Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act 2008

Graph from Maia Szalavitz's article about "The Cult That Spawned the Tough-Love Teen Industry," August 20, 2007.





H.R. 5876 is the first piece of federal legislation seeking to regulate and monitor abusive treatment within teen behavior modification programs in the United States.

Alternately called residential treatment centers, wilderness camps or boot camps, these programs aspire to "reform" teenagers with discipline problems.

However, the treatment that they provide often violates the rights of young people.

Disciplinary measures can include physical or mental abuse, physical restraints and withholding food, water, clothing, shelter or medical care, as a form of punishment. As a result, some teenagers die in these camps, while others emerge with physical and emotional scars.

Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres documents the abuse that she and her adopted brother experienced in a fundamentalist Dominican Republic reform school. Other survivors have been courageous enough to share their experiences in an effort to inspire reform.

The time has come for these programs to be held accountable, and subject to regulation, oversight and standards.

This bill would:
- Prohibit programs from physically, mentally or sexually abusing youth in their care
- Prohibit the denial of essential water, food, clothing, shelter or medical care
- Require that programs physically restrain children only if it is necessary for their safety or the safety of others, and to do so in a way that is consistent with existing federal law on the use of restraints
- Hold the programs accountable by requiring unannounced site inspections at least every two years and imposing civil penalties for up to $50,000 for violations of the law
- Enable parents to file civil action suits if national standards are violated and their child is abused and harmed.

In addition:
- Programs would be required to disclose the qualifications, roles and responsibilities of all staff members
- Staff members would be trained in what constitutes child abuse and how to report it
- Emergency medical care must be made available on-site

This bill is supported by: the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth and the National Youth Rights Association.

H.R. 5876 has passed committee and will be voted on by the full House of Representatives later this month...

No, Michael Robinson, your parenting skills are only worsening over time

Photo of Sue Hutchins and boyfriend Michael Robinson from dispatch.com

After beating his infant son into an irreversible coma, Michael Robinson said, "When can I see my kids again? I love my kids. I never said that I was the best father. Maybe I can get better with time."


Time. Let's talk about the concept of time.

Infant Dana Robinson could live up to 20 years on a feeding tube with no awareness of his own existence.

Or, let's review how many times Robinson and his girlfriend have been charged with child abuse before.

The couple has a long history of child abuse allegations, including three detailed investigations. Hutchins' two daughters have been with relatives since an abuse investigation in 2005.

Robinson actually ordered his three sons to hit Robinson's daughters in order to "toughen them up."

Dana's two-year-old brother Daven's thigh bone was broken in three places when he was one month old. The spiral fracture was "indicative of a rapid twisting of great force."

Mother, Sue Hutchins, must also carry the weight of responsibility. When two-year-old Draven was temporarily removed from her custody in 2005, a court order was issued for her not to live with Robinson.

She abided by this order throughout her pregnancy with Dana. However, three weeks before Dana was hospitalized, Children Services received an anonymous phone call that the couple were back together again, if not residing in the same household.

Before beating one-year-old Dana into a coma, Robinson also broke the baby's ribs. When he arrived at the hospital, baby Dana was covered with bruises, bite marks and indentations from pinching.

Where are Dana's six siblings?
- Robinson's other three sons (ages 8, 10 and 12) are living with an uncle.
- Hutchins' two daughters by another man (ages 9 and 11) are living with their paternal grandparents.
- Children's Services are trying to revoke custody of two-year-old Draven and place him and Dana up for adoption.

What charges are being levied against these parents?
- Both Robinson and Hutchins are currently housed in the Logan County Jail.
- Michael Robinson is being charged with felony child endangering, felonious assault and domestic violence
- Sue Hutchins is charged with a felony count of permitting child abuse

Sources:
Man wanted tough baby, police say. Columbus Dispatch, March 18, 2007.
Zachariah, Holly. Doctors: Beaten baby is brain-dead. Columbus Dispatch, March 16, 2007.

Collector families committing child abuse

Photograph of Michael and Sharen Gravelle from msnbc.com

"Collector families" is a term referring to adoptive (or foster) families who take in large numbers of hard-to-place children and receive financial subsidies.


Three questions to consider regarding large adoptive families:

1.) How large are they?
2.) How much individual attention are the children getting?
3.) Are the parents motivated by compassion, or financial gain?

How many is too many?
Licensed day cares and special education facilities have a strict staff-child ratio.

Shouldn't foster care and adoptions pay more attention to how many children are living in the household? Particularly for treatment foster care, medically fragile children or children with special needs?

-Illinois licensing rules rule out placing more than six children in a foster home.
-In Michigan, it is not uncommon for foster families to house eight children at a time.
-In Ohio, the limit was previously set at ten children, although the Gravelle case prompted recommendations for lowering that number.

I'm not knocking all large adoptive families. In fact, my friend Johanna has a large adoptive family of her own. However, I do encourage caution.

