DSHS audit finds new problems
Foster Care: Agency says it requires checks
SIMILAR STORIES
DSHS auditors find persistent problems
Reforms help states cut foster-care populations
Reforms help states cut foster-care populations
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: 06/10/1012:05 am
State officials say they aren’t placing children with foster parents who haven’t cleared background checks, defending their agency after an audit found problems with handling of foster care.
The state auditor’s office reported this week that the Department of Social and Health Services didn’t comply with criminal background check requirements in 2009, failing to fix problems that were also found in audits from 2003 to 2008.
Auditors found 24 foster care providers they said were paid without clearing background checks, including seven with a criminal record or a history of being investigated for potential child abuse or neglect, and 17 others who were never checked at all.
But Dan Ashby, senior finance manager for the Children’s Administration agency within DSHS, said anyone who had custody of a child got a background check, except for the children’s parents, who aren’t required to be checked.
Those parents account for some of the audit’s findings, he said, while other missing information is because of a new state database that wasn’t always accurate.
Ashby said only one case involved a true criminal history, a decades-old conviction from the provider’s teenage years.
Still, the questions about background checks have persisted for years. But Children’s Administration officials said updates in January to the state’s case management system would fix them. No payments will be allowed to providers now unless a background check is on file, they said.
Jordan Schrader, staff writer
Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/06/10/1220373/dshs-audit-finds-new-problems.html#ixzz0qSUF8jwG
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, June 10, 2010
Child attempts suicide after moved from care of grandparents-Sound Familiar?
Child attempts suicide after moved from care of grandparents
Sara Everingham reported this story on Monday, June 7, 2010 18:18:00
Unhappygrammy-My grandson Austin tried to commit suicide at age six, after being removed from mine and his grandfather's home, because DCYF didn't want him around his Aunt. The Aunt who saved him from being beaten, who was thrown against the wall pregnant. The Aunt he loved so much, her's was the first name he spoke. The Aunt he has no memory of since being drugged by the state!
Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)
ALTERNATE WMA VERSION | MP3 DOWNLOAD
MARK COLVIN: An inquiry into the Northern Territory's Child protection system has been told that a ten year old boy attempted suicide after he was sent to live with an alcohol-dependent relative in a remote Indigenous community.
An independent Northern Territory politician presented a letter from a senior psychiatrist at the inquiry last week. The psychiatrist says the Northern Territory's Department of Health and Families had been warned that moving the boy would put him in a high risk situation.
Sara Everingham reports.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The story of the ten year-old boy is distressing. It's outlined in a letter from a senior psychiatrist to Northern Territory Health authorities in May this year.
The psychiatrist says the boy had been living happily with his grandparents in a large Northern Territory town and was going to a school which he loved. But he was forced to leave.
The boy's grandmother had a chronic illness and the letter says agencies, including the Northern Territory's Department of Families and Children, decided the boy's grandfather couldn't care for them both.
In the letter the senior psychiatrist says the ten year old had to go back to a remote Indigenous community to be looked after by an Aunty who had an alcohol problem and was extremely neglectful.
(Excerpt from psychiatrist's letter)
PSYCHIATRIST (voiceover): The obvious possibility of engaging an external part-time carer to help look after the grandmother and lighten the grandfather's load was never canvassed. This had disastrous consequences.
(End of excerpt)
SARA EVERINGHAM: The psychiatrist concludes that the boy had what's known as "reactive detachment disorder" and was emotionally vulnerable because of childhood neglect. The boy has no father and his mother has alcohol and cognitive problems.
In the letter the psychiatrist says that once back in the community, the boy was teased at school and then attempted to kill himself.
(Excerpt from psychiatrist's letter)
PSYCHIATRIST (voiceover): This would have had a fatal outcome had not his male teacher caught him just in time.
(End of Excerpt)
SARA EVERINGHAM: According to the psychiatrist the Territory's Department of Families and Children had been warned that moving the boy to the remote community would place him at high risk.
He writes that the warning had come from a psychiatric registrar who'd also suggested the alternative of employing part-time care to help the grandfather cope. The senior psychiatrist's letter has been presented to the board of inquiry into the Northern Territory's child protection system.
The paediatrician Dr Rob Roseby, one of the members of the Board, couldn't comment specifically about this case. But he says so far the inquiry has heard evidence of a system that's overstretched.
ROB ROSEBY: Pretty much everyone who engages with the system is identifying that and commenting about it and that, that is coming from all walks of life really in the Northern Territory Community.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The inquiry had been due to deliver a report to the Government in April this year but has asked for a second extension until September this year. Dr Roseby says that's because of the overwhelming public response.
ROB ROSEBY: There is a sense of urgency. We feel it. They feel it. And I know the public comments from other people contribute to that sense of urgency which is very real.
I guess the balance, the balancing act there is between needing to act and needing to spend some time coming with up sensible actions.
JODEEN CARNEY: Certainly an inquiry was necessary however the delays are unsatisfactory.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Northern Territory Opposition's spokeswoman for child protection, Jodeen Carney, says it was already well known that the system was in crisis.
JODEEN CARNEY: The child protection system was in crisis late last year. It was known to be in crisis well before then as evidenced by various remarks made by the coroner in relation to several inquests.
People are entitled to ask when will the inquiries stop and when will action begin.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Northern Territory's Child Protection Minister says he is serious about getting the best results for Northern Territory children.
VON KATSKALIS: I'm determined to work with the enquiry. I'm prepared to work with the community and I call upon the Opposition to work by bi-partisan - bi-partisan in this issue together in order to make sure that all Territory children are protected.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Associate Professor Leon Petchkovsky is a psychiatrist who has more than 20 years experience working in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. He says the child protection system fails to properly deal with children who are most at risk.
LEON PETCHKOVSKY: The Child and Family Protection agencies seem to get things wrong at both ends of the spectrum. They seem to overreact in situations where overreaction actually worsens the situation. And then they seem to underreact at times when they need to make much stronger interventions.
SARA EVERINGHAM: He says health professionals are frustrated their advice is often ignored.
LEON PETCHKOVSKY: The agency just doesn't seem to take much notice of our views and our concerns.
SARA EVERINGHAM: In the letter about the 10 year old boy the senior psychiatrist says the boy is still at high risk of suicide but is settling in to the remote community. He writes that any future decisions about the boy's movements would have to be carefully considered.
