Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Elnita
Posted on27 May 2010. Tags: Care, CHILDREN, Drugs, Elnita, Foster, Psychiatry
Psychiatry Drugs Foster Care Children – Elnita I took my video camera to a Foster Care Alumni meeting and asked seven foster kids to tell me about there experiences in Child Protective Services while wards of the state. One thing they all had in common was massive over drugging with psychiatric drugs. Child placement agencies, foster parents, RTCs (Residential Treatment Centers) and Therapeutic Foster Homes get paid a certain amount of money each day for taking care of a foster child. The amount of money they get paid depends on a level of care system. The more difficult the child or the more problems that child has, the more money you get. A child at the basic level of care is worth about 17 dollars a day where as a child in the highest level of care could be worth as much as a 1000 dollars a day. This puts the incentive on diagnosing children with behavior problems to justify raising their level of care. A child on psychiatric drugs is worth more than a child without problems. It is not uncommon for a foster child to be placed on many different psychotropic drugs at the same time. Some investigations have found children on as many as 13 mind altering drugs prescribed by a psychiatrists at one time. These drugs include all categories of psychiatric drugs; antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications, anticonvulsants medications, etc. The SSRI drugs are commons such as Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, etc. Also a number of these children described taking …
http://www.feras.co.uk/psychiatry-drugs-foster-care-children-elnita/
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Secretary Sebelius Announces Five New HHS Regional Directors
Secretary Sebelius Announces Five New HHS Regional Directors
Posted : Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:17:44 GMT
Author : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Category : Press Release
WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the appointment of five new regional directors of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Christie Hager, Region I – Boston (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT)
Jaime R. Torres, Region II – New York City (NY, NJ, NY, PR, VI)
Joanne Grossi, Region III – Philadelphia (PA, DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV)
Marguerite Salazar, Region VIII – Denver (CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY)
Herb K. Schultz, Region IX – San Francisco (AZ, CA, HI, NV, Guam, PI, AS)
"I am very pleased to welcome Christie, Jaime, Joanne, Marguerite, and Herb to HHS,” said Secretary Sebelius. “They will play a vital role in our department’s effort to effectively implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead to achieve HHS’s mission to protect the health of all Americans and provide essential human services."
As HHS regional directors, they will serve as key representatives of Secretary Sebelius in working with federal, state, local, and tribal officials on a wide range of health and social service issues.
Biographies:
Christie Hager, JD, MPH is currently an Adjunct Lecturer on Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research and teaching focus on state regulation of health care and public health, health care access, and the legislative process. From 2004-2009, she served on the staff of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as Chief Health Counsel in the Office of the Speaker during the development, enactment and first three years of implementation of the health reform law passed in 2006. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. She was appointed Senior Fellow at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University’s Heller School, where she served as Director and Principal Investigator at the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, from 1999-2002. She also previously worked on the editorial staff of the New England Journal of Medicine. Ms. Hager received an AB from Smith College, a MPH from the Boston University School of Public Health, and a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Jaime R. Torres, DPM, MS, is currently Associate Director of Consultative Services at Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital, part of New York City’s Health and Hospital Corporation--the nation’s largest public hospital system. He is the founder and President of Latinos for National Health Insurance, a national coalition working for equality in healthcare. He is on the Board of Directors of the National Hispanic Council on Aging and served on the Advisory Board of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) from 2000-2006. For eight years he represented the NHMA in the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), which is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. As vice-chair of NDEP’s Hispanic/Latino Work Group, he was instrumental in creating bilingual health campaigns for people with diabetes. In 2006, he was a spokesperson for the American Podiatric Medical Association’s campaign “Descubras sus pies” (Discover Your Feet) which educated the Latino community on how to prevent foot ailments related to diabetes. Dr. Torres received his Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and a master’s degree in Community Health from Long Island University.