The best case scenario for adoptive placements are storylines worthy of a Hallmark movie. But, the worst case scenarios are the stuff that nightmares are made of…

1.) Michelle and Jeffery Reid have been operating an unlicensed foster care home in North Carolina for years. Officials say the couple misrepresented themselves as experts in treating specific emotional disorders and were getting large sums of money from various agencies. Despite their lack of qualifications, they have housed up to 15 special-needs children in their home at one time.

The Reids accomplished this deception by adopting out of state, in Wisconsin, Kentucky, Illinois and Colorado. Allegations of abuse were made in June 2003, April 2004, December 2005 and June 2006.

2.) Michael and Sharen Gravelle were allowed to adopt 11 children with a host of health and behavioral problems. They couldn't handle the number and needs of the children in their care, so they made them sleep in wooden cages without pillows or mattresses.

The Gravelles were unqualified to care for special needs children. In fact, Michael Gravelle previously lost custody of his biological daughter after allegations of sexual abuse. And yet, they were entrusted with 11 children, and paid at least $500 per month in adoption subsidies for each child.

3.) Elizabeth Hazelbaker, a widow living in Butler County, Ohio, had 11 kids living in her home. Six were adopted. Five were Butler County foster children, ranging in age from 1 to 16.

A private agency in Kettering had placed five additional children with Hazelbaker after her husband died in 2003. State records show that the agency's caseworkers didn't check to see if they were more than Hazelbaker could handle alone.

Hazelbaker became abusive after her husband's death. She taped or leashed younger children into their chairs and spit into children's mouths as punishment for being too loud. Children were forced to forage into the garbage because they weren't given enough food to eat.

4.) Mercury Liggins adopted seven children and continued to collect $3,584 a month for their care during the ten months after she had abandoned them in Nigeria.

Before adopting her seven Texas children, Mercury had also adopted two other children from a man she was married to from 1979 to 1990.

5.) Thomas and Debra Schmitz, of Trenton, Tennesseee had 18 children in their house at the time of their arrest - including children whom they had adopted, foster children and children unofficially transferred to their care by other foster/adoptive parents who "needed a break."

The Schmitz proported themselves to others as experts, but their method of disciplining the children in their care was abusive and bizarre. They ordered one girl to eat her own vomit, made another girl sleep naked on the floor, forced a young boy wear soiled diapers on his head, sat on one girl and urinated on her, and pushed a wheelchair-bound girl into a swimming pool.

Police found evidence that the couple had wired a warning system to alert them when visitors came up the driveway.

Apparently, child welfare workers made visits to the house over the years and reported nothing amiss. Which really makes you wonder about the common sense factor...

Sources:
Eleven children taken from home after abuse allegations. WKYC, Oct. 5, 2005.
Garcia, Carmen. Elon couple face charges in foster care fraud. WMFR News, March 4, 2007.
Hewitt, Bill. Safe haven or house of horror? People Weekly, Feb. 13, 2006, pg. 1000.
Langford, Terri. 'Y'all are going to Nigeria.' Houston Chronicle, January 7, 2007.
McCain, Tracey. Foster Parents charged with child abuse: Alamance County deputies say an Elon couple abused 14 foster kids. WFMY, March 1, 2007.
Sheila McLaughlin. Agency overlooked foster care dangers. Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 24, 2006.
Police charge foster parents with abuse: Couple allegedly did not have license to care for the disabled children. Times-News, Feb. 28, 2007.
Warren, Jay. Five Butler Co. children involved in foster care case. WCPO, Oct. 25, 2005.

Two worst foster abuse cases I've heard about lately

Photograph of Georgie Buoy; note the moral vacancy in her eyes.

Okay - deep breath. Some news stories are so terrible that I don't even want to write about them.

Here are two of them:
1.) Robert Clinton (FL): This despicable man photographed himself having sex with his three-year-old foster daughter. Sheriff's officals found 40 photographs of the two of them together.

And, when confronted by the evidence, what did Robert Clinton say? He said that she "had not been harmed."

Not harmed? Imagine being a three-year-old child and having the person entrusted with your care abuse you and exploit you in this fashion. Wondering at the time if you deserved it. Thinking that something must be wrong with you, because you aren't living with your family anymore.

Young children are like teenagers: egocentric. If something goes wrong, a young child thinks that they made it happen.

All I can do is hope that as this young girl grows up, she will eventually come to the realization that this was not her fault, that something inside of Robert Clinton, something dark and disturbing, led him to do this to her.

I hope that in time she realizes that what she deserves is love, protection and shelter. A three-year-old child should never know what it feels like to have a man force himself into her and photograph the experience.

Did I mention that she was the 13th foster child entrusted to his care?

2.) Georgie Audean Buoy (OR): This 84-year-old woman has been charged with several counts of sexual abuse in at least three separate incidents. In a taped confession, she admitted having sex with her 11-year-old foster son.

Sources:
Foster parent arrested for child sex photos. ABC, Feb. 15, 2007.

McCall, William. 84-year-old woman admits sex with boy in foster care. Seattle Times, Feb. 16, 2007.

Sex battery charges filed against foster parent. WFTV, Feb. 15, 2007.

