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GRANBURY, Texas – :Frustrated foster parents giving up Embattled system losing homes as tensions rise over state rules that defy common sense!...



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 6th 07, 06:45 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
fx
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,848
Default GRANBURY, Texas – :Frustrated foster parents giving up Embattled system losing homes as tensions rise over state rules that defy common sense!...


Frustrated foster parents giving up

Embattled system losing homes as tensions rise over rules

12:22 AM CDT on Monday, August 6, 2007

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...r.3903d0f.html


GRANBURY, Texas – Texas foster parents say they are so frustrated by
state rules that defy common sense that many are quitting, just as Texas
needs more families to care for abused and neglected children.

Laundry detergent has to be locked up, even if a home has no small
children, foster parents and private agencies say. State workers
frequently insist that foster parents get the birth parents' permission
for children's haircuts.


Link: Read the full report on payments to foster parents, conducted by
social workers at the City University of New York

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/n...e-payments.pdf

And sleepovers, a staple of a normal childhood, are often prohibited
until criminal background checks can be run on people in the host
households.

Beyond those everyday concerns, the caretakers say, a sense of
powerlessness pervades their work. Their families' privacy is invaded,
record-keeping is burdensome, training classes offer little practical
advice, and experienced foster parents have to endure finger-wagging
lectures from young state workers, many of whom have never cared for
children themselves.

"They want us to be free, quiet baby sitters," said foster mother
Shannon Waters of Granbury. She and her husband, Bill, quit fostering in
April after out-of-town workers from Child Protect Services showed
flagrant disrespect for their home's safety, the couple says.

As rules filter through the bureaucracy of the foster care system,
they're distorted into irksome demands, such as those about sleepovers,
haircuts and detergents – which officials say aren't actually required,
though the state doesn't apologize about enforcing detailed rules.

"We strive to treat each foster parent with respect," said Patrick
Crimmins, spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective
Services, which oversees CPS and the Child Care Licensing office that
inspects and investigates child-care providers. "However, we are the
legal parents of these children and bear the ultimate responsibility for
their safety, security and well-being."

It's a constant tension that has only increased as the state responds to
stories of abuse and deaths of foster children that the system failed to
prevent. Recently, CPS workers have had more trouble finding homes for
seriously disturbed children.

This year, more than 500 youngsters – mostly teens who have churned
through 10 or more foster homes – have spent nights in CPS offices, with
caseworkers watching them. CPS says it's slowly getting a handle on the
problem, but judges who oversee the removal of children from their birth
families say that as an added complication, foster youths are still
being shipped too far from their home communities, creating hardships
for them, relatives and advocates.

Trust is quickly eroding. Some foster parents say they simply don't
think CPS is honest about the extent of a child's behavioral problems,
so desperate are caseworkers to find beds for children. Mr. Crimmins
said CPS workers are "absolutely not" withholding information about
children during placements.

But foster parents such as Mrs. Waters say that if the cycle continues,
the chronic shortage of suitable homes will only get worse.

"Everybody's saying the same thing," said Mrs. Waters, who recruited
several friends into fostering and knows foster parents in several North
Texas counties: "It's not worth it any more to take the risks and be
treated the way we are."

The state does not keep reliable data on how many foster families quit
the system, a deficiency Mr. Crimmins blamed on a lack of information
from the child-placement agencies the state has hired.

But Texas Foster Family Association president Roy Block of San Antonio
said experienced foster parents are the ones abandoning the work.

"Those are folks we can't afford to lose," Mr. Block said.

This is the story of two therapeutic group foster homes in North Texas.
Parents at each agreed to talk about their experiences, despite their
fears of possible retaliation by state employees as the parents seek to
continue providing foster care or even try to win approval to adopt
children.

They said things won't improve, though, if every foster parent stays silent.

Disruptive child

Shannon and Bill Waters can tell you exactly when they snapped. It was
Labor Day weekend last year. That Friday night, CPS workers in Fort
Worth contacted the Waterses' agency, Lutheran Social Services, to try
to place a boy in their home.

Ten months later, relations between the couple and CPS are so frayed
that much about what happened is in dispute. They agree, though, that
minutes after he arrived, the 16-year-old became disruptive. "It was
kind of an iffy placement," Mr. Crimmins acknowledged.

