Flint Charges Dropped: Michigan Dismisses Criminal Cases But Will Continue Probe

Eight remaining Flint water prosecutions have been dismissed by the Department of Attorney General, officials said Thursday, June 13.

Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy issued a statement saying the cases are being dismissed without prejudice -- meaning they could be refiled -- in order to conduct a full and complete investigation, a shocking conclusion to the high-profile criminal prosecutions.

More >> Flint Charges Dropped: Michigan Dismisses Criminal Cases But Will Continue Probe

Unvaccinated children banned from public spaces amid measles outbreak in New York suburb

A New York county has banned unvaccinated children from all public spaces as the state battles its largest measles outbreak in decades.

Officials in Rockland County declared a countywide state of emergency Tuesday, announcing that the ban will begin at midnight and remain in place for 30 days or until unvaccinated minors receive the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Officials said minors who are unvaccinated will not be permitted in public places, such as churches, schools and shopping centers, though outdoors spaces such as playgrounds are not included in the ban.

"We must not allow this outbreak to continue," County Executive Ed Day said during a news conference. "We will not sit idly by while children in our community are at risk."

More >> Unvaccinated children banned from public spaces amid measles outbreak in New York suburb

Parents Give Up Custody of Their Son So He Can Receive Costly Medical Treatment

When Jim and Toni Hoy’s adopted son Daniel began showing signs of severe mental illness, they were willing to do anything to get him help. And in their case, that meant relinquishing custody of the then-12-year-old so he could receive the necessary medical treatment that was too expensive for the Hoys to afford, even with insurance.

“To this day, it’s the most gut-wrenching thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,” dad Jim says of the day he told Daniel that they were turning him over to the state. “I was crying terribly. But it was the only way we figured we could keep the family safe.”

More >> Parents Give Up Custody of Their Son So He Can Receive Costly Medical Treatment

Outrage Intensifies Over Claims Of Gene-Edited Babies

Ever since a Chinese scientist rocked the world by claiming he had created gene-edited twin girls, international outrage has only intensified.

"Everything that's emerged over the last week only adds to the concern about this having been a deeply unfortunate, misguided misadventure of the most dramatic sort," says Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. "It was shocking at the time. A week later, it's still shocking."

More >> Outrage Intensifies Over Claims Of Gene-Edited Babies

Murphy says it's 'too early to tell' how N.J. will deal with facility where 11 children died

Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday his administration hasn't yet determined how it will hold a Passaic County health facility accountable for the 11 children that have died in recent months from a viral outbreak.

"It's too early to tell," Murphy said during an unrelated news conference in Paterson.

More >> Murphy says it's 'too early to tell' how N.J. will deal with facility where 11 children died

Trump administration moves $260M from cancer research, other programs to help pay for custody of immigrant children

The Trump administration is planning to shift more than $260 million to cover the rising cost and strain of housing thousands of undocumented immigrant children in their custody – including millions of dollars from programs like cancer research and HIV/AIDS prevention.

The request comes as the program has been strained by record-high levels of children in custody, driven in large part by new policies that are holding kids longer and making it more difficult for them to be released to adults, such as family members.

More >> Trump administration moves $260M from cancer research, other programs to help pay for custody of immigrant children

• Number of migrant children in Texas shelters reaches new high despite end of "zero tolerance"

Foster Parents Often Struggle To Find Doctors To Treat The Kids In Their Care

Sherri and Thomas Croom have been foster parents to 27 children — from newborns to teenagers — during the past decade.

That has meant visits to dozens of doctors and dentists for issues ranging from a tonsillectomy to depression.

More >> Foster Parents Often Struggle To Find Doctors To Treat The Kids In Their Care

The Snitches in Your Kids’ Dental Office

Parents who decide, for whatever reason, that they don’t like their children’s oral-care provider should be forewarned. Empowered by government “mandatory reporter” laws, dental offices are now using their authority to threaten families with child-abuse charges if they don’t comply with the cavity police.

More >> The Snitches in Your Kids’ Dental Office

Family sues DCS after CBD oil treatment puts toddler's custody in jeopardy

Two-year-old Jaelah Jerger has been fighting most of her life after being diagnosed with myoclonic seizures in July of 2017.

