Canada being sued for child welfare system that ‘incentivizes’ the apprehension of children

A First Nation child advocate thinks it’s “sad” the government is being sued for “underfunding” on-reserve child welfare services in a $3-billion lawsuit.

“I don’t know the young man who put in the case other than his description, which is so sad and so typical of youth in care,” said social worker Cindy Blackstock of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.

More >> Canada being sued for child welfare system that ‘incentivizes’ the apprehension of children

Senators Demand Investigation Into Sexual Abuse at Immigrant Children’s Shelters

Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called on Wednesday for a federal investigation into what they termed “the alleged widespread and long-term pattern of sexual abuse” in the facilities holding immigrant children.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Office, the senators said they were particularly concerned that allegations of sexual assault aren’t being properly investigated.

More >> Senators Demand Investigation Into Sexual Abuse at Immigrant Children’s Shelters

Project PA: Foster care worker charged after sexual relationship with foster child

Wednesday we learned about shocking allegations of child abuse in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

According to court records we've obtained from Sullivan County, Tabitha Dunn, of Bradford County is facing several charges.

More >> Project PA: Foster care worker charged after sexual relationship with foster child

Soul crushing. PTSD symptoms showing up in more than half of Children's Services workers

A recent study shows that 53 percent of Ohio's children's services caseworkers have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. That compares with national incidences that range from 35 percent to 75 percent of child-welfare staff.

Campana is not among them. But the burden she carries is indicative of the job that is taking considerable toll on those who work to keep children safe.

More >> Soul crushing. PTSD symptoms showing up in more than half of Children's Services workers

Note: This is karma.  I also have PTSD from dealing with them.  Especially the first one, she was a sadistic bitch who got off on the power trip.

Billings lawmaker accuses state employees of 'kidnapping' children

A Republican lawmaker from Billings has accused state child protection workers of kidnapping children, and he’s urging parents visited by the state employees to throw them out of their homes.

Rep. Rodney Garcia said on James White’s “North West Liberty News” in mid-February that child welfare workers “do not protect the kids, they kidnap them.” North West Liberty News is a right-wing blog that espouses conspiracy theories on the “CIA-controlled media,” among others.

More >> Billings lawmaker accuses state employees of 'kidnapping' children

Foster Care Worker Accused of Having Sex with Teen

Child sex charges have been filed against a foster care worker from Bradford County.

Police charged Tabitha Dunn, 34, of Monroeton, in December with institutional sexual assault, corruption of minors, and endangering the welfare of a child.

More >> Foster Care Worker Accused of Having Sex with Teen

$3B class action lawsuit filed against Ottawa over First Nations child welfare discrimination

A $3.05 billion class action lawsuit has been filed against the federal government for discriminating against First Nations children by "systematically" underfunding on-reserve child welfare services.

The lawsuit, which still needs to be certified to proceed as a class action, was filed Monday with the Federal Court of Canada in Toronto and Montreal.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of First Nations children affected by on-reserve child welfare services between April 1, 1991, and March 1, 2019.

More >> $3B class action lawsuit filed against Ottawa over First Nations child welfare discrimination

Oshkosh foster abuse details emerge in court records

On Dec. 17, the police officer assigned to Oshkosh West High School was called to the assistant principal’s office to talk to a couple of ninth-graders. The boys, both 15, had gotten into a fight while being driven to school by their foster mother. One of them had a mark, which looked like a rash, on his face.

As school officials spoke to the boys, the conversation took a “disturbing” turn, according to a criminal complaint. In this and subsequent talks, the students provided a series of harrowing details: The adults where they lived kept the boys confined to their rooms, forced them to take up stress positions as punishment and made them urinate and defecate into buckets that were kept near their beds, according to the complaint.

More >> Oshkosh foster abuse details emerge in court records

Before Foster Child Naika Venant's Suicide on Facebook Live, Florida Failed to Help Her

Still dressed in her school uniform, Naika Venant went live on Facebook at 6:12 p.m. November 10, 2016. Earlier that day, the 13-year-old foster child from Miami had stolen a phone from her caseworker. Now, as an audience of three watched her video feed, she clumsily navigated the iPhone's camera, flipping through filters before settling on one in black-and-white.

More >> Before Foster Child Naika Venant's Suicide on Facebook Live, Florida Failed to Help Her

Parents, former DHHS investigator speak out about drug testing policy change

Hundreds of messages, comments, emails and phone calls followed a KETV NewsWatch 7 investigation about a policy change impacting child abuse and welfare cases in Nebraska.

The new policy, formalized in October of 2018, states that Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services investigators can no longer do drug testing on parents or children involved in a child abuse or neglect case, and that testing can only be court ordered.

More >> Parents, former DHHS investigator speak out about drug testing policy change

CPS caseworker quits after accusing supervisor of lying in effort to remove 1-year-old boy

A Child Protective Services worker has abruptly quit his job after accusing his supervisor of improperly taking his first-person account of family visits and signing his name to it as if it were his own in an official court document.

Both the caseworker and several attorneys who reviewed the case on behalf of the Houston Chronicle said the supervisor’s actions could amount to perjury, a charge the agency denies.

More >> CPS caseworker quits after accusing supervisor of lying in effort to remove 1-year-old boy

Why do so many children brought up in care end up in jail?

International research shows that children and young people with care experience are often over-represented within the criminal justice system. The reasons for this over-represenation are complex and include the fact that the care experience itself may be "criminogenic", that is, a factor that contributes to offending.

More >> Why do so many children brought up in care end up in jail?

Hundreds of vulnerable looked-after children going missing from care

Since 2016, Police Scotland and the missing persons register have been alerted about 218 looked-after children in Fife, 93 in Dundee, 70 in Perth and Kinross, and 20 in Angus.

