Rep. Smith votes to expand foster care assistance and reform State’s guardianship laws

COLUMBUS— State Representative Smith (R-Bidwell) voted for legislation that increases the age for which persons are eligible to receive foster care and adoption assistance, as well as addresses issues associated with caring for the more than 67,000 juvenile and elderly Ohioans subject to guardianship in the state.

After having passed the House Community and Family Advancement Committee and Finance Committee earlier this year, the House voted in favor of the measure. House Bill 50 requires the Director of the Department of Job and Family Services to expand payments for foster care and adoption to qualifying persons up to the age of 21.

According to Ohio Fostering Connections, an organization that advocates for foster youth, more than 1,000 Ohio youth age out of foster care at the age of 18 each year, putting them at increased risk of homelessness, unemployment, insufficient education, dependence on public assistance and human trafficking.

Additionally, HB 50 requires the probate court to furnish appointed guardians with a guardianship guide, which is to be written by either the Attorney General or the Ohio Judicial Conference.

“This legislation provides additional protections to at-risk youths and guardians that will dramatically improve the foster care system,” Smith said.

HB 50 states that the expansion of foster care services must be funded by July 1, 2017. It now awaits consideration in the Ohio Senate.

Full Article & Source: 
Rep. Smith votes to expand foster care assistance and reform State’s guardianship laws

Justina Goes to Foster Care, Her Mom is Rushed to Hospital - Pelletiers Still Denied Custody

A West Hartford, Conn., woman hoping to regain custody of her sick 15-year-old daughter from the state of Massachusetts collapsed Monday afternoon on her way from a hearing in juvenile court.

The woman, Linda Pelletier, fell to the ground outside the courtroom. Emergency personnel took her out on a stretcher.

A representative of the family said that Linda and her husband, Lou Pelletier, learned in court Monday that their daughter, Justina, would be transferred from Wayside Youth and Family Support Network in Framingham to foster care in Merrimac.

The Pelletiers have been trying to regain custody of Justina since February 2013, when she was admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital, where she spent the rest of the year before being moved to Framingham…

Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington, D.C., was also at the courthouse Monday. He said his organization is starting a national campaign called “Free Justina.” He was with the family when they left the courtroom and spoke with them shortly before Linda Pelletier collapsed.

“My understanding is that Justina is being moved to foster care and they are outraged by that. There is no medical care there,” Mahoney said.

The press was ordered off the fourth floor of the coutroom where the hearing was held–more of the “gag order” secrecy that surrounds the actions of DCF and Boston Children’s in this case. The judge has yet to remove the gag order, but nobody’s explained why it’s there, either.

So now, not only do the Pelletiers have to worry about their daughter’s health, they have to worry about the fact that she’s being sent home with strangers–strangers picked by DCF and, therefore, with a 1 in 10 chance of having a criminal record.

Full Article and Source:
Justina Goes to Foster Care, Her Mom is Rushed to Hospital-Pelletiers Still Denied Custody
See Also:
Free Justina - The Killing of an American Family

Social Services Approved Pimp as Guardian

The Prince George's County Department of Social Services approved a pimp to be the guardian of a 12-year-old girl three months after he started selling her for sex on the streets of Washington, court documents show.

Shelby Lewis has pleaded guilty to taking four girls from his Temple Hills home to D.C., where he made them to sell their bodies and then turn the cash over to him. Lewis has been jailed pending his March sentencing in D.C.'s federal court. The 42-year-old faces 15 to 20 years in prison.

Lewis admitted to starting his pimp business in March 2006. The first girl he sold for sex was a 12-year-old referred to only as "S.H."

In June 2006, Lewis "was officially permitted to serve as the guardian of S.H. by the Prince George's County Department of Social Services and her custodian, her paternal aunt, Gloria Sockwell," federal prosecutors wrote in court documents.

Full Article and Source:
Prince George's Social Services Approved Pimp as Foster Father

Family Sues Foster Home Over Woman's Death

Relatives of a 63-year-old Rochester woman who died three years ago have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a foster care facility for the elderly.

The lawsuit alleges that staff at the Rehoboth Disabled & Elderly Foster Care in Rochester failed to make sure Cletus Ilene Sedlacek was on 24-hour oxygen the morning of Aug. 7, 2006, as required.

