Parents Sentenced In Child Abuse Case Couple Adopted Kids Through 'Wednesday's Child'

Parents Sentenced In Child Abuse Case
Couple Adopted Kids Through 'Wednesday's Child'

By Steve Burgin/WLKY
WLKY.com
updated 2 hours, 13 minutes ago
LaRue County, Ky. - WLKY.com

A LaRue County, Ky., couple charged with abusing their four children learned their punishment Friday.

Juan and Myra Rodriguez were charged with more than 70 counts of child abuse-related crimes between the two of them.

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The prosecutor said they tortured their children for more than a year.

Child Protective Services caught wind of this case after doctors at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville noticed unusual injuries to a 3-year-old girl. Investigators said the girl had her arm and leg broken.

Myra Rodriguez faced the more serious charges. She was named in a 47-count indictment on charges of criminal abuse, complicity to commit criminal abuse, assault and endangering the welfare of a minor.

"According to statements from the children they had all suffered some type of abuse," LaRue County Deputy Matt Darst.

Allegations against the parents included pushing the kids down the stairs of their home. Adult bite marks were found on a 10-year-old.

Under the agreement, Myra will spend 10 years in prison with the Commonwealth opposing probation.

Juan Rodriguez faced fewer, less serious charges. He made a deal and will spend 12 months in jail, probated for two years if he stays out of trouble and out of the state of Kentucky.

In both cases, the prosecutor said the victims and their foster parents agreed to the punishment. All four children are in foster care.

"The allegations were, they were horrible. I mean these kids were tortured and if it has just been some discipline that went over the line, it may have not been discovered," said assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Whitney Meredith.

The Rodriguez family had one child of their own and adopted three children after learning about them on "Wednesday's Child," WLKY's weekly profile of children up for adoption.

Final approval for the adoption of all children profiled on the program comes from Child Protective Services, not WLKY. The state does background checks on adoptive parents. In this case, it was the state that initiated the police investigation.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35481911/ns/local_news-louisville_ky/

In memory of foster kids killed while in the system

In memory of foster kids killed while in the system
Submitted by Sanura on Tue, 2006-08-29 13:10.

This page is in memory of children who died after social service agencies removed them from the care of their parents, placing them with fosters, adopters, group homes, or psychiatric facilities.

Genesis Acosta-Garcia, Las Vegas Nevada, three months old, November 19, 2005, septic shock

Travis C Adams, Salem Oregon, August 8 2000, December 16 2002, wandered into creek

Kayla Y Allen, Richlands North Carolina, November 10 1995 - August 24 2003, poison

Martin Lee Anderson, Panama City Florida, fourteen years old, January 6 2006, beating/suffocation

Richard L (Ricky) Aragon, Albuquerque New Mexico, January 24 1991 - April 12 1993, battered

Shirley Arciszewski, Charlotte North Carolina, April 19 1992 - September 11 2004, restraint

Miguel Humberto Arias-Baca, Westminster Colorado, two years old, February 2 1999, battered

Angellika Nicole Arndt, Minneapolis Minnesota, seven years old, May 26 2006, restraint

Ian August, Sevier Desert Utah, June 21 1988 - July 13, 2002, exhaustion

Denzel Bailey, Los Angeles California, eleven months old, April 2001, malnutrition

Jeffrey Baldwin, Toronto Ontario, December 20 1996 - November 30 2002, malnutrition/pneumonia

Casey Paul Barrow, West Valley Utah, eighteen months old, October 22 2003, battered

Anthony Bars, Indiana, four years old, January 20 2004, starvation, battered

Shelly Bash, Midland Michigan, eight years old, March 2005, transplant rejection

Nadine Catherine Beaulieu, Dauphin Manitoba, twenty three months old, February 1996, battered

Teddy Bellingham, Smiths Falls Ontario, sixteen years old, August 1992, beaten

Jerome Bennett, Oshawa Ontario, fifteen years old, February 3 2006, homicide

Maria Bennett, Lancaster Ohio, two years old, October 23, 2002, battered

Modesto Blanco, Lubbock Texas, twenty two months old, March 2 2002, battered

Christian Blewitt né Osik, Halesowen England, three years old, December 2002, poison/battered

Deondre Bondieumaitre, Florida, sixteen months old, April 16 2003, battered

Timothy Boss, Remsen Iowa, ten years old, February 23 2000, battered

Alex Boucher, New Port Richey Florida, January 25 1997 - September 25 2000, asphyxiation

Ashley Boyd, LaFayette Georgia, twelve years old, December 13 2005, hit by car / suicide

Jason Bright, Las Vegas Nevada, fourteen years old, August 5 2006, gunshot / homicide

Kerry Brooks, Los Angeles California, nine years old, February 10 2001, suicide

Talitha Brooks, Colorado, one year old, July 1998, heatstroke

Amira Brown, Reading Pennsylvania, twelve years old, September 4 2005, battered / restraint

Diminiqua Bryant, Dothan Alabama, two years old, May 1999, battered

Scott Buckle, Swansea Wales, twelve years old, February 6 2005, hanging

Latasha Bush, Manvel Texas, January 2 1987 - February 28 2002, restraint

Michael Buxton, Miami Oklahoma, five years old, July 5 1998, battered

Everlyse Cabrera, Las Vegas Nevada, two years old, June 10 2006, lost

Eduardo Calzada, Bakersfield California, three months old, March 2004, battered

Chris Campbell, Toledo Iowa, thirteen years old, November 2, 1997, restraint

Gladys Campbell, Philadelphia/New Jersey, two years old, ca 1988

Edith Campos, Tucson Arizona, fifteen years old, February 4 1998, restraint

Brianna Canales, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, four years old, April 24 2006, dozen Zoloft pills

Latasha Cannon, Boston Massachusetts, seventeen years old, April 2001, slashed throat

Mario Cano, Chula Vista California, sixteen years old, April 27 1984, untreated blood clot

Joshua K Causey, Detroit Michigan, March 21 1998 - March 18 2003, battered

Jaime Ceballos, Salinas California, two years old, November 27 2005, infection and bleeding

baby boy Charles, Las Vegas Nevada, seven months old, August 4 2006, head injury

Sherry Charlie, British Columbia, nineteen months old, September 4 2002, battered

Sarah Angelina Chavez, Alhambra California, two years old, October 11 2005, battered

Felix Chen, Bloomington Indiana, August 27 1997 - April 1 2004, treatment withheld

Sky Colon Cherevez, Paterson New Jersey, three months old, August 6 1998, battered

Tiffany H Clair, Fort Worth Texas, September 6 1985 - May 4 2001, heroin

Brian Clark, New Jersey, three years old, January 2002, untreated pneumonia

Angelic Clary, Bakersfield California, three months old, September 14 2003

Roshelle Clayborn, San Antonio Texas, sixteen years old, August 18 1997, restraint

Casey Collier, Westminster Colorado, seventeen years old, December 21 1993, restraint

Desiree Collins, Los Angeles California, fourteen years old, February 10 2002, gunshot

Nicholas Contreras, Queen Creek Arizona, January 15 1982 - March 2 1998, untreated infection

Ashleigh Marie Copeland née Lethbridge, Michigan, twelve years old, February 23 2006, grand-mal

Adrianna Cram, Veracruz Mexico (US supervision), August 25 2000 - June 13 2005

Christopher Henry Cryderman, Springfield Missouri, July 27 2004 - November 22 2004, untreated infection