Said Mrs. Waters: "We were stuck with a child who should have never been
in a home" but instead in a larger institution or treatment center.

She and her husband say CPS withheld vital information about the boy,
whose two younger siblings were already in their home: He was high on
methamphetamine and had a black eye and scratches on his face from a
fresh altercation with police. Also, the CPS worker who delivered the
boy reneged on a promise to first test him for drug use, then hurriedly
left, the Waterses said, even after they expressed second thoughts about
keeping the boy.

Mr. Crimmins said the worker never promised the drug test. And while the
boy "was exhibiting some disruptive behavior" shortly after arriving at
the home in a lakefront subdivision near Granbury, "the parents accepted
the placement," he said.

The spokesman said CPS officials are unsure whether the boy was high on
drugs or had facial wounds when placed. "There was full disclosure," he
said.

Mrs. Waters said the boy – 6-feet-1 and at least 220 pounds – threatened
violence against other children in the 10-member household throughout
the weekend. At night, she and her husband, shaken and fearful, locked
the younger children in their bedroom, she said. On Monday, she called
police and had the boy removed.

The Waterses say they had a good relationship with the workers at CPS'
Granbury office and have taken on hard cases to help them. But as for
other CPS workers, "I no longer believed anything that they told me,"
said Mrs. Waters, 33.

Her husband added: "They lie to you."

Mr. Waters, 47, sells heating and air conditioning systems to building
contractors. Following his wife's lead, he has helped nurture more than
70 foster children since 2000.

He said he gets infuriated reading press accounts of bad foster parents,
sometimes described as in it for the money. Foster parents are paid
between $21 and $82 a day per child, depending on the child's problems.
For most children, the daily payment is less than $25.

"If we ever had a month where we broke even, I was a happy camper," he said.

Unwanted scrutiny

Some child-placing agency executives say help-wanted ads buried deep in
newspapers' classified sections are the single best tool for recruiting
potential foster parents. But the front page hooked Dianna Nelson.

She recalled devouring news coverage three years ago of the deaths of
Arlington's Davontae Williams, who was 9 but weighed only 35 pounds
after being starved by his mother and her girlfriend; and Amber Rose
Pacheco, 5, who was left brain dead at the hands of an abusive
stepfather and mother in Dallas. Both children's homes had extensive
histories with CPS, raising questions about the quality of its
investigations.

Ms. Nelson, 57, is a grandmother and devout Baptist. "God kind of tugged
on my heart and said, 'You know, maybe you need to do something about
this,' " she recalled.

She did, though at a cost.

During the 14 months it took Ms. Nelson and her then-husband to be
approved as foster parents, he grew angry about social workers'
questions about their sex life, she said. Though the questions asked by
employees of Youth in View, a Dallas-based child-placing agency, are
routine, Ms. Nelson said the scrutiny and the stress of their first few
foster children speeded the couple toward divorce.

Ms. Nelson quit her job as a swing trader in stock options and waded in
deeper. She applied to run a group home so she could care for more
children. (A regular home can have no more than six.) Today, she has
eight at her new home in Anna in Collin County.

To comply with state-prescribed caregiver ratios, Ms. Nelson hired a
veteran foster mother as her assistant.

Last fall, she successfully fought a CPS worker who wanted to transfer
out of her home a group of five black siblings, ages 6 to 13. The CPS
worker and her boss expressed concern the children weren't progressing
steadily and didn't have enough black cultural influence in their lives.

Ms. Nelson said all five children face special challenges, but their
teachers and therapists confirmed they had made many gains in only seven
months in her home. Ms. Nelson said she and her assistant, who is black,
have bought the children books, magazines and recordings popular with
black audiences.

The threat of another move upset the children, and for Ms. Nelson, it
was an emotionally bruising battle.

"It set us back in trust and love," she said.

Ms. Nelson, who is active in Republican organizations, said she has
taught all her foster children about the stock market and how to write
their members of Congress. She pushes them in their schoolwork. But she
said the state makes it hard to impose discipline.

If a child is destroying property, for instance, the state frowns on
using restraints unless the child is a threat to himself or others. Mr.
Crimmins, the CPS spokesman, said restraint "is generally not best
practice" but is allowed in certain circumstances.

