Too Many Children Die in America as a Result of Abuse and Neglect. We Can Do Better.

Every Child Matters has released the second edition of  We Can Do Better: Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths in America, a compelling report that explores the crisis of child maltreatment fatalities in the United States.

A weak economy and resulting state budget cuts are putting even more children at risk, leading to a Growing Crisis in Child Protection.

A series of recommendations were previously proposed during the 2009 Summit to End Child Abuse Deaths in America. Included among them is the observation that "Current levels of federal spending are far below the level needed to protect all children at imminent risk of harm."

The National  Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths has launched a campaign urging Congress and the Administration to:

1. To conduct Congressional hearings on child abuse deaths
2. To provide emergency funds to stop state cuts in child protective services
3. To adopt a national strategy to prevent child abuse and stop child deaths

This Coalition includes the following partners:

• Every Child Matters 
• National Center for Child Death Review
• National Children's Alliance
• National Association of Social Workers
• National District Attorney's Association

More information about the Coalition, including how YOU can advocate to support their efforts is available at: http://everychildmatters.org/resources/reports/child-abuse-and-neglect

Remembering Cameron on Memorial Day

Some of us survive foster care, and live to make a positive difference for others. Others of us don't make it.

As with many youth in foster care, Cameron Smith was shuttled frequently from placement to placement. He began to fall behind in school. At least one family member contacted DCFS to request custody of Cameron, but their request was denied.

Instead, he was housed in a Juvenile Detention Center for a time, because a foster home could not be found for him.

When the Department of Child and Family Services finally did find a home for Cameron, it was with a single mother who was retired, disabled and caring for 7 children.

14-year-old Cameron was playing basketball with a 15-year-old friend in a park in Jonesboro when shots rang out. The friend was shot in the knee; Cameron took a shot to the torso. He collapsed in front of an apartment complex. His body was found on May 21, 2007.

Many questions were asked by friends and relatives when Cameron's body was found.

His many friends, who showed up at the City Youth Ministries in Jonesboro carrying candles to represent his brief life wondered: "Why him?"

Andrea Smith, his cousin, had harder questions to ask, like: Why wasn't there a missing person's report when 14-year-old Cameron first turned up missing?

Terri Ross, Cameron's third-grade teacher found it hard to believe that only four years after leaving her class, Cameron was now being buried. She said, "He was just an innocent child. All of these are kids and they're just kids in bigger bodies as they get older and they still need hugs and kisses and they still need a mom and dad, or somebody to love them."

Yes, they need someone to love them - and, in foster care, you learn to wait.

Cameron Smith of Jonesboro, Arkansas, will never have the chance to outlast the demons of his childhood.

Knowing that makes me feel terribly sad.

Sources: kait8.com and WMCTV.com

Class action lawsuit against the state of Nevada

Nevada receives millions of dollars from the federal government to provide for foster care. Yet, an increasing number of children are dying in Clark County, Nevada.

The National Center for Youth Law is not asking for money.
They are asking for reform.

Today, they filed a class action lawsuit against:
-Nevada Governor Kennth Guinn
-Nevada Health and Human Services Director Michael Willden
-Clark County Official.

The charge is failing to protect the health and safety of the children in Clark County's child welfare system. This Nevada county is responsible for the welfare of over 3,600 children.

Among the charges against Clark County:
-Violating federal law that requires full disclosure of information about child abuse victims who have died or suffered near fatalities. Rather than doing so, staff have hidden behind a cloud of "confidentiality."

-Federal, state and county reports have documented the county's failure to protect child abuse victims and children in foster care. Children are dying, due to unsafe foster placements and by being left with their parents after substantiated reports of abuse.

Systemic problems with the Clark County child welfare system:

1.) Overcrowding in Child Haven: Infants and young children being placed with older children who have behavioral problems. Youth forced to sleep in the gym / on the floor.

2.) Inadequate investigations of child abuse: Not removing a child when the abuse charges are substantiated. Leaving children in life-threatening situations.

3.) Inadequate caseworker training: Combined with high caseloads, this is a recipe for disaster.

4.) Lack of representation for children in dependency court hearings: No one to speak for the children, who cannot speak for themselves.

