LK Daily Report for 7/26/17 - Share this post so we can enlighten the sheep about the CPS mess...

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One of the foster brothers of slain Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer is to be sentenced in a Logan court.

Joshua Thorburn, 21, pleaded guilty in November 2016 to charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice following the death of Tiahleigh in October 2015.

More >> Sentencing for Tiahleigh's foster brother

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The state Children, Youth and Families Department has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit brought by a Washington state family who alleged the state agency failed to properly screen a Clovis-area foster couple accused of raping some of the children in their care, including a boy the couple later adopted.

More >> CYFD settles suit over sexually abused adopted child

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Just under 2,100 Pennsylvania newborns whose mothers had Medicaid were diagnosed with narcotics withdrawal syndrome last year, but only 972 infants were reported to county child welfare authorities as having been exposed to drugs in the womb. 

More >> Pennsylvania law keeps some drug-exposed infants off child welfare radar, advocates say

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In a previous column about the harm done to battered women and their children by child protective services agencies, I told the story of Sharwline Nicholson, lead plaintiff in a successful class-action lawsuit to stop the child protective services agency in New York City from taking children just because their mothers had been beaten. 

More >> Domestic Violence Survivors Say Mandatory Reporting Laws Made Their Lives Worse

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Maisha Joefield thought she was getting by pretty well as a young single mother in Brooklyn, splurging on her daughter, Deja, even though money was tight. When Deja was a baby, she bought her Luvs instead of generic diapers when she could. When her daughter got a little older, Ms. Joefield outfitted the bedroom in their apartment with a princess bed for Deja, while she slept on a pullout couch.

More >> In Case You Missed It: NY Times and DPA: Foster Care as Punishment: The New Reality of ‘Jane Crow’

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The details in the more than a thousand pages of documents the Department of Children and Families began releasing Monday are heart wrenching.

More >> Reports show Nubia Barahona abused since birth

LK Daily Report for 7/25/17 - Don't Kill Your Foster Parents...

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Parents have expressed anger after President Donald Trump delivered a highly politicised speech to tens of thousands of boy scouts.

More >> Trump boy scout Jamboree speech angers parents

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Even after children are placed in foster care due to abuse or neglect, their fathers often express interest in maintaining a relationship, a new study suggests. Researchers found that social workers and policymakers tend to assume that a ward of the state needs to be protected from his or her father, even when this is not the case. They conclude that policy reforms are necessary to identify when involving fathers is safe, rather than stereotyping every man involved in child protections.

More >> Not All Dads Who Lose Their Kids To The State Are Bad Guys
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An Edmonton lawyer has launched a class action lawsuit against the province of Alberta because he says authorities have no legal right to take so many children away from their families.

More >> Edmonton lawyer sues province for illegally taking children away from families
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Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is being sued by The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) for trying to deprive a Military Veteran of his 2nd Amendment Right.

More >> Second Amendment Foundation Sues Michigan DHHS
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A government initiative aims to encourage more local authorities to send vulnerable young people to boarding schools. What’s the thinking behind it?

More >> The drive to get children out of foster care and into boarding school
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The local sessions court today sentenced a youth to life imprisonment, who had allegedly killed his foster parents in March 2016. The deceased were identified as Sawinderpal Singh (64) and Balbir Kaur (62).

More >> Foster son gets lifer for killing parents
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George Sheldon is already in Miami heading up the private adoption and child services agency, Our Kids. But his departure from Illinois doesn't mean an end to the investigation into the mess the former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services director left behind. It goes on apace.

More >> He's Gone, But Illinois Still Steamed over Sheldon's Mismanagement of DCFS

LK Daily Report for 7/24/17 - Paying for Other Peoples Kids and more...

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He was a father figure, one who gave a young girl an escape route out of a group home she wanted to leave and sexually abused her in the process. Now, in a case that has prompted a judge to remark on the "apparent never-ending cycle" of the abused becoming abusers, the 41-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in prison.

More >> 'Never-ending cycle' of abuse: Manitoba man sentenced after sexually abusing CFS ward

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Taylor Moseley, a 20-year-old East Carolina University student is looking at spending decades behind bars after she was busted having sex with a 14-year-old. And keep in mind that Moseley once revealed that she hoped to become a child psychologist one day.

More >> COLLEGE STUDENT ARRESTED FOR HAVING SEX WITH 14-YEAR-OLD KID

Note: My heart goes out to this young man, it must have been a horrible experience.

Not!