MARK COLVIN: Sara Everingham.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2920589.htm
Sara Everingham reported this story on Monday, June 7, 2010 18:18:00
Unhappygrammy-My grandson Austin tried to commit suicide at age six, after being removed from mine and his grandfather's home, because DCYF didn't want him around his Aunt. The Aunt who saved him from being beaten, who was thrown against the wall pregnant. The Aunt he loved so much, her's was the first name he spoke. The Aunt he has no memory of since being drugged by the state!
Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)
ALTERNATE WMA VERSION | MP3 DOWNLOAD
MARK COLVIN: An inquiry into the Northern Territory's Child protection system has been told that a ten year old boy attempted suicide after he was sent to live with an alcohol-dependent relative in a remote Indigenous community.
An independent Northern Territory politician presented a letter from a senior psychiatrist at the inquiry last week. The psychiatrist says the Northern Territory's Department of Health and Families had been warned that moving the boy would put him in a high risk situation.
Sara Everingham reports.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The story of the ten year-old boy is distressing. It's outlined in a letter from a senior psychiatrist to Northern Territory Health authorities in May this year.
The psychiatrist says the boy had been living happily with his grandparents in a large Northern Territory town and was going to a school which he loved. But he was forced to leave.
The boy's grandmother had a chronic illness and the letter says agencies, including the Northern Territory's Department of Families and Children, decided the boy's grandfather couldn't care for them both.
In the letter the senior psychiatrist says the ten year old had to go back to a remote Indigenous community to be looked after by an Aunty who had an alcohol problem and was extremely neglectful.
(Excerpt from psychiatrist's letter)
PSYCHIATRIST (voiceover): The obvious possibility of engaging an external part-time carer to help look after the grandmother and lighten the grandfather's load was never canvassed. This had disastrous consequences.
(End of excerpt)
SARA EVERINGHAM: The psychiatrist concludes that the boy had what's known as "reactive detachment disorder" and was emotionally vulnerable because of childhood neglect. The boy has no father and his mother has alcohol and cognitive problems.
In the letter the psychiatrist says that once back in the community, the boy was teased at school and then attempted to kill himself.
(Excerpt from psychiatrist's letter)
PSYCHIATRIST (voiceover): This would have had a fatal outcome had not his male teacher caught him just in time.
(End of Excerpt)
SARA EVERINGHAM: According to the psychiatrist the Territory's Department of Families and Children had been warned that moving the boy to the remote community would place him at high risk.
He writes that the warning had come from a psychiatric registrar who'd also suggested the alternative of employing part-time care to help the grandfather cope. The senior psychiatrist's letter has been presented to the board of inquiry into the Northern Territory's child protection system.
The paediatrician Dr Rob Roseby, one of the members of the Board, couldn't comment specifically about this case. But he says so far the inquiry has heard evidence of a system that's overstretched.
ROB ROSEBY: Pretty much everyone who engages with the system is identifying that and commenting about it and that, that is coming from all walks of life really in the Northern Territory Community.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The inquiry had been due to deliver a report to the Government in April this year but has asked for a second extension until September this year. Dr Roseby says that's because of the overwhelming public response.
ROB ROSEBY: There is a sense of urgency. We feel it. They feel it. And I know the public comments from other people contribute to that sense of urgency which is very real.
I guess the balance, the balancing act there is between needing to act and needing to spend some time coming with up sensible actions.
JODEEN CARNEY: Certainly an inquiry was necessary however the delays are unsatisfactory.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Northern Territory Opposition's spokeswoman for child protection, Jodeen Carney, says it was already well known that the system was in crisis.
JODEEN CARNEY: The child protection system was in crisis late last year. It was known to be in crisis well before then as evidenced by various remarks made by the coroner in relation to several inquests.
People are entitled to ask when will the inquiries stop and when will action begin.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Northern Territory's Child Protection Minister says he is serious about getting the best results for Northern Territory children.
VON KATSKALIS: I'm determined to work with the enquiry. I'm prepared to work with the community and I call upon the Opposition to work by bi-partisan - bi-partisan in this issue together in order to make sure that all Territory children are protected.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Associate Professor Leon Petchkovsky is a psychiatrist who has more than 20 years experience working in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. He says the child protection system fails to properly deal with children who are most at risk.
LEON PETCHKOVSKY: The Child and Family Protection agencies seem to get things wrong at both ends of the spectrum. They seem to overreact in situations where overreaction actually worsens the situation. And then they seem to underreact at times when they need to make much stronger interventions.
SARA EVERINGHAM: He says health professionals are frustrated their advice is often ignored.
LEON PETCHKOVSKY: The agency just doesn't seem to take much notice of our views and our concerns.
SARA EVERINGHAM: In the letter about the 10 year old boy the senior psychiatrist says the boy is still at high risk of suicide but is settling in to the remote community. He writes that any future decisions about the boy's movements would have to be carefully considered.
MARK COLVIN: Sara Everingham.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2920589.htm
Second foster daughter sentenced in connection with Woodward murder plot
Second foster daughter sentenced in connection with Woodward murder plot
A second foster daughter pleaded guilty and was sentenced in connection with plot to kill her foster parents
BY SHEILA STOGSDILL
Published: June 10, 2010
WOODWARD — A teenage foster daughter who authorities said had been returned to the state by two different adoptive families pleaded guilty Wednesday in a plot to kill her foster parents, a prosecutor said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kelsey Beames, 16, pleaded guilty in Woodward County District Court to shooting with intent to kill and conspiracy to murder.
She was sentenced to remain at the Central Oklahoma Juvenile Center until five months after her 18th birthday, said Danny Lohmann, assistant district attorney.
Ashley Jewell, 17, pleaded guilty to the same charges on Monday and was also sentenced to stay at the juvenile center until five months after her 18th birthday.
"The girls come from difficult backgrounds,” Lohmann said.
Beams was placed into the foster care program when she was 4 months old, and two families adopted her but then returned her to state custody, Lohmann said.
Jewell was placed into the foster care program at a young age. Robert and Barbra Parker were her legal guardians, Lohmann said.
Prosecutors said Jewell, then 16, and Beames, then 15, planned to rob and kill the couple while they slept on Oct. 16. The couple said at the time of the shooting the girls planned to kill a third foster daughter who would not go along with the plan.
Jewell shot and wounded Robert Parker, who was sleeping, while Beames was to shoot Barbra Parker, but instead the girl ran away. Jewell held a gun to her foster mother's face, but the gun failed to fire because it was loaded with the wrong type of ammunition, prosecutors said.
Robert Parker has recovered from the gunshot wound.
The teens were sentenced as youthful offenders, Lohmann said. Should either girl violate any of the court's rules and conditions they will be transferred to the adult criminal justice system, he said.
