Toddler's death a blow to family, child welfare guardians

Toddler's death a blow to family, child welfare guardians

BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer
jburger@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Nov 28 2009 07:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Nov 28 2009 08:22 PM
Seventeen children died in Kern County in 2008 and 2009 as a result of abuse or neglect.

A new law allows the public to view details of those deaths.

While public attention often focuses on Child Protective Services when a child dies here, the reports show CPS shares no blame in most of the 17 fatal neglect or abuse cases.

Here's a breakdown:

* In six cases, CPS had not had any previous activity in the deceased child's life.

* In five cases, the agency had contact with the family but social workers did not make mistakes and did not have any indication children were in mortal danger.

* In three cases, CPS' involvement is not clear because final reports from law enforcement are pending.

But social workers did make mistakes in three cases where children died. And at least two social workers lost their jobs.

Fighting the abuse or neglect they do hear about is the daily life of Kern County social workers.

Those in the Emergency Response division -- the front-line team that investigates abuse reports -- carry an average load of 17 to 19 cases.

That caseload should be about 12 per social worker, according to the Child Welfare League of America.

But to get there, the Department of Human Services would have to hire 24 new social workers.

That, said Director Pat Cheadle, isn't going to happen with the state slashing funding each new fiscal year.

So those social workers are left to deal, as best they can, with an everlasting flow of new cases.

In 2008, according to DHS reports, workers investigated an average of 1,196 cases a month.

In 38 percent of those cases, the allegations of abuse or neglect were found to be true.

Cheadle said Senate Bill 39 allows her to tell the positive stories of her division's work too.

"They need to be recognized for the difficult job they have to do," she said.

The price on social workers is high, said Bethany Christman, who recently retired as assistant director of Child Protective Services.

"We have serious death threats that come up against staff. We've had staff that have had serious dog attacks," Christman said. "Many of them, the very next day, they're out there again."

Former Emergency Response training supervisor Howie Acosta, who lost his job in 2008 as part of a review of the death of Reanna Alderette, said social workers believe in what they do and fight on despite the dark truth that they can't save every child.

Social workers don't like to acknowledge that truth, Christman said, and when a child dies it's a blow to every social worker.

"Social workers feel they can save everybody," she said. "There are some you just can't prevent."

But Acosta said social workers continue their work because it would be worse not to have them on the streets.

"Because they are not super-human, some children will still fall through the cracks," he said. "But it's better to save some children than none at all."

- Staff writer James Burger
Images:

Alex Horvath
Alex Horvath / The Californian Pat Cheadle, director of the Kern County Department of Human Services. Juan Pilar is still haunted by a 2-year-old girl he never met.

Reanna Marie Alderette's battered body was found in her grandmother's home on June 1, 2008, amid piles of filth, dog feces and rotting food.

Pilar was supposed to be the cherub-faced toddler's guardian.

But he didn't find Alderette in time. It cost him his job at the Kern County Department of Human Services.

"I think about this every day," said the 35-year-old custodian-turned-social worker. "Even though I didn't see the kid, but I picture a little Hispanic girl."

Reanna's death and its aftermath offer a rare glimpse into how this county's child guardians grapple with the loss of someone they are tasked with protecting.

The information is based on reports that a new law has made public plus rare, candid interviews with the social workers involved and their bosses.

THE BEGINNING

Bakersfield Police Department burglary detectives discovered more than a burglary suspect when they tracked down Crispin Alderette at his home in November 2007.

They found Alderette and his girlfriend, Jessica Alvarez, living with their four children in conditions similar to those they'd find daughter Reanna's body in six months later.

Trash was everywhere and there was "practically no food or facilities to care for the children," police reports state.

A kitchen knife was hidden blade-up among piles of clothes. The toilet didn't work. Alvarez said the home was in disarray because Alderette had lost his job and they were being evicted.

Police told Alvarez the children could not stay there.

She begged them not to call Kern County Child Protective Services, reports state.

They didn't - at least not immediately.

Police gave the children to Alvarez's mother, Margo Vasquez, who had shown up during the arrest. She took them home.

Bakersfield police Detective Mary DeGeare said the detectives were trying to deal with a terrible situation and felt that Vasquez was truly eager to keep the children safe.


