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Fix Texas' foster care fix
Fix Texas' foster care fix
What's next for children in system? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...k/5786985.html By STEWART GAGNON and RON LEWIS Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle As the state labors to find "the best temp-orary placements" for the 463 children recently removed from the Eldorado polygamist compound, Texas' overburdened foster care system is under scrutiny once again. The influx of so many children at one time is straining a foster care system already struggling with funding shortages, high staff turnover and a patchwork approach to advocating for children already in the system. The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) reports that roughly a quarter of its completed investigations in 2007 resulted in confirmed cases of abuse or neglect involving 71,344 Texas children. Today, about 31,000 are the legal responsibility of DFPS and reside in temporary or permanent foster care or other supervised living arrangements. About half, almost 15,000 children, are in the permanent care of the state. As a practical matter, the state must now "parent" these children who, on average, will spend almost four years in foster care and experience multiple foster care placements. Many of them will not leave foster care until they are considered adults by the system at age 18. In 2005, state lawmakers tried to address the front end of the crisis facing Texas children by providing another $250 million to Texas Child Protective Services to hire more than 3,200 new investigative caseworkers, supervisors and support staff to better handle mushrooming investigative caseloads. As a result, the number of children removed from dangerous situations increased by 4,000 between 2004 and 2006. Unfortunately, there was no corresponding increase in the number of caseworkers to check on children's progress once in foster care. Texas CPS caseworkers monitor, on average, more than 40 children in foster care, while the national average caseload is closer to 25. As a state, Texas is accountable for ensuring that the children in our foster care system receive the services they need. Already victims of family separation and trauma, these children face a host of other problems: • Disruption due to multiple foster care placements — with one young woman reporting as many as 15 placements and 11 caseworkers during her four years in Texas foster care. • A corresponding increase in school transfers for foster children, with greater potential for learning disabilities to go undiagnosed and special education needs to go unmet. • Greater likelihood of disciplinary referrals at school — 37 percent of Texas' foster children are disciplined at school compared with 15 percent of the general school population. If unaddressed, these behavioral issues can lead to later involvement in the juvenile justice system. • Inadequate services and insufficient advocacy for foster children around medical treatment, visitation with separately placed siblings, mental health issues and living environments. • Inadequate support services once they "age out" of the foster care system at age 18. Texas' foster care system faces critical challenges — including inadequate funding, a shortage of caseworkers to advocate for children in the foster care system, caseworker turnover rates approaching 35 percent and lack of support for foster children once they "age out" of the system. In coming months, the newly created Supreme Court Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families and its collaborative council of experts from state and nonprofit child welfare agencies and advocacy groups will examine ways to better serve children in the state's foster care system. The Eldorado case presents an unprecedented, one-time challenge to find foster care placements for hundreds of children. However, the 463 children removed represent only 1.5 percent of the total number of children in the legal custody of DFPS in 2007. Foster care in Texas has ongoing, systemic challenges that must be addressed if we are to ensure that no child is forgotten. We must ask ourselves, is the state doing as good a job as we would expect of ourselves in parenting our own children? If the answer is no, we need to ask, "Why not?" If we don't speak up to improve the lives of foster children, we are failing in our most basic of responsibilities — and these children do not have anyone else. Gagnon, a Houston-based attorney, is a member of the Texas Supreme Court Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families. Lewis, also an attorney, is chair of Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit, public-interest law organization based in Austin. 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... |
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