Dirk D Dalton, Clarkston Washington, June 7 1989 - May 1 1994, battered

Arieale Daniels, Naples Florida, fifteen years old, 1999, car crash

Tajuana Davidson, Phoenix Arizona, three years old, November 3 1993, battered

China Marie Davis, Phoenix Arizona, March 23 1991 - October 31 1993, battered

Sabrina Elizabeth Day, Charlotte North Carolina, July 4 1984 - February 10 2000, restraint

Tyler Joseph DeLeon, Stevens County Washington, January 13 1998 - January 13 2005, dehydration

Kameron Justin Demery, Long Beach California, two years old, October 14 1996, battered

Connre Dixon, Ridgefield Township Ohio eleven years old, October 18 2004, stabbing

Mark Draheim, Orefield Pennsylvania, October 10 1984 - December 11 1998, restraint

Charmaria Drake, Cleveland Ohio, twenty months old, March 13 2003, battered

Stephanie Duffield, Manvel Texas, July 14 1984 - February 11 2001, restraint

Willie Lawrence Durden III, Citrus County Florida, seventeen years old, October 2005, unknown/died in cell

Brian Edgar, Overland Park Kansas, nine years old, December 30 2002, asphyxiation

William Edgar, Peterborough Ontario, thirteen years old, March 1999, restraint

Tiffany Eilders, Rancho Cucamonga California, fourteen weeks old, December 7 2005, battered

Ryan Ellison, Las Vegas Nevada, three months old, January 17 2006, prematurity concealed

Kayla Erlandson, King County Washington, two years old, April 1991, battered

Luke Evans, Lowell Indiana, sixteen months old, November 30 2001, malnutrition/battered

Roberta (Berta) Evers, Bayfield Colorado, six years old, June 13 1998, restraint

Sara Eyerman, California, twenty months old, ca 1986, untreated pneumonia

Sean Isaac Faith, Eagle Idaho, three years old, May 13 2006, drowning

Marcus Fiesel, Cincinnati Ohio, three years old, August 6 2006, locked in closet

Miranda Finn, Lake Butler Florida, nine years old, January 25 2006, traffic accident

Laura Fleming, Palmdale California, October 11 2004 - November 21 2004, cause unknown

Sarah Jane Forrester, Woodlawn Maryland, October 30 1985 - found May 13 1999, battered and stabbed

Rita Foster, Pasadena California, four years old, June 29 2006, run over by bus

Kameryn Fountain, Bibb County Georgia, two months old, November 20 2005, unknown cause

Henry Gallop, Boston Massachusetts, two years old, 1987, poison

Alexander Ganadonegro, Albuquerque New Mexico, March 10 1998 - February 4 1999, battered

Christening (Mikie) Garcia, Ingram Texas, twelve years old, December 4 2005, restraint

Camron P Gardner, Waupun Wisconsin, three years old, May 5 2006, battered

Dylan James George, Fremont California, April 16 2002 - October 4 2004, battered

Anthony Marino Gladue, Edmonton Alberta, seventeen years old, April 26 2006, hit by train

Corese Goldman, Chicago Illinois, two years old, 1995, drowning

Mollie Gonzales, Jefferson County Colorado, ten years old, November 18 2002, drug overdose

Julio Gonzalez, Glendale California, May 10 1995 - December 29 1996, battered

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Goodwin, Coeur d'Alene Idaho, March 22 1996 - October 22 2002, drowning

Anthony Green, Brownwood Texas, fifteen years old, May 12 1991, restraint

Sabrina Green, New York City, nine years old, November 8 1997, burned and battered

Lamar D Greene, Jacksonville Florida, sixteen years old, 2001, car crash

Corey Greer, Treasure Island Florida, four months old, ca 1985, dehydration

Gage Guillen, Boston Massachusetts, three years old, 1995, strangulation

Darvell Gulley, Lincoln Nebraska, thirteen years old, April 27 2002, restraint

Savannah Brianna Marie Hall, Prince George British Columbia, September 9 1997 - January 21 2001, malnutrition/restraint

Latiana Hamilton, Jacksonville Florida, seventeen months old, July 18 2001, drowning

Mykeeda Hampton, District of Columbia, two years old, August 1997, battered

Kelly M Hancock, Malden Massachusetts, November 6 1985 - July 18 2000, stabbed

Laura Hanson, West Palm Beach Florida, May 17 1981 - November 19 1998, restraint

Jerrell Hardiman, La Porte Indiana, four years old, October ca 1993, exposure

Alex Harris, Minden Louisiana, twelve years old, September 2005, forced running

Diane Harris, Seguin Texas, seventeen years old, April 11 1990, restraint

Jessica Albina Hagmann, Prince William County Virginia, two years old, August 11 2003, smothered

Letia Harrison, Akron Ohio, October 23 1999 - September 19 2002, baked in attic

Jordan Heikamp, Toronto Ontario, May 19 1997 - June 23 1997, starvation

Eric Hernandez, Cedar Hill Texas, January 6 1999 - March 7 1999, suffocation

Zachary Higier, né Nikita Khoryakov Braintree Massachusetts, May 24 2000 - August 15 2002, battered

Dwight Hill, Tucson Arizona, four months old, November 16 2005, battered

Nina Victoria Hilt née Vika Bazhenova, Manassas Virginia, thirty three months old, July 2 2005, battered

Steven A Hoffa, Des Moines Iowa, February 4 1993 - May 18 1996, battered

Richard (Ricky) Holland, Williamston Michigan, September 8 1997 - July 2005, battered

Michael Anthony Hughes, Choctaw Oklahoma, March 21 1988 - September 12 1994, kidnap/missing

Jarod (Jerry) Hulsey, Mesa Arizona, ten years old, April 3 2006, battered

Joseph (Joey) Huot, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, two years old, January 27 1988, battered

Dion Jack, Sproat Lake British Columbia, six years old, March 1 2006, untreated seizure

Walter Jackson, Chicago Illinois, ten months old, August 9 2005, battered

Dominic James, Springfield Missouri, June 4 2000 - August 21 2002, battered

Billie-Jo Jenkins, Hastings East Sussex England, thirteen years old, February 1997, battered

Demetrius Jeffries, Crockett Texas, seventeen years old, August 26 1997, strangulation

Dontel Jeffers, Boston Massachusetts, four years old, March 6 2005, battered

Ciara S Jobes, Baltimore Maryland, August 17 1987 - December 11 2002, starvation/beating

Stephanie Jobin, Brampton Ontario, thirteen years old, June 21 1998, restraint

Aaron Johnson, Boston Massachusetts, fifteen months old, 1987, poison

Anthony Johnson, Marshall Texas, four years old, July 11 2005, drowning

Elijah James Johnson, Los Angeles California, three years old, May 10 1999, scalded

Lorenzo Johnson, Queen Creek Arizona, 17 years old - June 27, 1994, drowned during escape

Quartrina K (Snappy) Johnson, Pikesville Maryland, December 25 1988 - July 20 2004, beaten and choked

Xolani Nkosi Johnson, Capetown South Africa, twelve years old, June 2 2001, AIDS

Christal Jones, New York City (Vermont ward), May 24 1984 - January 3 2001, suffocation

David L Jones, Chicago Illinois, April 15 1992 - March 7 1998, battered

Xavier Jones, East Orange New Jersey, twenty one months old, June 7 2006, methadone poisoning

