'He's a biter': why was my foster son reduced to a cruel label?

As soon as my wife picked up the phone I knew she was going to say yes to this next foster placement. I could see the look in her eyes. An abandoned three-year-old – that was all she heard. That was all she needed to know.

As for me, all I heard was the word “biter”. Images flashed through my mind. I saw some kind of feral hooligan, attacking my other children and scarring them for life, while I booked hepatitis B immunisations and filled out endless reports. I could already feel the pain of sharp milk teeth sinking into my thigh.

More >> 'He's a biter': why was my foster son reduced to a cruel label?

Children's services staff remembers girl killed in crash

Children's services workers in Shelby County are mourning the loss of a 13-year-old girl who died in a crash after driving her foster mother's minivan.

The teen has been identified as Sky Lhamon of Sidney, according to the Shelby County Department of Job and Family Services.

More >> Children's services staff remembers girl killed in crash

Meet the US cop who found his long-lost Irish mother through a DNA test

American Kevin Battle, a Harbor Master from Portland, Maine, recently found out that he was adopted from Co. Tipperary after taking a DNA test.

According to RTÉ, Battle had difficulty finding his birth mother prior to taking the test because the records were incorrect. The family members he has met with have told him that his mother was forced to put him up for adoption and had tried many times to find him before she passed away.

More >> Meet the US cop who found his long-lost Irish mother through a DNA test

SA Minister denies discussing an idea to allow potential foster carers to inspect children

South Australian Child Protection Minister, Rachel Sanderson, has "categorically rejected" that she ever discussed with her department the possibility of allowing potential foster carers to inspect children in state care before selecting one to take home.

Earlier this afternoon, in Question Time, Ms Sanderson left open the possibility that she had, saying: "I won't be discussing private discussions I have with my department or anyone about ideas."

More >> SA Minister denies discussing an idea to allow potential foster carers to inspect children

Death of Tasmanian baby due to 'extensive failings' of child protection system, coroner finds

The death of a 24-day-old baby might have been avoided if Child Protection Services (CPS) had properly assessed and acted upon the warning signs, a Tasmanian coroner has found.

Coroner Olivia McTaggart found infant Teegan Rose Hayes was accidentally suffocated while sleeping with her parents at their Devonport home on November 4, 2011.

More >> Death of Tasmanian baby due to 'extensive failings' of child protection system, coroner finds

Parents oppose greater oversight of their home-schooled kids

Connecticut home-school advocates and parents on Wednesday called an ongoing Office of the Child Advocate investigation into home education discriminatory and an invasion of privacy.

The home-schoolers’ criticism of Child Advocate Sarah Eagan is a response to her recent report finding that Connecticut doesn’t have a safety net for children withdrawn from public schools for home education. That April report was a follow-up to another prompted by the February 2017 death of a 17-year-old boy with autism who was removed from school by his mother.

More >> Parents oppose greater oversight of their home-schooled kids

Minnesota parents seek changes to child protection laws

A group of Minnesota parents are seeking for some of the state's child protection laws to be declared unconstitutional, alleging they deprive families of due process.

The Stop Child Protection Services From Legally Kidnapping organization filed a letter in federal court Tuesday, The Star Tribune reported . The laws are overly broad and put children at risk of being removed from safe homes, the letter said.

More >> Minnesota parents seek changes to child protection laws

Illinois divorced dads have among least amount of time spent with kids, study says

Illinois ranks in the bottom five states for the amount of custody time dads get to spend with kids, according to a new study.

Children in Illinois spend an average of 23.1 percent of their time each year with their dad, putting those fathers in 47th place in the U.S., followed by other states with low dad time: 48th-place Mississippi, where dads get 23 percent; 49th-place Oklahoma with 22.4 percent and last-place Tennessee, where fathers get 21.8 percent. The study was compiled by Custody X Change, a Utah-based company that sells software to help divorced parents divide custody and create parenting plans.