In hindsight, she said, the detectives might have been wise to check Vasquez’s home and background.


“They (trusted) that this was a better choice, to leave them with a seemingly caring grandmother,” DeGeare said.


Police instead made a referral to Child Protective Services several days later.

Juan Pilar was assigned that referral.

"UNABLE TO LOCATE"

Pilar was a fresh new recruit to CPS' emergency response team in late November 2007 when the referral landed in his computer in-box.

He had just graduated from college and been on the job for about six months.

Pilar needed to check that the children were safe and that the home was habitable and wrap up the referral within 30 days of his first contact with the children.

He didn't yet have the police report on the case. But he did have another experienced social worker with him.

They couldn't find the family.

Alvarez said that was because her boyfriend was in jail and she had moved in with her aunt.

When a social worker is unable to find a family, there is an "unable to locate" protocol the social worker must follow before a case can be closed.

Pilar visited the home three or four times. He left his card and literature about how the family could receive help.

He got no response.

So Pilar took his completed "unable-to-locate" protocol on the case to his boss for review.

BOUNCED BACK

Howard "Howie" Acosta, Pilar's training supervisor, was a popular and respected 16-year veteran social worker in emergency response in December 2007. He had helped write the "unable to locate" protocol for emergency response.

When Pilar came back to him with a completed "unable to locate" protocol, Acosta reviewed it and noticed the rookie had missed something. The police report noted the children had been placed at the Vasquez home.

Pilar would later say he missed it in the dense, unique verbiage of police reports.

"I don't remember seeing the address," Pilar said.

Acosta gave him the address and told Pilar to push harder on the case.

Then he gave Pilar an extra resource: a paternal great-grandmother who might have more information about the family's circumstances.

Pilar misunderstood Acosta's advice.

WRONG GRANDMOTHER

When Pilar started searching for the family again, he focused on the home of the great-grandmother Acosta had mentioned.

It was the wrong home.

Once again, Pilar completed an unable-to-locate protocol.

Once again he brought it back to Acosta.

And for a second time the pair miscommunicated.

Acosta asked Pilar if he had checked the grandmother's home. Pilar, thinking Acosta meant the great-grandmother's residence, answered that he had.

Pursuit of the apparently routine case had, by now, lingered well into the new year and Acosta said he knew he was going to have to explain the delay to his boss.

He closed the case in March without checking the final contacts Pilar had made.

That, Acosta said, was the mistake he'll have to live with for the rest of his life.

In June, Reanna Alderette was found dead in the Vasquez home.

TERMINATED

"My first thought was, 'What could I have done different?'" Pilar said. "Am I responsible?"

Department of Human Services Director Pat Cheadle, who had taken the top job less than a year before, had the same question about Pilar and Acosta.

"Initially my feelings were that the infraction was enough to take action alone," Cheadle said.

But her top brass in CPS wasn't sure, Cheadle said.

Cheadle ordered a review of the two employees' overall error rates to clear up the issue.

Acosta told his supervisors what they would find before they did the six-month audit: mistakes. A lot of mistakes.

Department figures show average social worker caseloads in emergency response hover around 50 percent higher than what is recommended by the Child Welfare League of America.

Acosta said mistakes are unavoidable.

As he remembers it, the audit found an average of 16.7 mistakes per month in his work.

Those errors included failing to check with other Department of Human Services divisions on referrals, missing interviews with extended family members and spelling errors, Acosta said.

None of the mistakes triggered a re-review of any of his other cases, he said.

But his employment was terminated.

When he appealed his firing to the Civil Service Commission, Acosta said, three other supervisors "fell on their swords" for him and admitted higher error rates than his.

The commission still voted down his appeal.

UNFORGIVABLE

Cheadle said Acosta's mistake on the Alderette case cost him his job.

In light of the heavy caseloads social workers face, Cheadle said, she has told her staff some errors are forgivable.

But there are unforgivable errors, too, she said.

Cheadle said she doesn't believe closing a case on an "unable to locate" protocol is justified if the social worker hasn't followed up on all the information they have about where the family might be.

Cheadle said this case was her first major child death incident as director of Human Services.

"Nothing before and nothing after that has risen to the same level as this case," Cheadle said.