More >> Family sues DCS after CBD oil treatment puts toddler's custody in jeopardy

Lawsuit Claims Illinois Children Denied Medically Necessary Services

A lawsuit against Illinois’ Department of Healthcare and Family Services claims the state illegally withholds medically necessary services from children with severe mental health disorders. The case was settled in federal court this week.

More >> Lawsuit Claims Illinois Children Denied Medically Necessary Services

A face of agony: Terminally ill girl, 11, set to be forced to live in a foster home after her distraught parents launched legal battle to fight doctors' demands to withdraw pain relief

Pictures show the agony of a terminally ill 11-year-old girl who faces dying in a foster home as her parents continue to fight the doctors' demands to withdraw pain relief.

Melody Driscoll suffers from Rett Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects brain development and results in severe mental and physical disability.

More >> A face of agony: Terminally ill girl, 11, set to be forced to live in a foster home after her distraught parents launched legal battle to fight doctors' demands to withdraw pain relief

New study examines value of routine laboratory screenings for children entering foster care

CINCINNATI -- Routine laboratory screening recommended for children entering foster care carries high costs and questionable medical benefits.

A new study, published online in Pediatrics, suggests that targeted screening may be a more clinically meaningful approach and reduce costs.

More >> New study examines value of routine laboratory screenings for children entering foster care

Paying for the 60's Scoop - LK Report for 10/9/17

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Canada has described a deal to compensate thousands of indigenous victims of forced adoptions as a step forward. But some have criticized the move, saying the amount is "disappointing" after decades of forced removals.

More >> 'Sixties Scoop': Canada agrees to compensate forcibly-adopted indigenous people

• Ontario Children's Aid Societies working to avoid repeat of Sixties Scoop
• Canada pays indigenous people taken from their homes
• Survivors of ’60s Scoop share stories of loss as Ottawa announces compensation
• 'All I wanted was to go home': What the Sixties Scoop settlement means to Marcia Brown Martel
• 'Years of lost family moments': '60s Scoop survivors say $750M deal isn't enough
• Regina ‘60s Scoop victims share their stories
• ‘It’s a good first step’: Saskatoon ’60s Scoop survivor reacts to federal settlement
• '60s Scoop survivors hope deal stops removal of Indigenous children

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Dr. Lanre Falusi knows firsthand the anxiety families face when the future of their child’s health insurance is in jeopardy. A pediatrician at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Dr. Falusi recently had a routine visit from a seven-year-old patient with asthma. For the last few months this little girl has been fairly stable thanks to her daily controller and rescue medication covered through D.C.’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But she often has tough winters and her mother was trying to plan ahead having heard CHIP’s future funding was uncertain. “That was her question: ‘If I don’t know if she’s going to have insurance, can I get a prescription for extra medication and save it just in case?’ . . . She was in crisis planning mode for her daughter’s health and she wanted to stockpile the medication. It was really disconcerting to me that that’s what we’re asking parents to start doing. States are dealing with an incredible amount of uncertainty about their funding – and maybe they are used to doing that – but the fact that we’re asking families now to do that around their children’s health is inappropriate and unconscionable to me.”

More >> Congress Is Holding CHIP And Children Hostage

• Trump rolls back access to free birth control

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A five year old Christian girl who was removed from her Muslim foster family was in “warm and appropriate care”, a court heard on Monday.

Known as AB in court, the child was placed into the care of a Muslim family, attracting media attention amid allegations that she was made to speak Arabic and remove her crucifix.

More >> Christian foster child “misses” foster carers, new report claims

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The Board of Supervisors voted this week to formally appoint a new director to run Los Angeles County’s child welfare agency.

Bobby Cagle, the director of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, will take office Dec. 1.

More >> Shakeup at County DCFS

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PETALING JAYA: When Nizha (not her real name) was assigned to live with foster parents after spending most of her 18 years at welfare department homes, she thought that her life would change for the better.

However, she found it had become worse as she spent two years being abused and treated like a slave by the couple, who were both medical doctors.

“Living with my foster family after coming out of the welfare home turned out to be more painful than being thrown out by my original family when I was young,” she said.

