15-year-old girl to be removed from foster family over Gülen links

A 15-year-old girl, identified only by her given name Sevgi, has been ordered to be separated from her foster family as her adoptive father has been briefly arrested over alleged ties to the Gulen movement.

Adopted when she was only 5 years old, Sevgi now faces going back to the Gumushane orphanage she left 10 years ago.

More >> 15-year-old girl to be removed from foster family over Gülen links

Foster Parent Court Case Could Be a First for Iceland

Freyja Haraldsdóttir, former substitute MP for Bright Future, has filed a case against the Government Agency for Child Protection (Barnaverndarstofa or BVS) in response to their denial of her application to become a foster parent, mbl.is reports. Freyja, who is physically disabled, claims her application was not handled in the same way as those of non-disabled applicants, and the case is brought forth on those grounds.

More >> Foster Parent Court Case Could Be a First for Iceland

Sherin Mathews' 4-year-old sister may soon leave foster care

Houston, Nov 14 A family court judge in Dallas has ruled that the 4-year-old sister of Sherin Mathews, the Indian toddler found dead in a culvert in Texas last month, will soon leave foster care to live with extended family, according to media reports today.

US Child Protective Services officials had removed the girl after Sherin, 3, was reported missing October 7 by her Indian-American adoptive father Wesley Mathews.

More >> Sherin Mathews' 4-year-old sister may soon leave foster care

• Custody hearing for Sherin Mathews' sister postponed again

Seven weeks after breach, state tells 2,100 foster parents that personal data went online

The names, addresses and Social Security numbers of roughly 2,100 Mainers who receive foster care benefits were accidentally posted to a public website in September, the Maine Office of Information Technology said Monday.

The office “has begun notifying approximately 2,100 individuals of a recent incident that may have resulted in a temporary exposure of their personal information,” the agency said in a written statement.

More >> Seven weeks after breach, state tells 2,100 foster parents that personal data went online

• Data breach briefly exposes 2,100 Maine foster families

‘Secrecy is killing children’: Kansas child welfare system refuses to unseal records on abused, deceased kids: Report

Kansas police say that since 2014, at least 81 children who were supposed to be monitored by the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) died from abuse and neglect. The public is now fighting back in record numbers and demanding a change to help stop further preventable deaths, according to The Kansas City Star.

More >> ‘Secrecy is killing children’: Kansas child welfare system refuses to unseal records on abused, deceased kids: Report

• Kansas is being called one of the most secretive states in the nation

Murder warrants issued in death of Columbus foster girl who disappeared from hotel

Atlanta police have secured warrants for two suspects in the murder case of 17-year-old Dennetta Franks, a foster care girl who was found fatally shot in Atlanta after running away from a hotel in Columbus two months ago.

The warrants are for Wayne Bailey, 19, of Newnan, and Eddie Byrd, 18, of Atlanta, both of whom are currently in custody in Dekalb County on charges for a separate incident, according to Officer Lisa Bender, a public affairs officer in the Atlanta Police Department.

More >> Murder warrants issued in death of Columbus foster girl who disappeared from hotel

Kansas child welfare agency described as overly secretive

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The state agency in Kansas charged with protecting children from abuse and neglect instead works to hide how it operates to protect its reputation, legislators, former employees and family members say.

More >> Kansas child welfare agency described as overly secretive

Locking up ‘teenage thugs’ is a sign of failure

Time to lock up teen thugs.” That’s how one newspaper summed up the views of the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, after she called for “harsher and more effective” prison sentences for young criminals. Too many were “simply not fearful of how the state will respond to their actions”, Dick said in a speech to the Howard League for Penal Reform. One 16-year-old with 42 convictions had not spent a single day behind bars.

More >> Locking up ‘teenage thugs’ is a sign of failure

Revealed: The evangelical North Carolina church that 'kidnapped children with the help of a social worker insider and brainwashed them through years of abuse'

A secretive church congregation in North Carolina has used money, influence and lies to rip more than two dozen children from their parents and take them in as their own, an investigation has revealed.

Once the children were inside the Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, the evangelical church physically and verbally abused them for years, former congregation members claim.

More >> Revealed: The evangelical North Carolina church that 'kidnapped children with the help of a social worker insider and brainwashed them through years of abuse'

Birth grandmother who tried and failed to adopt little Elsie Scully-Hicks before she was murdered by her adoptive father says her killer should be HANGED

The adoptive father of tragic 18-month-old Elsie Scully-Hicks should be hanged for his crime, the girl's biological grandmother has said.

Sian O'Brien said that Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, got off 'quite lightly' when he was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years in prison for murdering Elsie just two weeks after formally adopting her.

More >> Birth grandmother who tried and failed to adopt little Elsie Scully-Hicks before she was murdered by her adoptive father says her killer should be HANGED

Nashville teacher sexual misconduct case riddled with school, police errors

Nashville school officials failed to tell child welfare investigators that they suspected a female high school teacher had engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, possibly for months.

Instead, the teacher was allowed to resign on April 21, 2016 – four days after then-Maplewood High School principal Ron Woodard reportedly told the girl's parents of the alleged behavior.