Dennis Jurgens né Jerry Sherwood, White Bear Lake Minnesota, three years old, April 11 1965, battered

Marissa (Shorty) Karp, Pompano Beach Florida, December 6 1985 - August 19 2002, gunshot

David Ryan Keeley, New Haven Connecticut, six years old, August 12 1998, battered

Ashley Keen, Lake Butler Florida, thirteen years old, January 25 2006, traffic accident

Cassandra Killpack, Springville Utah, November 29 1997 - June 9 2002, water therapy

Ahmad King né Rawls, Alma Georgia, three years old, January 24 2006, homicide

Heather Michell Kish, Berlin Township Michigan, September 15 1987 -found October 6 2002, murdered

Noah Knapp, Marysville Washington, six years old, May 30 2005, automobile collision

Alissa Kneen, Newport Minnesota, five years old, September 7 2001, house fire

Cordell Kneen, Newport Minnesota, twenty months old, September 7 2001, house fire

Zaire Knott, Newark New Jersey, September 16 2005 - October 20 2005, cause unknown

Anatoli Kolenda, Westfield Massachusetts, May 20 1991 - October 20 2002, stabbing

Yana Kolenda, Westfield Massachusetts, December 31 1990 - October 20 2002, stabbing

Anthony Lamb, Lake Butler Florida, twenty months old, January 25 2006, traffic accident

Keisha Shardae Lane, Hagerstown Maryland, fifteen years old, August 17 2005, gunshot

Shawn Lawrence né Andy Mohler, Shelton Washington, ten years old, October 9 1999, drowning

Brittany Legler, Millcreek Pennsylvania, fifteen years old, May 9 2004, battered

Isaac Lethbridge, Detroit Michigan, two years old, August 16 2006, battered

Trenton Jared Lewis, Canyon County Idaho, three years old, July 8 2006, drowning

Jacob Lindorff, Franklin Township New Jersey, five years old, December 14 2001, battered

Christian Liz, New York City, three weeks old, November 29 2004, suffocation

James Lonnee, Guelph/Hamilton Ontario, sixteen years old, September 7 1996, beaten by cellmate

Gregory Love, Florida, twenty three months old, April 2005, head injury

Nikki Lutke, Cheyenne Wyoming, five years old, August 28 2003, drowning

Zachary James Lyons, Winston-Salem North Carolina, January 24 1992 - October 8 1996, battered

Shaquella Mance, Belton South Carolina, seven months old, March 27 2005, battered

Elizabeth Mann, Lake Butler Florida, fifteen years old, January 25 2006, traffic accident

Heaven Mann, Lake Butler Florida, three years old, January 25 2006, traffic accident

Johnny Mann, Lake Butler Florida, thirteen years old, January 25 2006, traffic accident

Cynthia Nicole (Nicki) Mann, Lake Butler Florida, fifteen years old, January 25 2006, traffic accident

Logan Marr, Chelsea Maine, October 14 1995 - January 31 2001, asphyxiation

Fernando Ibarra Martinez, Bakersfield California, nine months old, March 26 2006, battered

Stephanie Martinez, Pueblo Colorado, five years old, December 31 2001, untreated burns

Tiffany Laverne Mason, Folsom California, June 11 1986 - August 9 2001, battered

Viktor Alexander Matthey né V Sergeyevich Tulimov, Hunterdon County New Jersey, six years old, October 31 2000, hypothermia

Dominic Matz, Osawatomie Kansas, July 6 2002 - February 15 2004, treatment withheld

Jamie Mayne, Atascadero California, March 24 1995 - February 10 2000, battered

Kristal Mayon-Ceniceros, Chula Vista California, sixteen years old, February 5 1999, restraint

Emily Ann Mays, Tucson Arizona, sixteen months old, August 24 2005, battered

Andrew McClain, Bridgeport Connecticut, December 6 1986 - March 22 1998, restraint

Cory Bradley McLaughlin, North Carolina, four years old, July 4 1997, battered

Jerry McLaurin, Brownwood Texas, fourteen years old, November 2 1999, restraint

Maria Mendoza, Katy Texas, fourteen years old, October 12 2002, restraint

Caleb Jerome Merchant, Edmonton Alberta, thirteen months old, November 26, 2005, battered

Denis Merryman né Uritsky, Harford County Maryland, eight years old, January 2005, starvation

Devin Miller, Spokane Washington, twenty months old, August 6 2006, battered

Euryale Miller, Kansas City Missouri, one year old, April 1 2001, battered

Jacob Miller, Georgia, twenty two months old, November 20 1997, battered

Clayton Miracle, Georgia, three years old, August 11 1993, battered

Hanna Denise Montessori, Santa Ana California, March 16 1988 - January 19 2004, homicide/head-injury

Alfredo Montez, Auburndale Florida, two years old, July 1 2002, battered

Zachary Moran, Charlotte North Carolina, fourteen months old, August 8 2003, battered

Christina Morlan, Scott County Iowa, September 3 2003 - November 30 2003, unknown

Carlyle Mullins, Nashville Tennessee, five years old, May 27 2005, battered

Cedrick Napoleon, Killeen Texas, June 26 1987 - March 7 2002, restraint

Candace Newmaker née C Tiara Elmore, Colorado, Movember 19 1989 - April 19 2000, re-birth asphyxiation

Jonathan Nichol, Cook County Illinois, two years old, June 16 1995, drowning

Trevor Nolan, Mono County California, five years old, April 12 1997, treatment withheld

Sierra Odom, Arlington Texas, three years old, August 11 2005, battered

Lenny Ortega, Ingram Texas, twelve years old, May 30 2006, drowning

Keron Owens, Walterboro South Carolina, three years old, January 19 1992, battered

Sean Paddock né Ford, Johnston County North Carolina, four years old, February 26 2006, battered

Omar Paisley, Miami Florida, seventeen years old, June 2003, untreated appendicitis

Terrell Parker, Buffalo New York, two years old, 2003, battered

Travis Parker, Cleveland Georgia, thirteen years old, April 21 2005, restraint

Melva Dee Parrott, Hersey Michigan, May 4 1998 - June 29 2000, bronchitis

Alex Pavlis, né Geiko Schaumburg Illinois, six years old, December 19 2003, battered

Dillon Peak, Saint Petersburg Florida, fourteen years old, June 17 2006, undiagnosed illness

Dawn Renay Perry, Manvel Texas, sixteen years old, April 10 1993, restraint

Angellica Pesante, Seneca County New York, four years old, April 18 1997, battered

Terrell Peterson, Atlanta Georgia, five years old, January 16 1998, battered

Cynteria Phillips, Miami Florida, December 10 1986 - August 14 2000, rape/murder

Marguerite Pierre, West Orange New Jersey, five years old, December 2005, poison

Emporia Pirtle, Indiana, six years old, November 11 1996, battered

Jason Plischkowsky, Southampton England, May 25 1985 - December 19 1986, head injury

Huntly Tamati Pokaia, New Zealand, three years old

David Polreis, Greeley Colorado, two years old, February 6 1996, battered

Maryah Ponce, Rialto California, December 5 1997 - June 29 2001, baked in car

Constance S Porter, Kearney Missouri, July 20 1998 - February 12 2001, battered

Dakota Denzel Prince-Smith, Lancaster California, five years old, July 8 2003, baked in car

