A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » alt.parenting » Spanking
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Richard Wexler: Taking away too many children weakens system



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old June 10th 08, 07:48 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
fx
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,848
Default Richard Wexler: Taking away too many children weakens system

Richard Wexler
Taking away too many children weakens system
Posted: June 8, 2008


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...7/1002/OPINION


It is tempting to look at the tragic deaths of TaJanay Bailey, and
Destiny Linden as opposites. After all, Tajanay died after being
returned to an abusive home, while Destiny died in foster care, after
being taken from a mother whose only crime was to be attacked by her
boyfriend.

These cases conjure up images of a swinging pendulum, in which policy
vacillates from taking too many children to doing too much to keep
families together. But the data show that in Indiana it's almost
exclusively a one-way pendulum.
Advertisement

From 2000 to 2005, the number of children taken from their homes in
Indiana each year soared by more than 40 percent. The number inched down
slightly in 2006, the most recent year for which data reported to the
federal government are available. But odds are removals spiked again
after TaJanay died in 2007 -- as workers terrified of having the next
such case on their caseloads rushed to tear apart even more families.

But such foster care panics don't work in reverse. There was no pressure
to reduce removals in the wake of the death of Felix Chen, the
Bloomington boy needlessly taken from his mother in 2004, only to die in
foster care.

That's because deaths of children in their own homes almost always lead
to scapegoating efforts to keep families together, while deaths in
foster care are written off as aberrations. So the pendulum swings only
from taking away too many children to taking away far too many children.

And that is almost certainly the root cause of both recent tragedies.

It's easy to see how a take-the-child-and-run mentality could contribute
to the death of Destiny, of course. But the needless removal of children
from their homes overloads the entire system. Caseworkers lack the time
to investigate any case properly. So even obvious warning signs are
ignored. That's almost always the main reason for tragedies like the
death of TaJanay.

So these cases are not opposites. Wrongful removal drives everything else.

Unfortunately, when public pressure forced change in child welfare,
Indiana opted for bigger instead of better. The state hired new
caseworkers, without a comprehensive reform plan built around keeping
families together. So new caseworkers chased after new cases needlessly
brought into the system.

And now it seems the state is repeating its error. The Department of
Child Services has a "domestic violence team" that apparently is
clueless about the harm to children when they are taken from battered
mothers. The trauma of being torn from everyone loving and familiar is
bad enough under normal circumstances. But when the child is taken from
a battered mother it is much worse. A young child feels he is being
punished, so somehow he must be responsible for the abuse.

That's why a class-action lawsuit in New York City banned this
pernicious practice. One expert testified that, for a child, being taken
from his mother just because the mother was beaten is "tantamount to
pouring salt into an open wound." Apparently, the approach of DCS' new
domestic violence team boils down to "please pass the salt."

And the phony solutions don't stop there. There is not a shred of
evidence that children are safer in states that have child welfare
ombudsmen. For families under assault by the system, ombudsmen almost
always make things worse. They ignore wrongful removal and often get
into contests with child welfare agency chiefs over who can look tougher
on child abuse.

To really fix child welfare, we all have to become ombudsmen. We've all
learned a lot about the enormous power and arrogance of child welfare
agencies from the recent debacle in Texas, where more than 400 children
were taken from a polygamist sect's ranch. But we learned it, in part,
because in Texas, court hearings in these cases are open. That must
become the norm in every state. Most records should be open, and any law
supposedly requiring DCS to keep silent in the name of confidentiality
should be repealed.

The other lesson from Texas is the urgent need for meaningful due
process. What a difference it makes when families have lawyers with
reasonable caseloads and time to provide real representation.

After four years of posturing, let the death of Destiny Linden not be in
vain; let it be the catalyst for real reform.




An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"

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

every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

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

Perpetrators of Maltreatment

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

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.

THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST

Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia

http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6

This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.

http://www.jbs.org/node/4632

Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail

FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler

http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc

HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN

http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html

Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News

http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm

A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca

30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed

Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.

The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991

Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing.

This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.

Front-page story in USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close

Read the studies online.

Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"

http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm

MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"

http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf

Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports:

www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren

The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...

CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....

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

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR 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...
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Toward a 'third way' for the children of Eldorado,By Johana Scotand Richard Wexler fx Foster Parents 0 May 14th 08 06:16 AM
Child welfare system needs dose of sanity By RICHARD WEXLER fx Spanking 0 July 19th 07 08:53 AM
Child welfare system needs dose of sanity By RICHARD WEXLER fx Foster Parents 0 July 19th 07 08:53 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 04:10 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.