For the past seven years, Joanne Grossi has served in the administration of Governor Edward G. Rendell, first as Deputy Secretary of Health and later as the first- ever Director of the Office of Women’s Services. During her five-year tenure as Deputy Secretary for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Pennsylvania Department of Health from 2003 to 2008, Ms. Grossi oversaw all the public health programs for the Commonwealth, including tobacco cessation and prevention; obesity prevention; drug and alcohol programs; and maternal and child health programs. As Director of the Office of Women’s Services at the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare from 2008 to 2010, Ms. Grossi administered statewide programs that provide assistance to women, including family planning/reproductive health; domestic violence; sexual violence; and the breast and cervical cancer treatment program. Before joining the Governor’s Administration, Ms. Grossi served for 13 years as a Senior Technical Advisor in the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development, where she oversaw international health programs in developing countries. Earlier in her career, Ms. Grossi served on the staffs of Congressman Peter Kostmayer and Ambassador Millicent H. Fenwick at the American Embassy in Rome, Italy. Ms. Grossi earned her master’s degree in International Public Policy at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and completed additional graduate education at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health and Hygiene. She earned her B.A. in journalism at Temple University.
Marguerite Salazar has served as President/CEO of Valley Wide Health Services, Inc. (VWHS) since 1989. VWHS is one of the largest rural Community Health Centers in the country, providing primary care to over 40,000 residents of the San Luis, Lower Arkansas and Upper Arkansas Valleys in Southern Colorado. VWHS is recognized for exceptional outcomes with prenatal care and reducing ER utilization through Convenient Care in some of the poorest areas of Colorado. Previously, Ms. Salazar directed Access Social Work Service, a firm that contracted with local public health departments, hospitals and nursing homes to provide social work services. Ms. Salazar is a Fellow in the National Hispana Leadership Institute as well as a Livingston Fellow in the Bonfil Stanton Foundation, a Trustee for the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation and was appointed by Governor Bill Ritter, Jr. to the Board of Governors for Colorado State University. She was appointed by Governor Bill Owens to serve as a Policy Board Member for the Colorado Children's Basic Health Plan. In 1999, she was awarded the Bernie Valdez Award for Excellence in Health from the Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA). She holds a Master's degree in counseling psychology from Adams State College in Colorado.
Herb K. Schultz, MPP, is currently Senior Advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and since January of this year, also the Director of the California Recovery Task Force. In this role, he is responsible for the oversight and implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As Senior Advisor to the Governor from 2008-2010, he represented the Governor on major domestic policy issues, which included serving as a principal advisor on health care reform. Previously, he served as the Senior Health Policy Advisor to the Governor during California's 2006-2008 state debate on comprehensive health care reform. From 2005-2006, he served as Vice President of Government Programs for McKesson Health Solutions, where he oversaw the company’s disease management and nurse advice programs for Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries. During the first year of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Administration, Mr. Schultz served as Acting Director of the California Employment Development Department. He also previously served as a member of former Governor Gray Davis’ Cabinet as Acting Secretary for the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. He served as the Agency’s Undersecretary before his Cabinet-Level appointment, and remained in both roles until the end of the Davis Administration. Prior to that, he was Deputy Director of External Affairs for the California Department of Managed Health Care, and served as Director of the Advisory Committee on Managed Health Care. Mr. Schultz received his BA in Political Science and International Studies from The American University in Washington, DC and has a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, also in Washington, DC.
Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
HHS Press Office
202-690-6343
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/secretary-sebelius-announces-five-new-hhs-regional-directors,1236501.shtml
Posted : Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:17:44 GMT
Author : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Category : Press Release
WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the appointment of five new regional directors of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Christie Hager, Region I – Boston (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT)
Jaime R. Torres, Region II – New York City (NY, NJ, NY, PR, VI)
Joanne Grossi, Region III – Philadelphia (PA, DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV)
Marguerite Salazar, Region VIII – Denver (CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY)
Herb K. Schultz, Region IX – San Francisco (AZ, CA, HI, NV, Guam, PI, AS)
"I am very pleased to welcome Christie, Jaime, Joanne, Marguerite, and Herb to HHS,” said Secretary Sebelius. “They will play a vital role in our department’s effort to effectively implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead to achieve HHS’s mission to protect the health of all Americans and provide essential human services."
