Only 34% would report child abuse
September 5, 2010 - 1:49AM
A survey has found that only 34 per cent of respondents would contact child protection authorities or the police if they knew a child was being harmed.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/only-34-would-report-child-abuse-20100905-14vj1.html
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
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Here are $88 million more reasons to hide what is going on in California's child welfare system:
Here are $88 million more reasons to hide what is going on in California's child welfare system:
California Title IVE Audit 2009
California Title IVE Audit 2009
Special recognition to the investigative monitoring of Legally Kidnapped and their affiliates at Drugging Children. Without their dedication and databases, transparency of this magnitude would not happen.
Posted by beverly tran
http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2010/09/fraud-lies-legislative-cover-ups-in.html
California Title IVE Audit 2009
California Title IVE Audit 2009
Special recognition to the investigative monitoring of Legally Kidnapped and their affiliates at Drugging Children. Without their dedication and databases, transparency of this magnitude would not happen.
Posted by beverly tran
http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2010/09/fraud-lies-legislative-cover-ups-in.html
L.A. County Children And Family Services Might Have Had Incentive To Withold Information About Child Abuse Deaths
L.A. County Children And Family Services Might Have Had Incentive To Withold Information About Child Abuse Deaths
An examination of how Los Angeles County officials have restricted information about the controversial, abuse-related deaths of children under the jurisdiction of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) found on Monday that in many cases "there may be either conscious or unconscious incentives for child protective service officials to adopt a narrow" view of what documents need to be released under state law.
The county Office of Independent Review examination also found that, in the last year or so, law enforcement almost uniformly objected to the release of such information, making it difficult for county supervisors and media outlets alike not only to get to the bottom of the juvenile deaths, but in some cases to even be aware that abuse might have been a factor in their demise.
Release of public files in the deaths "have largely been forestalled by the 2009 and 2010 blanket objections lodged by law enforcement," according to the review.
California SB39 Implementation Status on Releasing Information on Child Deaths
California SB39 Implementation Status on Releasing Information on Child Deaths
Los Angeles County didn't report child deaths
Officials failed to publicly disclose fatalities resulting from abuse or neglect, an audit finds.
Los Angeles County officials have failed to follow state law that requires them to publicly disclose child fatalities resulting from abuse or neglect, according to an independent audit released Monday.
The violations involve "potentially dozens" of child fatalities, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.
"The board has been misled, but more importantly the public has been misled and that is really inexcusable," Yaroslavsky said. "There is only one possible motivation here, other than the right hand not doing what the left hand is doing, and that is an intent to withhold information from the public."
Audit: Los Angeles Co. underreports child deaths
County withheld files on foster-child deaths
Gennaco described many of the documents in question as benign - they contained information that would not have jeopardized any legal proceedings.
Tuesday's public discussion of the investigation was in many ways reflective of the reluctance by some officials to talk publicly about the deaths of children in foster care. The county's attorney, Andrea Sheridan Ordin, interrupted at times, urging board members to discuss specifics of cases in closed session.
L.A. County orders disclosure of all child deaths from abuse or neglect
Los Angeles County supervisors ordered child welfare officials to disclose deaths resulting from abuse or neglect, amid questions Tuesday about why dozens of such fatalities apparently were not made public.
Supervisors told county staff to come up with a plan to implement a series of recommendations proposed by Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the county's Office of Independent Review. Gennaco, who was asked by the board to conduct an independent audit, reported that the inquiry uncovered at least 22 cases in the last 2 1/2 years in which the county had not disclosed the deaths of children under the scrutiny of the child welfare system.
Department of Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn told supervisors "there is no excuse" for how the department had handled the disclosures.
Gennaco said the failure to publicly disclose those deaths violated state law. Among his recommendations:
The release of all records inappropriately concealed.
An end to the department's practice of asking law enforcement agencies to issue any objections to the disclosure of records without first giving investigators an opportunity to review them.
An independent auditor to regularly evaluate the department's decisions about which fatalities to disclose to the public.
