Woman who faked pregnancy in bizarre adoption case to serve 2 years in prison

Elizabeth Jones, a Virginia woman who faked being pregnant to dupe an Orange County couple in 2018, pleaded guilty to eight felony counts Wednesday and will serve two years in state prison.

Jones’ trial ended abruptly when she decided to plead guilty during the jury selection procedure.

More >> Woman who faked pregnancy in bizarre adoption case to serve 2 years in prison

DNA test helps mom reunite with daughter she gave up for adoption 67 years ago

A 67-year-old family mystery has been solved thanks to science.

Nancy Harlow and Susan Collins Adams reunited after a DNA test discovered Collins Adams was Harlow's long-lost daughter.

More >> DNA test helps mom reunite with daughter she gave up for adoption 67 years ago

VIRGINIA TEEN WAS DETAINED AND PROSECUTED FOR SAYING ‘OINK OINK’ TO COP

In May 2016, James (not his real name), then 17, was sitting outside a mall in Arlington, Virginia, when police officers approached him. They picked him up, slammed him to the ground, dragged him aggressively to their car, and brought him to the police station. All those details are documented by a bystander’s cellphone.

But what preceded it is a matter of debate. James remembers sitting on the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette, and saying “oink oink” to a police officer, but the police had a different version of events. They claimed James provoked violence, refused to give his name, and resisted arrest.

More >> VIRGINIA TEEN WAS DETAINED AND PROSECUTED FOR SAYING ‘OINK OINK’ TO COP

What’s next for children diverted away from foster care and placed with relatives?

Last in a two-part look at kinship care from the Virginia Mercury.

There is an inherent conundrum built into child welfare. Social workers are trying to protect kids, but separating them from their parents is traumatizing, even if it’s for their own safety.

And reams of research shows that, if they have to be removed from their homes, children do best when they’re placed with family members.

More >> What’s next for children diverted away from foster care and placed with relatives?

Federal funds can now be used to help Virginia families before kids are put in foster care

State officials are working on ways to implement new strategies to help children at risk of being put into foster homes by giving tools to their families to prevent it from happening.

Governor Ralph Northam signed into law SB1679 and HB2014, which puts Virginia in line with the federal Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018.

More >> Federal funds can now be used to help Virginia families before kids are put in foster care

Virginia lags behind national average for placing children in foster care with relatives, report says

More foster children in Virginia are being placed in family settings than group homes, but the state lags behind the rest of the nation in placing children with relatives, a practice advocates say improves the child’s chances of finding a permanent home, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The philanthropic foundation’s 10-year data snapshot released Tuesday showed Virginia placed 7 percent of children in the foster care system with relatives, known as kinship care, in 2017, compared with the national average of 32 percent. Virginia’s percentage has stayed stagnant, with 7 percent of children in kinship care in 2007.

More >> Virginia lags behind national average for placing children in foster care with relatives, report says

Woman who faked pregnancy, promised adoption indicted on nine felony counts

Faking a pregnancy doesn’t appear to be against the law.

But using a false pretense to convince a potential adoptive family to buy baby clothes, photographs and meals – those incidents could land a Virginia woman in jail.

More >> Woman who faked pregnancy, promised adoption indicted on nine felony counts

Former county DSS workers have lawsuit dismissed

Four former Pittsylvania County Department of Social Services workers have dismissed a lawsuit filed in federal court. 

The lawsuit, ‘for injunctive and declaratory relief and damages,’ named retired assistant DSS director Cheryl Fisk, the elected officials of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, and Stedman Payne, former chairman of the county DSS board.

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Family sues Dept. of Social Services for allegedly covering up child's troubling past

When Gregory and Anna Long got married, they had one major goal.

“Our goal was to adopt, until we couldn’t do it anymore,” said Gregory Long.

More >> Family sues Dept. of Social Services for allegedly covering up child's troubling past

Special prosecutor recommends five years in prison for woman who faked pregnancy, planned adoption

She may have gotten away with being cruel, if she hadn’t been on probation at the time.

Elizabeth Jones, the woman who faked being pregnant to deceive an Orange County couple trying to adopt, should receive five years in prison, according to a motion filed by the special prosecutor in charge of investigating the case in Virginia.