Foster care statistics

Each year, over 20,000 young people "age out" the U.S. foster care system.

Older youth (aged 16–18) are more likely to be living in group homes or
institutions than the overall foster care population—the least “family-like” settings.

In 2005:
- 513,000 children were in foster care
- 48% were female (243,964)
- 41% were Caucasian (208,537)
- 94,650 were in group homes or other institutional settings
- 4,445 foster children ran away
- 51,000 children were adopted
- 114,000 children eligible for adoption and waiting for homes

Each week, nearly 60,000 children in the United States are reported as abused or neglected.

In 2003:
- 2.9 million reports of child abuse and neglect were filed
- Of those reports, 944,531 were referred for investigation
- 906,000 reports were substantiated or indicated
- 61% were neglected, 19% were physically abused, and 10% were sexually abused.
- Only 57.1% of these children received follow-up services

Seven out of 10 cases of child abuse and neglect are exacerbated by parental drug / alcohol abuse.

In 2005:
-40% of responding child welfare officials reported increases in the number of children placed in foster care due to parental methamphetamine use in the past year
-Children whose families do not receive appropriate treatment for alcohol and other drug abuse are more likely to end up in foster care, remain in foster care longer, and reenter foster care once they have returned home.

Role of caseworkers:
Federal Child and Family Service Reviews have clearly demonstrated that the more time a caseworker spends with a child and family, the better the outcomes for those children and families.

Currently, nationwide, staff shortages, high caseloads, high worker turnover, and low salaries impinge on the delivery of services to achieve safety, permanence, and well-being for children.

Sources:
Adoption and Foster Care Reporting and Analysis System (AFCARS)
Casey Family Programs
Chapin Hill Center for Children
Child Welfare Information Gateway: http://www.childwelfare.gov/
Child Welfare League of America (CWLA)

Michigan foster care system in need of reform

Two-year-old Isaac Lethbridge was removed from his parents on charges of neglect, and placed into a foster home by state. His parents, Matt and Jennifer Lethbridge, had already lost custody of Issac's eight siblings, due to neglect. Jennifer is currently pregnant with her tenth child.

Isaac didn't choose his parents - and he certainly didn't choose his foster placement, where he was beaten to death. He did not choose to be burned, beaten and sexually abused within this foster care placement.

Isaac was the third child to die under the state's watch during the last 18 months.

Recent suggestions that have been made by Michigan residents include:

* Accreditation: Less than half of the 500 licensed child-placing agencies in Michigan are accredited.

"The state should push for accreditation of the 500 public and private agencies involved in managing care for foster children. Even stricter than the federal requirement of licensing for care, this would bring much needed accountability to the system, giving agencies and caseworkers a clear set of guidelines for monitoring care - or risking the loss of their accreditation and jobs."

* Smaller caseloads and more strategic use of staff: Michigan caseworkers typically handle caseloads of 20 children or more, which is higher than the national standard. The department has fewer than 10,000 workers, and training funds have been cut.

"The state assigns dozens of workers to monitor case files to make sure agencies meet state laws. It would be more efficient to assign them, in SWAT team fashion, to complaints so that everyone knows what's under investigation and what's being done about it. This could help caseworkers with their loads as well."

* Mandatory psych evaluations:
"Now, the state puts potential caregivers and foster parents through criminal background checks and makes sure they don't appear on the state registry of people with histories of child mistreatment. Psychological tests, which cost at least $200 apiece, would help better judge the fitness level of people the state asks to care for its children."

* Watch out for 'collector families:' Illinois, which is being upheld as a model for Michigan to follow,their changed licensing rules to rule out placing more than six children in a foster home, except in rare cases. In Michigan, it's not uncommon for foster homes to have as many as eight foster children.

"Do more with less" always means money
Children's Rights, a New York-based advocacy group sued the state in August 2006.

Michigan's budget deficit is projected at more than $800 million for the current fiscal year.

Federal foster-care reimbursements to counties are less than they ever have been. Wayne County, which handles about one-third of all of the children in foster care in the state, now pays out an extra $40 million a year for foster children, due to federal reimbursement drop-offs.

More than 3 in 4 children entering foster care in Michigan do so because of parental neglect, not abuse. It is interesting to note that a few years ago, Michigan was considered a model for other states because of its family preservation programs. That was before funds were cut, and programs preventing maltreatment, including parenting classes, were eliminated.

There was also a "changing of the guard." Early retirements and staff reductions at DHS since the late 1990s have resulted in the loss of 4,000 workers - many of whom have been described as the most-seasoned and best-trained staffers.

Sources:
Photo from caica.org

Dickerson, Brian. How many chances do parents get? Detroit Free Press. Jan. 31, 2007.
Kresnak, Jack. System overhaul could be only hope - faster adoptions, smaller caseloads seen as solutions. Detroit Free Press, Jan. 30, 2007.

Valenti, Mark. Reform system to save children - tight budges are no excuse when foster children's lives are at risk. Detroit Free Press, Jan. 31, 2007.

Abusive residential treatment centers and foster homes