Read more: http://www.newsok.com/second-foster-daughter-sentenced-in-connection-with-woodward-murder-plot/article/3467449?custom_click=pod_headline_crime#ixzz0qRZvWw30
A second foster daughter pleaded guilty and was sentenced in connection with plot to kill her foster parents
BY SHEILA STOGSDILL
Published: June 10, 2010
WOODWARD — A teenage foster daughter who authorities said had been returned to the state by two different adoptive families pleaded guilty Wednesday in a plot to kill her foster parents, a prosecutor said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kelsey Beames, 16, pleaded guilty in Woodward County District Court to shooting with intent to kill and conspiracy to murder.
She was sentenced to remain at the Central Oklahoma Juvenile Center until five months after her 18th birthday, said Danny Lohmann, assistant district attorney.
Ashley Jewell, 17, pleaded guilty to the same charges on Monday and was also sentenced to stay at the juvenile center until five months after her 18th birthday.
"The girls come from difficult backgrounds,” Lohmann said.
Beams was placed into the foster care program when she was 4 months old, and two families adopted her but then returned her to state custody, Lohmann said.
Jewell was placed into the foster care program at a young age. Robert and Barbra Parker were her legal guardians, Lohmann said.
Prosecutors said Jewell, then 16, and Beames, then 15, planned to rob and kill the couple while they slept on Oct. 16. The couple said at the time of the shooting the girls planned to kill a third foster daughter who would not go along with the plan.
Jewell shot and wounded Robert Parker, who was sleeping, while Beames was to shoot Barbra Parker, but instead the girl ran away. Jewell held a gun to her foster mother's face, but the gun failed to fire because it was loaded with the wrong type of ammunition, prosecutors said.
Robert Parker has recovered from the gunshot wound.
The teens were sentenced as youthful offenders, Lohmann said. Should either girl violate any of the court's rules and conditions they will be transferred to the adult criminal justice system, he said.
Read more: http://www.newsok.com/second-foster-daughter-sentenced-in-connection-with-woodward-murder-plot/article/3467449?custom_click=pod_headline_crime#ixzz0qRZvWw30
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
WELCOME TO NCCPR
WELCOME TO NCCPR
The members of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform have encountered the child welfare system in their professional capacities. Through NCCPR, we work to make that system better serve America’s most vulnerable children by trying to change policies concerning child abuse, foster care and family preservation.
To the child care industry in this Country and Canada, these are some mighty powerful fighting words. To even mention the word "Change" is a direct attack upon them. To them, it is obvious this group wants to rock the boat and disturb the cash flow. Like big tobacco, big oil and the industrial war machine, they have a pretty cozy thing going with the Fed’s and don’t want some snoop wrecking the gravy train.
As most thinking people know, and even some folks in the child "Care" business, Richard Wexler is to an honest child care system what Martin Luther Ling was to the Civil Rights movement. For CPS and CASA, that makes him as dangerous to them as Senator Nancy Schaefer. They know that he has access to the media, and that, even worse, he is respected and considered an authority on CPS, CASA, and the broken business of child "Protection" He not only exposes the myth’s, but he can do it in prime time.
Unlike folks like me who detest the harm and hurt that the business of CPS inflicts upon innocent children and families, Richard can tell his story without either puking in their faces or laying the Kings English all over them. On a personal level, if I could not vent my anger and hatred for the hurt they create for children and their parents in the name of the Allmighty dollar, I would be back in prison in a heartbeat.
Demonizing your enemy is the oldest trick in the book, and CPS is the master at it. If they want your kid to sell, you become a child molester. If you defend the parents, you yourself are a child molester. Naturally, to them, I’m a child molester since I admitted I kissed a retarded child in my care. (I wonder how many Special needs children these people have ever come into contact with? If they ever bother to visit a Special class or facility, they are going to be shocked at how many staff, by virtue of being kissed by a retarded child, are in truth really closet pedophiles.)
To this day they try to demonize me for being a convicted felon, but I don’t play their game. Like folks on their child abuse registry, the scarlet letter has become meaningless, trivial and irrelevant.They made it that way by putting 8 and 10 year olds on the registry for playing house or taking a picture of themselves (Naked bodies scare the living hell out of these folks). It reminds me of their homophobic counterparts in LE who have never forgiven themselves for their "Sins" when they were children. (Let it go boys, wanking didn’t make you a fag.)
With Richard now in their bullseye, they have embarked on a plan to demonize him. He opposes one of the largest child buying and selling businesses in the Country and it’s extremly well paid founder. Children’s Rights have become one of the most prolific baby sellers for CPS. This makes them the favored darling of the "Opposition" to CPS and CASA.
Officailly, Children’s Rights brings CPS to Court to "Force" them into changing the way they do business for the betterment of the child. Who’s kidding who? CPS and Children’s Rights are tighter than Liberace and his lawn boy, J. Edgar and Clyde, and Halliburton and the Pentagon.The latest is the Class Action Lawsuit that will do NOTHING to return children to their parents, even when no abuse or neglect is proven. CPS will offer token resitance, but that Lawsuit couldn’t be better for business for them and Children’s Rights, Inc. than if they wrote the complain themselves.
Since Richard recognizes this little bit of smoke and mirrors and realizes he’s looking at a sweetheart deal for everybody but the children and their parents, they have opened a brand new site and ghost written the "Complaint’s" against him.
This is the same thing done by the LDS against the Mormons, and the same done against us by Texas LE claiming to be just a bunch of good old boys trying to protect little girls. (Into their beds rather than some filthy Mormons).
Take a look at Richards site and you will see why he is under attack by CPS. Just as I do not advertise the LE kiddie porn site they have put out there, I don’t name or promote the oppositions site against Richard.
http://nccpr.blogspot.com/
The members of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform have encountered the child welfare system in their professional capacities. Through NCCPR, we work to make that system better serve America’s most vulnerable children by trying to change policies concerning child abuse, foster care and family preservation.
To the child care industry in this Country and Canada, these are some mighty powerful fighting words. To even mention the word "Change" is a direct attack upon them. To them, it is obvious this group wants to rock the boat and disturb the cash flow. Like big tobacco, big oil and the industrial war machine, they have a pretty cozy thing going with the Fed’s and don’t want some snoop wrecking the gravy train.
As most thinking people know, and even some folks in the child "Care" business, Richard Wexler is to an honest child care system what Martin Luther Ling was to the Civil Rights movement. For CPS and CASA, that makes him as dangerous to them as Senator Nancy Schaefer. They know that he has access to the media, and that, even worse, he is respected and considered an authority on CPS, CASA, and the broken business of child "Protection" He not only exposes the myth’s, but he can do it in prime time.