Murdered kids' info should be sealed, votes Assembly/Senate
Sparked by a recent leak to the Los Angeles Times from the LA County Department of Children and Family Services, legislation landed on Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk yesterday that will, if signed, result in the permanent sealing of autopsy reports of murdered children. The bill, written by Senate minority leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, (at right), passed a 60-1 vote in the Assembly and a 33-1 vote in the Senate Monday.
The legislation, SB5, allows family members to request that autopsies and other evidence be kept private if a child was killed during a crime. The request can be made only after a conviction.
The California Newspaper Association, which says the reports are important public documents, was the only opposition to the bill.
Reporting duties: Child protective agency must begin accurately reporting child deaths
THE county's reporting of child abuse deaths raises a serious question: Namely, who is the Department of Children and Family Services protecting? The children, or itself?
The background is that the rules for reporting the death of children from abuse or neglect changed under Senate Bill 39. Starting in 2008, protective service agencies were required by state law to make public information about child abuse or neglect death. The idea was that more transparency might increase the efforts that protective services agencies made to ensure children did not die in protective custody.
While he stopped short of saying it was a cover-up, Michael Gennaco, who heads the OIR, wrote in the report: "There has been some voiced concern about whether DCFS has interpreted child fatalities too narrowly in determining what qualify for purposes of SB 39." Later, he notes that "it stands to reason that the information provided by the disclosure of provisions of SB39 might ultimately cause criticism of the child protective services to occur. Accordingly, there may be either conscious or unconscious incentives for child protective service officials to adopt a narrow rather than broad view of whether, in a particular case, the SB 39 connectivity requirements for disclosure exist." He also noted that it's a lot of work for the agency to meet the reporting requirements for cases subjected to SB 39.
What's even more disturbing is that this mislabeling may have put more kids in danger if the failure to make that report meant other kids were left in homes where siblings died of abuse or neglect.
This is totally unacceptable. The reporting rules were adopted precisely to shine a light on the needless death of each and every child in the hopes of preventing future deaths. DCFS, either through intent or criminal ignorance, subverted that rule. And it makes one wonder if the organization thought there was something to hide.
An examination of how Los Angeles County officials have restricted information about the controversial, abuse-related deaths of children under the jurisdiction of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) found on Monday that in many cases "there may be either conscious or unconscious incentives for child protective service officials to adopt a narrow" view of what documents need to be released under state law.
The county Office of Independent Review examination also found that, in the last year or so, law enforcement almost uniformly objected to the release of such information, making it difficult for county supervisors and media outlets alike not only to get to the bottom of the juvenile deaths, but in some cases to even be aware that abuse might have been a factor in their demise.
Release of public files in the deaths "have largely been forestalled by the 2009 and 2010 blanket objections lodged by law enforcement," according to the review.
California SB39 Implementation Status on Releasing Information on Child Deaths
California SB39 Implementation Status on Releasing Information on Child Deaths
Los Angeles County didn't report child deaths
Officials failed to publicly disclose fatalities resulting from abuse or neglect, an audit finds.
Los Angeles County officials have failed to follow state law that requires them to publicly disclose child fatalities resulting from abuse or neglect, according to an independent audit released Monday.
The violations involve "potentially dozens" of child fatalities, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.
"The board has been misled, but more importantly the public has been misled and that is really inexcusable," Yaroslavsky said. "There is only one possible motivation here, other than the right hand not doing what the left hand is doing, and that is an intent to withhold information from the public."
Audit: Los Angeles Co. underreports child deaths
County withheld files on foster-child deaths
Gennaco described many of the documents in question as benign - they contained information that would not have jeopardized any legal proceedings.
Tuesday's public discussion of the investigation was in many ways reflective of the reluctance by some officials to talk publicly about the deaths of children in foster care. The county's attorney, Andrea Sheridan Ordin, interrupted at times, urging board members to discuss specifics of cases in closed session.