Acosta said Cheadle, aware of the criticism her predecessor Beverly Beasley-Johnson suffered as a result of high-profile child death cases, completed an unfair review of his work in order to justify his termination.

"There's never been an audit like the one they did on me and they've never done one since," he said.

FALLOUT

Cheadle acknowledges that the impact of a popular department leader's termination has sent ripples through Child Protective Services.

"There's an impact to the entire organization. They're wondering, 'Could I be next?'" Cheadle said. "We tell them we can't compromise."

She sees her tough stance in this case as evidence everyone will be held accountable.

"It's not our intent to create an environment of fear," Cheadle said. "The unknown, sometimes, creates fear. When you start to remind staff that the ratio of major disciplinary actions to child deaths is minor, that fear goes down."

When the Child Welfare League of America was hired to audit the Department of Human Services' troubled Child Protective Services function under Beasley-Johnson, staff felt there was no accountability, Cheadle said.

Morale was low because some people were treated differently, she said.

Cheadle feels accountability has returned and that has "helped steady the organization."

Acosta said people are being disciplined because the system is too overloaded to work well.

"This isn't about people's incompetence," he said. "This about people not being superhuman."

NO CLOSURE

Juan Pilar never found out exactly how Reanna Alderette died.

Coroners ruled the case a homicide.

"On the autopsy it said blunt force trauma to the stomach" as if Reanna had been kicked or kneed, Jessica Alvarez said. "I wasn't there so I'm not sure."

She said she was still living with her aunt at the time.

Alvarez said her family told her Reanna vomited and died in her sleep.

No one has been charged with a crime in Reanna's death.

But Alvarez said their family is living with the price of her loss.

Her three other children, all boys, remain in the custody of the courts.

She goes to court next month in the hopes of earning the right to live with them again.

"It's been hell for me and my boyfriend," she said. "I miss my daughter."

Pilar, meanwhile, was allowed to resign from Kern County CPS.

He and his 11-year-old daughter have left Kern County and he has a new job as a social worker.

But the little girl he never met still lives in the back of his mind, making him question everything he does.

"It's still haunting me," he said.



THE CASES

Sadly, the deaths of 17 children in 2008 and 2009 can be summed up in numbers.

Three died in tragic accidents parental responsibility might have avoided.

One was smothered while sharing an adult's bed.

One drowned.

Details of two deaths remain a public mystery pending the release of law enforcement reports.

And the other 10 children were killed -- five reportedly by a parent's boyfriend or girlfriend, one by a parent and four by unknown hands.

All died because someone abused or neglected them.

Here are their stories, based on reports by police, social workers, coroner's officials and the media:

MURDER CASES

These children died, according to law enforcement and Child Protective Services investigations, because someone chose to end their lives.

Name: Kayli Bearden

Age: 2 years

Date of death: Aug. 26, 2008

Kayli died from blunt-force trauma to the skull. Father Matt Bearden had left his daughter with his girlfriend, Melissa Blanchard. Police reports say Blanchard admitted causing the trauma while he was gone. She's being tried on charges of second-degree murder and assault by a custodian.

Name: Guillermo Gonzalez

Age: 2 years

Date of death: Aug. 31, 2008

Josue Daniel Palma Herrera has been charged with first-degree murder of girlfriend Sabrina Romero's son, Guillermo, in Shafter. Guillermo died from head injuries. A trial for Herrera is scheduled to begin in January.

Name: Nadely Gutierrez

Age: 2 years

Date of death: Nov. 12, 2008

Nadely died from blunt-force trauma to the head. Her mother, Kassandra Bailey, and Bailey's boyfriend, Victor Morales, initially told police the child jumped from her bed and landed on her head while both adults were with her. Bailey later admitted she had been at work and been called home by Morales, who was watching Nadely. Morales had told her the child was Ill. Morales is awaiting trial on charges of second-degree murder and assault by a custodian. Bailey pleaded no contest in May to charges of being an accessory to a crime and served two days in jail.