Unlike folks like me who detest the harm and hurt that the business of CPS inflicts upon innocent children and families, Richard can tell his story without either puking in their faces or laying the Kings English all over them. On a personal level, if I could not vent my anger and hatred for the hurt they create for children and their parents in the name of the Allmighty dollar, I would be back in prison in a heartbeat.
Demonizing your enemy is the oldest trick in the book, and CPS is the master at it. If they want your kid to sell, you become a child molester. If you defend the parents, you yourself are a child molester. Naturally, to them, I’m a child molester since I admitted I kissed a retarded child in my care. (I wonder how many Special needs children these people have ever come into contact with? If they ever bother to visit a Special class or facility, they are going to be shocked at how many staff, by virtue of being kissed by a retarded child, are in truth really closet pedophiles.)
To this day they try to demonize me for being a convicted felon, but I don’t play their game. Like folks on their child abuse registry, the scarlet letter has become meaningless, trivial and irrelevant.They made it that way by putting 8 and 10 year olds on the registry for playing house or taking a picture of themselves (Naked bodies scare the living hell out of these folks). It reminds me of their homophobic counterparts in LE who have never forgiven themselves for their "Sins" when they were children. (Let it go boys, wanking didn’t make you a fag.)
With Richard now in their bullseye, they have embarked on a plan to demonize him. He opposes one of the largest child buying and selling businesses in the Country and it’s extremly well paid founder. Children’s Rights have become one of the most prolific baby sellers for CPS. This makes them the favored darling of the "Opposition" to CPS and CASA.
Officailly, Children’s Rights brings CPS to Court to "Force" them into changing the way they do business for the betterment of the child. Who’s kidding who? CPS and Children’s Rights are tighter than Liberace and his lawn boy, J. Edgar and Clyde, and Halliburton and the Pentagon.The latest is the Class Action Lawsuit that will do NOTHING to return children to their parents, even when no abuse or neglect is proven. CPS will offer token resitance, but that Lawsuit couldn’t be better for business for them and Children’s Rights, Inc. than if they wrote the complain themselves.
Since Richard recognizes this little bit of smoke and mirrors and realizes he’s looking at a sweetheart deal for everybody but the children and their parents, they have opened a brand new site and ghost written the "Complaint’s" against him.
This is the same thing done by the LDS against the Mormons, and the same done against us by Texas LE claiming to be just a bunch of good old boys trying to protect little girls. (Into their beds rather than some filthy Mormons).
Take a look at Richards site and you will see why he is under attack by CPS. Just as I do not advertise the LE kiddie porn site they have put out there, I don’t name or promote the oppositions site against Richard.
http://nccpr.blogspot.com/
Cps Involved Parent Right Parent Statistics Working admin
Cps Involved Parent Right
Finally some attorneys who are not afraid to speak out and help families who have had their children stolen for profit by Child Protective Services. Now if we can get one of them to step up to the plate in Jackson County Ga.
Home // News Tuesday, June 8, 2010 3:47 pm
June 3
Attorney: Agency deprives rights
W-B attorney says he will file lawsuit on behalf of 25 parents against Luzerne County Children and Youth.
TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER tmorgan@timesleader.com
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Attorney__Agency_deprives_rights_06-02-2010.html
WILKES-BARRE – A local attorney said he plans to file a federal lawsuit today on behalf of approximately 25 parents who allege Luzerne County Children and Youth violated their constitutional rights in placing their children in foster care.
Theresa Orgowski and her daughter Brandy Fullerton, both of Wilkes-Barre, gather with other parents outside the Children and Youth Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre to voice complaints against the agency on Wednesday.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
Related headlines
Group wants review of Children and Youth complaints
Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo StoreJames Hayward of Wilkes-Barre said the lawsuit will be a wide-ranging indictment of Children and Youth that will rival the egregiousness of the allegations contained in the “kids-for-cash” lawsuits involving former county Judge Mark Ciavarella’s placement of juveniles in detention centers.
“It’s just like the ‘kids-for-cash’ case again,” Hayward said. “Everyone knew what Ciavarella was doing and didn’t do anything about it. Well, they all know what Children and Youth is doing and they’re not doing anything about it.”
What Children and Youth is doing, Hayward said, is routinely Children and Youth violated their constitutional rights regarding court hearings that determine whether their children will remain in foster care or be returned home.
The suit revolves around dependency court, which involves children who have been removed from their homes based on allegations of abuse or neglect. It is separate from delinquency court, which involves the placement of juveniles accused of crimes.
Under state law, Children and Youth can take immediate custody of a child only if it can be shown there is an imminent threat to the child’s safety or health. A shelter care hearing must then be held to review that determination.
Hayward said he has interviewed numerous parents who say they were never given a hearing, or were given such short notice that they could not present a meaningful rebuttal to the agency’s allegations.
“I have four clients whose shelter care hearing was either scheduled while they were in the hospital, or they never had a shelter care hearing and they took the kids off them,” he said.
Hayward said that in one case, his client had just given birth via caesarian section. Children and Youth sought to place the child. A shelter care hearing was scheduled just after she gave birth, which precluded her from attending.
Hayward said he went to the hearing on her behalf and obtained a continuance. But that did not stop the agency from taking the child anyway.
“They went that night or the night after and took the baby out of the hospital and put it in foster care,” Hayward said.
Another issue, Hayward said, is the agency’s practice of taking a newborn from the biological parents based solely on the fact the parents have other children who are currently in foster care.
Hayward said the law says agencies can do that only if a parent has previously had his or her parental rights to other children terminated. Luzerne County is doing so even when that is not the case, he said.
“If you have a child in the system, as far as they are concerned, every child is in the system. That’s not the law,” he said. “They can do whatever they want and get away with it, and no one is challenging them.”
Joe DeVizia, director of human services for the county, said he was advised Wednesday that Hayward planned on filing a lawsuit. DeVizia said he did not know what the specific allegations are, but insisted Children and Youth is working for the best interest of children.
“There are a lot of issues surrounding why kids are in placement,” DeVizia said. “Our number one concern is always the safety and welfare of children.”
More than two dozen parents, some of whom are plaintiffs in the pending suit, gathered at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Wednesday for an impromptu rally.
DeVizia said he and Children and Youth Director Frank Castano spent nearly five hours meeting with 15 to 20 parents. He said he would ensure their concerns were addressed.
Hayward said the suit will name Children and Youth as a defendant, as well as individual agency employees, the county and its human services department. The suit will not name judges who presided over dependency court, he said.
Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7179.
http://bloominghighway.co.tv/cps-involved-parent-right
Finally some attorneys who are not afraid to speak out and help families who have had their children stolen for profit by Child Protective Services. Now if we can get one of them to step up to the plate in Jackson County Ga.
Home // News Tuesday, June 8, 2010 3:47 pm
June 3
Attorney: Agency deprives rights
W-B attorney says he will file lawsuit on behalf of 25 parents against Luzerne County Children and Youth.
TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER tmorgan@timesleader.com
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Attorney__Agency_deprives_rights_06-02-2010.html
WILKES-BARRE – A local attorney said he plans to file a federal lawsuit today on behalf of approximately 25 parents who allege Luzerne County Children and Youth violated their constitutional rights in placing their children in foster care.
Theresa Orgowski and her daughter Brandy Fullerton, both of Wilkes-Barre, gather with other parents outside the Children and Youth Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre to voice complaints against the agency on Wednesday.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
Related headlines
Group wants review of Children and Youth complaints
Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo StoreJames Hayward of Wilkes-Barre said the lawsuit will be a wide-ranging indictment of Children and Youth that will rival the egregiousness of the allegations contained in the “kids-for-cash” lawsuits involving former county Judge Mark Ciavarella’s placement of juveniles in detention centers.
“It’s just like the ‘kids-for-cash’ case again,” Hayward said. “Everyone knew what Ciavarella was doing and didn’t do anything about it. Well, they all know what Children and Youth is doing and they’re not doing anything about it.”
What Children and Youth is doing, Hayward said, is routinely Children and Youth violated their constitutional rights regarding court hearings that determine whether their children will remain in foster care or be returned home.
The suit revolves around dependency court, which involves children who have been removed from their homes based on allegations of abuse or neglect. It is separate from delinquency court, which involves the placement of juveniles accused of crimes.
Under state law, Children and Youth can take immediate custody of a child only if it can be shown there is an imminent threat to the child’s safety or health. A shelter care hearing must then be held to review that determination.
Hayward said he has interviewed numerous parents who say they were never given a hearing, or were given such short notice that they could not present a meaningful rebuttal to the agency’s allegations.
“I have four clients whose shelter care hearing was either scheduled while they were in the hospital, or they never had a shelter care hearing and they took the kids off them,” he said.
Hayward said that in one case, his client had just given birth via caesarian section. Children and Youth sought to place the child. A shelter care hearing was scheduled just after she gave birth, which precluded her from attending.
Hayward said he went to the hearing on her behalf and obtained a continuance. But that did not stop the agency from taking the child anyway.
“They went that night or the night after and took the baby out of the hospital and put it in foster care,” Hayward said.
Another issue, Hayward said, is the agency’s practice of taking a newborn from the biological parents based solely on the fact the parents have other children who are currently in foster care.
Hayward said the law says agencies can do that only if a parent has previously had his or her parental rights to other children terminated. Luzerne County is doing so even when that is not the case, he said.
“If you have a child in the system, as far as they are concerned, every child is in the system. That’s not the law,” he said. “They can do whatever they want and get away with it, and no one is challenging them.”
Joe DeVizia, director of human services for the county, said he was advised Wednesday that Hayward planned on filing a lawsuit. DeVizia said he did not know what the specific allegations are, but insisted Children and Youth is working for the best interest of children.
“There are a lot of issues surrounding why kids are in placement,” DeVizia said. “Our number one concern is always the safety and welfare of children.”
More than two dozen parents, some of whom are plaintiffs in the pending suit, gathered at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Wednesday for an impromptu rally.
DeVizia said he and Children and Youth Director Frank Castano spent nearly five hours meeting with 15 to 20 parents. He said he would ensure their concerns were addressed.
Hayward said the suit will name Children and Youth as a defendant, as well as individual agency employees, the county and its human services department. The suit will not name judges who presided over dependency court, he said.
Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7179.
http://bloominghighway.co.tv/cps-involved-parent-right
Murder of Jeremiah Swofford DSS Outrage Continues Letter to CGG
Murder of Jeremiah Swofford DSS Outrage Continues Letter to CGG
Dear Citizens For Good Government,
I’m a great Aunt…3 times over! No, I didn’t do anything extraordinary to gain that distinction. My nephew presented our family with his second daughter on May 11. His eldest sister, my godchild, had a girl last year. This gives my sister and her husband three granddaughters ages 3 and under! They are precious, beautiful angels and the thought of anything bad happening to any one of them makes my blood run cold with fear, then hot with anger. I’m sure each of you feels the same about the children in your lives. That’s why I’m betting you’re as upset as I am with the latest Jeremiah Swafford article printed in the Shelby Star on May 23, 2010.
My blood boiled as I read that article! Sixteen months! Sixteen months since Jeremiah was beaten to death and still no resolution in this case. Resolution!!!??!! What am I talking about—resolution! Heck, there’s not even been a so-called “state-mandated” review as to why this horrendous thing could have happened to this poor innocent!!! Doesn’t that strike you as odd? Doesn’t it strike fear into your hearts? Doesn’t it make your blood boil?
I cannot believe that DSS Director Karen Ellis can be so blasé’, so cavalier, in her attitude in accepting this timeframe! To quote: “…the process of his review will begin in August…the review could be completed by October or December.” October or December? What happened to November? We’re talking 5 months here, people! Sixteen months since the death, then another three months until the review might even begin and then another five months before we have the result of that review! That’s TWO YEARS, folks! Talk about closure! Talk about timeliness! Talk about somebody doing her job!! NOT!!!!
“Required State review process”! Are you kidding me??? Sixteen months ago this child was viciously murdered. The details and pictures were splashed across the Shelby Star and the Charlotte Observer with coverage on all the local TV stations. And no one thought to get the State involved immediately in order to obtain this “review” which is supposedly required by state law for all children who die as a result of abuse and neglect and who also had contact with Child Protective Services within 12 months of their death? Now, it will be August before this “in-depth state child fatality review” involving state and local groups will examine how agencies protected this child. Let me tell you how the Cleveland County DSS protected this child….it DIDN’T! The Agency was repeatedly contacted and given plenty of opportunity to intervene, to step in, to get involved, to save little Jeremiah’s life.
Instead, DSS chose to turn a blind eye to the plight of this darling little boy who suffered so atrociously not because of any crime he himself committed, but because of the crime committed not only by his abuser(s), his murderer(s), but by an Agency whose whole criteria for being is for the protection of children. God spare me—and YOU—that kind of protection! God spare my great-nieces that kind of protection. I thank God they don’t live in Cleveland County!