More >> Special prosecutor recommends five years in prison for woman who faked pregnancy, planned adoption

Most Rappahannock foster youth sent to other counties, cities to live and attend school

The availability of foster care homes in Rappahannock has reached crisis proportions, and as county children are being sent to more urban areas to live it puts the county’s federal reimbursement funding in jeopardy.

“And the reason is because we have very few, and at times no approved available foster homes within Rappahannock County,” reveals Rappahannock Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Melissa Cupp.

More >> Most Rappahannock foster youth sent to other counties, cities to live and attend school

Editorial: Crisis in Virginia's foster care system

VIRGINIA’S FOSTER care system is failing many of the vulnerable children it is supposed to be protecting.

A scathing report from state auditors finds that too many of the approximately 5,300 Virginia children in foster care face what should be avoidable risks to their health and safety. Virginia is one of the worst states in the nation for a child to wind up in foster care.

Fortunately, the report also includes specific recommendations for improvement — recommendations that should be high on the General Assembly’s priority list when it gets to work in January.

There are valid reasons why it’s difficult for governmental agencies to remove children from their families. When, for whatever reason, a child is placed in the care of social services, the state has the responsibility to make sure that child is safe, secure and receiving all appropriate physical and mental health services.

More >> Editorial: Crisis in Virginia's foster care system

Virginia Social Services says it will fix broken foster care system after critical audit

The Virginia Department of Social Services has vowed to fix concerns with the state’s foster care system that are detailed in a new report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

“The [VDSS] fully supports the findings-based recommendations of the recent [JLARC] study of our foster care system,” Cletisha Lovelace, a spokesperson for VDSS, told Watchdog.org. “The challenges outlined within the report point to critical areas of needed improvement we are aware of and have been actively working to address. While many of the recommendations within the report are underway, we recognize the need to address other areas of program improvement with urgency in order to achieve better outcomes for the children we serve.”

More >> Virginia Social Services says it will fix broken foster care system after critical audit

‘Devastating’ state report highlights major health and safety problems in Virginia’s foster care system

Virginia’s foster care system is failing to meet the basic health and safety needs of the children under its care, according to state auditors, who released a scathing report Monday that found 98 cases in which basic safety protocols weren’t met.

In one, a child was placed in a home for nearly three weeks even though no background check had been run on the parent.

More >> ‘Devastating’ state report highlights major health and safety problems in Virginia’s foster care system

Report highlights state's poor oversight of local foster care programs

Virginia does such a poor job of supervising local foster care programs that the state doesn’t have a list of foster parents currently in the system, according to a new legislative study.

The study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission finds that the state’s 120 foster care programs don’t do a good job of recruiting foster parents, especially relatives, or working to reunite children with birth parents.

More >> Report highlights state's poor oversight of local foster care programs

Grandparents’ challenge to adoption too late

Grandparents’ objections to an order terminating a father’s parental rights and an adoption order came too late, and their motion for permission to review the adoption file was properly denied by the court for confidentiality reasons. Background The Middlesex Department of Social Services placed children with adoptive parents on April 20, 2016, after the father’s parental rights ...

More >> Grandparents’ challenge to adoption too late

Fredericksburg foster dad intentionally burned child, Spotsylvania County investigators say

A Fredericksburg man is facing criminal charges after police identified “patterned burns” on a foster child in his care.

Authorities said they began investigating on Aug. 23 when a staff member at a Spotsylvania County elementary school noticed burns on the child and told police and child protective services.

More >> Fredericksburg foster dad intentionally burned child, Spotsylvania County investigators say

Man who helped in parental kidnapping seeks to delay prison

A Virginia businessman convicted of helping in a parental kidnapping is asking the nation’s highest court to suspend the start of his prison term while he appeals.

The request to the U.S. Supreme Court, which the government opposes, comes three weeks before Philip Zodhiates (zoh-dee-AH’-tehs), of Waynesboro, is scheduled to begin a three-year prison term in Kentucky.

More >> Man who helped in parental kidnapping seeks to delay prison

Four former employees of the county’s social services filed a complaint against the department and members of the board of supervisors in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

More >> Former employees file lawsuit against county DSS

Foster parent arrested for allegedly burning, injuring boy in Fredericksburg, police say

Authorities arrested a 33-year-old man accused of burning and injuring a boy who was in foster care and living with him in Fredericksburg.

Eric L. Woods was arrested on one count of child abuse causing injury. He was later released on bond, according to police.

More >> Foster parent arrested for allegedly burning, injuring boy in Fredericksburg, police say