They cannot imprison them to control them.

Even the cops, WHO CAN DO SO, cannot completely control their
population of 'clients.'

Not without a very expensive infrastructure, and a great many bodies
to guard the 'clients.'

Why is CPS expected to have that kind of control over people they
cannot incarcerate?




CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...