Are you not afraid, people? Are you not incensed? Is your blood running cold with fear yet? How about boiling hot with anger? Will you just sit by and do nothing? NO! You must not sit by and do nothing! You must call and write DSS, your State and House Representatives, your County Commissioners, the Sheriff’s Department, the Cleveland County Attorney and maybe even the Attorney General of the United States of America because it is quite obvious Cleveland County authorities aren’t concerned enough, incensed enough or have been goaded enough by you, the electorate, to do anything to speed up this process.
And while we’re on this subject, why hasn’t Mary Accor done something? She’s a County Commissioner and on the DSS Board. I know for a fact that Robert A. Williams called her the minute he heard that little Jeremiah was in the hospital not only notifying her DSS had a problem here, but also requesting she personally get involved. What happened, Mary? Didn’t want to interrupt your weekend? Children don’t get help on Saturdays in Cleveland County? Why was there no response from you? What about Karen Ellis? Don’t tell me Karen didn’t know about this from the get go! Cleveland County residents, I call on you to deluge these people with your outrage. You live here! You have a stake…a huge stake…in making sure no other child has to suffer like Jeremiah Swofford suffered. That no other child has to die like Jeremiah died…horribly, brutally!
Forty-two North Carolina children are dead. All of them victims of abuse and neglect and all had contact with DSS 12 months before their deaths. There’s a pattern here, folks, and its not a good one! It’s a pattern of indifference—a pattern of neglect—by the very people who are sworn to protect these defenseless children from indifference and from neglect. Is this not also a form of abuse when the people who are supposed to be the buffer between the abused and their abusers show such callous disregard? Why are there not enough caseworkers? Why, when there are repeated reports of abuse, are these reports not taken more seriously? Why isn’t the child removed from a potentially dangerous situation before tragedy strikes? Why does it have to end in tragedy? I know there are not enough foster homes to go around. Do we need to look into opening up orphanages again? We need “safe houses” for these defenseless little ones.
Forty-two dead North Carolina children since 2007 who have not had an “in-depth child fatality review” which is intended to protect and prevent future deaths! Some protection! Some prevention!
We have high unemployment in North Carolina. We have lots of educated people graduating from our colleges even as we speak desperately looking for Social Services jobs. Let’s hire them! Let’s help ease the heavy caseloads of DSS employees so that we don’t have another child that goes thru the hell that poor little Jeremiah had to endure. What about using unpaid “interns” to do a lot of the filing, and other “gofer” jobs so that DSS caseworkers can concentrate on the child?
Cleveland County residents, can you not hear poor little Jeremiah Swofford as he lies scared, cold, and alone, shivering in fear and pain, crying in agony in his crib, his poor little body battered and bruised? Crying for comfort, crying for an end to his torture, crying for someone to love him? Can you not hear him even now, still cold and all alone, still in the dark, still hoping someone will love him enough to care, crying out from his grave for the justice he was denied in his short life? And with those cries echoing in your brain, resonating in your heart, can you still sit by and do nothing to help him? Won’t you please demand justice for this defenseless toddler?
When we read about children like Jeremiah, we do (and should) feel outrage. And after we stop snorting with hysterical laughter when we read that for 100 counties, the state agency is allotted TWO reviewers to schedule, coordinate and be in charge of an “intensive review” of each case, we should also feel outrage! It’s an impossible task! What a joke! Who sets these rules anyway?
You know, we live in the Bible Belt. People here go to Church…a lot! Sundays, Wednesdays, Church parking lots are full. Lots of Bible studies are going on I bet. Anybody studying Matthew 18:6? “But whoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Someday, we will all be called to Judgment. We will all have to answer about the things we did or didn’t do.
What are YOU going to do about ensuring that not another child has to be abused, or killed? Robert A. Williams can’t possibly be the only person in Cleveland County concerned with ensuring DSS is kept on its toes with regard to protecting the lives of the children they are sworn to protect. Or is he?
Sincerely,
Missy, A Concerned Citizen
EDITOR’S COMMENT:
Missy, thank you for your letter. We believe your heart is in the right place, but you have fallen into the same old bureaucratic trap that DSS always uses. That is “DSS can cure all the problems of the world if they could just hire more people and spend more money.” Think about this. Never in the history of DSS has DSS actually cured one single problem in our society. But before I go on about all the issues, let’s stick to the murder of 42 children and Jeremiah Swofford as that was the subject of your letter.
First, that article in the Star saying 42 children were murdered who had had contact with DSS/Child Protection within 12 months of their deaths. How many children were murdered without any involvement with DSS at all? The article in the Star didn’t say. The Star also didn’t say that the State of North Carolina requires every county to have a Child Protection Team to investigate the death of every child. Where is the Cleveland County Child Protection Team and why have they NOT already investigated the death of Jeremiah Swofford. Why was this fact not reported in the Star?
My figuring is the Cleveland County Child Protection Team (which includes DSS, Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney) already knows what happened to Jeremiah Swofford, what DSS didn’t do that they were supposed to do and all other such information. I am convinced it looks so bad on DSS that this and probably the other 41 child fatalities are just being covered up. And drug out too, hoping to get people like you to demand that DSS hire more people.
But I have a solution and I have said it before. Fire the whole DSS Child Protection Department and send all reports of child abuse to the Sheriff’s Office. Make the Sheriff send Deputies with a badge and a gun to arrest child abusers. Hire more Deputies if you want to hire more people to protect children. And protect the rest of us too!!!
Short URL: http://citizensforgoodgovernment.org/online/?p=184
Dear Citizens For Good Government,
I’m a great Aunt…3 times over! No, I didn’t do anything extraordinary to gain that distinction. My nephew presented our family with his second daughter on May 11. His eldest sister, my godchild, had a girl last year. This gives my sister and her husband three granddaughters ages 3 and under! They are precious, beautiful angels and the thought of anything bad happening to any one of them makes my blood run cold with fear, then hot with anger. I’m sure each of you feels the same about the children in your lives. That’s why I’m betting you’re as upset as I am with the latest Jeremiah Swafford article printed in the Shelby Star on May 23, 2010.
My blood boiled as I read that article! Sixteen months! Sixteen months since Jeremiah was beaten to death and still no resolution in this case. Resolution!!!??!! What am I talking about—resolution! Heck, there’s not even been a so-called “state-mandated” review as to why this horrendous thing could have happened to this poor innocent!!! Doesn’t that strike you as odd? Doesn’t it strike fear into your hearts? Doesn’t it make your blood boil?