Nehamiah Nate Prince-Smith, Lancaster California, three years old, July 8 2003, baked in car

Karen Quill, St Louis Saskatchewan, twenty months old, September 13 1997, internal injuries

Rodrigo Armando Rameriez Jr, Victorville California, eighteen months old, July 6 2001, drowning

Stephanie Ramos, New York City, eight years old, July 9 2005, dumped in garbage can

Bobby Jo Randolph, Houston Texas, seventeen years old, September 26 1996, axphyxiation

Jacquelyn Reah, Grand Rapids Michigan, ten years old, November 27 2004, runaway / hit by car

Latayna Reese, Bradenton Florida, fifteen years old, April 1996

Caprice Reid, New York City, four years old, June 1997, starved and battered

Jonathan Reid, Gardena California, nine years old, June 9 1997, treatment withheld

Matthew Reid, Welland Ontario, three years old, December 15 2005, suffocation

Dustin Rhodes, Litchfield Park Arizona, nine years old, August 13 2003, battered

Alana Rickard-Cowell, Honolulu Hawaii, two months old, April 23 2006, unknown (broken bones)

Eric Roberts, Keene Texas, June 16 1979 - February 22 1996, restraint

Ana Rogers, Sparks Nevada, four months old, July 2005, pre-existing injury

Genevieve "Genny" Rojas, Chula Vista California, four years old, July 21 1995, starvation, scalded

Guadalupe Rosales III, San Antonio Texas, April 2005 - June 13 2006, battered

Paola Rosales, Milton Ontario, fourteen years old, July 3 2001, suicide

Kyle Anthony Ross, Massachusetts, September 7 1995 - June 9 2001, rottweiler

Marlon Santos, Worcester Massachusetts, five months old, November 5 1998, missing

Andres E Saragos, Warm Springs Oregon, August 5 1995 - July 13 2000, baked in car

Gina M Score, Plankinton South Dakota, May 7 1985 - July 21 1999, baked by boot camp

Caprice Scott, Florida, infant, 1999, mother in foster care

Ryan Scott, Sheffield Lake Ohio, two years old, March 27 1998, battered

Krystal Scurry, Aiken County South Carolina, February 1989 - November 2 1991, rape/murder

Andrew (Andy) Setzer, California, April 27 1995 - August 2 1999, battered

Joshua Sharp, Las Vegas Nevada, fifteen months old, August 15 2006, infection

Ariel Shaw, Bibb County Georgia, nineteen months old, January 26 2000, battered

Vivan Uk Sheppard, Jacksonville Florida, eight months old, May 15 1999, suffocation

Colby Shirley, Gallup New Mexico, eighteen months old, March 20 2006, battered

Joseph H Shriver, Pennsylvania, March 2 1997 - October 5 1997, battered

Quincey L Simmons, Omaha Nebraska, August 21 1997 - March 24 2001, battered

Christopher Simpson, Howell Michigan, seven years old, November 14 1998, fire

Jordan Simpson né Richard Morrison II, Howell Michigan, five years old, November 14 1998, fire

Nicole Simpson née Desira Morrison, Howell Michigan, seven years old, November 14 1998, fire

Devin A Slade, Milwaukee Wisconsin, October 23 2000 - June 19 2001, asphyxiation

John Smith, Fishersgate England, four years old, December 24 1999, battered and bitten

Mikinah Smith, Cincinnati Ohio, one year old, March 18 2003, battered

Tristan Sovern, Greensboro North Carolina, sixteen years old, March 4 1998, restraint

Jushai Spurgeon, North Las Vegas Nevada, fourteen months old, April 3 2005, scalding

LeRon St John, Detroit Michigan, fifteen years old, March 1 2003, untreated tuberculosis

Lloyd Stamp, Edmonton Alberta, seventeen years old, September 29, 2005, suicide

Tommy Stacey, Carmichael California, three months old, January 3 2005, SIDS

Elizabeth (Lisa) Steinberg née Launders, New York City, May 14 1981 - November 4 1987, battered

Chris Surbey, Winnipeg Manitoba, October 13 1987 - June 6 2005, stabbing

Yasmin Taylor, Paterson New Jersey, seven months old, May 8 1994, virus

Lakeysha Tharp, Irmo South Carolina, six months old, April 7 2004, asphyxiation

Adam Michael Thimyan, Riverview Florida, October 2 1986 - April 3 2004, gunshot

Timithy Thomas, Banner Elk North Carolina, nine years old, March 11 1999, restraint

Liam Thompson né Dmitry S Ishlankulov, Columbus Ohio, October 3 1999 - October 3 2002, scalding

Michael Tinning, Schenectady New York, two years old, March 2 1981, asphyxiation

Kelly Ann Tozer, Egg Harbor City New Jersey, eighteen months old, July 30 2005, drowning

Patrick Trauffler, Phoenix Arizona, six weeks old, February 18 2003, battered

Heaven Traverse, Winnipeg Manitoba, two years old, January 14 2005, battered

Demetrius Tyler, Johnson City Tennessee, six months old, November 10 2004, drowning

Tyler Vanpopering, Southgate Michigan, September 23 2003 - April 14 2004, battered

Jacqueline Venay, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, six years old, September 21 1998, battered

Reena Virk, Saanich British Columbia, fourteen years old, November 14 1997, teen swarming

George Walker III, DeKalb County Georgia, ten months old, November 7 2002, choking

Michelle Walton, Boston Massachusetts, October 6 1994, asphyxiation

Erickyzha Warner, Utica New York, July 19 2002 - May 31, 2004, untreated burns

Shane Devell Washington, Fresno California, fifteen months old, circa 1996, drowning

Evan Watkins, Las Vegas Nevada, twenty one months old, July 11 1996, battered

Omar Wellington, Toronto Ontario, seventeen years old, July 15 2006, stabbing

Devin Wilder, Cleveland Ohio, July 29 1998 - April 21 2001, battered

Dominic J Williams, Saint Louis Missouri, June 8 1987 - June 3 2004, strangulation

Andrew Wilson, Owensboro Kentucky, three years old, August 7 2005, drowning

Lorenzo J Wilson, Seattle Washington, January 29 2004 - October 22 2004, battered

Rilya Wilson, Florida, born September 29 1996, 2001, lost

Michael Spencer Wiltsie, Silver Springs Florida, September 18 1987 - February 5, 2000, restraint

Jimmy Allan Wood, Adams County Colorado, fourteen years old, November 13 2002, drug overdose

Jonnie Wood, Springdale Arkansas, eight years old, August 13 2005, drowning

Braxton D Wooden, Missouri, May 15 1997 - June 2 2005, gunshot

Donte L Woods, West Palm Beach Florida, February 25 1986 - May 27 2002, gunshot

Thomas (T J) Wright, Providence Rhode Island, three years old, October 31 2004, battered

Willie Wright, San Antonio Texas, fourteen years old, March 4 2000, restraint

Rufus Manzie Young Jr, Michigan, four years old, April 6 2003, battered

for the kids

http://www.iwasyouragetwice.com/node/4519

Couple accused of beating, starving two foster children

Couple accused of beating, starving two foster children

Last Update: 2/18 8:27 am


Foster parents accused of abusing children


Maria and Robert Salinas SAN ANTONIO -- A San Antonio couple has been indicted on charges of beating and starving some foster children who were in their care.