Name: Kevin Michael King

Age: 5 years

Date of death: March 8, 2009

Kevin died from blunt-force trauma to his body that ruptured his heart and liver. Police reports say his adopted mother, Gloria Grayson, admitted to losing her temper with Kevin while he was eating dinner, grabbing him by the throat and shoving him down the hallway to the bathroom. Grayson later contacted 911 and Kevin was taken to the hospital, where he died. Grayson has been charged with second-degree murder and assault by a custodian and is scheduled to be tried by a jury in March.

Name: Ayonna Thompson

Age: 6 months

Date of death: Nov. 18, 2009

Ayonna died as a result of blows to her head delivered by Roman Ray Brand, her mother's boyfriend, because the child was crying and he was tired, Brand admitted to KBAK Channel 29. Brand is scheduled to be arraigned on second-degree murder and assault by a custodian charges Monday. Kern County Child Protective Services has not yet issued a report on this case under the rules of Senate Bill 39.

AN UNKNOWN HAND

These children were intentionally killed, according to law enforcement and Child Protective Services investigations. But police have have not arrested anyone.

Name: Anthony Angel De La Rosa

Age: 4 months

Date of death: March 30, 2008

Child Protective Services ruled the death was a result of abuse or neglect. The coroner's office ruled the cause of death unknown. The child's mother was at the store when the father said he checked the child and found him lying on a toy car. The father later said he threw the child up in the air, failed to catch him and the child landed on the television. Police checked the television and did not find that dust on the television had been disturbed. No arrest has been made, according to Child Protective Services.

Name: Isabella Tran

Age: 1 year

Date of death: May 28, 2008

Isabella died from blunt-force trauma to the head, delivered in an unknown manner. More information about this case was not available through Child Protective Services.

Name: Arianna Cuevas

Age: 3 months

Date of death: Dec. 8, 2008

Arianna was rushed to the hospital Dec. 4 after her mother, Claudia Cuevas, left her with a friend to go shopping. Cuevas returned to pick up her daughter after the babysitter called her and told her there was a problem with Arianna. Cuevas found her daughter in distress and called 911. The child died four days later at Children's Hospital of Central California in Madera. The coroner later ruled the child died of blunt-force trauma to the back of the head. The cause of those injuries remains a mystery and no suspects have been identified.

Name: Karlyn Audrey Mae Uribe

Age: 5 weeks

Date of death: Jan. 26, 2009

Karlyn died at Tehachapi Hospital in January. Kern County sheriff's investigators couldn't find enough evidence of foul play to convince the Kern County District Attorney's office to prosecute any of the three adults who were with the child around the time they believe she was injured.

Kern County Child Protective Services closed the case, pending a final report from the Kern County coroner's office. The coroner's office took its time with the case, calling in independent consultants from Stanford University to inspect Karlyn's remains and double-check opinions.

Nine months later, in September, the report came back stating that Karlyn was killed. She had four broken ribs and multiple hemorrhages on her brain that were inflicted within the hours that led up to her death. Sheriff's officials said they were aware of the injuries in the initial coroner's report and that there is still not enough evidence to charge anyone.

ACCIDENT AND NEGLECT

These deaths were terrible accidents, but CPS ruled the adults involved made serious judgment errors that resulted in the accident or complicated the situation after the fact.

Name: Maryonna Wooten

Age: 1 month

Date of death: July 12, 2008

Maryonna Wooten's mother left her child with the child's uncle Charles Wooten while she and others visited a party, police reports say. Wooten said he fell asleep, drunk, on his couch and woke up when a neighbor knocked at the door. When he turned around, Wooten said, he saw Maryonna bleeding on the couch and summoned medical help. "It was an accident, but there was some things we as a family could have done to prevent it," he told reporters. No charges have been brought in the case. The cause of death is undetermined. Reports say the soft part of the child's head was swollen and there was blood coming out of her nose.

Name: Carl Deloney

Age: 5 months

Date of death: Dec. 18, 2008

Carl was a foster child living with Oswaldo and Luz Peralta. He died while in the care of Oswaldo Peralta. Peralta tripped on a piece of carpet Dec. 15 while holding the child and attempting to throw Carl away from him so he would not fall on and crush the infant. Instead the child hit the floor head-first. The impact resulted in his death days later at Children's Hospital of Central California in Madera. The case was ruled neglect because Oswaldo Peralta called his wife before calling for medical help, and later lied to police about the causes of Carl's injuries.

