VIEWPOINT: Child abuse editorial misguided, misinformed

VIEWPOINT: Child abuse editorial misguided, misinformed




DOUG SCHAFER
Published: 01/07/10 12:05 am | Updated: 01/07/10 12:23 pm

Recommend (0)Your editorial criticizing a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals (“Child abusers win one in the 9th Circuit,” 12-30) is misguided and misleading, as is our county prosecutor’s assessment of it (1-3).

That ruling was by a unanimous three-judge panel, two of whom were appointed by President George W. Bush. They ruled that an Oregon child protection agency worker and deputy sheriff violated the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable seizures when they detained and interrogated a child for two hours at her school about suspected sexual abuse by her father without first obtaining a warrant or other court order or a parent’s consent.

Your editorial claims that this application of the Fourth Amendment is a “brand-new and rather astonishing requirement.” But a reading of the court’s opinion demonstrates otherwise.

More than 10 years ago, the court held that a warrantless, non-emergency seizure and interrogation of an alleged victim of child sexual abuse victim at her home violates the Fourth Amendment.

That ruling has been widely praised by both conservative and liberal advocates of familial rights and other civil rights. And now the court simply rejected, as other federal courts have, the prosecution argument that law enforcement officials’ seizure and interrogation of a child at her public school renders inapplicable the traditional Fourth Amendment protections.

That argument was based on a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that lowered the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness standards for searches and seizures in public schools initiated solely by school officials to enforce school rules and maintain discipline. So teachers and principals may search student lockers and other containers, and may detain and question children, without needing court-issued warrants.

But that 1985 precedent was limited to school officials addressing student conduct at school. It does not apply to law enforcement officials investigating crimes (or enlisting school officials or social workers to do so for them).

The Ninth Circuit also rejected, just as it had in the 1999 case, prosecution arguments that government’s special need to protect children from sexual abuse justifies a departure from the warrant and probable-cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment. The court noted a federal government report that of the 3.6 million investigations in 2006 by child protection agencies, only about a quarter concluded that the children were indeed victims of abuse.

Your editorial mistakenly suggests that the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures is designed only to protect criminal suspects and defendants, particularly from arbitrary searches of their homes and other spheres of privacy.

But a person – whether a suspect, witness, or victim – is seized whenever he or she is detained by a government official under circumstances in which a reasonable person would not feel free to leave.

The Fourth Amendment protects an unwilling witness or crime victim from being seized and interrogated by the police without a warrant. A seizure impacts one’s liberty, not one’s privacy. And the government’s unwarranted and unreasonable seizure of a child impacts his or her parent’s familial rights without the due process required by the Constitution.

The recent Ninth Circuit ruling is consistent with rulings by five other federal circuits, and after searching I cannot find any published criticism of it except in your editorial pages. The ruling does not, as your editorial claims, “tip the balance of power in favor of suspected abusers” but simply requires government officials to respect the U.S. Constitution when investigating child abuse as they must when investigating other crimes.

Neither the Constitution nor the recent ruling prevents a child’s teachers, neighbors or relatives from asking the child about possible abuse. The Ninth Circuit judges wrote in a footnote, “Nothing in our opinion today would prevent a teacher, for example, from discussing suspected abuse with a student or from passing along any such information to social service workers.” The social worker can then use that information to seek a court warrant, if appropriate.

If, as our county prosecutor claims, this ruling “seriously handicaps” child abuse investigations, then our local investigators must be accustomed to defying the Constitution. This ruling confirms that rogue investigators will be held liable (with taxpayers presumably paying the bill) when they defy the constitutional rights of children and their parents. Retraining seems to be in order.

Doug Schafer is an attorney who’s been practicing law in Tacoma for 31 years.


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Another Screwup By NH DCYF! Woman gets six to 20 years for assaulting stepchild

Woman gets six to 20 years for assaulting stepchild

Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010


CONCORD – A Webster woman will serve six to 20 years in prison for repeatedly beating her stepchild in 2008.

Cara LeBlanc, 30, was sentenced at a hearing Thursday morning in Merrimack Superior Court .

The negotiated plea worked out between LeBlanc's attorney Mark Sisti and Rachel Harrington of the Merrimack County Attorney's office had the woman pleading guilty to seven of the 16 charges.


