School-lunch debt cleared; N.E. Pa. superintendent ‘appalled and upset’ by district’s foster-care threats to parents

As of Thursday, no family in the Northeastern Pennsylvania school district that attracted national attention for its efforts to collect student lunch debt.

More >> School-lunch debt cleared; N.E. Pa. superintendent ‘appalled and upset’ by district’s foster-care threats to parents

School official loses job after letter threatening child custody over lunch debts

The fallout continues from a letter sent by a Pennsylvania school district to parents who owed lunch money debts.

More >> School official loses job after letter threatening child custody over lunch debts

Pennsylvania district sorry it warned that lunch debt could lead to foster care, accepts $22K donation

A Pennsylvania school district is apologizing for threatening students’ parents with possible foster care over unpaid lunch debts and has accepted a donation that will cover the unpaid fees.

More >> Pennsylvania district sorry it warned that lunch debt could lead to foster care, accepts $22K donation

• Pa. School District Reverses Course And Will Now Accept Donations To Cover Lunch Debt
• School district that warned parents of foster care wouldn't let me erase lunch debts, CEO says

Pennsylvania County Says It Will Never Put Children in Foster Care for School Lunch Debt

People in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, were shocked last week when a local school district sent hundreds of letters telling parents who owed lunch money for their children to pay up or else the kids could go into foster care.

“Nobody’s coming to take your kids in the middle of the night,” County Manager David Pedri assured residents on Monday, July 22 on “CNN Newsroom.”

More >> Pennsylvania County Says It Will Never Put Children in Foster Care for School Lunch Debt

Foster Mothers Challenge Philadelphia’s ‘Discriminatory’ Adoption Agenda

Two Philadelphia foster mothers are asking the Supreme Court to defend religious adoption agencies from a city policy that would declare them discriminatory and shut them down.

Sharonell Fulton, who has fostered more than 40 children through Catholic Social Services (CSS), and Toni Simms-Busch, a former social worker, want the Court to overturn a Philadelphia policy that targets religious groups for holding traditional views of marriage. Philadelphia currently has 6,000 children in foster care, but the regulation would shutter some of the longest-serving adoption agencies in the city.

More >> Foster Mothers Challenge Philadelphia’s ‘Discriminatory’ Adoption Agenda

• Moms take fight against city’s foster care ban on faith-based agencies to the Supreme Court

Pennsylvania School Board Members Criticize Threatening Lunch Money Letter

Five of nine members of the Wyoming Valley West School Board tell FOX40 sister station WNEP the district should not have threatened to place kids in foster care if their parents fail to pay their lunch tabs.

But the district's solicitor has doubled down, claiming some parents need the threat of losing their kids to get them to pay up.

More >> Pennsylvania School Board Members Criticize Threatening Lunch Money Letter

Project PA: Just uncovered documents give 'Kids for Cash' victim hope in getting kids back

There are late-breaking developments in our Project PA story we first brought you last week.

Joshua Fromel is one of the thousands of victims in the “Kids for Cash” scandal; it’s called one of the biggest cases of judicial misconduct in American history.

More >> Project PA: Just uncovered documents give 'Kids for Cash' victim hope in getting kids back

Pay Your Lunch Money or Face Foster Care?

Parents in an area school district call a collection letter a bit heavy-handed. About 1,000 students in the Wyoming Valley West School district owe money on their student lunch accounts.

District administrators say efforts to collect the money have been frustrating. The school system fired off warning letters to parents that the district could take them to court, with one possible outcome of the children being placed in foster care.

More >> Pay Your Lunch Money or Face Foster Care?

Pennsylvania missionary arrested for allegedly abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya

A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing children at an orphanage he founded in Kenya, federal officials said.

Gregory Dow, 60, was taken into custody Friday at his home in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He started a home for orphaned children in the east African nation in 2008, and allegedly abused the minors under his care for years, according to the US Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

More >> Pennsylvania missionary arrested for allegedly abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya

Mandated reporter charged for allegedly failing to report abuse

A Children and Youth Services worker is facing charges after police say she failed to report the suspected abuse of a 6-year-old.

Barbara Desmond has been a county social worker since 2007, but Wednesday she was charged by Greensburg police.