More >> Nashville teacher sexual misconduct case riddled with school, police errors

Michigan tests if more cash will help foster kids find safe homes faster

LANSING – Michigan's child welfare agency is testing whether an early infusion of cash will help abused and neglected children find safe homes more quickly. 

Throughout the state, the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services pays foster care organizations $46.20 per day for every child in their care, and keeps paying them until the child is either returned home or adopted. Those checks typically go out every two weeks.


More >> Michigan tests if more cash will help foster kids find safe homes faster

LAWMAKER ATTACKS HOMESCHOOLING AS 'CHILD ABUSE'

About five years ago, lawmakers in New Hampshire approved a series of changes to improve their citizens’ access to homeschooling, but they now appear to be preparing to roll back those improvements.

More >> LAWMAKER ATTACKS HOMESCHOOLING AS 'CHILD ABUSE'

Advocates worry that attempt to remove adoption credit could resurface in GOP tax plan

WASHINGTON — When Sara Horner adopted her son, Rylan, in 2013, her husband, Justin, had just left his career as a college track coach to start a real estate career.

More >> Advocates worry that attempt to remove adoption credit could resurface in GOP tax plan

Sherin Mathews' parents return to court for biological child

The parents of Sherin Mathews are set to return to back to court Monday morning for the custody of their biological 4-year-old daughter.

Wesley and Sini Mathews appeared in court Oct. 23 for their first hearing but it was pushed back to Nov. 13 so Wesley could hire a civil attorney.

More >> Sherin Mathews' parents return to court for biological child

Baby P detective sues ‘bully’ police after exposing child abuse and corruption

John Wedger said he was forced into early retirement from the Metropolitan Police after suffering a breakdown last year brought on by post traumatic stress disorder. 

The former detective constable has begun a civil claim against Scotland Yard seeking damages for psychiatric injury arising from work-related stress. 

More >> Baby P detective sues ‘bully’ police after exposing child abuse and corruption

Arizona's foster care boards don't look like their communities. Here's why that matters

Experts have long recognized inequalities in America's child-welfare system: When kids share identical circumstances except for race, black and Native American children enter foster care more often, spend more time in the system and wait longer to be adopted.

More >> Arizona's foster care boards don't look like their communities. Here's why that matters

Foster care system in dire straits, lawmakers concede, but don't count on needed money

FRANKFORT, Ky. — More money, more social workers and better pay.

That sums up what a 100-page report presented to lawmakers Thursday found is needed to shore up Kentucky's embattled social service system, burdened with an ever-increasing number of abused or neglected children coming into state care as social workers struggle to keep up.

More >> Foster care system in dire straits, lawmakers concede, but don't count on needed money

Police: Luzerne County Children and Youth employee assaulted

NOXEN TWP. — A teenager is accused of biting and shoving a Luzerne County Children and Youth employee during an incident in Wyoming County.

The teen also ripped the door handle off the employee’s vehicle, according to troopers.

The alleged victim was not identified in a report from State Police. It listed her only as a 39-year-old.

More >> Police: Luzerne County Children and Youth employee assaulted

Secrecy inside child welfare system can kill: ‘God help the children of Kansas’

Clint Blansett’s 10-year-old son had been dead just a few days when a social worker from the state knocked on the family’s door in south-central Kansas.

She wasn’t there to offer condolences after Caleb’s death or ask about his sister, Blansett said.

More >> Secrecy inside child welfare system can kill: ‘God help the children of Kansas’

Being Adopted and Inept Parenting: A Lethal Combination

Adoption speak in my house was forbidden.

I was adopted at three months, as was my brother. He was two years older than me. I have always known I was adopted but I had no real concept of what it meant.

The only thing I remember is ‘I’m not their child’ -- that in fact, their child died.

More >> Being Adopted and Inept Parenting: A Lethal Combination

Teen murders his foster family, including 10-year-old sister: Police

An Oregon teen is accused of shooting and killing his foster mother and his two sisters in Portland.

KRON 4 reports that the 16-year-old boy, Kevin Adams, is in police custody after surrendering at the scene of the killing on Tuesday night.

More >> Teen murders his foster family, including 10-year-old sister: Police

Teen Charged With Killing Gay Adoptive Dad So He Could Join Biological Dad In Jail

An Indianapolis teen was arrested last week in connection to a house fire that left his adoptive father Jason Doan, 45, dead, ABC affiliate RTV6 reports.

Charged as an adult, Jordan Marin-Doan, 16, pleaded not guilty to the charges of arson and murder.
More >> Teen Charged With Killing Gay Adoptive Dad So He Could Join Biological Dad In Jail

State finds violations at Davis County adoption agency

(KUTV) The Department of Human Services has placed Heart and Soul Adoption, Inc. of Centerville on a conditional license after finding violations that include over-charging adoptive parents.

More >> State finds violations at Davis County adoption agency

SAPD: Teen foster child says 58-year-old man groped him, applied to be his foster parent

Authorities on Thursday jailed a 58-year-old man after a 16-year-old foster child he had befriended told Child Protective Services the man had groped him, court records say.

Daniel Berckmoes, who was reportedly living with a different 17-year-old foster child at the time of his arrest, was charged with indecent child contact. He was booked into the Bexar County Jail on a $75,000 bond.

More >> SAPD: Teen foster child says 58-year-old man groped him, applied to be his foster parent