LeBLANC
The child, 8, was allegedly tortured for more than nine hours by repeatedly being thrown down a set of stairs and each time being dragged up by her hair.

The child had fractured ribs and vertebrae and suffered injuries to her kidney and liver. She told the court she thought she was going to be killed in the prolonged attack.

The child's father, Daniel LeBlanc, who is in the process of divorcing Cara LeBlanc, is also charged with two misdemeanors of assault and endangering the welfare of the child for an incident that occurred several days prior to the July 10, 2008, attack. He is due to stand trial in March.

Cara LeBlanc fled the state after the incident and was found in Florida.

►Woman sought in assault on stepdaughter
►Woman charged in abuse returning to NH (11)
►Stepmother's lawyer points finger at father (18)
►Friend says she told of abuse concerns (9) (Check out this link. This friend reported the abuse much earlier and DCYF did NOTHING! Their too busy going after UNABUSIVE, Falsely Accused parents!)
►Suspect captured; abuse detailed (31)


http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Woman+gets+six+to+20+years+for+assaulting+stepchild&articleId=7997a144-b230-4ed9-8523-cb707ed477c2

Subject: A Must to Read..Please pass this on

Subject: A Must to Read..Please pass this on

Common
People ...... something is wrong
here!

Take
a look at this and just remember elections in
Nov. 2010.

U.S. House &
Senate have voted themselves $4,700 and
$5,300 raises.

1.
They
voted not
to give
you a S.S. Cost of living raise
in 2010 and 2011.
2.
Your Medicaid premiums
will go up $285.60 for
the 2-years and
You will not get the 3%
COLA: $660/yr. Your total 2-yr loss and
cost is
-$1,600 or -$3,200
for husband and wife.

3.
Over
2-yrs they
each get $10,000
4.
Do
you feel SCREWED?

5.
Will they have your
cost of drugs - doctor fees - local taxes -
food, etc., increase?
NO
WAY . They have a raise and
better benefits. Why care about you? You never
did anything about it in the past. You
obviously are too stupid or don't
care.

6.
Do you really think
that Nancy, Harry, Chris, Charlie, Barnie, et
al, care about you? SEND THE MESSAGE--
You're
FIRED.
IN 2010 YOU WILL HAVE
A CHANCE TO GET RID OF THE SITTING CONGRESS:


Up to 1/3 OF
THE SENATE, AND 100% OF THE HOUSE.


MAKE
SURE YOU'RE STILL MAD IN NOVEMBER 2010 AND
REMIND THEIR REPLACEMENTS NOT TO SCREW
UP.
It
is ok to forward this to your sphere of
influence if you are finally tired of the
abuse.
Maybe it's time for
the........
Amendment
28

"Congress
shall make no law that applies to the citizens
of the United
States that does not apply
equally to the Senators or Representatives,
and Congress shall make no law that applies
to the Senators or
Representatives that does
not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ."


Let's get this passed
around, folks - these people in Washington have
brought this upon themselves!!! It's time
for retribution. Let's take back America

If you don't forward this to all your friends,
you're just part of the problem of national
apathy.

Is it child protection or legal kidnapping? (It's ILLEGAL Kidnapping!)

Is it child protection or legal kidnapping?
May 29, 2008 3:00 AM (588 days ago) by Barbara F. Hollingsworth, The Examiner

SEE THE LATEST ON THIS STORY EMAIL STORYPRINT STORY588 days ago: Lawmaker says CPS officials guilty of ‘ruthless behavior’588 days ago: Bureaucrats running down the clock against parents» 588 days ago: Is it child protection or legal kidnapping? «
This story is ranked # 7,487 of 2,412
Related Topics: WASHINGTON



(Map, News) -
Children being taken from their homes, based on tips from anonymous telephone callers alleging abuse or neglect, has been cast in a harsh spotlight in the Texas polygamy case, and there’s growing evidence that more than a few of the 510,000 children placed in foster care annually don’t belong there.

In February, Georgia state Sen. Nancy Schaefer released a blistering assessment of the bureaucrats entrusted to protect children there: “I believe Child Protective Services nationwide has become corrupt and that the entire system is broken almost beyond repair. I am convinced parents and families should be warned of the dangers.”