I'm sorry but it's gotta be said.  I'm sure that kid loved every minute of it and is still bragging to his friends about it.
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"This isn’t just a series of lapses," said Michael McDowell SC, representing Sgt McCabe. "This is a deliberate decision not to inquire as to how this had gone so catastrophically wrong."

More >> Charleton Tribunal: Senior Tusla executive denies cover-up over false abuse allegation

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Katie-Anne Warman, now 21, finally turned in vile Michael Newson after watching a controversial rape scene on EastEnders

More >> MOLESTED AT DISNEYLANDMum first abused at 12 by her foster dad on a trip to Disneyland recalls how he used to rape her while his partner was on the school run

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The state of Michigan discovered a clever way to circumvent Second Amendment rights – use children as leverage against armed citizens. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) told fifty-four-year-old retired Marine veteran, William Johnson, that if he didn’t forfeit his Second Amendment right to a self-defense firearm, they would take his grandson from him and place him in a foster home. And the Gogebic County Judge backed them up.

More >> THE STATE WILL TAKE YOUR CHILDREN OR YOUR GUNS
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Three Oaks, Michigan (WNDU) -- An elementary school employee in Three Oaks will be back in court on Monday.

She is accused of failing to help a boy who was starved and abused at home. Sherrie bender is one of four school leaders at Three Oaks Elementary facing misdemeanor charges. They're accused of breaking Michigan's child protection law.

More >> School leader accused of not reporting child abuse due in court
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According to a recent audit of 150 cases by the State Comptroller, the Office of Children and Family Services could not show that caseworkers contacted 33 children in foster care within the first month of placement as required by the agency.


More >> Audit finds oversight issues with foster care in New York

• Kids at increased risk due to critical gaps in foster home records, audit finds
• Following ACS deaths, Savino looks to improve flawed child welfare system

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Houston, Texas —  A Houston man is on the hook for $65,000 in child support for a child that's not his.  Gabriel Cornejo, 45, took a DNA test proving a child his ex-girlfriend had 16 years ago was not his.

More >> Man ordered to pay $65,000 in child support for kid that's not his

LK Daily Report for 7/23/17 - The CPS BS continues

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Shelly Foster always knew she had been adopted. However, it wasn’t until she saw a birth certificate in an Air Force recruitment office in New Jersey that she saw a name she didn’t recognize — Ruth Mary Anthes — and thought of searching for her biological family.

More >> Siblings meet for first time — in their 70s

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GRAND FORKS, N.D. (Valley News Live) An anonymous whistleblower tipped off the Valley News Lives investigators to a mass exodus on the second floor of the Grand Forks County office building. In the Child Protective Services Department there have been a lot of turnover.

More >> Whistleblower claims problems within Grand Forks Child Protective Services are hurting kids

LK Daily Report for 7/22/17 - CPS is doing a bad job and more...

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Juvenile courts in California can supervise children whose parents are no longer able to protect or control them, even if the parents have done nothing wrong, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

More >> Children can be taken if parents can’t control them, court rules
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Police investigated 10,000 children in a year for abusing their parents or other adults in their homes.

The shocking figures obtained exclusively by the Sunday People reveal kids as young as six were probed for terrifying crimes of domestic violence against adults.

More >> Police probe 10,000 children for 'abusing' parents as mums and dads become domestic violence victims
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Awwww

Ankita Majumder and her husband Richard Henderson rattle around their beautiful suburban home. They have good jobs, loving friends and family but feel empty.

More >> Would-be parents left in limbo as number of children for adoption drops to all time low
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A former social worker at a Nottingham children’s home has been acquitted of historical child sex offences.

More >> Former Nottingham social worker cleared of historical child sex offences
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ALBANY — The state’s top child welfare agency is doing a poor job overseeing foster care providers in New York, according to an audit made public Friday.

More >> State's top child welfare agency is doing bad job overseeing foster care providers, DiNapoli study says
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Julia Shaw uses science to prove that some memories are false. Now she's tackling criminal-justice failures.

More >> False memories and false confessions: the psychology of imagined crimes

LK Daily Report for 7/21/17 - No Russian Babies For You and much more...

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For almost four years, Oregon parents Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler have been fighting to regain custody of their children. But according to the Oregonian, the state's Department of Human Services removed both of their sons because of low IQ tests and "limited cognitive abilities that interfere with (their) ability to safely parent the child."

More >> Parents With Low IQ Lose Custody of Their Children

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This is the moment masked burglars smashed their way into the home of a mother who has fostered more than 50 children before escaping with £4,000 worth of goods.