A Courier investigation revealed all 409 youngsters returned home, a statistic described as a “mercy”.

More >> Hundreds of vulnerable looked-after children going missing from care

Henderson man accused of sexually assaulting girl in foster care

A Henderson man was arrested last month after a girl in foster care told Las Vegas detectives she was afraid to report the man, her former therapist, for allegedly raping her over a four-year period, according to an arrest report.

On Feb. 19, Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested 43-year-old Marcelo Cristian Pastor at his Henderson home, dispatch records and Pastor’s arrest report show.

More >> Henderson man accused of sexually assaulting girl in foster care

Lake County being sued for not providing attorneys to foster kids

Lake County is among three Indiana counties being sued in federal court for not providing attorneys to kids in child welfare cases.

More than 30 states require that youths in the child welfare system be given legal representation, yet Indiana is not one of them. The suit, filed in the Southern District of Indiana, claims this contradicts the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.

More >> Lake County being sued for not providing attorneys to foster kids

Migrant parents separated from children return to U.S., plead to be reunited

A large group of Central American migrants who U.S. authorities separated from their children last year when they crossed the Mexican border entered the United States again on Saturday asking for refuge and to be reunited with their kids.

A Reuters witness said some 50 people entered the United States at the international border crossing from Mexicali, Mexico into Calexico, California, where they were met by agents from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

More >> Migrant parents separated from children return to U.S., plead to be reunited

Charges Dropped Against Sini Mathews, Mother of Slain Child Sherin Mathews

Sini Mathews, the mother of Sherin Mathews, the North Texas 3-year-old girl found dead in a culvert in October 2017, is a free woman after the child endangerment charges filed against her were dismissed Friday.

Mathews was charged after prosecutors said she left her adopted daughter home alone while she and her husband Wesley went to dinner with their 4-year-old biological daughter on the night before the child was reported missing. Two weeks later Sherin's body was found in a drain pipe near the Mathews family home.

More >> Charges Dropped Against Sini Mathews, Mother of Slain Child Sherin Mathews

Former Pekin DCFS case worker acquitted of child sex charges

Prosecutors failed to show a former state child case investigator from Pekin solicited sex from a 14-year-old girl and committed related crimes, a Tazewell County judge ruled Thursday.

Circuit Judge Michael Risinger ended a bench trial by granting a defense motion to acquit Melvin Devall, 58, of Pekin, after the state rested its case on two felony counts of official misconduct and misdemeanor counts of obstructing a police officer and solicitation of a sex act.

More >> Former Pekin DCFS case worker acquitted of child sex charges

Foster children in Indiana allege their rights have been violated

Children currently under the care of Indiana's foster system allege that three counties in the state have violated their constitutional due process and equal protection rights because they were not appointed counsel.

The suit was filed on Feb. 6 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana Evansville Division on behalf of some 5,000 children who go through Children in Need of Services (CHINS) or Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) proceedings. The 10 named plaintiffs in the case are minor children currently in foster care.

More >> Foster children in Indiana allege their rights have been violated

Children put at risk by 'major failings' at private foster care firm

A private "for profit" company funded by Tusla to provide foster care to 15 children was found to have major failings in meeting proper standards for safeguarding and protection of the youngsters.

The inspection of Oak Lodge Fostering, which had 14 foster care households around Ireland, found the tracking of its Garda vetting system was inadequate.

More >> Children put at risk by 'major failings' at private foster care firm

Prosecutors say teens forced to use buckets for toilets at Oshkosh foster home

Two foster parents did not allow three teens under their care to leave their bedrooms and made them use buckets for toilets, Winnebago County prosecutors say.

Alan D. Small, 35, and his mother, Barbara R. Peterson, 60, both of Oshkosh, were charged Wednesday in Winnebago County Circuit Court with three counts each of chronic child neglect.

More >> Prosecutors say teens forced to use buckets for toilets at Oshkosh foster home

INVESTIGATION: DCYF Wrongfully Removed Children From RI Mother, According to State Report

A Rhode Island mother is speaking out after winning appeals against the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) for taking custody of her two children — which was found in an administrative decision to have been wrong.

West Warwick’s April Doyle received a fifty-six page decision from Karen Walsh, an Appeals Officer at the Office of Health and Human Services, on February 25, which granted appeals in five separate investigations that found there was insufficient evidence to support allegations by DCYF of "inadequate shelter" and "neglect" by Doyle.

More >> INVESTIGATION: DCYF Wrongfully Removed Children From RI Mother, According to State Report

Kids do better when families stay together | Opinion

Numbers can tell a powerful story, especially when it comes to child abuse and neglect.

According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, 75 percent of children brought to the attention of the child welfare system arrive with allegations of neglect – not, as often assumed – abuse.

More >> Kids do better when families stay together | Opinion

Group that reconnects SC fathers to their children seeking $1.6M

Facing a third, one-year stint in jail for missing child support payments, Frederick Hogsett Jr. received a lifeline from the judge instead.

Rather than going back to jail — or getting a second sentence to wear an ankle bracelet monitor — Hogsett was ordered to participate in a program that works to get fathers involved in their children’s lives through job training, free legal help, counseling, parental classes, and even mediation with the mom if needed.

More >> Group that reconnects SC fathers to their children seeking $1.6M

Oregon foster boy left in unsafe home before fatal fire, $5 million lawsuit alleges

The family of an Oregon boy who died after a fire trapped him inside his foster home has filed a $5 million lawsuit against his foster parents and the state’s child welfare agency for failing to prevent his death.

Nicholas Lowe loved sports, babies and collecting baseball cards, his obituary said. He preferred shorts to pants. He was two weeks shy of 14.

More >> Oregon foster boy left in unsafe home before fatal fire, $5 million lawsuit alleges