Court documents show Robert Salinas, 40, and Maria Salinas, 39, are accused of choking, pushing, and striking a little boy and girl using their hands and a belt.

Police say one of the foster children had bruises on the face and scars along the back, buttocks, chest and neck. The Salinas's are also accused of starving that child.

A San Antonio Police spokesman told News 4 WOAI a Child Protective Service investigator spotted the injuries during a home visit back in 2008. He says the young siblings were quickly removed from the couple's house and placed into different foster homes.

This case has been under investigation for more than two years, according to investigators. Detectives say it took them a while to track down the children and gather the evidence needed to finally put the Salinas's in jail.

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Couple-accused-of-beating-starving-two-foster/od9hWlC-SESnVBNlFMDPOg.cspx?rss=68

Study: Parents need more services to regain custody of children

Study: Parents need more services to regain custody of children
Youth advocates say family support teams, more funding would help foster care cases
County Notes | Daniel Valentine

Prince George's County parents whose children are in the foster-care system face significant barriers to getting drug treatment and other help, a recent study found.

In a Jan. 21 review by the Advocates for Children and Youth group based in Silver Spring, officials said the parents of children placed in foster care only get the necessary services to get their children back about half the time.

The report is based on a review the nonprofit organization did of 19 cases early last year where children were removed from their parents' care. While 10 of the children were eventually placed back with their parent, nine others remain in foster care.

While some parents were evaluated for mental health issues, substance abuse or other matters, most did not receive necessary counseling, according to the report. Often, parents themselves were responsible for missing appointments or refusing treatment, the study noted, but county Department of Social Services officials were too behind or underfunded to provide other options.

The study calls for more action by the county Department of Social Services to hold "family support teams" to coordinate treatment and for more funding by the state to prevent children from being placed in foster care.

"The Governor needs to provide the Prince George's Department of Social Services with sufficient funding for services to parents seeking to keep or regain custody of their children," wrote ACY spokesman Matthew Joseph. "The Department and courts need to be sure that the services are truly necessary and cannot be provided while the child remains at home."

About 600 children are in foster care in Prince George's County, ranking second in the state and making up about 7 percent of Maryland's overall foster population. For information on the ACY study, visit www.acy.org.

Zoning proposal seeks to speed up transit development

Prince George's County Council members plan to hold public hearings March 9 on zoning changes that would allow developers to build mixes of homes, shops and offices in mini-villages near designated transit stops.

The bills for "corridor node" developments failed to pass late last year and are the first items being considered as the council starts its legislative year.

Under County Bills 5, 6 and 7, developers who agree to abide by specific rules near transit stops would get expedited reviews from the county planning board and District Council for approval to move on their projects.

The intent is to give developers early promises of support and guarantees that rules for development will not change as they move forward with the often expensive and highly prized mixed-use projects, said Councilman Samuel L. Dean (D-Dist. 6) of Mitchellville, the chief sponsor.

"If you don't change, you maintain the same crap you always do," Dean said at a council discussion of the bills at a county retreat last month. "The problem I always hear is that people aren't sure we're going to change the rules next week."

Council members are still debating the bills, which would also require developers to employ certain percentages of county residents at stores and meet architectural standards.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/02182010/bowinew121759_32553.php

All things Adoption Pro This Anti That

Pro This Anti That
"Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you."

-- Wayne Dyer

It's been quite a long time since I poked my nose in and around the online adoption community. Early on in my post surrender online experiences I ran across a lot of heated and often triggering comments and discussions. I learned pretty quickly that there are definite camps from all different sides of the adoption world. Recently in a facebook forum, a flood of comments and points of view flew back and forth. The issues were highly emotional and political. I think any type of open discussion where everyone is included is positive and can sometimes be educational. It made me really think about my position on adoption in general. According to Life Strategist Wayne Dwyer, everything you are against weakens you, and everything you are for empowers you.

I strongly believe that adoption in all of its many forms needs to be reformed. I am for family preservation. I believe that children should be raised with their family of origin and in their own cultures and communities. I think that creating an industry, whereby agencies and individuals earn millions in profits by actively separating babies from their mothers, is wrong. I support open records for those who have been adopted. I believe that every human being has a basic human right to know their parents names, any relevant history and that their identity shouldnt be a state sealed secret.

I think the entire system called adoption should be put to an end. I believe guardianships would completely cover the legal rights and needs of a minor infant or child, whereby they keep their identity and are allowed appropriate contact with their family. Guardianships can be monitored by the courts and change as the family situation and needs change. I believe the focus should be on children's rights and women's rights. Every mother should be recoginized as such and should be given every opportunity and support to raise her child. If she chooses a plan to share custody or appoint a guardian, she will not be termed a 'birth mother' or 'biological mother'. She will always be mother.

International adoptions need to be halted. More international support and attention should be paid to countries struggling with poverty and broken down child welfare systems. These communities need long term investments and programs to help foster social and economic change. No human being should be coerced or otherwised forced to surrender a child because of corruption or poverty. No child should have to endure the often inhumane and desperate conditions of an orphanage. No person on earth should be able to simply walk through a facility, surf a website or otherwise purchase a baby or child like you would a common house pet.

Society needs to stop buying into the adoption myth. There will always be orphans in our world who will require loving homes and parents willing to raise them. It doesnt mean erasing their identity, it isn't about making some lucky couple parents, they aren't precious gifts that grow in people's hearts. Love does know a color and a culture and children desperately need to be told the truth of who they are and where they come from. We can provide all children with the love and stability they need, recognizing their loss when their mothers arent able to raise them. They need not feel loyal or grateful to their guardians and they most certainly should be allowed to be who they are and feel how they feel about their situation.

As you can see, a lot needs to change in the world we call adoption. It's very basis is founded on a lie and is built upon covering up the truth. There is a humane and ethical way to deliver safe and healthy homes built upon the principles of justice, love and equality. We are constantly being bombarded with images and messages that tell us adoption is acceptable. As a first mother, other members of the adoption community feel they need to flame me. When I speak the truth it really irks people. Yet I know that I know that I know, that what I stand for is right and that there is a solution to helping those in need, that doesnt require all the elaborate schemes, false ideologies and trappings of the industry that is adoption.
Posted by Other Mother at Friday, February 05, 2010
Labels: adoptee rights, adoption loss, adoption sucks, child welfare, international adoption, open adoption, open records, single parenting, womens rights, world poverty