Name: Ruben Soto Jr.

Age: 2 years

Date of death: May 27, 2009

Ruben Soto Jr. died when a single hollowpoint bullet from his father's Glock handgun hit him in the chest. The 2-year-old and his 3-year-old sister, Ariana, had found the weapon under their parents' mattress. Arianna pulled the weapon out and pulled the trigger. Ruben was hit and later died. Usually their father, Ruben Cirilo Soto, pulled the gun out from under the mattress each morning, locked it up and put it away on a high shelf in his closet. On May 27 he forgot to put away the weapon. After Ruben's death, Soto surrendered all of his weapons and moved to his father's home to get his family away from the rough neighborhood.

Name: Edward Shotwell

Age: 6 weeks

Date of death: July 26, 2009

No other information was available through Child Protective Services because completion of reports is still pending.

Name: Edgar Munoz

Age: 2 years

Date of death: Aug. 19, 2009

The young boy drowned. No other information was available through Child Protective Services reports, pending the release of a coroner’s report.


MISTAKES

Child Protective Services missed a step or two in their processes that could have made a difference in these cases. There is no way to know if the child would have lived if the social workers had not made the mistakes.

Name: Reanna Marie Alderette

Age: 2 years

Date of death: June 1, 2008

Reanna died at the home of her maternal grandparents, Margo and Cesar Vasquez. The cause of death was blunt-force trauma to the body. The child and her three siblings moved in with the Vasquezes after Bakersfield police found them living in filthy, unsafe conditions with their mother and father, Jessica Alvarez and Crispin Alderette, in November 2007 while looking for Alderette on unrelated burglary charges. Social workers failed to locate the children at their grandmother's home. The grandparents' home was in similar condition when Reanna died in June. There have been no arrests in Reanna's death.

Name: Alena Breann Garcia

Age: 2 months

Date of death: Feb. 20, 2009

Two-month-old Alena Garcia was smothered in February while sleeping with her mother, Brenda Plata, who had been using methamphetamine and marijuana, Child Protective Services officials said. Plata placed her daughter on her belly next to her in bed after an early morning feeding and then slept until noon, according to police reports. The child suffocated.

Social workers had counseled the mother repeatedly not to sleep with her newborn after the family was referred to Child Protective Services in late December. Social workers didn't have grounds to pull the children from the home in December, despite the fact the parents were drug users, CPS supervisors said. But workers also didn't promptly check the results of the drug tests the parents agreed to take in December. The results could have justified a follow-up investigation that could have revealed the risks to the child.

Plata was charged with three felony counts of willful cruelty to a child and pleaded no contest to one count. She served 115 days in jail.

Name: Guillermo Alvarez

Age: 2 years

Date of death: June 22, 2009

Guillermo died in June of blunt-force trauma to his body caused by blows that ruptured his spleen. His mother, Gina Serna, had been referred to Child Protective Services three times for neglect -- she had been a heavy drug user and left her children with other people for long stretches of time -- before her son died.

Department of Human Services officials acknowledged that social workers did not do the proper check-up of the mother's new home after the most recent referral and failed to check results of a drug test and assign the case the proper "substantiated" tag.

Kern County sheriff's deputies arrested her then-boyfriend, Joshuae Preston, 28, in Guillermo's death but charges were later dropped.

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x1596957328/Toddlers-death-a-blow-to-family-child-welfare-guardians

NC agents probe child welfare agency in Davis case

NC agents probe child welfare agency in Davis case
The Associated Press Published: Monday, December 7, 2009 at 1:18 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, December 7, 2009 at 1:18 p.m.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - Agents with North Carolina's criminal investigative agency are launching a probe into whether child welfare workers turned over complete records of their contacts with the family of a slain 5-year-old.

The State Bureau of Investigation said that agents will look into whether Cumberland County's Department of Social Services gave incomplete records to police investigating the slaying of Shaniya Davis, SBI spokeswoman Noelle Talley said Monday.

Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine requested the probe and Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis added his weight after police homicide investigators discussed their experiences.

"I share their concern and have requested the assistance of the SBI to assist us," Grannis said in a letter released Monday.

The girl was reported missing by her mother on Nov. 10. Police said she was killed the same day.