More >> Mandated reporter charged for allegedly failing to report abuse

Grandmother Saves Children From Alleged Abuse, Social Workers Blame Her Instead

In was on Oct. 13 that Yolanda Bryant, 44, started to receive text messages from a family friend’s phone. It was her 10-year-old grandson. After some chit chat, the boy started to open up. He and his 5-year-old sister had been staying with the family friend for five months already. During that time, they hadn’t been to school. “He said, ‘We’re not allowed out the room,’” Bryant said. “He said they get beat with sticks.” Her heart sank.

More >> Grandmother Saves Children From Alleged Abuse, Social Workers Blame Her Instead

Grace Packer’s killer says jury’s hesitation should get him off death row

Jurors deciding Jacob Sullivan’s fate for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Grace Packer appeared to struggle with their decision, telling Bucks County Judge Diane Gibbons that they were unable to agree before eventually making the unanimous decision to send Sullivan to death row in March.

Sullivan, 45, is now using the panel’s hesitation to challenge his death sentence, claiming in post-trial motions that Gibbons “forced” jurors to keep deliberating, sending the message “that a verdict of life was unacceptable.”

More >> Grace Packer’s killer says jury’s hesitation should get him off death row

Parents’ Nightmare: Social Worker’s ‘Feelings’ Contribute to Child Abuse Allegations

It’s one of the last things a parent wants to encounter—a social worker at the door with allegations of child abuse. What may come as a surprise to many is that such allegations can be based on little more than a “gut feeling.”

Those mandated to report potential child abuse are apparently encouraged to base their suspicions on signs that appear to have only a vague connection to child abuse and even may be based on the accuser’s feelings.

More >> Parents’ Nightmare: Social Worker’s ‘Feelings’ Contribute to Child Abuse Allegations

"There IS something wrong with #DHS.

"There IS something wrong with #DHS. (#CPS/#DCFS). My biggest problem with DHS is that DHS tells us that there is nothing wrong with them."

This is from Philadelphia city council meeting on the 16th of May. A lot of creepy stuff going on with their child Protective Services Department in that city.

Councilman David Oh is on the side of the people and families who are being ignored.

Ethan Okula’s foster mother was sentenced in his tragic death. So many more are to blame

The agencies contracting with DHS falsified a record and mishandled his medical care.

More >> Ethan Okula’s foster mother was sentenced in his tragic death. So many more are to blame

Unredacted report: Even after Sara Packer admitted to three-way sex with older foster daughter, Grace was returned to her

Of all the missed opportunities before 14-year-old Grace Packer was horrifically murdered, one has long stood at the center of scrutiny as Pennsylvania asks why its child welfare network failed to protect her.

In 2010, Grace’s adoptive father, David Packer, was arrested for sexually abusing her and an older foster daughter in their Allentown home. Yet state and Lehigh County authorities ultimately allowed Grace to return to the care of Packer’s wife, Sara Packer, her adoptive mother who would go on to kill her six years later as part of a rape-murder fantasy.

More >> Unredacted report: Even after Sara Packer admitted to three-way sex with older foster daughter, Grace was returned to her

Report: Caseworkers missed ‘red flags’ before Grace Packer’s brutal rape and murder

Child welfare agencies in Pennsylvania missed a series of “red flags” in the case of teenager Grace Packer, who endured years of abuse before her 2016 rape and murder by her adoptive mother’s boyfriend, according to a report issued Monday.

More >> Report: Caseworkers missed ‘red flags’ before Grace Packer’s brutal rape and murder

'Evil attracts evil': Judge gives mom life in murder of adopted teen daughter

A woman who plotted the rape, torture and murder of her own teenage daughter pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to life in prison for a crime so barbaric that prosecutors and the judge strained for superlatives to describe it.

One day after her co-conspirator boyfriend was sentenced to death, Sara Packer, 44, appeared in a suburban Philadelphia courthouse and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and 16 other offenses in the 2016 slaying of 14-year-old Grace Packer.

More >> 'Evil attracts evil': Judge gives mom life in murder of adopted teen daughter

Foster Care Worker Pleads Guilty to Child Endangerment

A foster care worker in Bradford County has pleaded guilty to child endangerment.

Tabitha Dunn of Monroeton was charged in December after a 17-year-old boy in the foster care system told police he was having a sexual relationship with Dunn.

More >> Foster Care Worker Pleads Guilty to Child Endangerment

Man gets death for teen's rape, murder, dismemberment

A man who killed and dismembered his girlfriend's 14-year-old daughter as part of a rape-murder fantasy he shared with the teenager's mother was sentenced to death Thursday.

More >> Man gets death for teen's rape, murder, dismemberment