http://all-thingsadoption.blogspot.com/2010/02/pro-this-anti-that.html

Revising Book on Disorders of the Mind

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/health/10psych.html
February 10, 2010
Revising Book on Disorders of the Mind
By BENEDICT CAREY
Far fewer children would get a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. “Binge eating disorder” and “hypersexuality” might become part of the everyday language. And the way many mental disorders are diagnosed and treated would be sharply revised.
These are a few of the changes proposed on Tuesday by doctors charged with revising psychiatry’s encyclopedia of mental disorders, the guidebook that largely determines where society draws the line between normal and not normal, between eccentricity and illness, between self-indulgence and self-destruction — and, by extension, when and how patients should be treated.
The eagerly awaited revisions — to be published, if adopted, in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, due in 2013 — would be the first in a decade.
For months they have been the subject of intense speculation and lobbying by advocacy groups, and some proposed changes have already been widely discussed — including folding the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome into a broader category, autism spectrum disorder.
But others, including a proposed alternative for bipolar disorder in many children, were unveiled on Tuesday. Experts said the recommendations, posted online at DSM5.org for public comment, could bring rapid change in several areas.
“Anything you put in that book, any little change you make, has huge implications not only for psychiatry but for pharmaceutical marketing, research, for the legal system, for who’s considered to be normal or not, for who’s considered disabled,” said Dr. Michael First, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University who edited the fourth edition of the manual but is not involved in the fifth.
“And it has huge implications for stigma,” Dr. First continued, “because the more disorders you put in, the more people get labels, and the higher the risk that some get inappropriate treatment.”
One significant change would be adding a childhood disorder called temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria, a recommendation that grew out of recent findings that many wildly aggressive, irritable children who have been given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder do not have it.
The misdiagnosis led many children to be given powerful antipsychotic drugs, which have serious side effects, including metabolic changes.
“The treatment of bipolar disorder is meds first, meds second and meds third,” said Dr. Jack McClellan, a psychiatrist at the University of Washington who is not working on the manual. “Whereas if these kids have a behavior disorder, then behavioral treatment should be considered the primary treatment.”
Some diagnoses of bipolar disorder have been in children as young as 2, and there have been widespread reports that doctors promoting the diagnosis received consulting and speaking fees from the makers of the drugs.
In a conference call on Tuesday, Dr. David Shaffer, a child psychiatrist at Columbia, said he and his colleagues on the panel working on the manual “wanted to come up with a diagnosis that captures the behavioral disturbance and mood upset, and hope the people contemplating a diagnosis of bipolar for these patients would think again.”
Experts gave the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the manual, predictably mixed reviews. Some were relieved that the task force working on the manual — which includes neurologists and psychologists as well as psychiatrists — had revised the previous version rather than trying to rewrite it.
Others criticized the authors, saying many diagnoses in the manual would still lack a rigorous scientific basis.
The good news, said Edward Shorter, a historian of psychiatry who has been critical of the manual, is that most patients will be spared the confusion of a changed diagnosis. But “the bad news,” he added, “is that the scientific status of the main diseases in previous editions of the D.S.M. — the keystones of the vault of psychiatry — is fragile.”
To more completely characterize all patients, the authors propose using measures of severity, from mild to severe, and ratings of symptoms, like anxiety, that are found as often with personality disorders as with depression.
“In the current version of the manual, people either meet the threshold by having a certain number of symptoms, or they don’t,” said Dr. Darrel A. Regier, the psychiatric association’s research director and, with Dr. David J. Kupfer of the University of Pittsburgh, the co-chairman of the task force. “But often that doesn’t fit reality. Someone with schizophrenia might have symptoms of insomnia, of anxiety; these aren’t the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, but they affect the patient’s life, and we’d like to have a standard way of measuring them.”
In a conference call on Tuesday, Dr. Regier, Dr. Kupfer and several other members of the task force outlined their favored revisions. The task force favored making semantic changes that some psychiatrists have long argued for, trading the term “mental retardation” for “intellectual disability,” for instance, and “substance abuse” for “addiction.”
One of the most controversial proposals was to identify “risk syndromes,” that is, a risk of developing a disorder like schizophrenia or dementia. Studies of teenagers identified as at high risk of developing psychosis, for instance, find that 70 percent or more in fact do not come down with the disorder.
“I completely understand the idea of trying to catch something early,” Dr. First said, “but there’s a huge potential that many unusual, semi-deviant, creative kids could fall under this umbrella and carry this label for the rest of their lives.”
Dr. William T. Carpenter, a psychiatrist at the University of Maryland and part of the group proposing the idea, said it needed more testing. “Concerns about stigma and excessive treatment must be there,” he said. “But keep in mind that these are individuals seeking help, who have distress, and the question is, What’s wrong with them?”
The panel proposed adding several disorders with a high likelihood of entering the pop vernacular. One, a new description of sex addiction, is “hypersexuality,” which, in part, is when “a great deal of time is consumed by sexual fantasies and urges; and in planning for and engaging in sexual behavior.”
Another is “binge eating disorder,” defined as at least one binge a week for three months — eating platefuls of food, fast, and to the point of discomfort — accompanied by severe guilt and plunges in mood.
“This is not the normative overeating that we all do, by any means,” said Dr. B. Timothy Walsh, a psychiatrist at Columbia and the New York State Psychiatric Institute who is working on the manual. “It involves much more loss of control, more distress, deeper feelings of guilt and unhappiness.”




Copyright 2010The New York Times Company

Child Protective Services - HISTORICAL OVERVIEW, CURRENT SYSTEM

Child Protective Services - HISTORICAL OVERVIEW, CURRENT SYSTEM

Read more: Child Protective Services - HISTORICAL OVERVIEW, CURRENT SYSTEM http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1828/Child-Protective-Services.html#ixzz0g1EgCjQb


HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
William Wesley Patton
CURRENT SYSTEM
William Wesley Patton

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
No ancient civilization considered child protection to be a governmental function. In ancient Rome, for instance, fathers were vested with an almost unlimited natural right to determine the welfare of their children. The welfare of minors was a family matter, not a governmental interest or obligation. Most other governments of the ancient world provided no limits to a father's right to inflict corporal punishment, including infanticide.

English Common Law
In addition to the case-by-case determinations by the chancery court regarding children's property and guardianships, Parliament, in 1601, promulgated the Poor Law Act, which, among other provisions, provided the government jurisdiction to separate children from pauper parents and to place poor children in apprenticeships until the age of majority (21 for males and 16 for females). In 1660 Parliament passed the Tenures Abolition Act, which presaged the end of feudalism, including guardianships in chivalry that had formed the basis for the earlier Court of Wards and Court of Chancery over the guardianship of both children's and the Crown's inheritance and property interests. ("Guardianships in chivalry" provided that when a tenant on a lord's land died leaving an heir under the age of majority, the lord could control the minor heir's inheritance until the child became an adult.) The Tenures Abolition Act was revolutionary because it vested in the father the right to appoint a guardian for his child heir, which was previously forbidden under the feudal inheritance laws.

From 1660 until 1873 the Court of Chancery administered equity jurisdiction in conflicts between private parties over testamentary guardianships. It was during these equity determinations that the Court of Chancery expanded the substantive scope of child protection to include, in addition to inheritance and property, concerns over a ward's rights to marry, to a particular type of education or school, to the choice of religious training, and to child custody arrangements. In 1839 Parliament dramatically expanded the court's jurisdiction to determine the best interest of children through the Custody of Infants Act, which provided court jurisdiction to over-ride a father's parental rights, including rights to custody and visitation. Most historians would agree that by the nineteenth century governmental concern in the child's best interest were perfected directly through the doctrine of parens patriae, rather than indirectly through legal contests over property and guardianships.

The American Colonies
The child protection policies of the early American colonists closely mirrored those of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century Britain. The colonists emphasized two aspects of English child protection theory: "the common law rules of family government; and the traditions and child-care practices of the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601" (Thomas, p. 299). Although colonial remedies of placing pauper children into involuntary apprenticeships or into poorhouses initially followed English legal customs, soon colonial theorists expanded court jurisdiction over juveniles to include contexts beyond poverty. For instance, in eighteenth-century Virginia, courts separated children not just from poor parents, but also from parents who were not providing "'good breeding,' neglecting their formal education, not teaching a trade, or were idle, dissolute, unchristian or 'uncapable"' (Rendleman, p. 210). Calvinist notions of poverty as idleness and sin permitted court expansion into the normative definitions of the "best interest" of children.