Said Ms. Nelson: "I've learned to live with holes in my house and broken
brooms."

'Punitive and picky'

The bureaucracy of the foster-care system makes matters worse, foster
parents say. The rules are onerous to start with and only get more rigid
as they filter through the state workers who license private foster-care
agencies and CPS workers who advise foster parents.

The foster care industry says unreasonable enforcement makes it hard to
keep foster parents.

Irene Clements, vice president for family services at Lutheran Social
Services, the state's biggest foster-care contractor, doesn't object to
spot inspections the Legislature mandated in 2005. But too often, she
said, licensing representatives conduct the checks in a way that's
demeaning – and demoralizing.

She said state workers spent four hours checking conditions at a Central
Texas group home in July, only to cite the foster mother for dust on her
ceiling fan and a newly sprouted ant mound in her yard.

"It's just so punitive and picky," said Ms. Clements, a 27-year foster
parent. "As long as the children are receiving quality care, why are we
writing down dusty ceiling fans?"

Mr. Block, the head of the Texas Foster Family Association, blamed
departures of experienced foster families on a "Gestapo mentality" that
leads licensing representatives to overdo it when checking on homes.

Mr. Crimmins responded: "Licensing standards and worker practices are
designed with the best interests of the children in mind."

While several foster parents and child-placing agency executives who
were interviewed said many state workers misunderstand rules, Mr.
Crimmins said, "We constantly do everything we can to ensure that the
standards are applied consistently."

He acknowledged the lack of data on attrition of foster parents but
blamed that on reporting failures by the 96 private agencies that
contract with the state to handle the placement of foster children. Mr.
Crimmins said recruiting foster parents is mainly the agencies' duty.

While people higher on the flow charts bicker, Shannon Waters and Dianna
Nelson don't intend to abandon society's unluckiest children. Each has a
Plan B.

Ms. Nelson has launched a new group she hopes will be a more aggressive
advocate for foster parents – Foster Parents in Action.

"Let our voices be heard," she said.

Mrs. Waters, who interrupted her college studies to have children,
returned to school this summer. A year from now, it's on to law school.
She said she wants to be a court-appointed attorney for abused and
neglected children.

She added: "I also want to lobby because the people who make these
regulations don't know anything about what it's like in a foster home."

ABOUT THE FOSTER HOME SHORTAGE

The problem: Some 500 Texas foster children have spent more than 1,200
nights this year in Child Protective Services offices or, in a few
cases, hotels. Many are teens with difficult behavioral and medical
problems.

Why it happened: The state says foster homes, emergency shelters and
residential treatment centers won't take the children. It says private
nonprofits that run the homes and facilities are responsible for
building up capacity, though its recent sanctions against 18 providers
have exacerbated the bed shortage. The nonprofits say the state's
unreasonable rules and enforcement make them hesitate to accept
high-risk youth.

The state's actions:

•Average rate increases of 4.3 percent for care providers will go into
effect Sept. 1.

•A $374 a day "step down" rate is being applied to centers that take
children who've repeatedly been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons.

•The state plans to improve responses to people who express interest in
fostering, which the state admits it has lagged on.

•The state is launching an "expedited procurement" in the Dallas-Fort
Worth and Panhandle regions, where need is greatest. A spokesman says
the goal is "to get at least one new facility for boys and girls open in
each region by the end of the year."

•Family and Protective Services Commissioner Carey Cockerell has met
with providers in four regions since June 19 and plans to do so in the
Dallas area soon.

Foster parents' suggestions:

Dianna Nelson, Anna:

•"Allow us less paperwork, so we can spend the time with the kids."

•"You've screened us intensely. Now respect us as professionals."

Shannon Waters, Granbury:

•"The [CPS] workers should be paid more, the good ones."

•To restore trust between the state and foster homes, scrap CPS'
centralized placement units. "They're just looking for a bed and you
have no way of knowing whether you're getting the full story or whether
the worker's going to be ... trustworthy."

Bill Waters, Granbury:

•"I'd make every state legislator and the head of CPS be a foster home.
I'd give them a meth teenager and say, 'Guess what? You get to deal with
him for 24 hours.' "

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research


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...