Armed with court orders and protected by confidentiality statutes that function as bureaucratic shield laws, CPS workers need just one anonymous phone call to a hot line to swoop in and remove children, regardless of the facts.

Such calls can be legitimate, coming from a legally mandated reporter such as a doctor or teacher. But it could also be a fabrication from a vindictive ex-spouse, a nosy neighbor or a disgruntled relative. Since no laws clearly define child abuse and neglect, parents have been accused of these serious crimes when what they actually did was yell, withhold TV privileges or “repress” their children by supervising them too much.

This story continues below
Advertisement
Steven Krason, professor of political science and legal studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, is writing a book on CPS wrongdoing based on two decades of research.

Krason says CPS itself now poses “a grave threat” because “it is almost impossible to fully insulate one’s family from ... a system that on very little pretense can simply reach into the home and take away one’s offspring.”

He’s convinced the number of real child abuse cases has remained fairly steady over the last three decades; what has been growing is an unprecedented government assault on innocent parents.

And if it doesn’t take much to have your children placed in foster care, getting them back can be another story. An anonymous call about a 10-ounce weight loss by their then 3-week-old daughter triggered a legal avalanche that buried Arlington residents Nancy Hey and Christopher Slitor.

Their parental rights were terminated last year by Arlington Judge James Almand even though Hey and Slitor had been exonerated of all neglect charges nine months earlier.

In another local case, Georgetown residents Greg and Juliana Caplan had to spend $75,000 on lawyers and wait two weeks before their children were returned, even after five doctors confirmed that an injury sustained by one of their twin daughters was not caused by abuse.

The Caplans are still listed as possible child abusers in D.C., however, because they refused to submit to psychological counseling. Despite the stigma, that might have been a wise decision.

The psychological evaluation trap is one of the least expected obstacles facing parents snared unfairly in the CPS system. Most panicked parents promise to do anything to get their children back, often agreeing to a battery of psychological tests they naively believe will prove their parental competence and end the nightmare. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

Arlington social workers told Hey that she had to undergo psychological testing before she could get her baby back, so the longtime Federal Communications Commission employee readily agreed.

She was diagnosed with two clinical disorders by Giselle Hass at the Multicultural Clinical Center in Springfield. This psychological evaluation was cited in the court ruling terminating Hey’s parental rights. But an independent, expert analysis of the report obtained by The Examiner included scathing critique of the methodology used to evaluate Hey, saying it “reads more like advocacy than a professional psychological assessment ... clear and frequent evidence of error. ... Any graduate student who turned in as poorly scored and interpreted a test as did this evaluator would probably have failed the first semester.”

Besides violations of standard practice and professional rules of ethics, the analysis noted numerous illustrations of bias in the psychological profile and “a consistent failure to include data that would be favorable to Mrs. Hey,” including 17 computer-generated scores on the Parental Stress Index that were all in the normal range.

This was a significant omission, given that Judge Almand cited Hey’s tendency of “freezing ... in times of stress” as one of the main reasons she could not be trusted to raise her own child.

Hey — who has never been convicted of either abuse or neglect — has had no contact with 3-year-old Sabrina since Judge Almand allowed her to be adopted by the same foster family Arlington CPS workers originally selected to care for her baby.

Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Washington Examiner’s local opinion editor.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1413553~Is_it_child_protection_or_legal_kidnapping_.html

Study: Troubled homes better than foster care

Study: Troubled homes better than foster care
Updated 7/3/2007 6:55 AM

FAMILY INFLUENCE (Older article but well worth the read.)

Children who stay in troubled families fare better than those put into foster care. Those who:

Were arrested at least once:
• Stayed with family: 14%
• Went to foster care: 44%

Became teen mothers:
• Stayed with family: 33%
• Went to foster care: 56%

Held a job at least 3 months:
• Stayed with family: 33%
• Went to foster care: 20%

Source: Study by Joseph Doyle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

American parents grapple with siblings torn apart

More on adoptions

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
Children whose families are investigated for abuse or neglect are likely to do better in life if they stay with their families than if they go into foster care, according to a pioneering study.
The findings intensify a vigorous debate in child welfare: whether children are better served with their families or away from them.


RELATED: Record numbers of foster kids leave program as adults

Kids who stayed with their families were less likely to become juvenile delinquents or teen mothers and more likely to hold jobs as young adults, says the study by Joseph Doyle, an economics professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management who studies social policy.