More >> Illinois divorced dads have among least amount of time spent with kids, study says

Hundreds of Illinois children left in psychiatric hospitals weeks or months longer than necessary, report says

Hundreds of children in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services who are admitted into psychiatric hospitals have been left there long after they have been cleared to leave, according to a new report.

A ProPublica Illinois investigation found that out of nearly 6,000 psychiatric hospitalizations of children in DCFS care between 2015 and 2017 nearly 30 percent were held beyond medical necessity, instead of going into foster care or a residential treatment facility.

More >> Hundreds of Illinois children left in psychiatric hospitals weeks or months longer than necessary, report says

Judge Calls Trump's Border Separations of Children `Brutal'

The Trump administration failed to kill a legal challenge to its practice of separating undocumented parents and children who seek to enter the U.S. to flee persecution at home, with a judge handing an early victory to civil rights activists who say the policy is unconstitutional and cruel.

More >> Judge Calls Trump's Border Separations of Children `Brutal'

Judge to decide soon if auditors can review Michigan adoption records

A Michigan judge will rule within 10 days if the Michigan Auditor General, the Legislature's main investigative arm, has constitutional authority to access confidential records without a court order.

Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens heard about 30 minutes or oral arguments Wednesday in a case that is specifically about whether the auditor needs a court order to access adoption records but is more broadly about the auditors' powers to compel the administration to turn over documents.

More >> Judge to decide soon if auditors can review Michigan adoption records

Hennepin County reaches $1.5 million settlement with family of girl who died in foster care

Six-year-old Kendrea Johnson was found hanging from a jump rope in her foster home four years ago, but her death won’t be in vain, attorneys for her family said Wednesday.

Hennepin County reached a $1.5 million settlement with Johnson’s grandmother, Mary Broadus, who filed a federal wrongful-death suit claiming that the county failed to address the girl’s suicidal ideation.

More >> Hennepin County reaches $1.5 million settlement with family of girl who died in foster care

‘Children home girls drugged before rape’

The minor girls living at the government-run ‘children home’ on Sahu Road in Muzaffarpur were being allegedly drugged regularly before being raped.

Quoting the rape survivors, a police officer said on Wednesday they were given two tablets after their dinner. “They told police one tablet was white and the other was pink,” the officer said, adding the victims would fall asleep after taking the medicines.

More >> ‘Children home girls drugged before rape’

Governor Vows to Fight Foster Care Takeover

Gov. Phil Bryant seemed prepared to fight to keep control over Mississippi's foster-care system last week after attorneys representing the children asked U.S. District Judge Tom Lee to hold the State in contempt of court and to turn over the system to a court-appointed receiver.

"You've got to remember that these plaintiffs' attorneys make a lot of money keeping this case going," the governor told reporters at the Capitol last week.

More >> Governor Vows to Fight Foster Care Takeover

Attorney, mother upset DCFS inspected home, called complaint bogus

 It was a knock on the door two weeks ago that has Catherine Cleveland both upset and puzzled.

Two weeks ago, a social worker from the state's Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) came to her home requesting an inspection.

More >> Attorney, mother upset DCFS inspected home, called complaint bogus

UN: ‘Nothing normal’ about U.S. detaining immigrant children

More than 650 children were separated from their parents at the U.S. border during a two-week period in May, according to the government’s own figures. On Tuesday, the UN Office for Human Rights condemned the practice and told the U.S. to halt immediately. William Brangham reports that these separations are happening in large part due to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Zero Tolerance policy.

More >> UN: ‘Nothing normal’ about U.S. detaining immigrant children

• Separating Children from Their Families at the U.S.-Mexico Border is Unacceptable
• U.S. should stop detaining migrants, separating children: U.N.
• U.N. Human Rights office to U.S.: Halt Trump policy separating kids from parents at border
• New U.S. rule will make it harder for immigrant children to reunite with families, advocates fear
• US senator refused entry to facility holding migrants’ kids

Boy taken from mum over Bob the Builder car concerns

A nurse has had her one-year-old son taken from her after a social worker said the way she let him sit in a Bob the Builder toy car was "inappropriate" for his age.