  #2  
Old August 7th 07, 12:13 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
fx
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,848
Default GRANBURY, Texas – :Frustrated foster parents giving up Embattled system losing homes as tensions rise over state rules that defy common sense!...

fx wrote:

Frustrated foster parents giving up

Embattled system losing homes as tensions rise over rules

12:22 AM CDT on Monday, August 6, 2007

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...r.3903d0f.html



GRANBURY, Texas – Texas foster parents say they are so frustrated by
state rules that defy common sense that many are quitting, just as Texas
needs more families to care for abused and neglected children.

Laundry detergent has to be locked up, even if a home has no small
children, foster parents and private agencies say. State workers
frequently insist that foster parents get the birth parents' permission
for children's haircuts.


Link: Read the full report on payments to foster parents, conducted by
social workers at the City University of New York

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/n...e-payments.pdf


And sleepovers, a staple of a normal childhood, are often prohibited
until criminal background checks can be run on people in the host
households.

Beyond those everyday concerns, the caretakers say, a sense of
powerlessness pervades their work. Their families' privacy is invaded,
record-keeping is burdensome, training classes offer little practical
advice, and experienced foster parents have to endure finger-wagging
lectures from young state workers, many of whom have never cared for
children themselves.

"They want us to be free, quiet baby sitters," said foster mother
Shannon Waters of Granbury. She and her husband, Bill, quit fostering in
April after out-of-town workers from Child Protect Services showed
flagrant disrespect for their home's safety, the couple says.

As rules filter through the bureaucracy of the foster care system,
they're distorted into irksome demands, such as those about sleepovers,
haircuts and detergents – which officials say aren't actually required,
though the state doesn't apologize about enforcing detailed rules.

"We strive to treat each foster parent with respect," said Patrick
Crimmins, spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective
Services, which oversees CPS and the Child Care Licensing office that
inspects and investigates child-care providers. "However, we are the
legal parents of these children and bear the ultimate responsibility for
their safety, security and well-being."

It's a constant tension that has only increased as the state responds to
stories of abuse and deaths of foster children that the system failed to
prevent. Recently, CPS workers have had more trouble finding homes for
seriously disturbed children.

This year, more than 500 youngsters – mostly teens who have churned
through 10 or more foster homes – have spent nights in CPS offices, with
caseworkers watching them. CPS says it's slowly getting a handle on the
problem, but judges who oversee the removal of children from their birth
families say that as an added complication, foster youths are still
being shipped too far from their home communities, creating hardships
for them, relatives and advocates.

Trust is quickly eroding. Some foster parents say they simply don't
think CPS is honest about the extent of a child's behavioral problems,
so desperate are caseworkers to find beds for children. Mr. Crimmins
said CPS workers are "absolutely not" withholding information about
children during placements.

But foster parents such as Mrs. Waters say that if the cycle continues,
the chronic shortage of suitable homes will only get worse.

"Everybody's saying the same thing," said Mrs. Waters, who recruited
several friends into fostering and knows foster parents in several North
Texas counties: "It's not worth it any more to take the risks and be
treated the way we are."

The state does not keep reliable data on how many foster families quit
the system, a deficiency Mr. Crimmins blamed on a lack of information
from the child-placement agencies the state has hired.

But Texas Foster Family Association president Roy Block of San Antonio
said experienced foster parents are the ones abandoning the work.

"Those are folks we can't afford to lose," Mr. Block said.

This is the story of two therapeutic group foster homes in North Texas.
Parents at each agreed to talk about their experiences, despite their
fears of possible retaliation by state employees as the parents seek to
continue providing foster care or even try to win approval to adopt
children.

They said things won't improve, though, if every foster parent stays
silent.

Disruptive child

Shannon and Bill Waters can tell you exactly when they snapped. It was
Labor Day weekend last year. That Friday night, CPS workers in Fort
Worth contacted the Waterses' agency, Lutheran Social Services, to try
to place a boy in their home.

Ten months later, relations between the couple and CPS are so frayed
that much about what happened is in dispute. They agree, though, that
minutes after he arrived, the 16-year-old became disruptive. "It was
kind of an iffy placement," Mr. Crimmins acknowledged.