As HHS regional directors, they will serve as key representatives of Secretary Sebelius in working with federal, state, local, and tribal officials on a wide range of health and social service issues.
Biographies:
Christie Hager, JD, MPH is currently an Adjunct Lecturer on Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research and teaching focus on state regulation of health care and public health, health care access, and the legislative process. From 2004-2009, she served on the staff of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as Chief Health Counsel in the Office of the Speaker during the development, enactment and first three years of implementation of the health reform law passed in 2006. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. She was appointed Senior Fellow at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University’s Heller School, where she served as Director and Principal Investigator at the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, from 1999-2002. She also previously worked on the editorial staff of the New England Journal of Medicine. Ms. Hager received an AB from Smith College, a MPH from the Boston University School of Public Health, and a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Jaime R. Torres, DPM, MS, is currently Associate Director of Consultative Services at Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital, part of New York City’s Health and Hospital Corporation--the nation’s largest public hospital system. He is the founder and President of Latinos for National Health Insurance, a national coalition working for equality in healthcare. He is on the Board of Directors of the National Hispanic Council on Aging and served on the Advisory Board of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) from 2000-2006. For eight years he represented the NHMA in the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), which is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. As vice-chair of NDEP’s Hispanic/Latino Work Group, he was instrumental in creating bilingual health campaigns for people with diabetes. In 2006, he was a spokesperson for the American Podiatric Medical Association’s campaign “Descubras sus pies” (Discover Your Feet) which educated the Latino community on how to prevent foot ailments related to diabetes. Dr. Torres received his Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and a master’s degree in Community Health from Long Island University.
For the past seven years, Joanne Grossi has served in the administration of Governor Edward G. Rendell, first as Deputy Secretary of Health and later as the first- ever Director of the Office of Women’s Services. During her five-year tenure as Deputy Secretary for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Pennsylvania Department of Health from 2003 to 2008, Ms. Grossi oversaw all the public health programs for the Commonwealth, including tobacco cessation and prevention; obesity prevention; drug and alcohol programs; and maternal and child health programs. As Director of the Office of Women’s Services at the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare from 2008 to 2010, Ms. Grossi administered statewide programs that provide assistance to women, including family planning/reproductive health; domestic violence; sexual violence; and the breast and cervical cancer treatment program. Before joining the Governor’s Administration, Ms. Grossi served for 13 years as a Senior Technical Advisor in the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development, where she oversaw international health programs in developing countries. Earlier in her career, Ms. Grossi served on the staffs of Congressman Peter Kostmayer and Ambassador Millicent H. Fenwick at the American Embassy in Rome, Italy. Ms. Grossi earned her master’s degree in International Public Policy at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and completed additional graduate education at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health and Hygiene. She earned her B.A. in journalism at Temple University.
Marguerite Salazar has served as President/CEO of Valley Wide Health Services, Inc. (VWHS) since 1989. VWHS is one of the largest rural Community Health Centers in the country, providing primary care to over 40,000 residents of the San Luis, Lower Arkansas and Upper Arkansas Valleys in Southern Colorado. VWHS is recognized for exceptional outcomes with prenatal care and reducing ER utilization through Convenient Care in some of the poorest areas of Colorado. Previously, Ms. Salazar directed Access Social Work Service, a firm that contracted with local public health departments, hospitals and nursing homes to provide social work services. Ms. Salazar is a Fellow in the National Hispana Leadership Institute as well as a Livingston Fellow in the Bonfil Stanton Foundation, a Trustee for the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation and was appointed by Governor Bill Ritter, Jr. to the Board of Governors for Colorado State University. She was appointed by Governor Bill Owens to serve as a Policy Board Member for the Colorado Children's Basic Health Plan. In 1999, she was awarded the Bernie Valdez Award for Excellence in Health from the Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA). She holds a Master's degree in counseling psychology from Adams State College in Colorado.