She was found at 9:41 a.m. that day, lying face down in the yard. She died seven days later at Saint Marys Hospital.

Her daughter, Veronica Lynn Mahoney, who is trustee for the heirs, has filed the civil lawsuit against the facility and its owners, DeAnn and Armin Schrimpf of Oronoco and DeAnn Schrimpf's daughter, Amanda Beery.

Attorney claims

The multi-count complaint alleges negligence, wrongful death, negligent training and supervision of staff, medical malpractice and fraud.

Mark Solheim of St. Paul, attorney for the defendants, said Minnesota and federal law prohibits him from disclosing information related to Sedlacek's medical condition and her residency at the group home.

"But I can tell you the allegations that have been alleged against my clients will be vigorously defended. We do not believe my client deviated from the standard of care," he said. "We believe the plaintiffs claim damages that are grossly overstated."

Full Article and Source:
Family Sues Foster Home Over Woman's Death

Appeal to Reinstate Lawsuit

Rhode Island’s child advocate asked a federal appeals court to reinstate a lawsuit that seeks an overhaul of the state’s foster-care system.

A federal judge earlier this year had dismissed the complaint, which alleged systemic abuse and neglect of some of the roughly 3,000 children in state custody.

The lawsuit, which sought class-action status, named 10 children as plaintiffs. Because minors cannot bring federal lawsuits on their own, Rhode Island Child Advocate Jametta Alston and Children’s Rights, a national advocacy group, appointed a group of adults to represent the children’s interests in court.

But US District Judge Ronald Lagueux dismissed the suit in April, saying the adults did not have close enough relationships with the children to act on their behalf.

Alston and Children’s Rights appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston.

Full Article and Source:
Advocate seeks to revive R.I. foster-care lawsuit

See also:
Judge Dismissed Suit

Fewer Kids in Foster Care

Slightly more than a decade ago, 52,000 children were in the custody of the State of Illinois.

Over the years that number dropped considerably -- to nearly 16,000 -- due to relatives stepping up to keep families together. However, African-Americans still dominate the group, said a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services.

As of April 30, there were 15,912 children statewide in foster care. In Cook County, there were 6,816. Of that county total, 79 percent are African-American, according to DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe.

Foster care is the temporary placement of children outside their homes due to abuse, neglect or dependency. Wards of the state are either in non-relative foster homes, homes with a relative, or in group homes or centers.

Marlowe: "The ultimate goal is to return the child home once issues are resolved. When that’s not an option, the department advocates for subsidized guardianship or seeks adoption for the child."

Full Article and Source:
Fewer kids in foster care than a decade ago

Public Guardian Speaks Out

A child whose mother set her on fire and 100 other foster kids in state custody will lose "all counseling services" if Illinois is allowed to cut its Children and Family Services budget by 50 percent on July 1 as planned, a Cook County Public Guardian says. Robert Harris claims the budget cuts will eliminate "all counseling services to children who are in state care due to physical or sexual abuse, neglect or dependency."

On behalf of more than 100 foster children, Harris sued the Department of Children and Family Services and Gov. Pat Quinn, whose budget calls for DCFS funding to be cut by 50 percent.

Harris asked the Cook County Court to enjoin Quinn and the DCFS from terminating counseling services for children in custody without due process and "without individual consideration of each child's needs."

Harris says the children have "all suffered extraordinary trauma in their young lives," such as "physical and sexual abuse, witness(ing) domestic violence" and neglect.

Full Article and Source:
Foster Kids Endangered by Huge Budget Cuts in Illinois

See also:
Governor, Guardian and DCF Being Sued

25-Year-Old Lawsuit Settlement

The stories were horrifying and heart-wrenching: a boy beaten bloody while in foster care; a 15-year-old girl tortured and starved to death by a mentally ill guardian; a 5-year-old fatally scalded by his mother after state officials removed him from a safe foster home.

It's no wonder such egregious cases of abuse and neglect have helped drive a 25-year-old lawsuit over how the Maryland Department of Human Resources and the Baltimore Department of Social Services care for the state's most vulnerable children and adolescents.