The social worker told a private family court hearing in Reading she had concerns about the woman's "basic parenting skills".

More >> Boy taken from mum over Bob the Builder car concerns

Number of Alberta child welfare deaths increased last year

Thirty-three children died while in care or receiving support from Alberta child services last year, equalling a post-2009 high set four years ago.

Youth deaths in the 2017-18 fiscal year rose by seven over a year earlier. Sixteen of the youths were aged five or younger. Eight were older than 18.

More >> Number of Alberta child welfare deaths increased last year

Las Vegas woman sent to prison for abusing adopted children

Janet Solander likely will die in prison for the years of torture she inflicted on three children she adopted.

At her sentencing Tuesday, when District Judge Valerie Adair ordered the 57-year-old Solander to serve 35 years to life behind bars, one of the girls said she could no longer find comfort in a mother figure.

More >> Las Vegas woman sent to prison for abusing adopted children

J'can mother loses court bid to stop son's adoption by Canadian family

A British Columbia judge has ruled against a Jamaican mother's bid to regain custody of her 10-year-old son who is set to be adopted into a Canadian family.

According to Canadian media reports, the ruling was recently handed down after a four-day hearing earlier this year during which the 38-year old Jamaican applied to have a continuing custody order, which gave the British Columbia Ministry of Child and Family Development custody of her son, to be cancelled.

More >> J'can mother loses court bid to stop son's adoption by Canadian family

Group of Minnesota parents calls for shutdown of Child Protective Services

A group is calling for a federal court to shut down Child Protective Services after claiming the agency takes children away from parents without due process.

“Stop Child Protective Services from Legally Kidnapping Children” filed a motion Tuesday for a permanent injunction to immediately close CPS, calling the agency’s practices unconstitutional.

More >> Group of Minnesota parents calls for shutdown of Child Protective Services

• Minnesota parents seek a statewide ban on child removals, allege abuses

Free-range parents want more freedom for kids -- without the neglect citations

Brandon Logan would like to be the kind of free-range parent who allows his kids to bike down to the pond and fish near their home in Austin, Texas, but he doesn’t dare let them go without him.

It’s not that he thinks his children, ages 10, 8 and 7, would be in any danger. Instead, he worries that permitting them to go fishing unsupervised a half-mile from their home would trigger a call by a well-meaning neighbor to Child Protective Services.

More >> Free-range parents want more freedom for kids -- without the neglect citations

Court orders records unsealed in Penn State officials' case

A Pennsylvania appeals court on Monday ordered the release of documents sealed in the criminal case against former Penn State administrators over their handling of child sex abuse complaints about former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

More >> Court orders records unsealed in Penn State officials' case

New 'Adoption Option Act' to ease adoptions in Louisiana celebrated at the State Capitol

When Dylan David and his wife Kristine waded into the largely unregulated world of adoption, they lost their money, lost the child to a higher bidder, and had no legal recourse.

The Baton Rouge couple had agreed to pay $2,500 in expenses to an expectant mother who would allow them to adopt her child. The mother kept asking for more money, then they discovered she also had collected $12,000 from another couple, David said. Law enforcement told the couple that the mother broke no laws, mainly because the existing laws covering this situation were so vague.

More >> New 'Adoption Option Act' to ease adoptions in Louisiana celebrated at the State Capitol

Fury at top family court judge who said we should applaud the end of the nuclear family and welcome the new reality of single and same-sex households

The country’s most senior family judge was under fire from politicians and colleagues yesterday after saying that the collapse of the traditional family was to be welcomed.

In a speech Sir James Munby, president of the Family Division of the High Court, said there was a new reality of single parent households, same-sex marriages and adopted families.

More >> Fury at top family court judge who said we should applaud the end of the nuclear family and welcome the new reality of single and same-sex households