More >> Former welfare child recalls slave-like abuse at foster home

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Rochester, N.Y. — We are now hearing from a former Monroe County Child Protective Services worker who said she resigned in part because of the death of Brook Stagles.

More >> CPS worker says she resigned in light of Brook Stagles' death

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The union representing social workers in Nova Scotia says employees are being overworked and facing burnout on the job.

According to the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU), child protection social workers are dealing with unmanageable workloads.

More >> N.S. child protection social workers overworked, facing burnout: union

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GRAFTON—One woman is behind bars, following an investigation the past week.

Jaymi McIe, 34, of Grafton, has been charged with felony concealment of a minor child from a custodian, following an investigation and search on October 3.

More >> Woman arrested after concealing minor in state’s care

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VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — A employee with the Department of Children and Families is facing charges of falsifying records in a child abuse investigation.

More >> DCF worker accused of falsifying records in child abuse probe

• DCF worker terminated, charged with falsifying records after FDLE investigation
• DCF worker charged with two counts of falsifying records

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Authorities are investigating after a child died in hospital after drowning at a Jay foster care nonprofit's property.

Four-year-old Isabella Lee Gamez died Oct. 1, three days after she was found at the bottom of the pool at My Father's Arrows.

More >> DCF investigating after child drowns at Jay foster care nonprofit

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More Interesting Links

• Thousands of abused children let down by mental health ‘postcode lottery’
• Woman charged with threatening DCF employee
• Could foster child’s death in shallow fish pond have been avoided?
• 12 Things Millennial Parents Do That Horrify '80s Parents
• How Helicopter Parenting Could Be Damaging Children’s Futures
• Elvis Presley’s Daughter Lisa Marie Reunite With The Twins — Riley Keough Shares Cute Photos Of Her Siblings
• 'One false move and you're done': how US cities are changing for runaway kids
• I Tweeted About My Toddler and Someone Called Child Protective Services
• Oklahoma Teen Accused of Taking Her Baby From Foster Home
• HEAD START MAY PROTECT AGAINST FOSTER CARE PLACEMENT

Don't beat the CPS Agent - LK Report for 10/6/17

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Illinois child welfare officials are reacting with shock and anguish to the severe beating of a veteran investigator who was assaulted while taking protective custody of a 2-year-old child near Sterling, about 120 miles west of Chicago.

More >> DCFS investigator is assaulted while trying to aid a child in Sterling, Ill.

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"CHIP has a proven track record of success, stemming from its adherence to the fundamental principles of state administrative flexibility, personal responsibility, and innovation aimed at enhancing health outcomes for beneficiaries". "If the lawmakers can't act in support of a program that was enacted in a spirit of bipartisanship and serves the most truly defenseless members of society, there's no hope for them".

More >> Alabama will dismantle All Kids health insurance if federal aid not extended

• Lapse In Federal Funding Imperils Children's Health Coverage

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A Pittsburgh newspaper is reporting that an anti-abortion congressman asked a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to have an abortion when he thought she might be pregnant.

More >> Report: Anti-abortion US rep asked girlfriend to get one

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A 33-year-old Bowie woman has been arrested for allegedly causing injury to a one-year-old child in her care as a foster parent.

More >> Foster mother jailed, accused of injury to a child

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Ohio’s child support system is riddled with problems, including billions in unpaid support and an outdated formula that some believe contributes to non-custodial parents moving to the underground economy to avoid wage garnishments.

More >> Ohio’s child support system rife with fraud, poor collection rates

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OAKLAND, Calif. — An attorney for the family of a foster child who died two years ago after allegedly ingesting methamphetamine has sued Alameda County, saying the girl should have been removed from a Stockton home after she swallowed the drug for the first time.

More >> Foster girl should have been removed after ingesting meth first time: suit

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ABC7 News has learned that Alameda County Social Services Agency is being sued for allegedly putting a 3-year-old foster child at risk after she died from methamphetamine poisoning. It was the second time the child had allegedly ingested meth, at the same foster home. It's a story you'll see only on ABC7 News.

More >> County sued over 3-year-old's alleged meth death; 'I should have protected her,' brother says

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JAY — A former foster parent and award-winning adoptive mother who was convicted of child abuse was sentenced Wednesday and will serve about three years in prison, a prosecutor said.