That's why the settlement announced this week between advocates for Baltimore's children and the city's foster care system represents a potentially tremendous step forward for the health and well-being of children in Maryland.

Some of the requirements:
1. The state must make sure children in its care have case plans and that they actually receive the health care, educational support and other services identified in those plans.

2. The agreement would allow the state to free itself from federal court supervision for the first time since 1988 if it meets dozens of specific goals and maintains that performance for an 18-month period.

3. Each caseworker will be responsible for no more than 15 children, and a single supervisor will be responsible for no more than six caseworkers.

4. The system has agreed to hire an outside expert with broad credibility in the field to monitor its progress and make periodic reports.

Full Article and Source:
A milestone for youths - Our view: Maryland now has a unique opportunity to fix its long-broken child welfare system; for the sake of future generations, it can't let that chance go to waste

Governor, Guardian and DCF Being Sued

Governor Pat Quinn and two Department of Children and Family Services officials are being sued over state budget cuts that will eliminate counseling services to abused children in foster care.

The children filed suit--110 wards of the state, listed in the complaint only by their first names. Also listed as a plaintiff is Robert Harris, Public Guardian of Cook County.

Named as defendants are Governor Quinn, as well as Erwin McEwen, Director of DCFS, and D. Jean Ortega-Piron, Guardianship Guardian of DCFS.

The complaint explains that "The children bring this action challenging the failure of the defendant, Pat Quinn, Governor of the State of Illinois to implement a budget which funds the Department of Children and Family Services in a manner consistent with the Department's responsibilities to the children in its care."

As a result of the current state budget, the general revenue fund for the Illinois DCFS will be cut in half, ending "all counseling services to children who are in state care due to physical or sexual abuse, neglect or dependency," a decision already announced by Director McEwen.

Full Article and Source:
IL Governor Pat Quinn and DCFS officials sued over state budget cuts

See also:
Senior Protest Against Gov. Cuts

Mom Flees With Son

The man authorities believe could be with a Minnesota teenager who ran away to avoid chemotherapy did the same thing more than a decade ago in Massachusetts.

Officials believe Billy Joe Best could be traveling with 13-year-old Daniel Hauser and his mother. The Hausers allegedly fled New Ulm, Minn., after a court-ordered medical exam showed his Hodgkin’s lymphoma had worsened.

In 1994, 16-year-old Best ran away to avoid having more chemotherapy to fight his Hodgkin’s disease. He returned after three weeks in Houston when his parents promised they would not force him to have the treatments.

Daniel Hauser and his mother, Colleen Hauser, apparently left their southern Minnesota home sometime after a doctor’s appointment and court-ordered X-ray on Monday showed his tumor had grown.

Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg, who had ruled last week that Daniel’s parents were medically neglecting him, issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for Colleen Hauser and ruled her in contempt of court. Rodenberg also ordered that Daniel be placed in foster care and immediately evaluated by a cancer specialist for treatment.

Full Article and Source:
Man who fled chemo may be with missing teen

See also:
Forced Chemo

Foster Parents Granted Custody

In an unusual rebuke to state child welfare workers, a Jefferson County family court judge has removed a teenage girl from their care and granted temporary custody to her foster parents.

Circuit Judge Stephen George last month took that step, over the objections of state workers, after the workers reneged on an agreement to let the 17-year-old remain in the Bullitt County foster home where she had been thriving, said the girl's lawyer, Christopher Harrell.

Harrell: "I think it's atrocious. the state previously had agreed not to move the girl from the foster home."

While family court proceedings involving abused and neglected children by law are confidential, Jim Grace, head of Kentucky's child protection services acknowledged the judge's decision to transfer custody from the state to the foster parents "may be unusual." And he said state officials will investigate the matter and see if further action is warranted.

Full Article and Source:

Judge takes teen from state's care

Gloria Allred Files Petition for Octo-Guardian

Gloria Allred's lawsuit that claims Nadya Suleman's eight infants need a conservator to safeguard their financial interests, now that Suleman appears closer to getting her own reality TV show. Octorazzi writer Raul Roa reports that Allred announced today she is also looking into securing a financial guardian for Suleman's six older children. She filed the petition in Orange County, where Suleman and her 14 children live.

