THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010
Who Killed SB 6416?
SB 6416 was the will of the Senate, but not the House. The House leadership thinks that foster parents should have equal standing when it comes to permanent placement of children. And, that means permanent placement over the relatives if the foster parents were the last ones to have the child or if government thinks it is in the best interest of the child to put the child somewhere else. Keeping in mind all this blog has covered...the lies in court...lies from CASAs....lies from CPS...the not bothering to look for relatives but going straight to the foster program....no, I don't agree with the House.
Yes, we have some very good and well meaning foster parents. For them we can be thankful. But, we also have some who are the end game of government's redistribution of children. It is impossible to know the story of Alexis Stuth (see KING 5.com) and not understand that some very bad things are happening with the support of taxpayer funded government.
I promised you that SB 6416 would not pass as the House amended it and it didn't. Senator Jim Hargrove (D), Chairman of the Human Services and Corrections Committee, and I agree in many, many matters regarding CPS and child placement. Without going into the details of the final days... we would not have passed the bill because the Senate was not going to agree in the House amendments. This bill, with the House amendments, would have actually placed foster parents above relatives! It was a terrible bill with the House amendment. I tried up until the final hour to get Chairman Rep. Ruth Kagi (D)to recede from the House amendments and she would not do that. She favors best interest of the child over relatives and seems to believe that the last one who has the child has the bonding issue sewed up.
After talking with House leaders several things were evident. One is that extremists in the foster movement have the ear of leadership in the House committee. Rep. Roger Goodman (D) was the one who quickly found SB 6416 as a vehicle upon which to amend his wording giving preference to fosters over relatives. Several in the House are close to a foster lobbyist that I know does not represent all foster caregivers.
The House staff is very liberal on this issue. They have influence in the process.
CPS and its leadership does not want to change the status quo. The ombudsman for the department wanted to change the law...but the department didn't want it changed. Denise Revels Robinson did not want it changed.
I am waiting to learn the outcome of some of the language in the bill that may become law. It was amended into another bill. If that bill is signed into law then some of my language in the Alexis Stuth Bill was successful.
On another note...
I have posted a more than usual number of comments over the last couple of days. Others I may hold and bring forward so I can make specific comments where we can all see the message from the reader.
Posted by State Senator Pam Roach at 4:12 PM
FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010
SB 6416 Dies A Silent Death
There is a story to this but it is 12:35 AM
Briefly, Rep. Ruth Kagi and the House staff want foster "caregivers" on the same level as relatives. Senator Hargrove and I....don't agree. So, we did not agree with the House BAD amendment to the Senate bill. Hargrove and I agreed the bill should not move forward so it was not brought up for a concurrence vote in the Senate and it died on the calendar as was planned if we couldn't get it changed.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago..this state will only change through the courts. The current administration likes the way it is. Since Denise Revels Robinson didn't like the bill I guess we have to say she is a nice lady...but not interested in change. None of them are.
This morning I got an email from Bari Willard. Region 3 left her a phone message and an email saying her granddaughter would not be able to visit several times because she would be in Mexico. "So too bad for you," was the real message. There was no mention of getting added time to make up for this loss. It was very cold and as always...shows a preference that "Lilly" really doesn't need to see the Willards at all.
I emailed Denise this morning and politely asked if there would be make-up time. She was prompt is reply. Region 3 was in error and she apologised. There would be make-up time.
To this I say "Thank you" to Denise. But, the endemic problem exists. How in the world can people do what they did and not offer make-up time in the first place? It is beyond the thought process of most people.
http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/
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