L.A. County orders disclosure of all child deaths from abuse or neglect
Los Angeles County supervisors ordered child welfare officials to disclose deaths resulting from abuse or neglect, amid questions Tuesday about why dozens of such fatalities apparently were not made public.
Supervisors told county staff to come up with a plan to implement a series of recommendations proposed by Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the county's Office of Independent Review. Gennaco, who was asked by the board to conduct an independent audit, reported that the inquiry uncovered at least 22 cases in the last 2 1/2 years in which the county had not disclosed the deaths of children under the scrutiny of the child welfare system.
Department of Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn told supervisors "there is no excuse" for how the department had handled the disclosures.
Gennaco said the failure to publicly disclose those deaths violated state law. Among his recommendations:
The release of all records inappropriately concealed.
An end to the department's practice of asking law enforcement agencies to issue any objections to the disclosure of records without first giving investigators an opportunity to review them.
An independent auditor to regularly evaluate the department's decisions about which fatalities to disclose to the public.
Murdered kids' info should be sealed, votes Assembly/Senate
Sparked by a recent leak to the Los Angeles Times from the LA County Department of Children and Family Services, legislation landed on Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk yesterday that will, if signed, result in the permanent sealing of autopsy reports of murdered children. The bill, written by Senate minority leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, (at right), passed a 60-1 vote in the Assembly and a 33-1 vote in the Senate Monday.
The legislation, SB5, allows family members to request that autopsies and other evidence be kept private if a child was killed during a crime. The request can be made only after a conviction.
The California Newspaper Association, which says the reports are important public documents, was the only opposition to the bill.
Reporting duties: Child protective agency must begin accurately reporting child deaths
THE county's reporting of child abuse deaths raises a serious question: Namely, who is the Department of Children and Family Services protecting? The children, or itself?
The background is that the rules for reporting the death of children from abuse or neglect changed under Senate Bill 39. Starting in 2008, protective service agencies were required by state law to make public information about child abuse or neglect death. The idea was that more transparency might increase the efforts that protective services agencies made to ensure children did not die in protective custody.
While he stopped short of saying it was a cover-up, Michael Gennaco, who heads the OIR, wrote in the report: "There has been some voiced concern about whether DCFS has interpreted child fatalities too narrowly in determining what qualify for purposes of SB 39." Later, he notes that "it stands to reason that the information provided by the disclosure of provisions of SB39 might ultimately cause criticism of the child protective services to occur. Accordingly, there may be either conscious or unconscious incentives for child protective service officials to adopt a narrow rather than broad view of whether, in a particular case, the SB 39 connectivity requirements for disclosure exist." He also noted that it's a lot of work for the agency to meet the reporting requirements for cases subjected to SB 39.
What's even more disturbing is that this mislabeling may have put more kids in danger if the failure to make that report meant other kids were left in homes where siblings died of abuse or neglect.
This is totally unacceptable. The reporting rules were adopted precisely to shine a light on the needless death of each and every child in the hopes of preventing future deaths. DCFS, either through intent or criminal ignorance, subverted that rule. And it makes one wonder if the organization thought there was something to hide.
Fraud, Lies & Legislative Cover Ups In California Child Welfare
It's a compliance issue. The incentives are financial. Producing the records would uncover a pattern of pervasive false claims, jeopardizing significant levels of federal funding to the state.
Here is a federal review of Medicaid payments for services claimed for deceased beneficiaries. The probability that there were foster care billing after the deaths of these children is plausible.
Review of Medicaid Payments for Services Claimed for Deceased Beneficiaries in California
Review of Medicaid Payments for Services Claimed for Deceased Beneficiaries in California
http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2010/09/fraud-lies-legislative-cover-ups-in.html
Here is a federal review of Medicaid payments for services claimed for deceased beneficiaries. The probability that there were foster care billing after the deaths of these children is plausible.
