DHHS fails to comply with legal mandates for kinship placement

DHHS fails to comply with legal mandates for kinship placement:

Young boy could have had a home with his grandmother or a first cousin.

“The number of children in State care is nearly half of what it was seven and a half years ago. We are focused on family reunification,” said James Beougher, director of the Office of Child and Family Services at Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on MPBN’s Maine Watch. The Family Services director said that seven years ago 3,000 children were in the State’s care; now it’s down to 1,370.

Note: NH is no better. They tell relatives who contact them for placement that “Relative placement is NOT an option.” And there is NO search for relatives. That’s a crock. And yes, NH also steals children illegally from innocent parent’s who are not allowed to submit evidence of innocence. They even push the Judges into court-ordering the parent’s into programs that don’t exist in this state. Then when the parent can’t comply, they terminate the rights of the mother, but never terminate the rights of the father and the child is then ILLEGALLY adopted!