Herb K. Schultz, MPP, is currently Senior Advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and since January of this year, also the Director of the California Recovery Task Force. In this role, he is responsible for the oversight and implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As Senior Advisor to the Governor from 2008-2010, he represented the Governor on major domestic policy issues, which included serving as a principal advisor on health care reform. Previously, he served as the Senior Health Policy Advisor to the Governor during California's 2006-2008 state debate on comprehensive health care reform. From 2005-2006, he served as Vice President of Government Programs for McKesson Health Solutions, where he oversaw the company’s disease management and nurse advice programs for Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries. During the first year of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Administration, Mr. Schultz served as Acting Director of the California Employment Development Department. He also previously served as a member of former Governor Gray Davis’ Cabinet as Acting Secretary for the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. He served as the Agency’s Undersecretary before his Cabinet-Level appointment, and remained in both roles until the end of the Davis Administration. Prior to that, he was Deputy Director of External Affairs for the California Department of Managed Health Care, and served as Director of the Advisory Committee on Managed Health Care. Mr. Schultz received his BA in Political Science and International Studies from The American University in Washington, DC and has a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, also in Washington, DC.
Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
HHS Press Office
202-690-6343
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/secretary-sebelius-announces-five-new-hhs-regional-directors,1236501.shtml
Social Worker Accused Of Vicious Perverted Craigslist Revenge On 9 Year Old Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP6UcJ0sSjk&feature=related
CPS ARREST ( Mark Levrier) Texas Child Protective Services Worker for 23
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omEp8JKXMiI
State doesn't know whether CPS workers are law-abiding, non-violent
State doesn't know whether CPS workers are law-abiding, non-violent (These are the people being entrusted with our children)
07:44 AM CST on Thursday, November 19, 2009
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – The state, despite efforts to tighten background checks, still doesn't know for sure whether Child Protective Services employees are law-abiding and nonviolent.
CPS officials admit that the case of a North Texas supervisor, who didn't disclose her arrests on charges of drunken driving and assaulting her husband with a lamp, gives them pause.
"Yes we are, obviously" concerned, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Wednesday. "All employees are required to report these incidents – required to. It is not a suggestion."
Crimmins said state protective services agencies have "a solid policy" for staying alert to past and ongoing misconduct by employees. But CPS' ignorance of a Fort Worth mid-level manager's scrapes with the law illustrates how hard it is to fully vet a workforce of literally thousands of workers who hold sensitive jobs.
CPS and its parent agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services, rely on an "honor system" of self-reporting.
But after news stories last year that the department was unaware of employees' criminal convictions, officials decided to check each of its 10,660 employees every 12 months against a criminal-history database managed by the Department of Public Safety.
DPS' database is riddled with holes, though. The Dallas Morning News has reported extensively on failures by many counties, including Dallas County, to notify DPS of outcomes of many criminal cases, even though state law requires notification.
A newly passed law appears to have improved counties' reporting, but big gaps from past years have spawned a cottage industry of background-check firms, which buy lists from counties and do more thorough checks.
Crimmins said the department has not considered asking the Legislature for money to hire such firms, until the DPS system can be fixed, but "it is something that we could look into."
Sen. Jane Nelson, a Flower Mound Republican who is the Senate's chief social services policy writer, said Texas is making some progress. She cited her bill last session that requires FBI fingerprint checks of employees for private contractors who provide state-paid services to vulnerable populations.
"The accuracy and timeliness of criminal background checks have come a long way, but more work is needed," she said. "Because resources are limited, it is important that we prioritize our resources on the vetting process with individuals who have the most direct access with our vulnerable population."
Recent actions by Fort Worth CPS supervisor Lauren Taylor, though, show that the honor system and DPS-database runs are far from airtight checks.
Taylor, 27, who has worked for CPS for nearly four years, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges at 1 a.m. on Sept. 11 at a luxury hotel in New York City.