5.) Failure to provide appropriate educational services to foster children.

Shortcuts have been taken, and children's deaths have been the result:
-Cases have been closed, although problems in the family and risks to the child's safety have not been resolved.
-DCF records do not contain coroner or law enforcemen reports.
-Caseworkers have been substituting a monthly phone call for home visits.
-Children have been returned to parents who have failed to complete substance abuse treatments.
-No follow-up with siblings, to ensure their safety, after a child has died.

Mandatory safery assessment forms were:
-Often incorrect
-Often incomplete
-Dated long after the date of the abuse

I applaud Bill Grimm, lead counsel in the case against Clark County, when he says, "The suffering of these children has gone on long enough. For years, state and county officials have known of the serious deficiencies ... and yet the situation keeps getting worse. The lives of thousands of children are literally hanging in the balance."

Sources:
McCarty, Colleen McCarty. Lawsuit filed against Nevada over child welfare. KLAS-TV,Aug 30, 2006.
Schroth, Tracy. National Center for Youth Law files lawsuit in Nevada to improve child welfare system. Press release from National Center for Youth Law, Aug. 30, 2006.

Concern about Las Vegas Foster Care

In my previous blog, I outlined several problems with the Clark County foster care system. If you haven't read it, please do so because it is the context for this posting:

Children cannot pick their parents. They have little to no control when it comes to their foster placements. Sometimes, in foster care, children are raped. Sometimes severely abused. Rape and abuse scar deeply, but I know from experience that healing is possible.

Sometimes, in foster care or with their parents, children die. This is happening far too often with the Clark County foster care system. It is unacceptable.

Children often have no voice. As adults, we can be a voice for youth who cannot speak for themselves. This is both a supreme privilege and a weighty responsibility.

Children who are being abused feel alone. Think back to the worst thing that ever happened to you. Did you feel alone? Isolated in your experience?

Something must be done about this situation:
1.) I have contacted other foster alumni to ask for their insights.

2.) I have contacted Carole Schauffer, the Executive Director of the Youth Law Center.

3.) I have contacted Clark County Children's Services Director, Tom Morton.

It's not enough:
Please share your ideas and insights.
What can we do to improve this situation?

Death Rate in Foster Care

Is a child is four times more likely to die in the Texas foster care system than outside it?

Yes, according to Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, when she released data last Friday on foster care deaths, poisonings, rapes and pregnancies, saying, "Many children are in more abusive situations now than they were before the state intervened."

-Between 2003 and 2005, the number of children in foster care increased 24%.

-Meanwhile, the number of deaths in foster care between 2003-2005 increased 60%. According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, 30 children died in foster care in 2003, 38 in 2004 and 48 children died in foster care in 2005.

Strayhorn alleged that the Health and Human Services Commission and the governor tried to block her attempts to gather more information about children in foster care.

Strayhorn began her investigation in 2004 after releasing a report on the foster care system called "Forgotten Children." It was at that time that she noticed that an alarming number of poisonings, rapes and pregnancies were taking place within the Texas foster care system.

In 2004:
- 100 Texas foster children were treated for poisoning due to medications they had received while in foster care.
- 63 Texas foster children received medical treatment because of rape occurring within the foster care system.
- 142 Texas foster children gave birth while in foster care.

Death in foster care:
- Two young men died at the Star Ranch residential treatment facility near Kerrville.
- A 12-year-old died last December after being restrained by a staffer
- A foster child drowned in a creek during a May outing.

"The state is supposed to be protecting our forgotten children, but in all too many cases these children are taken from one abusive situation and placed in another abusive situation," said Strayhorn.

Representatives from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Texas, Justice for Children and Judicial Watch are calling on the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to release additional foster care data.

Sources
-Hughes, Polly Ross. Comptroller reports foster care abuse; Data show deaths increasing but agency calls comparison unfair. Houston Chronicle, Houston, TX, June 24, 2006: pg. 1.

-MacLaggan, Corrie. Strayhorn: Foster care in crisis. Auston American Statesman, Austin TX: June 24, 2006: p. B1.

-Moritz, John. Strayhorn seeks changes in foster care. Star Telegram Austin Bureau.