Her mother, Antoinette Davis, 25, is charged with filing a false police report, trafficking her daughter and child abuse involving prostitution.

Mario McNeill, 29, an acquaintance of Davis, is charged with the girl's murder, rape and kidnapping.

A search warrant says McNeill picked the girl up in front of her home and drove her more than 30 miles to a hotel in Sanford, where she was last seen alive. Surveillance video captured McNeill carrying the girl in the building.

DSS Director Brenda Jackson has declined to comment on the agency's involvement with the Davis family because of the homicide investigation and confidentiality rules for child protective services cases.

County child welfare workers had previously investigated Antoinette Davis's care of her 7-year-old son, according to her uncle, Michael Davis.

Antoinette Davis is pregnant and was being held at a state women's prison in Raleigh for her protection.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20091207/APN/912071862

Child Custody GAL - Advice on How to Handle False Allegations of Drug, Alcohol Abuse, Child Neglect

Dec 09 Child Custody GAL - Advice on How to Handle False Allegations of Drug, Alcohol Abuse, Child Neglect

Most any parent in a high conflict child custody battle will likely have felt the sting of false allegations at some point. These types of allegations are deeply disturbing and hurtful not to mention the harm they can do to your custody visitation schedule. In some states a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) is used as an advocate for the child when allegations have been made against a parent. The GAL’s responsibility is to investigate the allegations and make a recommendation to the court.

I recently had a request from a father to help him sort through the process of dealing with false allegations being investigated by a GAL. Those allegations were, drug abuse, child neglect, and alcohol abuse. Here is the advice I gave him.

You have three excellent things going in your favor.

1: You don’t do drugs.

2: Your ex has repeatedly requested you take the child in the past.

3: Alcohol is legal (and you only drink lightly and occasionally).

Temporary visitation schedules have a way of becoming permanent. I would build my strategy around removing that temporary visitation barrier.

First thing that you can do is ask the GAL f they have come across any information that they would like to ask you about or that they need clarification on. What you are looking for is dialogue that plays to the known allegations or new allegations. You do NOT want to be blindsided later on.

Let’s assume they ask you about drug abuse. Even if they don’t you should bring it up. You can tell them that you are not a drug user, never have been and that this is a tactic by the mother. I would go so far as to flip false the allegations to be concerned for my child. I would suggest they are just like me and if she cannot cope with me, then how will she react to them as they get older? A legitimate concern.

The reason I bring that up is that allegations of abuse, drugs, alcohol, etc are taken seriously by the authorities. And rightly so. Appreciate their point of view. They aren’t trying to be mean to you. They just want to protect the parties from injury. As concerned as they are about getting to the truth, you can flip that and use that concern to your advantage.

You see the point is that you can prove you don’t use drugs, using alcohol is a bit different but then it’s legal, BUT the you have proof she has made allegations. If she uses a tactic to pretend she is concerned about something she knows to be false, then what other lengths will she go to? She has already tried to damage the relationship between you and the child by making false allegations. Now YOU have the legitimate concern that she has handed you. In many states false allegations can result in losing custody.

I went a bit in depth because I want you to get your head around it. You will not likely get to explain it to the GAL, but if you understand the point you want to make and why, I think you’ll be in good shape.

Now you should understand that if you go in and say, “I’m concerned about the temporary visitation schedule and I’m willing to help in any way I can. I would be happy to drug test for you today if that would help. “I’m concerned that if she is angry enough to falsely accuse me of using drugs instead of finding a way to cope with me, then I don’t know how she would handle the child when they do things that remind her of me.” the GAL should then make the connection from her allegations and to her.

You see if you go with concern for your child, leave no stone unturned, I want to help, I’m not angry, I’m just concerned about our child. That attitude alone should benefit you.

Now let’s do the list.

#1 Suggest that the GAL present the mother with the idea of court ordered random drug testing twice per month at her expense (unless of course it’s positive). Make sure they tell her that she will be required to pay that expense until the child is 18. Suggest that the mothers reaction will tell them everything they need to know.