Review of Medicaid Payments for Services Claimed for Deceased Beneficiaries in California
Review of Medicaid Payments for Services Claimed for Deceased Beneficiaries in California
http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2010/09/fraud-lies-legislative-cover-ups-in.html
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Foster children who were starved file $32 million suit against Oregon
Why is it other states CPS report's on horrible situation's such as this, yet New Hampshire hushes everything up and the caseworker's do absolutely nothing when foster stranger's in NH starve the kids or abuse them?
My two grandchildren were placed in a foster home in February of 2006 and removed due to my grandson's new found violent behavior and put on psyche med's by Nashua DCYF in September 2006 and sent to an orphanage.In eight month's time, both children had lost three clothes sizes, in which DCYF did absolutely NOTHING. My four year old granddaughter was severely underweight when placed in the orphanage, which was reported by the staff. Just think, if my grandson didn't try to hang himself and he didn't start behaving violently, they may both be dead of starvation by now if they hadn't been moved.
I just don't understand how NH DCYF has kept under the radar all these year's. If anybody think's that NH DCYF is any better than the rest of the Nation, you're sadly mistaken.For some odd reason the media won't get involved with situation's involving NH DCYF. Are they being paid off as well as the rest of the player's in the illegal kidnapping of NH's children? Are there any REAL Reporter's out there that care about the children and families being abused by NH DCYF? I can remember when I first started my research of NH DCYF. NH wasn't even included on most of the web-sites. They are now and they will be for as long as it takes for someone to hold them accountable for their deceitful practices and illegal kidnapping of NH's unabused, non-neglected children. I hope they like being on the receiving end for a change.
Foster children who were starved file $32 million suit against Oregon
Published: Tuesday, December 08, 2009, 9:02 PM Updated: Tuesday, December 08, 2009, 9:53 PM
Aimee Green, The Oregonian
Joel Davis/The Oregonian
Jordan Knapp, now 10, is pictured (right) at age 7, admiring a new doll, a gift from Molly McGraw, 9 (left).
Attorneys for an 8-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who were nearly starved to death by their Clackamas County foster parents in 2004 have filed suit against the state child-welfare agency for nearly $32 million.
The lawsuits -- filed Friday and Monday -- offer excruciating, never-before-public details into the lives of the little girl then known as Jordan Knapp and her younger brother, who have since been adopted. Five years ago this week, the Sandy-area girl was flown by Life Flight helicopter to OHSU Hospital with a broken skull. She was 5 years old and weighed 28 pounds, a weight so low it isn't listed on growth charts for children of that age.
Her condition in the crowded double-wide trailer she shared with her brother, six other children and their foster parents, Thelma and William Beaver, stirred an uproar across the state with demands for reform of the foster care system.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/attorneys_for_abused_foster_ch.html
My two grandchildren were placed in a foster home in February of 2006 and removed due to my grandson's new found violent behavior and put on psyche med's by Nashua DCYF in September 2006 and sent to an orphanage.In eight month's time, both children had lost three clothes sizes, in which DCYF did absolutely NOTHING. My four year old granddaughter was severely underweight when placed in the orphanage, which was reported by the staff. Just think, if my grandson didn't try to hang himself and he didn't start behaving violently, they may both be dead of starvation by now if they hadn't been moved.
I just don't understand how NH DCYF has kept under the radar all these year's. If anybody think's that NH DCYF is any better than the rest of the Nation, you're sadly mistaken.For some odd reason the media won't get involved with situation's involving NH DCYF. Are they being paid off as well as the rest of the player's in the illegal kidnapping of NH's children? Are there any REAL Reporter's out there that care about the children and families being abused by NH DCYF? I can remember when I first started my research of NH DCYF. NH wasn't even included on most of the web-sites. They are now and they will be for as long as it takes for someone to hold them accountable for their deceitful practices and illegal kidnapping of NH's unabused, non-neglected children. I hope they like being on the receiving end for a change.
Foster children who were starved file $32 million suit against Oregon
Published: Tuesday, December 08, 2009, 9:02 PM Updated: Tuesday, December 08, 2009, 9:53 PM
Aimee Green, The Oregonian
Joel Davis/The Oregonian
Jordan Knapp, now 10, is pictured (right) at age 7, admiring a new doll, a gift from Molly McGraw, 9 (left).