I cannot believe that DSS Director Karen Ellis can be so blasé’, so cavalier, in her attitude in accepting this timeframe! To quote: “…the process of his review will begin in August…the review could be completed by October or December.” October or December? What happened to November? We’re talking 5 months here, people! Sixteen months since the death, then another three months until the review might even begin and then another five months before we have the result of that review! That’s TWO YEARS, folks! Talk about closure! Talk about timeliness! Talk about somebody doing her job!! NOT!!!!
“Required State review process”! Are you kidding me??? Sixteen months ago this child was viciously murdered. The details and pictures were splashed across the Shelby Star and the Charlotte Observer with coverage on all the local TV stations. And no one thought to get the State involved immediately in order to obtain this “review” which is supposedly required by state law for all children who die as a result of abuse and neglect and who also had contact with Child Protective Services within 12 months of their death? Now, it will be August before this “in-depth state child fatality review” involving state and local groups will examine how agencies protected this child. Let me tell you how the Cleveland County DSS protected this child….it DIDN’T! The Agency was repeatedly contacted and given plenty of opportunity to intervene, to step in, to get involved, to save little Jeremiah’s life.
Instead, DSS chose to turn a blind eye to the plight of this darling little boy who suffered so atrociously not because of any crime he himself committed, but because of the crime committed not only by his abuser(s), his murderer(s), but by an Agency whose whole criteria for being is for the protection of children. God spare me—and YOU—that kind of protection! God spare my great-nieces that kind of protection. I thank God they don’t live in Cleveland County!
Are you not afraid, people? Are you not incensed? Is your blood running cold with fear yet? How about boiling hot with anger? Will you just sit by and do nothing? NO! You must not sit by and do nothing! You must call and write DSS, your State and House Representatives, your County Commissioners, the Sheriff’s Department, the Cleveland County Attorney and maybe even the Attorney General of the United States of America because it is quite obvious Cleveland County authorities aren’t concerned enough, incensed enough or have been goaded enough by you, the electorate, to do anything to speed up this process.
And while we’re on this subject, why hasn’t Mary Accor done something? She’s a County Commissioner and on the DSS Board. I know for a fact that Robert A. Williams called her the minute he heard that little Jeremiah was in the hospital not only notifying her DSS had a problem here, but also requesting she personally get involved. What happened, Mary? Didn’t want to interrupt your weekend? Children don’t get help on Saturdays in Cleveland County? Why was there no response from you? What about Karen Ellis? Don’t tell me Karen didn’t know about this from the get go! Cleveland County residents, I call on you to deluge these people with your outrage. You live here! You have a stake…a huge stake…in making sure no other child has to suffer like Jeremiah Swofford suffered. That no other child has to die like Jeremiah died…horribly, brutally!
Forty-two North Carolina children are dead. All of them victims of abuse and neglect and all had contact with DSS 12 months before their deaths. There’s a pattern here, folks, and its not a good one! It’s a pattern of indifference—a pattern of neglect—by the very people who are sworn to protect these defenseless children from indifference and from neglect. Is this not also a form of abuse when the people who are supposed to be the buffer between the abused and their abusers show such callous disregard? Why are there not enough caseworkers? Why, when there are repeated reports of abuse, are these reports not taken more seriously? Why isn’t the child removed from a potentially dangerous situation before tragedy strikes? Why does it have to end in tragedy? I know there are not enough foster homes to go around. Do we need to look into opening up orphanages again? We need “safe houses” for these defenseless little ones.
Forty-two dead North Carolina children since 2007 who have not had an “in-depth child fatality review” which is intended to protect and prevent future deaths! Some protection! Some prevention!
We have high unemployment in North Carolina. We have lots of educated people graduating from our colleges even as we speak desperately looking for Social Services jobs. Let’s hire them! Let’s help ease the heavy caseloads of DSS employees so that we don’t have another child that goes thru the hell that poor little Jeremiah had to endure. What about using unpaid “interns” to do a lot of the filing, and other “gofer” jobs so that DSS caseworkers can concentrate on the child?
Cleveland County residents, can you not hear poor little Jeremiah Swofford as he lies scared, cold, and alone, shivering in fear and pain, crying in agony in his crib, his poor little body battered and bruised? Crying for comfort, crying for an end to his torture, crying for someone to love him? Can you not hear him even now, still cold and all alone, still in the dark, still hoping someone will love him enough to care, crying out from his grave for the justice he was denied in his short life? And with those cries echoing in your brain, resonating in your heart, can you still sit by and do nothing to help him? Won’t you please demand justice for this defenseless toddler?
When we read about children like Jeremiah, we do (and should) feel outrage. And after we stop snorting with hysterical laughter when we read that for 100 counties, the state agency is allotted TWO reviewers to schedule, coordinate and be in charge of an “intensive review” of each case, we should also feel outrage! It’s an impossible task! What a joke! Who sets these rules anyway?
You know, we live in the Bible Belt. People here go to Church…a lot! Sundays, Wednesdays, Church parking lots are full. Lots of Bible studies are going on I bet. Anybody studying Matthew 18:6? “But whoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Someday, we will all be called to Judgment. We will all have to answer about the things we did or didn’t do.
What are YOU going to do about ensuring that not another child has to be abused, or killed? Robert A. Williams can’t possibly be the only person in Cleveland County concerned with ensuring DSS is kept on its toes with regard to protecting the lives of the children they are sworn to protect. Or is he?
Sincerely,
Missy, A Concerned Citizen
EDITOR’S COMMENT:
Missy, thank you for your letter. We believe your heart is in the right place, but you have fallen into the same old bureaucratic trap that DSS always uses. That is “DSS can cure all the problems of the world if they could just hire more people and spend more money.” Think about this. Never in the history of DSS has DSS actually cured one single problem in our society. But before I go on about all the issues, let’s stick to the murder of 42 children and Jeremiah Swofford as that was the subject of your letter.
First, that article in the Star saying 42 children were murdered who had had contact with DSS/Child Protection within 12 months of their deaths. How many children were murdered without any involvement with DSS at all? The article in the Star didn’t say. The Star also didn’t say that the State of North Carolina requires every county to have a Child Protection Team to investigate the death of every child. Where is the Cleveland County Child Protection Team and why have they NOT already investigated the death of Jeremiah Swofford. Why was this fact not reported in the Star?
My figuring is the Cleveland County Child Protection Team (which includes DSS, Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney) already knows what happened to Jeremiah Swofford, what DSS didn’t do that they were supposed to do and all other such information. I am convinced it looks so bad on DSS that this and probably the other 41 child fatalities are just being covered up. And drug out too, hoping to get people like you to demand that DSS hire more people.
