Indiana’s Child Protective Services makes reforms....

State Child Protective Services makes reforms
Monroe County officials express support for changes
Emily Gibbons

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=43883


Changes in Indiana’s Department of Child Protective Services are being
applauded by public officials.

Lindsey Smith, director of the Monroe County Department of Child
Protective Services, said when Gov. Mitch Daniels was elected, two of
his first official acts in office were creating the Department of Child
Protective Services and hiring Judge James Payne as the state director
of the department.

“I've been here through about four or five state directors now, and none
of them have been able to initiate the type of things that Judge Payne
has been doing,” Smith said.

The changes by Child Protective Services include an increase in the
number of caseworkers, intensive training programs and new laws that
will provide caseworkers with the necessary tools to better protect
children.

A new law went into effect July 1 that allows caseworkers from Child
Protective Services to remove perpetrators from homes instead of the
children being victimized.

Indiana State Sen. Richard Bray, District 37, who co-authored the bill,
said he wants this law to be used as a tool to further assist Indiana
caseworkers in the fight against child abuse.

The law will be used to try to prevent further tragedies, such as the
June 23 incident in which a 15-year-old girl stabbed her mother’s
boyfriend Michael E. Lewis, 38, in her Bloomington home.

Donna Crawford, stepmother of the girl and the girl’s twin sister, said
she filed several complaints with child protective services prior to the
stabbing, but nothing was done to remove Lewis from the home.

“They should remove the perpetrator,” Crawford said. “The kids aren’t at
fault.”

Bray said one major source of child abuse in Indiana is live-in boyfriends.

“If the mother is allowing that boyfriend to stay in the first place,
that is obviously a problem,” Bray said. “So this law enables
caseworkers to remove the boyfriend and make it a Class A misdemeanor if
he returns, so he can be sent to jail, whether the mother allowed him to
return or not.”

Family Case Manager Darcy Durbin said that, although it cannot be used
in every situation, the law allows caseworkers to keep the family together.

Durbin said evidence shows keeping families together has better
long-term results, so beginning this fall, the Monroe County Department
of Child Protective Services will be following the state trend and
reorganizing itself to initiate Family Case Conferencing, which allows
families to be involved throughout the child protective process and
enables them to make decisions about how they think their problem can be
resolved.

“It is going to completely change the way we do business,” Smith said.
“We can get the families involved in what they need to do, and it allows
us to keep families together and to hold parents more responsible for
how they nurture and care for their children.”

Though representatives from Child Protective Services would not comment
on specific cases directly, Durbin said some calls cannot be
investigated due to legal restrictions. Durbin said all calls that meet
the legal requirements are investigated within a time period of between
one hour and five days.

Crawford still feels that Child Protection Services should assist her
stepdaughter by turning over the reports she made as evidence of the
abuse the twins were receiving.

“(Child Protective Services) needs to tell (the family of the daughters)
they’re sorry,” Crawford said. “The girls have talked to caseworkers,
and they felt like they were abandoned by everyone.”

Durbin said Payne is working to double the number of caseworkers in
Indiana so more energy can be put into each and every case.

“The caseload size for an ongoing worker is between 30 and 50 cases,”
Durbin said. “So the hiring of the caseworker staff has been the biggest
initiative ever. We were around 400 caseworkers for the whole state, and
Judge Payne is trying to get us up to 800 caseworkers.”

Smith said the state is putting restrictions on every worker’s caseload,
effective July 1, 2008. Investigators are allowed 12 cases at a time,
and ongoing service workers will be moving from 30 to 50 cases at a time
to being allowed no more than 17 cases at a time.

Bray said he hopes these new restrictions will help the administration
find caseworkers who are prepared for the job.

“It’s hard to make a bad mother into a good mother, and it is just as
hard to make a bad caseworker into a good caseworker,” Bray said. “So
with these new restrictions, hopefully the administration will be able
to weed out the good from the bad.”




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...