Attorneys for an 8-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who were nearly starved to death by their Clackamas County foster parents in 2004 have filed suit against the state child-welfare agency for nearly $32 million.
The lawsuits -- filed Friday and Monday -- offer excruciating, never-before-public details into the lives of the little girl then known as Jordan Knapp and her younger brother, who have since been adopted. Five years ago this week, the Sandy-area girl was flown by Life Flight helicopter to OHSU Hospital with a broken skull. She was 5 years old and weighed 28 pounds, a weight so low it isn't listed on growth charts for children of that age.
Her condition in the crowded double-wide trailer she shared with her brother, six other children and their foster parents, Thelma and William Beaver, stirred an uproar across the state with demands for reform of the foster care system.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/attorneys_for_abused_foster_ch.html
Team effort key in child-abuse prosecution system
September 2, 2010
Team effort key in child-abuse prosecution system
By Karen Middleton
karen@athensnews-courier.com
— An African proverb says, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but it takes a multidisciplinary team of law enforcement and social agencies to treat childhood victims of sex abuse and to prosecute pedophiles.
The National Child Advocacy Center and its regional offices, such as the one in Athens, were set up to streamline a system that can sometimes subject a young sex-abuse victim to as many as 15 separate interviews.
Read the entire article at:http://enewscourier.com/local/x752936598/Team-effort-key-in-child-abuse-prosecution-system
Team effort key in child-abuse prosecution system
By Karen Middleton
karen@athensnews-courier.com
— An African proverb says, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but it takes a multidisciplinary team of law enforcement and social agencies to treat childhood victims of sex abuse and to prosecute pedophiles.
The National Child Advocacy Center and its regional offices, such as the one in Athens, were set up to streamline a system that can sometimes subject a young sex-abuse victim to as many as 15 separate interviews.
Read the entire article at:http://enewscourier.com/local/x752936598/Team-effort-key-in-child-abuse-prosecution-system
Drug Laws Violated for Foster Kids : Deeper Concerns
Drug Laws Violated for Foster Kids : Deeper Concerns
Free Articles on Freedom Plaza: Drugs
by Kieron McFadden
In the wake of a little boy's suicide and the admission by child welfare chiefs that they violated a 2005 law aimed at protecting kids from psychiatric-drug use, some Florida lawmakers suggest the death may be a symptom of deeper problems.
The 2005 law came about when Florida lawmakers became concerned that kids in foster care were being needlessly medicated to control "difficult" behavior.
On April 27, Sen. Ronda Storms, who chairs the Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, wrote to DCF Secretary George Sheldon, ''This case raises serious concerns which demand attention and answers,'' Among the questions, she asked was, ``To what degree, if any, has the [department] ignored or circumvented . . . the 2005 law which curbed the use of psychotropic drugs in the treatment of our children in department care?''
A former lawmaker who authored the 2005 legislation, Walter G. ''Skip'' Campbell, who also chaired the children's committee, accused the DCF of ''cooking the numbers'' so as to make it look as if had curbed the use of mental health drugs to "manage" the behavior of unruly children.
In a report last September to the Florida Senate, the DCF claimed that less than 7percent (2,307!) foster kids were on such drugs. It also claimed that in almost all cases the agency had "received proper consent". But that report was based on figures from the DCF's internal database (known as the Florida Safe Families Network, or FSFN) long acknowledged by administrators to be unreliable.
In a memo as long ago as September 2006, the DCF's then-director of family safety, Patricia Badland, said DCF's computer system recorded that only 4 percent of children in the state's care were being given psychotropic drugs -- while a separate system kept by Medicaid said nearly 12 percent - three times as many - of foster children were on psychotropic medications.