But I have a solution and I have said it before. Fire the whole DSS Child Protection Department and send all reports of child abuse to the Sheriff’s Office. Make the Sheriff send Deputies with a badge and a gun to arrest child abusers. Hire more Deputies if you want to hire more people to protect children. And protect the rest of us too!!!
Short URL: http://citizensforgoodgovernment.org/online/?p=184
DSHS Omits Background Checks For Foster Providers State audit uncovers problems at DSHS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2010
DSHS Omits Background Checks For Foster Providers
State audit uncovers problems at DSHS
An annual audit of the state's Department of Social and Health Services found that background checks were not always performed on people who provide services to children in foster care.
unhappygrammy-Foster parents in NH have told me the same thing about DHHS in NH. All family member's over the age of eighteen are supposed to have background checks and be fingerprinted, but they aren't. This is also supposed to be practiced for home studies. Funny this wasn't part of my home study either. Oh, thats right. I wasn't given a real home study. The Administrator for DCYF told the Administrative appeals unit that I was given a home study to show me why my grandson couldn't be placed with me, after three caseworker's told me he would be. That it would be in his best interest's. No wonder the state of NH is 3 hundred mil in the hole. Good ole DCYF strikes again!
By Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporter
Related
DSHS audit (PDF)
An annual audit of the state's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) found that background checks were not always performed on people who provide services to children in foster care.
The audit, released this month, also found that $350,000 was paid in insurance premiums for employees who were no longer with the department and dozens of former employees had access to "sensitive" and "vulnerable" information in the DSHS computer systems.
Those were among the problems found in the audit of the department that consumes nearly one-third of the state's budget and is charged with providing services to its neediest and most vulnerable citizens.
According to the report, auditors from the state Auditor's Office looked at whether the department complied with state laws and its own policies and procedures, focusing on areas deemed to be at high risk for noncompliance, misappropriation and misuse.
Four areas of concern were noted in the audit:
• Department payroll accounts were not always updated, resulting in some employees being overpaid, some employees' wages being over-garnisheed and an overpayment of $350,000 in medical-insurance premiums for former employees.
• The department had no formal process for deactivating account access to people who were no longer employed with DSHS. The audit found that at least 100 ex-employees still had access to the department's computer systems and databases.
In a printed response with the audit, DSHS concedes the department should do a better job of updating payroll and insurance accounts and eliminating ex-employees' access to databases.
"We will reassess and strengthen our internal controls to ensure there are no delays in deactivating employees access ... when it is no longer necessary," the department responded.
• Western State Hospital, one of the state's three facilities for the mentally ill, does not have adequate controls to prevent the misuse of patient funds.
According to the auditor, numerous cashiers have access to the funds and the cash drawers and money vault are not always locked.
DSHS said corrective security and accountability measures were implemented at the hospital in November.
• DSHS had failed to conduct the criminal background checks on all child care and foster-care providers as required by law.
Auditors said they looked at individuals who had received a payment for services from DSHS then selected 200 individuals for whom they could find no background check.
The department was able to provide documentation of a background check on 174 of them.
Among the 26 remaining individuals, the auditors found two foster-care providers whose background checks were not current, one foster-care provider who disclosed a disqualifying crime and five providers whose files were flagged for additional reviews that were never done.
DSHS said it researched the cases highlighted in the audit and found that payments were made to individuals who had provided services, such as transportation, to foster children but did not involve individuals with whom children were placed.
Department spokesman Thomas Shapley said the department implemented a program in January that does not allow payments to providers who have not passed background checks.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com
http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/
DSHS Omits Background Checks For Foster Providers
State audit uncovers problems at DSHS
An annual audit of the state's Department of Social and Health Services found that background checks were not always performed on people who provide services to children in foster care.
unhappygrammy-Foster parents in NH have told me the same thing about DHHS in NH. All family member's over the age of eighteen are supposed to have background checks and be fingerprinted, but they aren't. This is also supposed to be practiced for home studies. Funny this wasn't part of my home study either. Oh, thats right. I wasn't given a real home study. The Administrator for DCYF told the Administrative appeals unit that I was given a home study to show me why my grandson couldn't be placed with me, after three caseworker's told me he would be. That it would be in his best interest's. No wonder the state of NH is 3 hundred mil in the hole. Good ole DCYF strikes again!
By Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporter
Related
DSHS audit (PDF)
An annual audit of the state's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) found that background checks were not always performed on people who provide services to children in foster care.
The audit, released this month, also found that $350,000 was paid in insurance premiums for employees who were no longer with the department and dozens of former employees had access to "sensitive" and "vulnerable" information in the DSHS computer systems.
Those were among the problems found in the audit of the department that consumes nearly one-third of the state's budget and is charged with providing services to its neediest and most vulnerable citizens.
According to the report, auditors from the state Auditor's Office looked at whether the department complied with state laws and its own policies and procedures, focusing on areas deemed to be at high risk for noncompliance, misappropriation and misuse.
Four areas of concern were noted in the audit:
• Department payroll accounts were not always updated, resulting in some employees being overpaid, some employees' wages being over-garnisheed and an overpayment of $350,000 in medical-insurance premiums for former employees.
• The department had no formal process for deactivating account access to people who were no longer employed with DSHS. The audit found that at least 100 ex-employees still had access to the department's computer systems and databases.
In a printed response with the audit, DSHS concedes the department should do a better job of updating payroll and insurance accounts and eliminating ex-employees' access to databases.
"We will reassess and strengthen our internal controls to ensure there are no delays in deactivating employees access ... when it is no longer necessary," the department responded.
• Western State Hospital, one of the state's three facilities for the mentally ill, does not have adequate controls to prevent the misuse of patient funds.
According to the auditor, numerous cashiers have access to the funds and the cash drawers and money vault are not always locked.
DSHS said corrective security and accountability measures were implemented at the hospital in November.
• DSHS had failed to conduct the criminal background checks on all child care and foster-care providers as required by law.
Auditors said they looked at individuals who had received a payment for services from DSHS then selected 200 individuals for whom they could find no background check.
The department was able to provide documentation of a background check on 174 of them.
Among the 26 remaining individuals, the auditors found two foster-care providers whose background checks were not current, one foster-care provider who disclosed a disqualifying crime and five providers whose files were flagged for additional reviews that were never done.
DSHS said it researched the cases highlighted in the audit and found that payments were made to individuals who had provided services, such as transportation, to foster children but did not involve individuals with whom children were placed.
Department spokesman Thomas Shapley said the department implemented a program in January that does not allow payments to providers who have not passed background checks.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com
http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/
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