#2 Take email, text messages, anything that shows she has asked you to take the child for additional time. (If this is part of a court process you may need to give copies of documentation to her before seeing the GAL - You can always add other stuff to her pack so that she can wonder what you’re going to do with it?). The point here is that if she was really concerned about child neglect, drug use, drinking, these would have been issues years ago and she would not have asked you to spend more time with your child. The things she has accused you of did not pop up overnight. They are long term issues that she would have been well aware of. Also, question why she didn’t call child protective services years ago? Was she really concerned?

#3 I assume you don’t have any DUI’s. That being said, offer to not drink when you have the child. Period. No matter how much you love a beer or two, figure out what’s important to you. I’m guessing time with your child.

What you should have done by this time is convince the GAL that they need to talk to mom and confront her to see her reaction. She will not want to pay $100/month for a test she knows will be negative. Why do that when she can do nothing and leave doubt?

Finally, ask that you be given back the time you lost due to the investigation so that you can rebuild the bonds with your child.

Do you want to learn more about child custody resolution? Receive my brand new series Child Custody Court Processes.

Do you want to learn more about how to win child visitation battles? Download my brand new free series Child Visitation strategies here.

Ed Brooks knows firsthand how painful a High Conflict Child Custody battle can be and has created a site where parents can get advice on how to handle all aspects of a high conflict Child Custody battle.

http://www.drugsandhelp.com/child-custody-gal-advice-on-how-to-handle-false-allegations-of-drug-alcohol-abuse-child-neglect

Over 28 licenses revoked in crackdown

Wisconsin News and Sports
Over 28 licenses revoked in crackdown
by Andrew Beckett on December 9, 2009

in Politics & Government

Efforts to uncover fraud in the Wisconsin Shares program appear to be paying off.

Department of Children and Families Secretary Reggie Bicha says the agency has been aggressively cracking down in recent months, following the discovery of widespread fraud in the childcare subsidy program.

The Department has drawn criticism after audits and press reports showed multiple cases of providers falsifying attendance records, sex offenders living in home daycare facilities, and widespread corruption in the program.

Bicha says they’ve been holding providers accountable when fraud or other problems are uncovered. So far, the agency has revoked the licenses of 28 providers and suspended 130 after potential fraud was uncovered.

The crackdown appears to be having a deterrent effect for some, according to Bicha. He says many have started to keep better attendance records, which is producing cost savings for the state. In Milwaukee County, the cost per child decreased five to six percent over last year. Statewide, it was down about three percent.

Bicha says DCF will continue efforts to uncover fraud in the program in the coming months.


http://www.wrn.com/2009/12/over-28-licenses-revoked-in-crackdown/

Couple's adoption petition denied

Couple's adoption petition denied
Posted: Tuesday, Dec 08, 2009 - 10:05:43 am PST
By MARLISA KEYES
Staff writer

SANDPOINT —Tuesday Judge Debra Heise denied Anna and Lacey Blackford’s petition to adopt their 2-year-old foster son.

The couple had no legal standing in Idaho law.

“I am just so mad that there isn’t a law that a judge can rule on,” Anna Blackford said via Facebook chat.

“I am sad that I have to make sure a law or a few laws are made and that I won’t get to use it for my own case,” she wrote.


The state is one of 34 without a Foster Parents Bill of Rights.

An Adoption Selection Committee appointed by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare selected a different couple as his potential adoptive parents in October.

The Blackfords became Joey’s foster parents when he was 8 days old. He was addicted to cocaine when he was born and tested positive for hydrocodone and marijuana.

The toddler’s biological mother has had six children, none of whom live with her. Three children are living with relatives and a four child was adopted. Joey has a younger brother living in Washington, however Blackford is unsure if his mother’s rights have been terminated.

Unfortunately, Judge Heise had to rule against our petition for adoption. Foster parents in Idaho have no rights to “their” children. They have no rights to adopt, no rights to question what is in their best interest and no rights to fight for what is right,” Blackford wrote on the Save Joey Facebook site.

“ I wish that it was about whether the judge had compassion ...”
(Now maybe they'll understand how biological families feel)

http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/articles/2009/12/08/news/doc4b1df344a5ad8589371447.txt

9-year-old boy allegedly stabs sister in back

9-year-old boy allegedly stabs sister in back
By Lucas Sullivan | Monday, December 7, 2009, 11:28 AM

DAYTON - Police arrested a 9-year-old boy after he allegedly stabbed his 12-year-old sister in the back with a knife Sunday, Dec. 6.

