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CA -- Missing foster youths, families reunited
Missing foster youths, families reunited
By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 01/13/2008 10:20:28 PM PST http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_7963921 Placed in a group home after attempting suicide, Maria, a 16-year-old runaway and "cutter," hopped a Greyhound bus to Baja California to live with her sister. She had settled in Mexico, but when she became pregnant, she began missing her family and friends and longed to return home to finish high school. The opportunity came when a social worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services - one of a cadre of 92 retired and part-time DCFS employees working to locate the county's missing foster children - finally located Maria. After a flurry of letters and phone conversations, Maria recently returned to her mother's Canoga Park home. "I got happy and hugged her. She hugged me back, and she kind of cried," said Maria, who asked that her last name be kept confidential because of the sensitive nature of her story. The family reunion is just one of dozens since 2005 when once a runaway from Palmdale, Krystina Kessler, asked county supervisors to investigate why so many children were missing from the nation's largest child-protective system. Using a series of innovative search methods, DCFS since has located hundreds of missing foster children. While DCFS listed 505 foster children as runaways in early 2006, by late last year that number had dropped to 285. The drop also came as the number of children in foster care - for the first time since the department was created in 1984 - dropped below 20,000, down from a peak in 1998 of more than 50,000. "I'm elated the department has aggressively pursued the missing children," said Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who brought the motion to find the missing youths. "It's a positive step forward in reuniting children with their families." Kessler is now 18 and attending college with a goal of becoming a children's court attorney and working to reform the child welfare system. She supports the gains but said she's also concerned that many runaways simply have aged out of the system. Of 2,195 youths now receiving services, 76 have returned to their parents' homes and exited the system, 57 are living with parents but still under court supervision, and DCFS is working to return an additional 192 home. A total of 12 have been adopted, 10 are going through adoption proceedings and 255 have consented to be adopted. Another 252 children are in the process of being placed with legal guardians, and 1,216 are in foster homes. Meanwhile, Antonovich is requesting the public's help in locating the remaining 285 missing children, and their names and photos are located on the Web at www.missingkidsla.org. Anyone with information about their whereabouts is asked to call 800-540-4000. After Kessler told supervisors that many children were fleeing because the foster homes were not compatible, DCFS created a special program to work with the six-person Runaway Outreach Unit to find missing youths. Using a $50,000 grant from the state, DCFS began hiring retired and part-time social workers, and DCFS Director Trish Ploehn said officials learned that many of the children running away were among 14,000 children in long-term foster care. About 95 percent of the runaways are ages 14 to 17, and 75 percent are girls. The majority of children who flee the system return to live with family and friends. A smaller proportion wind up on the streets, working as prostitutes or engaged in criminal behavior to survive. Others flee the state, with many heading to Las Vegas, officials say. "It became very apparent to us that it was a very poor decision to bring a child into the foster-care system and then leave them to grow up in foster care," Ploehn said. "So we wanted to focus on finding permanent homes for these children." Tiffany Collins, manager of the special county program to find the missing youths, directed her social workers to dig through old case files and pound the pavement to find family members, relatives and friends who might know where the children were. They've also relied on MySpace.com and US Search, which offers child welfare agencies special tools to find missing foster children and their family and friends. "We find that oftentimes these teenagers are out of contact with us, but they are staying in contact with family and friends through MySpace," Collins said. "The US Search technology allows us to not only search for known people, but it gives us clues about people the child is interested in connecting with from the past, which is very powerful for us." After a meeting with social workers and family members, a plan was developed to treat Maria for her depression and help her overcome her "cutting" behavior. She's now back in school, receiving prenatal care and living with her mother. "I used to be very worried when my daughter was gone and I didn't know where she was at," her mother said. "Now, I'm happy that she is home and safe." The worker who located her, Elizabeth Ellwein, says the program has not only helped reunite some of the county's most troubled children with their families, but also has energized social workers, who say they are finally getting to do what they went to college for - helping others. "If you ask any ... worker, you'll get a positive response: `I'm finally doing social work again,"' Ellwein said. "I feel like we now have the luxury of spending as much time as needed to make a difference in these kids' lives. We are not constantly just putting out fires and dealing with crises. "Our whole emphasis is to get the case, look in every nook and cranny for the clues that will help us find these kids. And once we find them, I think every child needs to have a permanent home, a permanent family, who they can share their sorrows and joys with, and this program is going to give kids that opportunity." Like Ellwein, Kessler wants to see children find permanent homes. Since her initial appeal to supervisors, she has returned asking for help in recruiting more adoptive parents. "I really think the only ways things are going to really, really change is when people start coming forward and opening their homes up for adoption," she said. CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS.... 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 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. 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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