Allred held the press conference in her L.A. office this morning. Joining her was former child actor Paul Petersen of The Donna Reed Show, who is president of A Minor Consideration, an advocacy group for child actors and workers. Allred filed the suit on behalf of Petersen's organization. City News Service quotes Allred's claim that Suleman can avoid a June 22 hearing if she voluntarily agrees to the financial guardianship of her eight youngest children.

Full Article and Source:
Allred Knows Best: Files Petition for Octo-Guardian



More information:
Suleman responds - sort of - to octuplet guardianship lawsuit

Suit filed to protect octuplets earnings, assets

Foster care for the octuplets

Allred, expert on all situations, says octuplets should go into foster care

Octomom taken to court to have guardian appointed for children

Judge Dismissed Suit

A federal judge has dismissed a sweeping lawsuit that alleged widespread abuse of the children in Department of Children, Youth and Families care, saying the state’s child advocate, who brought the suit on behalf of 10 children, had no standing in the case.

Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux ruled that Child Advocate Jametta O. Alston and others who backed the suit had no authority to proceed because the children they claimed to represent are already in the jurisdiction of the state Family Court, where their guardians had been appointed.

Alston and the child-advocacy organization, Children’s Rights, pursued the suit in June 2007 on behalf of the 3,000 children now in state custody, with the aim to overhaul Rhode Island’s entire foster-care system. The suit alleged children in DCYF care were being molested, beaten and, in one high-profile case, killed. Her suit claimed staff faced excessive caseloads and that too many children were being placed in institutions and group homes, or being reunited with abusive parents.

The suit named Governor Carcieri, Jane Hayward, former secretary of the Office of Health and Human Services, and DCYF Director Patricia Martinez as defendants, and charged that the child-welfare system is underfunded, understaffed and mismanaged.

The state asked that the case be dismissed in January 2008. Lawyers questioned the remedy sought — namely that Alston wanted the court to take control of the DCYF. They argued the case belonged in family court, not federal court.

Full Article and Source:
Child advocate’s suit over DCYF care dismissed

Foster Children Sue Welfare Agencies

Ten former foster care children are filing a civil rights and negligence lawsuit in New York District Court against the City of New York Child Welfare Administration and four other agencies for failure to prevent ongoing, horrific abuse at the hands of a state-licensed foster parent.

Identified in the filing only by their initials, the 10 plaintiffs seek unspecified damages for up to 20 years of abuse and torture. Dating back to the 1980s, these special needs foster children were locked in cages, handcuffed or zip-tied together at night, abused physically, threatened with firearms, secreted from any public interaction, underfed and malnourished, and deprived of regular education, doctor or dental visits. One child's teeth were in such pain that the child banged her face on the garage floor until knocking her teeth out. Now adults, all suffer rickets and behavioral issues, and require costly, long-term educational, medical, psychological and sociological care.

Foster mother Judith Leekin's fraud included assuming four aliases - often using similar dates and documentation - to adopt a total of 22 children. At no point did New York Child Welfare officials verify the foster mother's false documentation, investigate her fitness as a caregiver, or document the children's care. Ultimately, she collected $1.68 million in payments meant for their care.

When she sensed New York officials finally were closing in, Leekin relocated with the 10 plaintiffs to Florida. Today, Leekin is serving a prison sentence for fraud. The plaintiffs, all of whom currently reside in Florida, are seeking a jury trial.

Full Article and Source:
Severely Abused Foster Children Sue New York City Child Welfare Agencies After their Failure to Help Them

Fighting For Grandkids

Kathie Good has been fighting for five months to regain temporary custody of her grandkids.

Her voluntary revelation about a 24-year-old incident has become the latest hurdle in her quest and may be one too big to overcome. That she refused to believe her daughter hurt her grandson was one of the first hurdles.

The kids were turned over to the S.C. Department of Social Services in November after doctors were concerned about what they noticed during repeated doctor visits. According to court documents, doctors found bruises on the back and elsewhere of Good's infant grandson, broken blood vessels in his eyes and swelling on his penis.

A specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina concurred with the concerns of the doctors.