"The size of the effects surprised me, because all the children come from tough families," Doyle says. The National Science Foundation funded the study.

Doyle says his research, which tracked at least 15,000 kids from 1990 to 2002, is the largest study to look at the effects of foster care. He studied kids in Illinois because of a database there that links abuse investigations to other government records.

To avoid results attributable to family background, he screened out extreme cases of abuse or neglect and studied kids whose cases could have gone either way.

Studies, including those by Mark Courtney while at the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children, show that the 500,000 children in U.S. foster care are more likely than other kids to drop out of school, commit crimes, abuse drugs and become teen parents.

His research has shown that this holds true even when foster kids are compared with other disadvantaged youth.


MORE: Number of single men adopting foster kids doubles

Doyle's study, however, provides "the first viable, empirical evidence" of the benefits of keeping kids with their families, says Gary Stangler, executive director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a foundation for foster teens. Stangler says it looked at kids over a longer period of time than had other studies.

"It confirms what experience and observation tell us: Kids who can remain in their homes do better than in foster care," says Stangler. He says some kids, for their own safety, need to be removed from their families, but in marginal cases of abuse, more should be done to keep them together.

Smaller studies have found kids from abusive families do better in foster care. "There are high rates of re-abuse" for those reunited with parents, says Heather Taussig, a pediatrics professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Taussig co-authored a study in 2001 that found kids reunited with families after a brief stay in foster care were more likely to abuse drugs, get arrested, drop out of school and have lower grades than those who stayed in foster care. She followed 149 youths in San Diego over a 6-year period.

Taussig says case workers shouldn't assume that keeping kids with relatives is better.

"We need more research," she says.

Doyle says foster care remains a needed safety net for some kids but he agrees that it merits further study.

Posted 7/2/2007 10:47 PM
Updated 7/3/2007 6:55 AM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm

TWELVE WAYS TO DO CHILD WELFARE RIGHT

TWELVE WAYS TO DO CHILD WELFARE RIGHT NCCPR
Successful Alternatives to
Taking Children from their Parents
At the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, we often are asked what can be done to prevent the trauma of foster care by safely keeping children with their own families. There are many options, and we’ve listed some below. None of the alternatives described below will work in every case or should be tried in every case. Contrary to the way advocates of placement prevention often are stereotyped, we do not believe in “family preservation at all costs” or that “every family can be saved.” But these alternatives can keep many children now needlessly taken from their parents safely in their own homes. Similarly, even communities that have turned their child welfare systems into national models still have serious problems, and often much progress still needs to be made. All of the things that go wrong in the worst child welfare systems also go wrong in the best – but they go wrong less often. These recommendations deal primarily with curbing wrongful removal by improving services. But at least as important is bolstering due process for families. For those recommendations, see NCCPR’s Due Process Agenda.

1. Doing nothing. There are, in fact, cases in which the investigated family is entirely innocent and perfectly capable of taking good care of their children without any “help” from a child welfare agency. In such cases, the best thing the child protective services worker can do is apologize, shut the door, and go away.

2. Basic, concrete help. Sometimes it may take something as simple as emergency cash for a security deposit, a rent subsidy, or a place in a day care center (to avoid a “lack of supervision” charge) to keep a family together. Indeed, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has a special program, called the Family Unification Program, in which Section 8 vouchers are reserved for families where housing is the issue keeping a family apart or threatening its breakup. Localities must apply for these subsidies. By doing so, they effectively acknowledge what they typically deny: that they do, in fact, tear apart families due to lack of housing. CONTACT: Ruth White, Executive Director National Center for Housing and Child Welfare (866) 790-6766, info@nchcw.org, www.nchcw.org. Ms. White also is a member of the NCCPR Board of Directors.