Until the mid-1800s, child protection laws did not differentiate among different classes of children; so that dependent children, status offenders, and juvenile delinquents were either housed together in poorhouses with adults or involuntarily apprenticed. However, by 1830, "an embryonic reform movement had begun," which removed dependent children from the teeming poorhouses and placed them in large orphan asylums. (Thomas, pp. 302–303). Due to the refuge movement (1824–1857), private corporations such as the New York House of Refuge (founded in 1824) received public funds and cared for both neglected and delinquent children in large institutions that separated juveniles from adult criminals and paupers. However, by the mid-1850s an anti-institution movement had developed, with the goal of placing poor city children in country foster placements rather than in large city institutions. Even though numerous state statutes were promulgated in the nineteenth century to care for abused and neglected children, government machinery was inadequate to implement sufficient protection.

In 1875 in New York, the first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC) was founded to help enforce child protection laws. However, since the SPCC was composed primarily of "wealthy, white men, almost all of them Protestant," who hired middle-class men as family investigators, the families that were targeted were largely poor immigrant families, who were judged by middle-class mores and vague standards such as "without proper parental guardianship" (Schiff, p. 413). The numerous competing reform movements and children's aid societies of the mid-to late 1800s focused on the child as a member of a family group, not as an autonomous individual, and most emphasized removing children from their own families and placing them into a different home environment. By 1879 the New York Children's Aid Society had sent 48,000 children out of New York to live with other families. After its first fourteen years, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children "investigated nearly 70,000 complaints of ill-treatment of 209,000 children. Prosecutions were pursued in 24,500 of these cases, resulting in almost 24,000 convictions and the removal of 36,300 children" (Schiff, pp. 413–414).

By the beginning of the twentieth century the tide had turned away from family separation and toward family preservation. At the 1909 White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, it was declared that "[h]ome life is the highest and finest product of civilization. It is the great molding force of mind and of character" (Tanenhaus, p. 550). The twentieth century ushered in a dramatic shift away from private child protective services in favor of governmental control by public agencies authorized under both federal and state child protection statutory schemes. In 1899 Illinois promulgated the first juvenile court, whose stated purpose was to provide for the care and custody of children in a manner that was an alternative equivalent to that of their parents. By 1920 all but three states had a juvenile court system.

But the goal of family reunification was rarely realized by the early juvenile courts, because few services were made available to assist poor uneducated parents in curing the conditions that led to state intervention. Instead, children remained in out-of-home placements for considerable periods of time. For instance, in Chicago, the city with the nation's first juvenile court, the rate of family reunification in 1921 was about the same as in 1912 (70%), but in 1921 more children were staying in institutions for longer periods than in 1912.

The Constitution and Child Protection Laws
Between 1875 and 1900 numerous challenges to the vague legal definitions of child dependency and the informal legal proceedings leading to the separation of parents and children were denied. Early court decisions did not speak in terms of parents' constitutional rights to rear their children, did not closely circumscribe the state's parens patriae power to protect children, rejected arguments based upon criminal law analogies, and failed to articulate procedural due process protections for families caught in the child protection legal maelstrom.

Although state and county juvenile courts continued to evolve and to provide different levels of due process in child protection proceedings, the modern child dependency court development was shaped by several decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, which formalized the court process. In Meyers v. Nebraska (1923) the Court held that parents have a fundamental constitutional liberty interest in rearing their children. Based upon that liberty interest, the Court held in Lassiter v. Department of Social Services (1981) that, under certain circumstances, parents are entitled to court-appointed attorneys when they face involuntary termination of their parental rights in child protection proceedings. And in Santosky v. Kramer (1982) the Court held that the state has the burden of demonstrating, by clear and convincing evidence, that termination of parental rights is necessary to protect children. Local juvenile courts no longer had unbridled discretion to informally and permanently separate parents and children. However, the U.S. Constitution became the sounding board only in cases involving permanent severance of parental rights. States are still free to provide fewer due-process procedural rights in temporary child protection cases.

Federal Statutory Policy
In the 1980s and 1990s the autonomy of state child protection schemes was further compromised and homogenized by a series of federal statutes. In 1980, Congress passed the first comprehensive federal child protective services act, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (Pub. L. 96-272), which focused on state economic incentives to substantially decrease the length and number of foster care placements. This act also required specific family reunification services, reflecting the goals of the 1909 White House Conference. However, in 1997, in order to cure many of the defects in the 1980 act, Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which shifted the focus from family reunification to expeditious permanency for children in adoptive placements. All state child protection systems adopted the federal guidelines as a requirement for receiving federal subsidies. Thus, because of constitutional and federal statutory requirements, the genesis of America's child protection system has led to great uniformity among state programs.

See also: CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT; CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, subentry on CURRENT SYSTEM; VIOLENCE, CHILDREN'S EXPOSURE TO.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABRAMOWICZ, SARAH. 1999. "English Child Custody Law, 1660-1839: The Origins of Judicial Intervention in Paternal Custody." Columbia Law Review 90:1344–1391.

COGAN, NEIL HOWARD. 1970. "Juvenile Law, Before and After the Entrance of Parens Patriae." South Carolina Law Review 22:147–181.

COUPLET, SACHA M. 2000. "What to Do with the Sheep in Wolf's Clothing: The Role of Rhetoric and Reality about Youth Offenders in the Constructive Dismantling of the Juvenile Justice System." University of Pennsylvania Law Review 148:1303–1346.

ESPENOZA, CECELIA M. 1996. "Good Kids, Bad Kids: A Revelation about the Due Process Rights of Children." Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 23:407–545.

FOX, SANFORD J. 1970. "Juvenile Justice Reform: An Historical Perspective." Stanford Law Review 22:1187–1239.

LOKEN, GREGORY A. 1995. "'Thrownaway' Children and Throwaway Parenthood." Temple Law Review 68:1715–1762.

MACK, JULIAN W. 1909. "The Juvenile Court." Harvard Law Review 23:104–122.

RENDLEMAN, DOUGLAS R. 1971. " Parens Patriae: From Chancery to the Juvenile Court." South Carolina Law Review 23:205–259.

SCHIFF, CORINNE. 1997. "Child Custody and the Ideal of Motherhood in Late Nineteenth-Century New York." Georgetown Journal on Fighting Poverty 4:403–420.

SCHWARTZ, IRA M.; WEINER, NEIL ALAN; and ENOSH, GUY. 1998. "Nine Lives and Then Some: Why the Juvenile Court Does Not Roll Over and Die." Wake Forest Law Review 33:533–552.


SCHWARTZ, IRA M.; WEINER, NEIL ALAN; and ENOSH, GUY. 1999. "Myopic Justice? The Juvenile Court and Child Welfare Systems." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 564:126–141.

SCOTT, ELIZABETH S. 2000. "The Legal Construction of Adolescence." Hofstra Law Review 29:547–582.

TANENHAUS, DAVID S. 2001. "Growing Up Dependent: Family Preservation in Early Twentieth-Century Chicago." Law and History Review 19:547–582.

THOMAS, MASON P. 1972. "Child Abuse and Neglect Part I: Historical Overview, Legal Matrix, and Social Perceptions." North Carolina Law Review 50:293–349.