Said Mrs. Waters: "We were stuck with a child who should have never been
in a home" but instead in a larger institution or treatment center.

She and her husband say CPS withheld vital information about the boy,
whose two younger siblings were already in their home: He was high on
methamphetamine and had a black eye and scratches on his face from a
fresh altercation with police. Also, the CPS worker who delivered the
boy reneged on a promise to first test him for drug use, then hurriedly
left, the Waterses said, even after they expressed second thoughts about
keeping the boy.

Mr. Crimmins said the worker never promised the drug test. And while the
boy "was exhibiting some disruptive behavior" shortly after arriving at
the home in a lakefront subdivision near Granbury, "the parents accepted
the placement," he said.

The spokesman said CPS officials are unsure whether the boy was high on
drugs or had facial wounds when placed. "There was full disclosure," he
said.

Mrs. Waters said the boy – 6-feet-1 and at least 220 pounds – threatened
violence against other children in the 10-member household throughout
the weekend. At night, she and her husband, shaken and fearful, locked
the younger children in their bedroom, she said. On Monday, she called
police and had the boy removed.

The Waterses say they had a good relationship with the workers at CPS'
Granbury office and have taken on hard cases to help them. But as for
other CPS workers, "I no longer believed anything that they told me,"
said Mrs. Waters, 33.

Her husband added: "They lie to you."

Mr. Waters, 47, sells heating and air conditioning systems to building
contractors. Following his wife's lead, he has helped nurture more than
70 foster children since 2000.

He said he gets infuriated reading press accounts of bad foster parents,
sometimes described as in it for the money. Foster parents are paid
between $21 and $82 a day per child, depending on the child's problems.
For most children, the daily payment is less than $25.

"If we ever had a month where we broke even, I was a happy camper," he
said.

Unwanted scrutiny

Some child-placing agency executives say help-wanted ads buried deep in
newspapers' classified sections are the single best tool for recruiting
potential foster parents. But the front page hooked Dianna Nelson.

She recalled devouring news coverage three years ago of the deaths of
Arlington's Davontae Williams, who was 9 but weighed only 35 pounds
after being starved by his mother and her girlfriend; and Amber Rose
Pacheco, 5, who was left brain dead at the hands of an abusive
stepfather and mother in Dallas. Both children's homes had extensive
histories with CPS, raising questions about the quality of its
investigations.

Ms. Nelson, 57, is a grandmother and devout Baptist. "God kind of tugged
on my heart and said, 'You know, maybe you need to do something about
this,' " she recalled.

She did, though at a cost.

During the 14 months it took Ms. Nelson and her then-husband to be
approved as foster parents, he grew angry about social workers'
questions about their sex life, she said. Though the questions asked by
employees of Youth in View, a Dallas-based child-placing agency, are
routine, Ms. Nelson said the scrutiny and the stress of their first few
foster children speeded the couple toward divorce.

Ms. Nelson quit her job as a swing trader in stock options and waded in
deeper. She applied to run a group home so she could care for more
children. (A regular home can have no more than six.) Today, she has
eight at her new home in Anna in Collin County.

To comply with state-prescribed caregiver ratios, Ms. Nelson hired a
veteran foster mother as her assistant.

Last fall, she successfully fought a CPS worker who wanted to transfer
out of her home a group of five black siblings, ages 6 to 13. The CPS
worker and her boss expressed concern the children weren't progressing
steadily and didn't have enough black cultural influence in their lives.

Ms. Nelson said all five children face special challenges, but their
teachers and therapists confirmed they had made many gains in only seven
months in her home. Ms. Nelson said she and her assistant, who is black,
have bought the children books, magazines and recordings popular with
black audiences.

The threat of another move upset the children, and for Ms. Nelson, it
was an emotionally bruising battle.

"It set us back in trust and love," she said.

Ms. Nelson, who is active in Republican organizations, said she has
taught all her foster children about the stock market and how to write
their members of Congress. She pushes them in their schoolwork. But she
said the state makes it hard to impose discipline.

If a child is destroying property, for instance, the state frowns on
using restraints unless the child is a threat to himself or others. Mr.
Crimmins, the CPS spokesman, said restraint "is generally not best
practice" but is allowed in certain circumstances.