3. Intensive Family Preservation Services programs. The first such program, Homebuilders, in Washington State, was established in the mid-1970s. The largest replication is in Michigan, where the program is called Families First. The very term “family preservation” was invented specifically to apply to this type of program, which has a better track record for safety than foster care. The basics concerning how these programs work – and what must be included for a program to be a real “family preservation” program — are in NCCPR Issue Papers 10 and 11. Issue Paper 11 lists studies proving the programs’ effectiveness. CONTACTS: Charlotte Booth, executive director, Homebuilders (253) 874-3630, info@institutefamily.org, Susan Kelly, former director, Families First (734) 547-9164, skelly@casey.org

4. The Alabama “System of Care.” This is one of the most successful child welfare reforms in the country. The reforms are the result of a consent decree growing out of a lawsuit brought by the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. The consent decree requires the state to rebuild its entire system from the bottom up, with an emphasis on keeping families together. The rate at which children are taken from their homes is among the lowest in the country, and re-abuse of children left in their own homes has been cut sharply. An independent monitor appointed by the court has found that children are safer now than before the changes. CONTACTS: Ira Burnim, Legal Director, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law (202) 467-5730, ext. 129. Mr. Burnim also is a member of the NCCPR Board of Directors. The Bazelon Center also has published a book about the Alabama reforms. Paul Vincent, Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group, Montgomery, Ala. (334) 264-8300. Mr. Vincent ran the child protection system in Alabama when the lawsuit was filed. He worked closely with the plaintiffs to develop and implement the reform plan. Ivor Groves, independent, court-appointed monitor, (850) 422-8900.

5. Family to Family. This is a multi-faceted program developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (which also helps to fund NCCPR). One element of the program, Team Decisionmaking often is confused with the entire program, which has many more elements. The program is described at the Casey website A comprehensive outside evaluation of the program, found that it led to fewer placements, shorter placements, and less bouncing of children from foster home to foster home – with no compromise of safety. CONTACT: Gretchen Test, Annie E. Casey Foundation (410) 547-6600.

6. Community/Neighborhood Partnerships for Child Protection. These partnerships, overseen by the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington, are similar to the Family to Family projects. They mobilize formal and informal networks of helpers to prevent maltreatment and avoid needless foster care placement. Partnerships in Florida’s Duval County, St. Louis, Mo. and Georgia have reduced placements and improved safety. CONTACT: Marno Batterson, Center for the Study of Social Policy, (641) 792-5918, marno.batterson@cssp.org.

7. The turnaround in Pittsburgh. In the mid-1990s, the child welfare system in Pittsburgh and surrounding Allegheny County, Pa. was typically mediocre, or worse. Foster care placements were soaring and those in charge insisted every one of those placements was necessary. New leadership changed all that. Since 1997, the foster care population has been cut dramatically. When children must be placed, nearly half of all placements are with relatives and siblings are kept together 82 percent of the time.

They’ve done it by tripling the budget for primary prevention, more than doubling the budget for family preservation, embracing innovations like Family to Family and adding elements of their own, such as housing counselors in every child welfare office so families aren’t destroyed because of housing problems. And children are safer. Reabuse of children left in their own homes has declined and there has been a significant and sustained decline in child abuse fatalities. CONTACT: Karen Blumen, Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Office of Community Relations (412) 350-5707.

8. Reform in El Paso County, Colorado. By recognizing the crucial role of poverty in child maltreatment, El Paso County reversed steady increases in its foster care population. The number of children in foster care declined significantly – and the rate of reabuse of children left in their own homes fell below the state and national averages, according to an independent evaluation by the Center for Law and Social Policy. CONTACT: Barbara Drake, El Paso County Department of Human Services, (719) 444-5532.

9. The Bridge Builders, Bronx, New York. Combine the giving and guidance of ten foundations with the knowledge and enthusiasm of eight community-based agencies, add extensive involvement of neighborhood residents in outreach, service delivery and governance, then partner with the child protective services agency and what do you get? A significant reduction in the number of children taken from their homes, with no compromise of safety, in a neighborhood that is among those losing more children to foster care than any other in New York City. That’s the record of the Bridge Builders Initiative in the Highbridge section of The Bronx. (NCCPR received a grant to assist the Bridge Builders with media work). CONTACTS: Joe Jenkins, executive director, (718) 681-2222;Jenkinsj@highbridgelife.org, John Rios, Jewish Child Care Association of New York, co-chair Bridge Builders Executive Committee, riosj@jccany.org

