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.
An Erie County judge allowed two foster parents to retain custody of a 4-year-old girl they've raised since birth, despite the wishes of an aunt who has never met the girl but wants to adopt her.
Family Court Judge Margaret O. Szczur on Tuesday dismissed the aunt's petition for custody, saying she didn't act soon enough.
The Georgia Senate passed a bill March 7 that would limit the amount of time the state is required to spend seeking a relative or family friend with whom to place a foster child.
Sen. Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, said he believes the bill will create more stability for foster children.
Child advocates have been seeking better support for relatives and family friends who help foster children, and Arizona lawmakers now have the chance to answer that plea with two Senate bills up for hearings later this week.
The grandparents, neighbors, aunts and uncles tasked with caring for a child unexpectedly are not well supported, said Dana Naimark, president of the state’s Children’s Action Alliance. Many don’t hear about the financial support they could get, or find they have to do the research themselves and then wait after filling out an application.
An Albuquerque woman and her family are working through the heartache of not having their niece and nephew around.
Caseworkers from CYFD took them from April Olivas last week. That came as a surprise for Olivas since she had been watching her young niece and nephew throughout the past year.
Today should be a day Alesia Cannady luxuriates on Maui’s shores. The 65-year-old’s feet should dangle from a banana-hued lounge chair. The sun should smooch her ebony face. Moderate pressure should be applied during a foot massage.
Instead, as the full-time caregiver of her 4-year-old granddaughter, Aleiyah, today finds her in a frenzy evading Disney figurines littered on the floor, whipping up a breakfast of peanut-butter oatmeal, and overseeing three hair and outfit changes after oats detour from spoon to heart-dotted black skirt.
For two weeks, Faye and Jihad Saleh sat with their newborn grandson in the infant intensive care unit at Norton Children's Hospital in Louisville, cuddling, feeding and rocking him as he underwent withdrawal from drugs in his tiny body.
Then they were confronted with an unexpected and life-changing decision: either take their grandson home or stand aside as state social service officials placed him in foster care.
Today, the federal government released new data showing that foster care numbers have risen for the fifth straight year in a row – up to nearly 443,000, an 11.5 percent increase from 2012 when the surge began.
While people will immediately ask why foster care rates care are their highest since 2009; another very important question needs to be asked: Where are all those children living?
Ceci Soto took in her two little nieces after the state removed them from her sister's care. She didn't want the girls living in a foster home with a stranger.
Soto, a 20-year-old single mother with a toddler of her own, receives $90 a month from the state — $45 for each of her nieces.
Tara Rees knows kids. The longtime owner and director of Skribbles Learning Centers in Northborough, as well as parent to two teenage boys and former Fresh Air Fund host parent, she has dedicated her life to helping children.
But Rees has been struggling to understand why the state Department of Children & Families Worcester East Area Office seems to be punishing rather than helping her godchildren, who are caught in the aftermath of a bitter and complicated divorce.
Accusing state officials of "a brazen violation of federal law," a group of grandparents and other relatives raising children removed from homes because of abuse or neglect have filed a lawsuit seeking foster payments they say they are entitled to under a court ruling last year.
"They're not in it for the money, but they need help," said Lexington lawyer Richard Dawahare, who filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of 14 adults and 21 children. "They need help raising these kids."
Family carers who agree to give up work to become full-time “parents” to the children of relatives, in order to prevent them being taken into care, are being left penniless and homeless by welfare changes, campaigners say.
Kinship carers, hailed by ministers as “”, are typically grandparents, aunts or older siblings who step in voluntarily to bring up child relatives after the birth parent dies or is unable to continue because of illness or neglect.
The state of Kentucky announced Feb. 13 it would begin paying relatives who provide care for displaced children the same stipend as foster parents -- about $750 per month per child.
Norma Hatfield, who has cared for her two grandchildren since 2014, welcomed the news. Although she was able to provide for the pair without state assistance, she said Monday that few grandparents in her position have the same financial resources.
The mother of Serenity, a four-year-old girl who died of horrific injuries after being placed in kinship care on a central Alberta reserve, hopes her daughter's death ushers in new protections for vulnerable children.
On Tuesday, the woman will sit in the gallery of the Alberta legislature as Calgary MLA Mike Ellis attempts to resurrect Bill 216, also known as Serenity's Law. She cannot be identified under provincial child welfare legislation so as not to identify her other children.
A $733 federal disability check doesn’t stretch far each month when you have more than a dozen children to feed and clothe.
But don’t tell Betty Smith – the mother of four adopted youngsters (ages 10, 14, 16 and 18) and legal guardian of 12 of her grandchildren (ages 10 months to 16 years old) – that life threw her a raw deal.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky's top social services official said Monday that the state is still working out how to pay some relatives, many of them grandparents, who have been providing free foster care to children removed from homes because of abuse or neglect.
But Adria Johnson, commissioner of the state Department for Community Based Services, said officials can't say when payments of around $25 a day might start for those who qualify under the court ruling.
A grandmother who wanted to care for her grandchild had to fight a local authority with no lawyer after a social worker recommended that the baby be put up for adoption.
As the parents were unable to look after the baby, the paternal grandmother – who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity – put herself forward to be the special guardian, similar to a foster carer.
Here are the headlines for today. Check back soon!
This post could be updated at any time throughout the day.
It can be scary when a Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) Investigator contacts you. Understanding the investigation process and your rights can help alleviate some of the stress of the situation.
If a parent ends up in a situation where they cannot properly care for their children, the children may be placed in foster care. But those situations may not always be permanent. While there are instances where parental rights have been terminated, those rights can be reinstated under the right circumstances.
It’s the kind of story that resembles a television drama. A 54-year-old disabled Marine Corps veteran gets notice that his grandchild is in state custody: “Come get him,” the state employees say.
But when William Johnson and his wife Jill arrived to pick up the child, a case agent for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services executed a warrantless search on the veteran. When the agent could find no weapons, the agency used his concealed-carry license to justify a bizarre directive: Register your guns with us, or you cannot foster your grandchild.
LONDON (Reuters) - A British man was convicted on Monday of importing a lifelike child sex doll in what police said was a landmark case in the fight against a new form of sex crime against children.
David Turner, 72, admitted having sex with the 3-foot-10-inch (1.17 meter) doll, described by the National Crime Agency (NCA) as "anatomically detailed and correct". He also bought clothes for it.
Child Trafficking and Pedo protection svcs would be a more accurate name for this corrupt organization. Child protective services was used against me along with a recent doctors prescription for medical marijuana to illegally evict me from my home "Under color of law". It would have been impossible without Masonic racketeers, police and other agents making threatening statements in force and sanitizing their crimes via LIES and "Lost Reports"!
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WASHINGTON ― White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday appeared to be confused about Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer, claiming it was about adoptions — contradicting both Donald Trump Jr. and the president, who have both confirmed the true reason for the meeting.
Child protection workers are exposing vulnerable children to more risk by leaving them with extended family – often without scrutiny in emergency “drop and run” placements, a secret Department of Health and Human Services report has revealed.