According to a criminal complaint and an account in the New York Post , her husband, Jeffrey Taylor, told police she had struck him in the face with a lamp, scratched his face and bit him in the arm during an altercation.
Lauren Taylor said Wednesday that she didn't harm him and that the charge is bogus.
"We're working to get this false allegation dissolved and dismissed as soon as possible," she said.
She said a lawyer advised her to tell no one about the arrest. Taylor said she didn't realize she must promptly report any arrest to her supervisor, though all department employees had to sign a paper in October 2008 saying they understood they are obligated to report any arrest within five days.
She said she mistakenly thought the policy applied only to convictions.
In her job, Taylor has "no face-to-face contact with children or families," Crimmins said.
CPS, which did not know about the incident until The Dallas Morning News inquired about it late last month, also was unaware of Taylor's February 2008 drunken-driving arrest in Dallas until alerted by the newspaper, Crimmins said.
In October 2008, the charge was reduced to obstructing highway passageway, and she was given deferred adjudication. Though records indicate she had nine months of probation, Taylor said she recalls only having to pay fines.
Crimmins said his department checked all employees in North Texas against the DPS database in August but can't explain why it found nothing about the DUI arrest of Taylor, who at the time of her arrest was unmarried and went by another name.
"We do not know definitively why not, but it could have been the name change/limitations of the DPS system," he wrote in an e-mail.
DPS official Angela Kendall, who maintains the database, said promising new efforts are underway to improve counties' reporting, mainly because of a law authored this year by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano. It requires low-reporting counties such as Dallas to create panels of court clerks, police and computer specialists to craft remedial plans.
Most have, she said, and already there have been improvements. However, Kendall confirmed that in the DPS system, half or more of Dallas County arrests from 2001 and 2002 still show no resolution – whether conviction, acquittal or dismissal.
Crimmins said 20 protective services workers have self-reported their arrests since his department re-emphasized the honor system 13 months ago. Nine were for drunken driving. The most serious involved an altercation at a Houston-area apartment complex last January, in which a CPS caseworker reported running over the foot of an off-duty sheriff's deputy. Crimmins said that worker's subsequent dismissal was one of "a handful" caused by the self-disclosures.
Department records show Taylor was admonished two weeks ago for not reporting the New York arrest. She's ineligible for merit pay raises and certain other privileges for six months.
Taylor said she also was punished for not reporting last year's drunken-driving arrest, though she wouldn't elaborate, saying she'd been "instructed not to comment about my work status at this point or any punishment."
Crimmins said part of Taylor's job is to monitor how well 400 child-abuse investigators in Tarrant, Denton and eight other counties follow CPS policies. She is executive assistant to a regional program administrator over all of those workers.
"I do not believe that this affects my ability whatsoever to work for CPS," Taylor said. "I acknowledge that I did make that procedural mistake of not reporting, and that's not going to happen again."
07:44 AM CST on Thursday, November 19, 2009
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – The state, despite efforts to tighten background checks, still doesn't know for sure whether Child Protective Services employees are law-abiding and nonviolent.
CPS officials admit that the case of a North Texas supervisor, who didn't disclose her arrests on charges of drunken driving and assaulting her husband with a lamp, gives them pause.
"Yes we are, obviously" concerned, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Wednesday. "All employees are required to report these incidents – required to. It is not a suggestion."
Crimmins said state protective services agencies have "a solid policy" for staying alert to past and ongoing misconduct by employees. But CPS' ignorance of a Fort Worth mid-level manager's scrapes with the law illustrates how hard it is to fully vet a workforce of literally thousands of workers who hold sensitive jobs.
CPS and its parent agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services, rely on an "honor system" of self-reporting.
But after news stories last year that the department was unaware of employees' criminal convictions, officials decided to check each of its 10,660 employees every 12 months against a criminal-history database managed by the Department of Public Safety.
DPS' database is riddled with holes, though. The Dallas Morning News has reported extensively on failures by many counties, including Dallas County, to notify DPS of outcomes of many criminal cases, even though state law requires notification.