More >> Former DHS Adoptive Parent of the Year gets prison time in Delaware County child-abuse case

• Oklahoma woman formerly named DHS Adoptive Parent of the Year gets prison time in child abuse case

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The federal government is preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to settle multiple class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of First Nations people who were removed from their homes when they were children and adopted into non-Indigenous families.

More >> Ottawa to settle Sixties Scoop suits for hundreds of millions of dollars

• Feds to announce payout of $800M to Indigenous victims of '60s Scoop
• Ottawa to announce $800M settlement with Indigenous survivors of Sixties Scoop

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PALAKKAD: Only Pratheesh and Sharmila knew the sort of pain they felt while sending their five children to orphanage, but when they got back home after public intervention, mostly through social media, the poverty-stricken parents must have found the joy equally inexplicable.The parents, from Kannadi panchayat, had put the children, all under 11 years and three of them girls, in an orphanage at Edathanattukara on September 21 with the help of ward (No.14) member Vineesh.

More >> Poor parents put 5 kids in orphanage

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BOONE COUNTY, Ind. – Authorities say a 9-month-old boy suffered a fractured rib and bruising while under the care of his Indianapolis foster mother and her Whitestown boyfriend.

More >> Foster mom, boyfriend charged with neglect after baby suffers fractured rib

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More Interesting Links

• A pipeline to juvenile detention? A new study aims to find where officials can interve
• A meth overdose killed this 3-year-old foster child — and it wasn’t her first, lawsuit says
• How Illinois bureaucracy robbed parents of a chance to save their children from a deadly disease
• Foster care panic won't stop child abuse tragedies
• Deputies looking for mom who failed to hand over child to CPS
• STARVED TO DEATH: Murder charges for adoptive parents of 16-year-old who weighed just FOUR STONE when she died of starvation home alone

GovGuam short on health care for foster children

"I would beg and plead with (lawmakers) if I had to. These are children coming from abusive environments and severe neglect; and there are a lot of times when they need medical attention immediately. ... I've been in and out of the emergency room at least six times with my foster children out of the nine years I've been a licensed foster parent, and I can say that I was grateful for GovGuam's assistance each time." – Bethany Taylor, director, Harvest House

More >> GovGuam short on health care for foster children

The AHCA’s Dangers for Foster Youth

Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the American Health Care Act. Child welfare advocates across the country are deeply concerned about the threats this legislation poses to children in the foster care system. The cuts this legislation would have on Medicaid would have a significant negative impact on the child welfare system and pose a special threat to youth with disabilities.


More >> The AHCA’s Dangers for Foster Youth

Parents, foster-care advocates stand against possible repeal of ACA

Parents and leaders of foster-care groups gathered at the state Capitol to warn lawmakers and the public about possible problems that could emerge with repealing the Affordable Care Act.

More >> Parents, foster-care advocates stand against possible repeal of ACA

Top Five Threats to Child Welfare from ACA Repeal

Proposals by the Congress and President-elect to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—including the Medicaid expansion—to turn Medicaid into a block grant, and to cut resources, all can sound very abstract to social workers and policymakers coping with the day-to-day tragedies and crises of child welfare. But should Congress make good on any of these threats—which could happen as early as January 2017—the dangers are very real to abused and neglected children, their birth, adoptive, and foster parents, as well as state agencies and providers.

More >> Top Five Threats to Child Welfare from ACA Repeal

Foster parents of boy (14) bullied over protruding teeth win High Court challenge to pay for orthodontic treatment

THE foster parents of a 14-year-old boy who claimed the State should have paid for orthodontic treatment he needed because of bullying over his protruding teeth have won a High Court challenge.

More >> Foster parents of boy (14) bullied over protruding teeth win High Court challenge to pay for orthodontic treatment

Young People Denied Healthcare Coverage after Aging out of Foster Care: Report

A report from the National Center for Children in Poverty highlights a troubling trend where young people, after aging out of the foster care system, are being denied healthcare coverage that the state is legally required to offer. The denials are based on an intersection of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), cost considerations, and grammar.

More >> Young People Denied Healthcare Coverage after Aging out of Foster Care: Report