10. The transformation in Maine. After a little girl named Logan Marr was taken needlessly from her mother only to be killed by a foster mother who formerly worked for the child welfare agency, the people of Maine refused to settle for pat answers about background checks and licensing standards. They zeroed in on the fact that Maine had one of the highest proportions of children in the country trapped in foster care. The combination of grassroots demands for change from below and new leadership at the top led to a dramatic reduction in the number of children taken away over the course of a year. And while the state still has a long way to go in using kinship care, the proportion of children placed with relatives has more than doubled. It’s all been done without compromising safety, earning the support of the state’s independent child welfare ombudsman. CONTACTS: Dean Crocker, Vice President for Programs, Maine Children’s Alliance, (207) 623-1868 ext. 212, dcrocker@mekids.org; Mary Callahan, founder Maine Alliance for DHS Accountability and Reform, (207) 353-4223, maryec_98@yahoo.com

11.Changing financial incentives. While not a program per se, making this change spurs both government and private child welfare agencies to come up with all sorts of innovations. This is clear from the experiences of two states.

Florida obtained a waiver allowing it to trade in its right to an unlimited open-ended entitlement to foster care money (discussed in detail in NCCPR Issue Paper 12) for a flat grant that can be used for better alternatives as well. The result: a dramatic turnaround in what was once one of the nation’s worst systems. Entries into care are down significantly and independent evaluators say child safety improved.

Illinois has focused on changing incentives for private agencies. Until the late 1990s, Illinois reimbursed those agencies the way other states typically do: They were paid for each day they kept a child in foster care. Thus, agencies were rewarded for letting children languish in foster care and punished for achieving permanence. Now those incentives have been reversed, in part because of pressure from the Illinois Branch of the ACLU, which won a lawsuit against the child welfare system. Today, private agencies in Illinois are rewarded both for adoptions (which often are conversions of kinship placements to subsidized guardianships) and for returning children safely to their own homes. They are penalized for prolonged stays in foster care. The foster care population plummeted, and children are safer. Today, Illinois takes away children at one of the lowest rates in the country. Independent, court-appointed monitors have found that child safety has improved. CONTACT: Ben Wolf, Illinois Branch, ACLU, (312) 201-9760, ext. 420, bwolf@aclu-il.org

12. Due process of law. Even the best programs are no substitute for due process. That means court hearings in child welfare cases should be open. But that also means it’s urgent for accused parents to have meaningful legal representation from well-trained attorneys with low caseloads and solid support staff. It’s not a matter of getting “bad” parents off, it’s a matter of challenging case records that often are rife with error, countering cookie-cutter “service plans” that provide no services and ensuring that families get the help they need. A pilot project to provide such representation in some counties in Washington State has had such success in safely keeping families together that even the Attorney General’s office, which represents the child welfare agency in these cases, favors expanding it. FURTHER INFORMATION AND CONTACTS are available from the Washington State Office of Public Defense at this website: http://www.opd.wa.gov/Parents%20Representation%20Program.htm And for additional due process recommendations, see NCCPR’s Due Process Agenda.

Updated, January 1, 2010

http://nccpr.info/solutions-services/

Abuse Within America's Foster Care System - Children at Risk

Abuse Within America's Foster Care System - Children at Risk
January 06, 2010 by Janey Falk

Search more A Foster Care Survivor - Part 1
America has a nasty habit of stigmatizing those less fortunate. Children, our most vulnerable citizens, struggle on an every day basis to learn what it means to grow up and be responsible but those children who are unfortunate enough to enter this world in an abusive home have their
chances of a decent life slashed severely by society if not by the trauma they are forced to live through.

In a 2006 ABC News Report (Primetime), Dr. Wade Horn, former child psychologist and Director of the Department of Health and Human Services for George W. Bush, stated that "the foster care system was a giant mess and should just be blown up". He was most critical of the Federal government's way of funding foster care, "$5 billion that goes mostly to keeping kids in foster care". According to Dr. Wade, there was no provisions for treatment, prevention, family support or "aging out" (turned out at 18 yrs. of age). The ways things were set up is to keep everything exactly as they were, supporting the status quo, as it already was. He wanted to rethink foster care on a national level.

Dr. Wade's interview in 2006 was an eye opener for many but anyone who takes a serious look at the foster care system before the year 2000 would either be horrified or in denial that America's children have been put at such risk and many of their problems in adult life can be traced to their time in foster homes.

For the rest of this article, please go to:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2550931/abuse_within_americas_foster_care_system.html?cat=47