Another story

Here is another story left via the submission form. I crossed out the names.

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I want to tell you about our horror story with the Department Human Services and Child Protection Services in Denver, CO.

We have a very spiritual, special, precious boy who is 11 years old and has non-verbal Autism. He is our entire life. We all love him more than anything in the world. He is everything to us. He is the air we breathe.

That being said, here’s where our story starts. Medicaid has a policy that states that the child or person on Medicaid must be seen by their doctor once a year for an annual physical exam but we were unaware of that. We had missed an appointment for that very thing so his doctor turned us in to social services with false accusations of medical neglect, without any warning to us. We have had conversations with the doctor and nurse numerous times about not wanting to bring our son, ****, into the office when he’s well because of his low immune system and he would end up getting sick.

We have a “red flag” on our case report because of false accusations for medical neglect. The case worker that is assigned to our case is extremely intrusive, invasive, overzealous and continuously adds things to our case, that are not valid, just to keep the case open. They are wasting state funds on resources and services for our case and cases like ours that do not need them.

Our case worker also distorts, misconstrues, and misinterprets everything that is said to her, then she puts all of these untruths and outright lies into court reports that go on record and to the magistrate who then takes her side without even listening to us at all. We have had to dispute every report that has been made because of all the misinformation in them. She bashes us as much as she can and she doesn’t even know what she’s talking about. Instead of learning more about Autism, she just stays ignorant and therefore it affects us negatively.

**** was also being home schooled for four years, on record with the district, with no questions, problems or concerns from anyone, including the state of Colorado. Now all of a sudden, the caseworker involved, Sarah D. the guardian ad Litem, Jody P., and the magistrate, are court ordering him to be in public school, so he is attending school and has been since September of 2008. We do wonder why we are the only ones not allowed to home school when it is perfectly legal in all 50 states and we’ve been doing it all of these years with no concerns from the district, state or anyone else, but we never received any answers from the magistrate as to why she was “forbidding” us from home schooling. She would not even let us ask her why she was ordering this.

Jody said in court and on the record that we are “very overprotective of ****” but at the same time we are being accused of neglect. How is this possible? It’s not. Social Services contradicts everything they do and say. Our caseworker, Sarah, also states that “school needs to be implemented at home and home in school” but the Elementary school, has refused, from the start, to allow us to walk him into the school and to his classroom, to observe him at all in the class to see what and how he’s doing, and from picking him up at the end of his day at his classroom. They even went so far as to make us sign a “parental expectations” list on the very first day we went to the school, with one of the things, saying that we were not allowed to walk him into school or pick him up from his classroom or go into the classroom to observe. The principle even told us that, “It’s not legally binding or anything”, just to get us to sign it because we did not want to.

They say that they are still assessing him, after four months now. The only way we can know or hear what might be going on in the classroom, like if he is upset and crying, which he is about everyday, is to sit in our car out on the street and try to listen, if the windows to his class are open that is. We have no other way of knowing what they are working on with him and why he gets frustrated and upset. They also have not gotten a proper IEP in place, as of yet. They will not work around our schedule at all and make us have meetings to suit their schedule only. Denver Public Schools will not provide the resources to meet his special needs, such as intensive speech, OT, one on one student/teacher, aide ratio etc.

**** Elementary has been bullying us around from the beginning and taking advantage of our situation. If we try to defend ourselves, in any way, we are afraid that they will take it out on ****, if they haven‘t already. They know we would never know because he is non-verbal. We would only be able to suspect something by changing behavior. How do we know if he’s being abused in anyway or not?

Anyway, all of the protective orders have been taken care of and he’s in school so we want to know why DHS caseworker won’t close the case. We are getting no answers from the case worker. She never answers any of our questions or concerns. Instead, she keeps coming up with ridiculous demands that make no sense. She does not even know anything about Autism neither does the guardian ad litem or the magistrate. The magistrate even said that there is “no such thing as home schooling for children with Autism”, which is totally untrue because thousands of parents are home schooling their children with special needs, especially Autism, because it’s much easier for them to learn at home in a quiet, calm environment rather than a chaotic classroom with lots of noise, florescent lighting, people, obstacles, the list goes on and on.

More and more parents are choosing this method of education everyday. Sarah mentions the absenteeism in school and doctor’s excuses, well, he has been absent because he has been getting sick all the time from the germs at school and we do have doctor’s excuses for every day he has missed. We have given her copies and the school copies. They complain about being absent when sick, but then the school has several week long breaks during the year and 2 and ½ weeks winter break around Christmas.

The case worker also harasses and badgers the therapists and doctors and anyone else involved in our case.

She also adds things to the court orders after they are made by the magistrate. I didn’t know a case worker could do that.

But the main point is that there really should not be a case open on us and now that we’ve taken care of any concerns they may have had in the beginning when Lisa Lied, the in-take worker opened the case and got the courts involved, only because we did not let her in the house without a warrant, which we have always been informed to do with social workers .

Our case needs to be closed. The case was about medical neglect which is ridiculous because we have always taken him in when needed plus now he has been to his doctor so many times because he is now in school and getting sick all the time from that. The only reason the medical neglect accusation came about was because his doctor turned us in only to cover her behind for refilling his prescriptions for a couple of years without insisting on seeing him for an annual physical exam first.
Social Services will not close our case. They are misusing state funds being nitpickers. They want to control every single solitary aspect of our lives. That is just wrong. They are violating several amendments of our civil rights, including the right to feel safe in our own home and free of intrusion and invasion. That social worker still just shows up at our house anytime she wants to, unannounced, invading our privacy. I have already had the supervisors at DHS know and they think the same way and won’t look at the situation any other way. They just read the reports, which are full of lies, and automatically side with the caseworker. We need help from an impartial source.

Our case, when opened, was not based on anything that is now become their issues. The case worker has added and made up everything they are keeping our case open for. There are children out there, who are really being abused and neglected, who need them.

Amendment IV
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

We have been court ordered to: clear out a specific room in our house to be a bedroom for **** by the 18th of December 2008. Which is done.

For **** to go on school excursions, for example, walking several blocks in the below freezing cold weather and elements, to a college for gymnastics. This is done.
To be on time to school everyday and to go to school when he is sick, Among other ridiculous things, such as Jody, the GAL, has had a court order for an “expert” to come and “observe” our son and we don’t even understand for what reason.

All of these orders have been completed.

We do not understand why DHS is invading our lives like they are for six months now, with no signs of even slowing down, plus our caseworker still does weekly home visits. They won’t even tell us why? I would think that there are families and children out there who are really being mistreated.