Good's son-in-law was charged with abuse.

DSS suspects Good's daughter of neglect.

Good, who had temporary custody, believed the court rulings allowed supervised contact between her daughter and grandkids, which is why she let her daughter visit. DSS and the guardian ad litem said it wasn't allowed.

This isn't about suspected child abuse. That case will play itself out in the courts. The parents will be found guilty or not guilty in due time. This is about a grandmother and her grandkids, foster care and family placement, and the hurdles involved.

Full Article and Source:
Issac Bailey Foster care decision in kids' interest?

Too Many Placed in Foster Care

A task force has concluded the same thing several judges have been saying about Michigan's child welfare system: The state is too quick to permanently terminate parental rights, throwing too many children into foster care. That was among the deficiencies cited in a draft report by the Michigan Child Welfare Task Force.

The task force, established by Human Services Director Ismael Ahmed, said a disproportionate level of state funding goes to programs such as foster care or group living that pull children from their homes. Not enough is being spent on programs to quell abuse or delinquency.

Judge Kenneth Tacoma: "The foster care system can't handle the influx of additional children made "legal orphans" under a 1996 law change that increased parental terminations."

Judge Milton Mack and others have recommend that terminations be slowed and judges be given more discretion. Judges should be able to appoint temporary guardians, they say, and if the parents can be rehabilitated, the children could be returned to them.

Full Article and Source:
Too many children are unnecessarily placed in foster care

Like Falling Off A Cliff

Even in boom times, young people who become too old for the foster-care system often struggle to make it on their own, lacking families, job skills or adequate educations. Now, the recession has made the challenges of life after foster care even more formidable, especially for those seeking federal housing vouchers, which are contingent on having an income.

Since the beginning of this year, the city’s Administration for Children’s Services has been providing letters to those about to leave the foster care system, certifying that they are likely to be eligible for public assistance and thus easing the application process when they are ready. Yet, many child-welfare advocates worry that a growing number will still end up homeless.

James J. Golden, the executive director of the Edwin Gould Academy: “They get a lot of resources until they’re 21, and then essentially none. It’s like falling off a cliff for some of them.”

Full Article and Source:
Too Old for Foster Care, and Facing the Recession

Adoption Ban Trial

A lawsuit seeking to undo Arkansas' voter-approved law limiting access to adoption and foster care survived its first challenge when a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled the case should go to trial.

But Judge Chris Piazza did side with state attorneys in throwing out one part of the 11-point lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union - a challenge to the title of the ballot initiative that became Initiated Act 1 of 2008 by attracting 57 percent of the vote in the November election. The ACLU, representing 24 adults and children, is seeking to overturn the law, which bars cohabiting unmarried adults from fostering or adopting children, claiming the measure is unconstitutional.

Byron Babione, an Arizona attorney representing Family Council Action Committee, the conservative Christian political action committee that championed the law, Cordi contended that the ACLU was trying to fabricate a constitutional right that doesn't exist, a right by children to be adopted or placed in foster care. Adoption and foster care law arises from state statute, not the Arkansas or U.S. constitutions, they argued.

Babione: "There's no deep-rooted right in this nation's laws or history to adopt or foster."

Full Article and Source:
Trial on adoption ban approved

See also:
Halted Efforts

Act One Under Fire

Fostering Connections Act of 2008

A new law, The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is designed to better connect foster children with their relatives, promote permanent families through relative guardianship, and improve education and health care for foster children.

The law provides:
* Subsidized guardianship to enable children in the care of grandparents and other relatives to exit foster care into permanency
* Kinship navigator programs to help link relative caregivers to a broad range of services and supports that will help meet their needs and the needs of the children in their care
* Notices to adult relatives of a child placed into foster care
* Options for states to waive non safety related licensing standards for relative foster parents

It also offers federal reimbursement to states for support provided to foster youth up to age 21, and requires increased efforts to keep siblings together when placed in foster care.

Full Article and Source:
Fostering Connections Act of 2008

More information:
Summary of the law

Short summary of the law

Actual text of the law

Kinship provisions

Grandparents Passed Over

King5 Investigates: GRANDPARENTS PASSED OVER IN FAVOR OF FOSTER CARE