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Foster Mom Calls Foster Care System a Trainwreck
Foster Mom Calls Foster Care System a Trainwreck
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/l...storyid=101345 JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Each year, more than 130,000 children call Florida's foster care system home. At one time, one of them was Rilya Wilson. In April 2002, Wilson disappeared. She was missing more than 15 months before the Department of Children and Families even realized she was gone. Wilson's case sparked major changes inside the DCF. The changes were made to protect and provide better care for foster kids, but ask a woman we will call Lisa, if she thinks that system is working. "I wish I would have never got into it. I could have just took care of my kids and been fine." Lisa has asked us not to identify her. She is a foster parent in Duval County. She has cared for at least eight children in the last year. "They need a wakeup call," Lisa says of the embattled system. She says that wake up call came in 2007 when one of her foster kids died while in her care. She says the death was preventable. The child drowned while in the bathtub. The investigation is still open with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Lisa says she didn't have CPR training before she started taking in foster children. While some states require all foster parents to go through CPR training before housing children, Florida does not. "I think it might have saved her life if I had the training," says Lisa. "Anytime we have a tragedy like that we sit back and re-examine what we could have done better," says Jim Adams of Family Support Services or FSS. Adams is in charge of FSS, which is contracted out by the DCF to place kids in foster homes, to check on those homes and to train foster parents. "We're dealing with a system that was fairly broken and said here fix it," says Adams. He says while things are much better, the system is still a work in progress. Lisa calls the system a trainwreck, one that did not provide even basic training. Lisa says she applied to be a foster parent in February 2007. She says she went to a week long course that was required called MAPP or Model Approach to Positive Parenting. "We read things out of a booklet on how to take care of a child and what not to do," says Lisa. When asked if there was any other training, Lisa said no. "There should have been an orientation right after she got her license which explains the role of the case workers... what to expect," says Adams. Lisa says she was told she had to go through a background check and an orientation would then be scheduled, but that orientation didn't happen. "It was April when they called me about 11 o'clock at night. They called me to place a child with me and I was like wow I didn't even know I was approved," says Lisa. She says she got a license from the state, she got letters in the mail from those who were to do her training, but there was still no orientation. While her license states she was to have no more than two kids in her home at a time, Lisa says many times she was caring for more. First Coast News has also learned Lisa was missing an important log book that foster parents should have. Case workers have to sign the log when they visit a child in the home. Lisa says it wasn't until months after she started taking in foster kids that a case worker realized a log was missing. "When she came, she asked me where was my booklet, and I told her I don't know what she was talking about. She was like have you been through orientation. I was like no, I've been waiting on that. So, I guess she told her supervisor. She came back and told me they were getting to me, a lot of people quit and got fired, and that's why I never had it," says Lisa. Jim Adams says that is not how the system is to work. "If she didn't have the signature book verifying the case worker came out and saw the child, it's unacceptable. We contract out five of the top child welfare agencies in Jacksonville. All are diligent in what they do, but if one of them dropped the ball on this, then it could seriously impact their contract with us," says Adams. Lisa's book has only one signature in it for August 24, 2007. By that time, Lisa was housing foster kids for at least four months. "When you deal with 3,000 children and 32 new ones coming in a week, it's not acceptable. Could it have happened....we will certainly look at it. If it was a drop, we will take action," says Adams. Lisa's attorney, Bob Davis, says it does not surprise him to see a slip in the cracks. "I've even seen cases where DCF workers put mom is non-compliant with the case plan, and she was deceased," says Davis. A system with a history of problems. A system Lisa says set her up to fail. Jim Adams' reply to that, "I'll say it again, the foster care system has leaps and bounds to go." FSS says it is investigating and if wrong doing is found action will be taken. First Coast News has also learned that since we started asking questions about the training of foster parents, FSS has decided to ask the state to make CPR training a requirement. Lisa's biological children have been taken away from her. She is trying to get them back. The state says the children were removed from Lisa's home for reasons other than just the drowning of the foster child. 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 the .pdf or Word.doc 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 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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