WILLIAM WESLEY PATTON

In the United States, methods for protecting abused and neglected children have progressed over the years. During the colonial era, the policy was to house pauper children in poorhouses or assign them to apprenticeships, while in the early nineteenth century the preference was to place these children in orphanages and industrial schools run by private societies. During the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, state child-dependency statutory schemes became prominent, based upon the state's jurisdiction, through parens patriae ("father of the country," used in law to denote the government's power to protect its citizens), to intervene in family affairs for the protection of at-risk children. Contemporary children's services are characterized by a shift in power from state to federal policy control, with a resultant structural uniformity among state child-protection models.

Federal Policy
Federal child-protection policy has historically favored family preservation over the institutionalization of dependent minors. As early as 1909, through the White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, the federal government identified the importance of the home as the central forum for child development. Until recently, the history of child protection in America has reflected this presumption of family preservation being preferable to moving an at-risk child to a possibly better or safer environment. However, it was not until 1980 that Congress passed the first comprehensive federal child protective services act, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (Pub. L. 96-272), which focused on state economic incentives to substantially decrease the length and number of foster care placements. This law also required specific family reunification services, reflecting the goals of the 1909 White House Conference.

In 1997, however, in order to cure many of the defects in the 1980 act, Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which shifted the focus from family reunification to the best interests of children in expeditious permanency, which aims to rapidly finalize a permanent custodial home for minors rather than placing them temporarily in a series of different foster homes. Unlike the lengthy reunification services under the 1980 act, which often resulted in the termination of parental rights after two or three years of juvenile court intervention, the 1997 act required states to engage in "concurrent planning" at case intake. The federal goal of child protection had substantially shifted toward the child's individual needs, rather than primarily attempting family reunification through state services. In fact, in cases involving allegations of serious abuse, the 1997 act deleted the prior requirement of state reunification services and permitted states to immediately seek to sever parental rights and place children into the new preferred placement, adoption. The 1997 act created adoption subsidies and incentives to states. This federal adoption preference soon resulted in unprecedented increases in the number of dependent children being adopted.

Problems with the 1997 Act
Even though the 1997 act reduced the time within which dependent children placed outside the home would remain in temporary placements and increased the number of adoptions, it has also created new problems. First, the federal adoption subsidy program has convinced many potential foster parents to become adoptive parents, thus reducing the number of temporary placements for abused children. The adoption subsidy has also driven social service agencies toward decisions to sever parental rights in close cases, rather than continuing family reunification and temporary foster placements.

The greatest impact of this new rush to permanent adoption has been on sibling relationships. Most state statutory schemes do not recognize that significant sibling bonds are a sufficient reason to continue temporary placements, rather than splitting siblings into different adoptive homes. Child welfare theorists argue that the speedy adoption permanency requirement of the 1997 act is having a significant deleterious cultural impact on poor and minority families. "Black families, who dominate foster care caseloads, are the main casualties of this shift away from a service provision toward coercive state intervention, which includes the requirement to relinquish custody of children as a condition of financial assistance" (Roberts, pp. 1641–1642).

Educational Implications
Prior to the 1997 act, dependent children often lived with many different foster families in different neighborhoods, and they therefore lacked any continuity in their formal education, either with teachers or with curricula. For instance, in 1993 California foster children "attend[ed] an average of 9 different schools by the age of 18 … [and] demonstrate[d] significantly lower achievement and lower performance in school" (Kelly, pp. 759–760).

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- Select One - Less than 1 month 1-3 months 3-6 months 6 months - 1 year Fall 2010 Fall 2011 Fall 2012 Fall 2013 Powered by CampusExplorer.com This educational discontinuity results in a continuing introduction and departure of new and different friends and teachers, inadequate transfer of educational records, and lost academic credit. Even though "60% of children in foster care have measurable behavior or mental health problems … [and][a]pproximately 35–45% … have developmental problems," most do not receive appropriate diagnosis for special education classes or psychological treatment (Practicing Law Institute, p. 115). It is clear that children with disabilities trapped in this legal maelstrom are not receiving the education promised by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which established legal means "to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living."

The Decline in Child Dependency Cases
Child neglect and abuse reports increased an average of 6 percent annually from 1985 to 1991, when the number of reports reached 2.9 million. However, since 1991 there has been a continual decrease in the number sexual abuse reports, with a 26 percent decline from 1991 to 1998 in the number of reports and an average decline for all states of 37 percent in substantiated cases. In Los Angeles County, which has more foster children than any other county in America, the number of foster care children dropped from 18.7 per thousand in 1997 to 13.1 per thousand in 2001, and the number of reported child abuse cases dropped from 71.2 reports per thousand in 1996 to 53.1 per thousand in 2000.

In 1990 the United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect determined that the most significant factor in failing to provide dependent children with adequate services was the overload of cases. If the decline in the number of reported child abuse cases continues, and if social services agencies do not respond by a corresponding reduction of current staff, it may become possible to provide dependent children the social services and educational services commensurate with their needs.

See also: CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT; CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, subentry on HISTORICAL OVERVIEW; VIOLENCE, CHILDREN'S EXPOSURE TO.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BAKER, KATHERINE K. 2001. "Alternative Caretaking and Family Autonomy: Some Thoughts in Response to Dorothy Roberts." Chicago-Kent Law Review 76:1643–1650.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. U.S. Public Law 105-17. U.S. Code. Vol. 20, secs. 1400 et seq.

JONES, LISA, and FINKELHOR, DAVID. 2001. The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

KELLEY, KATHLEEN. 2001. "The Education Crisis for Children in the California Juvenile Court System." Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 27:758–773.

MYERS, JOHN E. 1994. "Definition and Origins of the Backlash Against Child Protection." In Excellence in Children's Law. Denver, CO: National Association of Counsel for Children.

PRACTICING LAW INSTITUTE. 2000. "Early Intervention and Special Education Advocacy: A Missing Link in the Representation of Children in Foster Care." Practicing Law Institute, Litigation and Administrative Practice Course Handbook Series, Criminal Law and Urban Problems 185 (C0-0016):103–166.

RIVERA, CARLA. 2001. "State's Children Facing Fewer Risks, Study Says." Los Angeles Times November 28:3.

ROBERTS, DOROTHY E. 2001. "Kinship Care and the Price of State Support for Children." Chicago-Kent Law Review 76:1619–1641.

SANDERS, DEBORAH. 2001. "Toward a Policy of Permanence for America's Disposable Children: A Survey of the Evolution of Federal Funding Statutes for Foster Care from 1961 to Present." In Advocacy for Children and Families: Moving from Sympathy to Empathy. Denver, CO: National Association of Counsel for Children.

TANENHAUS, DAVID S. 2001. "Growing Up Dependent: Family Preservation In Early Twentieth-Century Chicago." Law and History Review 19:547–582.

THOMAS, MASON P. 1972. "Child Abuse and Neglect, Part I: Historical Overview, Legal Matrix, and Social Perspectives." North Carolina Law Review 50:293–349.

WILLIAM WESLEY PATTON


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Child Protective Services - Current System
In the United States, methods for protecting abused and neglected children have progressed over the years. During the colonial era, the policy was to house pauper children in poorhouses or assign them to apprenticeships, while in the early nineteenth century the preference was to place these children in orphanages and industrial schools run by private societies. During the late nineteenth century …

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