Said Ms. Nelson: "I've learned to live with holes in my house and broken
brooms."

'Punitive and picky'

The bureaucracy of the foster-care system makes matters worse, foster
parents say. The rules are onerous to start with and only get more rigid
as they filter through the state workers who license private foster-care
agencies and CPS workers who advise foster parents.

The foster care industry says unreasonable enforcement makes it hard to
keep foster parents.

Irene Clements, vice president for family services at Lutheran Social
Services, the state's biggest foster-care contractor, doesn't object to
spot inspections the Legislature mandated in 2005. But too often, she
said, licensing representatives conduct the checks in a way that's
demeaning – and demoralizing.

She said state workers spent four hours checking conditions at a Central
Texas group home in July, only to cite the foster mother for dust on her
ceiling fan and a newly sprouted ant mound in her yard.

"It's just so punitive and picky," said Ms. Clements, a 27-year foster
parent. "As long as the children are receiving quality care, why are we
writing down dusty ceiling fans?"

Mr. Block, the head of the Texas Foster Family Association, blamed
departures of experienced foster families on a "Gestapo mentality" that
leads licensing representatives to overdo it when checking on homes.

Mr. Crimmins responded: "Licensing standards and worker practices are
designed with the best interests of the children in mind."

While several foster parents and child-placing agency executives who
were interviewed said many state workers misunderstand rules, Mr.
Crimmins said, "We constantly do everything we can to ensure that the
standards are applied consistently."

He acknowledged the lack of data on attrition of foster parents but
blamed that on reporting failures by the 96 private agencies that
contract with the state to handle the placement of foster children. Mr.
Crimmins said recruiting foster parents is mainly the agencies' duty.

While people higher on the flow charts bicker, Shannon Waters and Dianna
Nelson don't intend to abandon society's unluckiest children. Each has a
Plan B.

Ms. Nelson has launched a new group she hopes will be a more aggressive
advocate for foster parents – Foster Parents in Action.

"Let our voices be heard," she said.

Mrs. Waters, who interrupted her college studies to have children,
returned to school this summer. A year from now, it's on to law school.
She said she wants to be a court-appointed attorney for abused and
neglected children.

She added: "I also want to lobby because the people who make these
regulations don't know anything about what it's like in a foster home."

ABOUT THE FOSTER HOME SHORTAGE

The problem: Some 500 Texas foster children have spent more than 1,200
nights this year in Child Protective Services offices or, in a few
cases, hotels. Many are teens with difficult behavioral and medical
problems.

Why it happened: The state says foster homes, emergency shelters and
residential treatment centers won't take the children. It says private
nonprofits that run the homes and facilities are responsible for
building up capacity, though its recent sanctions against 18 providers
have exacerbated the bed shortage. The nonprofits say the state's
unreasonable rules and enforcement make them hesitate to accept
high-risk youth.

The state's actions:

•Average rate increases of 4.3 percent for care providers will go into
effect Sept. 1.

•A $374 a day "step down" rate is being applied to centers that take
children who've repeatedly been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons.

•The state plans to improve responses to people who express interest in
fostering, which the state admits it has lagged on.

•The state is launching an "expedited procurement" in the Dallas-Fort
Worth and Panhandle regions, where need is greatest. A spokesman says
the goal is "to get at least one new facility for boys and girls open in
each region by the end of the year."

•Family and Protective Services Commissioner Carey Cockerell has met
with providers in four regions since June 19 and plans to do so in the
Dallas area soon.

Foster parents' suggestions:

Dianna Nelson, Anna:

•"Allow us less paperwork, so we can spend the time with the kids."

•"You've screened us intensely. Now respect us as professionals."

Shannon Waters, Granbury:

•"The [CPS] workers should be paid more, the good ones."

•To restore trust between the state and foster homes, scrap CPS'
centralized placement units. "They're just looking for a bed and you
have no way of knowing whether you're getting the full story or whether
the worker's going to be ... trustworthy."

Bill Waters, Granbury:

•"I'd make every state legislator and the head of CPS be a foster home.
I'd give them a meth teenager and say, 'Guess what? You get to deal with
him for 24 hours.' "

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research


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...


yawn
 




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