''This discrepancy would . . . indicate there is under-reporting of children being prescribed psychotherapeutic medications,'' Badland wrote. "It is critical that the . . . database be accurate and up-to-date to assure that we are able to monitor all children taking these medications.''
Eight months later, DCF did report to the Senate that 11.3 percent of children in its care from September through November 2006 had been prescribed mind-altering drugs.
Concerns over the drugging of children were raised as long ago as 2001, when The Miami Herald reported that child welfare administrators were relying on powerful mind-altering drugs to manage the behavior of unruly foster kids, and that those children sometimes suffered dangerous side-effects. Advocates accused the department of using such drugs as ''chemical restraints'' and this concern eventually led to the 2005 law.
Dr. Ewald Horwath, interim chairman of the University of Miami Medical School's psychiatry and behavioral sciences department, said, ''What use can one have for an anti-psychotic drug, other than a psychiatric one?''
He also said, ''It seems to me you would want parental consent before prescribing. You would want someone exercising judgment in place of the child, who cannot make decisions on whether benefits outweigh risks.''
It appears that in Florida children were illegally denied that basic right.
http://freedom-plaza-humor.blogspot.com/2010/09/drug-laws-violated-for-foster-kids.html
Free Articles on Freedom Plaza: Drugs
by Kieron McFadden
In the wake of a little boy's suicide and the admission by child welfare chiefs that they violated a 2005 law aimed at protecting kids from psychiatric-drug use, some Florida lawmakers suggest the death may be a symptom of deeper problems.
The 2005 law came about when Florida lawmakers became concerned that kids in foster care were being needlessly medicated to control "difficult" behavior.
On April 27, Sen. Ronda Storms, who chairs the Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, wrote to DCF Secretary George Sheldon, ''This case raises serious concerns which demand attention and answers,'' Among the questions, she asked was, ``To what degree, if any, has the [department] ignored or circumvented . . . the 2005 law which curbed the use of psychotropic drugs in the treatment of our children in department care?''
A former lawmaker who authored the 2005 legislation, Walter G. ''Skip'' Campbell, who also chaired the children's committee, accused the DCF of ''cooking the numbers'' so as to make it look as if had curbed the use of mental health drugs to "manage" the behavior of unruly children.
In a report last September to the Florida Senate, the DCF claimed that less than 7percent (2,307!) foster kids were on such drugs. It also claimed that in almost all cases the agency had "received proper consent". But that report was based on figures from the DCF's internal database (known as the Florida Safe Families Network, or FSFN) long acknowledged by administrators to be unreliable.
In a memo as long ago as September 2006, the DCF's then-director of family safety, Patricia Badland, said DCF's computer system recorded that only 4 percent of children in the state's care were being given psychotropic drugs -- while a separate system kept by Medicaid said nearly 12 percent - three times as many - of foster children were on psychotropic medications.
''This discrepancy would . . . indicate there is under-reporting of children being prescribed psychotherapeutic medications,'' Badland wrote. "It is critical that the . . . database be accurate and up-to-date to assure that we are able to monitor all children taking these medications.''
Eight months later, DCF did report to the Senate that 11.3 percent of children in its care from September through November 2006 had been prescribed mind-altering drugs.
Concerns over the drugging of children were raised as long ago as 2001, when The Miami Herald reported that child welfare administrators were relying on powerful mind-altering drugs to manage the behavior of unruly foster kids, and that those children sometimes suffered dangerous side-effects. Advocates accused the department of using such drugs as ''chemical restraints'' and this concern eventually led to the 2005 law.
Dr. Ewald Horwath, interim chairman of the University of Miami Medical School's psychiatry and behavioral sciences department, said, ''What use can one have for an anti-psychotic drug, other than a psychiatric one?''
He also said, ''It seems to me you would want parental consent before prescribing. You would want someone exercising judgment in place of the child, who cannot make decisions on whether benefits outweigh risks.''
It appears that in Florida children were illegally denied that basic right.
http://freedom-plaza-humor.blogspot.com/2010/09/drug-laws-violated-for-foster-kids.html
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