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CA -- Missing foster youths, families reunited



 
 
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Old January 14th 08, 10:46 PM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default 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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