More >> Masked burglars smash their way into foster mother's home
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Just a reminder: School will be starting soon, new teachers who don't know you or your circumstances might be quick to judge and make phone calls.  So make sure you send in your Reverse Miranda Card.

More >> Child abuse increases with start of school, advocates needed
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In a case stemming from the handling of a Los Angeles County teen, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child welfare officials can remove an incorrigible child from a home even if the parents have acted responsibly and done what they can to address the problems.

More >> DCFS Can Remove A Child From A Home Even If Parents Have Acted Responsibly
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Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an encounter not initially disclosed on the sidelines of an international summit this month. One of the topics, according to Trump? Russian adoptions.

More >> Why is everyone talking about Russian adoptions?

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Maisha Joefield thought she was getting by pretty well as a young single mother in Brooklyn, splurging on her daughter, Deja, even though money was tight. When Deja was a baby, she bought her Luvs instead of generic diapers when she could. When her daughter got a little older, Ms. Joefield outfitted the bedroom in their apartment with a princess bed for Deja, while she slept on a pullout couch.

More >> Foster Care as Punishment: The New Reality of ‘Jane Crow’

LK Daily Report for 7/20/17 - Placing Foster Kids With Sex Offenders and More...

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Nevertheless, Russian adoption is a subject that seems to have come up a lot lately. Wednesday evening the New York Times published a wide-ranging interview with the president, during which Trump formally acknowledged his previously-undisclosed second conversation with Russian President Vladmir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg. “I actually talked about Russian adoption with [Putin],” Trump told reporters, recalling their dinner party chatter. “Which is interesting because it was a part of the conversation that Don had in that meeting.”

More >> Putin is angry about US sanctions — and Russian orphans are paying the price

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A former Greensburg foster mother was ordered to stand trial Thursday on charges of having a sexual relationship with a teenage Greene County boy in her care.

More >> Former foster mother to stand trial for having sex with Greene County teen in her care

• Former foster child says Greensburg 'mom' had sex with him more than 500 times

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An Espanola teen, sexually abused by a foster parent in 2014, is now going after the Children Youth and Families Department and the center who employed the man.

More >> Teen sexually abused by foster parent files lawsuit against CYFD

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LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - An 18-year-old man and his 36-year-old adoptive mother have been indicted by a grand jury on charges of knowingly engaging in sexual intercourse with each other. They are both being held in the Lubbock County Detention Center, each on a $100,000 bond.

More >> Woman, adoptive son charged with prohibited sexual conduct with each other
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As Health News Florida reported last week, the opioid crisis in Manatee and Sarasota Counties is putting a strain on their foster care system. But the situation isn't entirely bleak. Now we'll hear from one mother whose relationship with her son's foster parents helped her reunify her family and overcome her addiction.

More >> Foster Parents Help Family Torn Apart By Addiction Reunite
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A Health Information and Quality Authority inspection report has criticised the area management of Tusla in Cork for failing to record 40% of child protection and welfare allegations submitted to it against foster carers last year.

More >> Tusla failed to report 40% of allegations against foster carers in Cork, HIQA finds

• Inspection of foster care services in Cork has found major non-compliances

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Three First Nation children who died shortly after being returned to their mothers’ care are the subject of Alberta child and youth advocate Del Graff’s latest report.

More >> Three faces of a system’s failure: Children in child advocate's latest report identified
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LANSING – A state supervisor accused of manipulating records to make the state's child welfare agency appear in compliance with a federal court order has apparently been demoted.

More >> DHHS supervisor demoted amid faked-records allegations

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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man already charged with threatening child welfare caseworkers with a rifle is now charged with firebombing one of their offices as part of a custody dispute involving his 8-year-old daughter.

More >> Indictment: Man Firebombed Office in Custody Dispute

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Child Protective Services destroyed my family?

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PORTLAND, Maine — Corrections officials say Maine’s youth prison is overburdened by children with severe mental illnesses, and this population has driven away staff who are not trained to handle them.

More >> Staff shortages plague ‘dumping ground’ for Maine youth with mental illness

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An Española teen who endured three months of sexual abuse by a foster parent in 2014 has filed state and federal lawsuits against New Mexico’s child welfare agency, several of its employees and a state-contracted behavioral health firm, saying they knowingly placed him in the care of a man who was accused more than a year earlier of sexually assaulting foster children.

More >> Suits: Española teen knowingly placed in care of sex abuser