Officers arrived to the 3400 block of Haberer Avenue about 10 a.m. to find the girl with a “severe” stab wound in her upper back, according to a police report.

The girl was standing in the kitchen crying and had to be taken by medics to Dayton Children’s Medical Center, the report stated.

She was having trouble breathing, but her injuries were described as non-life threatening, the report stated. She is expected to fully recover, police said.

Before leaving she told officers she and her brother were arguing and he returned to the kitchen with a knife and stabbed her, the report stated.

The children’s adoptive mother, Donna Patterson, 52, heard screaming and ran into the kitchen, but the girl had already been stabbed, the report stated.

Patterson said she wanted to press charges against the boy and he was fingerprinted at the county jail before placed in the county juvenile detention center on a felony assault charge, the report stated.

Patterson told officers she has asked Montgomery County Children’s Services to “reverse” the boy’s adoption because he is violent, but has received no resolution, the report stated.

Children’s Services spokeswoman Ann Stevens said Patterson adopted the boy in 2002 and his sister in 2005. Patterson recently requested the agency “intervene,” but the parties have yet to set a date to discuss her issues, Stevens said.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/daytoncrime/entries/2009/12/07/9yearold_boy_arrested_for_stab.html

Lawsuit could hurt state’s foster care

Lawsuit could hurt state’s foster care
POINT OF VIEW Keeping families together is vital
BY RICHARD WEXLER The Oklahoman Published: December 6, 2009

Pity the vulnerable children of Oklahoma, trapped between a state agency that routinely lets them be abused in its care and some lawyers who mean well, but don’t have a clue how to stop it.

MultimediaPhoto
view all photos The horror show that is Oklahoma foster care is aptly symbolized by the foster parent who justified abusing foster children by declaring: "If you don’t beat them down, they will run all over you.” Less well known: The Oklahoma Department of Human Services declared the complaint against this foster parent "unconfirmed.”

The group that calls itself Children’s Rights (CR) deserves credit for bringing this case and many others to light through its lawsuit against DHS. It has helped keep these horrors in the news. That, in itself, may force some change for the better. But the lawsuit itself is likely to accomplish nothing and, if CR’s recent track record is any indication, it may even do harm.

That’s because the lawsuit ignores the issue that drives everything else, something made clear in a comprehensive performance audit of DHS from Hornby Zeller Associates, commissioned by the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Repeatedly, that report warns that "Oklahoma removes too many children from home.”

My organization’s data confirm that Oklahoma tears apart families at one of the highest rates in the nation, more than 50 percent above the national average, and double or triple the rate in states widely regarded as, relatively speaking, models for keeping children safe.

This hurts children in every possible way. Even when foster homes are not abusive — the majority are not — the inherent trauma of needless removal can destroy a child’s psyche for life.

One recent study of foster care "alumni” found they had twice the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder of Gulf War veterans and only 20 percent could be said to be "doing well.” A second study, of 15,000 typical cases, found that even maltreated children left in their own homes with little or no help fared better, on average, than comparably maltreated children placed in foster care.

Wrongful removal also overloads the system, stealing workers’ time from finding children in real danger who really should be taken from their homes.

The Hornby Zeller report insightfully dissects the reasons for Oklahoma’s obscene rate of child removal and offers some smart, specific solutions.

But Children’s Rights is silent on this. And the group’s recent track record is alarming: Its settlement in Michigan led that state to cut funds for prevention and family preservation in order to hire more workers to take away more children. So unless CR changes its approach, its lawsuit is likely to leave Oklahoma with the same lousy system only bigger.

If CR can’t get past its bureaucratic take-the-child-and-run mind-set and propose a settlement that emphasizes safe, proven programs to keep families together, then it should drop its suit and go away — before it makes things even worse.

Wexler is executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, www.nccpr.org.

My organization’s data confirm that Oklahoma tears apart families at one of the highest rates in the nation, more than 50 percent above the national average.



Read more: http://www.newsok.com/article/3422896?searched=Richard%20Wexler#ixzz0ZC0bNrEA