Ok number one - I can DEFINITELY see your point that child protective services needs work to say the least. This, however; does NOT mean that ALL group homes and/ or people placing kids in group homes are bad. I for one know of at least one Gold Standard where the kids come first. PERIOD. End of discussion. Please- I would ask that you not Lump all Child advocates, social workers, child care experts, group home staff into the same lump of people as the ones who have failed in some way. - Gandhi put it best - "BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD"
Thank you Anonymous. I really do like your reference to Gandhi. And you are right.
Unfortunately, somebody's gotta shed a light on this mess. Might as well be me.
I know some people who are exceptional foster parents, a residential facility that has a wonderful person running the treatment part of "residential treatment centers," and like any other organization, some organizations create a system that is bound for failure.
ReplyDeleteWhen good facilities read about the really bad placements, would it be reasonable for the good placements to let Congress know what works and what does not work.
Texas has abused, broken, and murdered children. Abuse is wild and rampant and instead of facing the problem head on and enforcing Minimum Daily Standards, Child Care Licensing enables placements to continue acting outside the laws, and beyond all common sense.
Those who are doing the work and doing it right, are only rewarded by a lack of negative publicity. That is not fair, but the children who are presently abused need someone to care enough to do everything possible to raise their voices.
The number of children reported raped in foster care, as in any population, is seriously under-reported. When children allege sibling sexual acting out, incest, doctor, in biological homes, CPS takes the child and places the child with a new home that is supposed to be safer.
When a child in foster care for over three years makes an outcry of rape and identifies the perp, no one reported until four months later. Residential Child Care Licensing wrote it off as "consensual" but a child cannot legally consent to sex, not even with another child of the same age.
In Texas, children are *FOUR TIMES times more likely to be seriously injured or killed in foster care than in the general population.
Why do we risk one more death at the hands of strangers?
*Source-
July 2006 (PDF) - Carole Strayhorn, Texas State Comptroller, sent out a Press Release stating, "Children in state foster care are FOUR TIMES more likely to be harmed in state foster care" than in the general population.