A newly passed law appears to have improved counties' reporting, but big gaps from past years have spawned a cottage industry of background-check firms, which buy lists from counties and do more thorough checks.
Crimmins said the department has not considered asking the Legislature for money to hire such firms, until the DPS system can be fixed, but "it is something that we could look into."
Sen. Jane Nelson, a Flower Mound Republican who is the Senate's chief social services policy writer, said Texas is making some progress. She cited her bill last session that requires FBI fingerprint checks of employees for private contractors who provide state-paid services to vulnerable populations.
"The accuracy and timeliness of criminal background checks have come a long way, but more work is needed," she said. "Because resources are limited, it is important that we prioritize our resources on the vetting process with individuals who have the most direct access with our vulnerable population."
Recent actions by Fort Worth CPS supervisor Lauren Taylor, though, show that the honor system and DPS-database runs are far from airtight checks.
Taylor, 27, who has worked for CPS for nearly four years, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges at 1 a.m. on Sept. 11 at a luxury hotel in New York City.
According to a criminal complaint and an account in the New York Post , her husband, Jeffrey Taylor, told police she had struck him in the face with a lamp, scratched his face and bit him in the arm during an altercation.
Lauren Taylor said Wednesday that she didn't harm him and that the charge is bogus.
"We're working to get this false allegation dissolved and dismissed as soon as possible," she said.
She said a lawyer advised her to tell no one about the arrest. Taylor said she didn't realize she must promptly report any arrest to her supervisor, though all department employees had to sign a paper in October 2008 saying they understood they are obligated to report any arrest within five days.
She said she mistakenly thought the policy applied only to convictions.
In her job, Taylor has "no face-to-face contact with children or families," Crimmins said.
CPS, which did not know about the incident until The Dallas Morning News inquired about it late last month, also was unaware of Taylor's February 2008 drunken-driving arrest in Dallas until alerted by the newspaper, Crimmins said.
In October 2008, the charge was reduced to obstructing highway passageway, and she was given deferred adjudication. Though records indicate she had nine months of probation, Taylor said she recalls only having to pay fines.
Crimmins said his department checked all employees in North Texas against the DPS database in August but can't explain why it found nothing about the DUI arrest of Taylor, who at the time of her arrest was unmarried and went by another name.
"We do not know definitively why not, but it could have been the name change/limitations of the DPS system," he wrote in an e-mail.
DPS official Angela Kendall, who maintains the database, said promising new efforts are underway to improve counties' reporting, mainly because of a law authored this year by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano. It requires low-reporting counties such as Dallas to create panels of court clerks, police and computer specialists to craft remedial plans.
Most have, she said, and already there have been improvements. However, Kendall confirmed that in the DPS system, half or more of Dallas County arrests from 2001 and 2002 still show no resolution – whether conviction, acquittal or dismissal.
Crimmins said 20 protective services workers have self-reported their arrests since his department re-emphasized the honor system 13 months ago. Nine were for drunken driving. The most serious involved an altercation at a Houston-area apartment complex last January, in which a CPS caseworker reported running over the foot of an off-duty sheriff's deputy. Crimmins said that worker's subsequent dismissal was one of "a handful" caused by the self-disclosures.
Department records show Taylor was admonished two weeks ago for not reporting the New York arrest. She's ineligible for merit pay raises and certain other privileges for six months.
Taylor said she also was punished for not reporting last year's drunken-driving arrest, though she wouldn't elaborate, saying she'd been "instructed not to comment about my work status at this point or any punishment."
Crimmins said part of Taylor's job is to monitor how well 400 child-abuse investigators in Tarrant, Denton and eight other counties follow CPS policies. She is executive assistant to a regional program administrator over all of those workers.
"I do not believe that this affects my ability whatsoever to work for CPS," Taylor said. "I acknowledge that I did make that procedural mistake of not reporting, and that's not going to happen again."
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