Overhaul of Kansas foster-care system urged
By DAVID KLEPPER
The Star’s Topeka correspondent
TOPEKA | Legislation to end Kansas’ privatized foster care system is the latest volley from lawmakers who say the state lacks oversight over the contractors managing such child welfare services.
Dozens of parents who lost custody of their children have complained to lawmakers in recent weeks that the state and its contractor caseworkers remove children without giving sufficient reason or the chance to appeal.
The legislation would stop the state from signing new deals with the foster care contractors. The Johnson County lawmaker behind the new legislation said it’s meant to force contractors to answer questions if they want to keep the state’s business.
“We’re certainly going to get their attention,” said Rep. Mike Kiegerl, an Olathe Republican. “There’s a lack of oversight, a lack of transparency. Nobody ought to have the kind of power these caseworkers have.”
The contractors and the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services say they’re happy to address lawmakers’ concerns.
They note that local police and judges also play a key role in deciding when a child should be removed.
SRS officials promised to investigate the complaints raised by parents. But they stand by the privatized system, which was the first of its kind in the United States when it began in 1996.
“We feel like we have made a lot of accomplishments since privatization,” said SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce.
Kyle Kessler, a spokesman for contractor KVC Behavioral HealthCare, said his company will “provide any information that is requested.”
To reach David Klepper, call 785-354-1388 or send e-mail to dklepper@kcstar.com.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 13, 2010 10:55 PM
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1682382.html
Sunday, January 24, 2010
APATHETIC-USA
http://apathetic-usa.com/
In the United States, the state cannot legally evaluate a person based on their race, or use physical or racial characteristics to judge them. CPS agencies use something much more subtle, but no less specious than Nazi racial hygiene measurements; they use psychological measurements to determine how defective (dangerous to his own child) a parent has been or is likely to be. Under the mechanism of court ordered or coerced “voluntary psychological evaluations, many parents are being ‘diagnosed’ as a ‘risk’ to their children based on psych eval findings from service providers who are paid for by the state; who conduct their evaluations based on a tainted family history provided by the state; and who, by their own admissions, stand to lose their contract with the state if they submit any findings that are contrary to what the caseworker has ordained. There seem to be no fixed rules for determining which children are taken and which are not regardless of statutory requirements. It depends on the whim of the case worker, many of whom falsify reports in order to support her claims. The children are subjected to intimidating and often professionally incompetent questions by the caseworkers. They use coercion, threats, and leading questions and even lie in order to validate the report of abuse. They excuse these tactics by rationalizing that a child often is unwilling to disclose abuse and they must use pressure to extract an accusation. They also object vehemently to having all interrogations video taped stating that it would traumatize the child. What it would do is expose their incompetence and predispositions. The laws do not all a case worker to take a child without a court order. Only police can do that. However, under the color law, they will often take the children by force. Parents routinely report their children being dragged, screaming, from their arms without having been presented with any evidence of abuse or neglect. Midnight raids on unsuspecting, sleeping families are not uncommon. Most child abuse is suffered at the hands of the state. Even courts cover up foster care abuse. At the very least, parents report that the children who are returned to them from foster care are not the same children that were taken. They are easily frightened, clingy and needy, they act out sexually or are physically and verbally abusive, they wet the bed, they test their parents’ love and violate established rules, schoolwork suffers, the are haunted and distrusting, and more. Evidently, foster care is not the warm fuzz panacea it’s cracked up to be. Without clear convincing evidence Foster care has become foster carceration and a place to restrain kids to become throway children in society. Many kids only become ‘orphans when they were taken from their parents…CPS agencies, in taking children who do not meet the statutory definition of abuse or neglect from loving homes is creating more throwaway children then they are legitimately saving. Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act, The Federal government pays $4000 bounty for every child adopted out of foster care who exceeds the 1997 baseline. If the child is ’special needs’-and most of them are virtue of the psychological trauma they suffer at being separated from their parents-the bounty goes up to $6000. These children come with adoption subsidies-a monthly check from government -Medicaid, food stamps, a hefty tax break and intensive support services. Just think what the biological parents could have done with those resources. Since the vast majority of the children are taken due to poverty related issues, the money provided to foster parents and adoptive parents could have prevented the removal of the children in the first place. The best interest of the child has become the equivalent of the Nazi’s ‘Final Solution;’ a phrase that sound good and justifies their destructive and abusive actions. Clearly, the U.S. has an extensive history of plugging other people’s children into whatever slot they feel is best, the child’s and the families need notwithstanding, placing political expediency above the humanitarian issue of truly protecting children. CPS will also say the children need a ‘reunification’ process before being returned home. Why was it acceptable to remove children precipitously form their parents, but they can’t be returned in the same manner? Could this be reverse brainwashing time? Or is it merely a mechanism to extend more control over the family? Whatever it is, CPS is extremely reluctant to allow foster children to return to their birth parents even if they haven’t proven abuse or neglect. CPS should be known as Critical Parent Services, when wrongful removals take place.
There have been cases where children have been seized by Child Protective Services unjustly and unnecessarily due to false allegations or extremely trivial allegations of child abuse and neglect which do not merit governmental interference. Critics suggest that these unnecessary removal of children from their natural families and homes are due to perverse federal financial funding streams which promote removals of children instead of family preservation measures.
There have been actual cases reported in Kansas and nationwide where children have been seized by CPS/SRS due to children having birthmarks which were wrongfully reported as bruises; where poverty has been confused with"neglect" and over not having cell phones (In Kansas and many other states, conditions directly related to poverty are not to be considered abuse or neglect); where homes were in disarray from spring cleaning, remolding and while moving into or out of a residence and this was wrongfully reported as neglect due to the condition of the home.
In the United States, the state cannot legally evaluate a person based on their race, or use physical or racial characteristics to judge them. CPS agencies use something much more subtle, but no less specious than Nazi racial hygiene measurements; they use psychological measurements to determine how defective (dangerous to his own child) a parent has been or is likely to be. Under the mechanism of court ordered or coerced “voluntary psychological evaluations, many parents are being ‘diagnosed’ as a ‘risk’ to their children based on psych eval findings from service providers who are paid for by the state; who conduct their evaluations based on a tainted family history provided by the state; and who, by their own admissions, stand to lose their contract with the state if they submit any findings that are contrary to what the caseworker has ordained. There seem to be no fixed rules for determining which children are taken and which are not regardless of statutory requirements. It depends on the whim of the case worker, many of whom falsify reports in order to support her claims. The children are subjected to intimidating and often professionally incompetent questions by the caseworkers. They use coercion, threats, and leading questions and even lie in order to validate the report of abuse. They excuse these tactics by rationalizing that a child often is unwilling to disclose abuse and they must use pressure to extract an accusation. They also object vehemently to having all interrogations video taped stating that it would traumatize the child. What it would do is expose their incompetence and predispositions. The laws do not all a case worker to take a child without a court order. Only police can do that. However, under the color law, they will often take the children by force. Parents routinely report their children being dragged, screaming, from their arms without having been presented with any evidence of abuse or neglect. Midnight raids on unsuspecting, sleeping families are not uncommon. Most child abuse is suffered at the hands of the state. Even courts cover up foster care abuse. At the very least, parents report that the children who are returned to them from foster care are not the same children that were taken. They are easily frightened, clingy and needy, they act out sexually or are physically and verbally abusive, they wet the bed, they test their parents’ love and violate established rules, schoolwork suffers, the are haunted and distrusting, and more. Evidently, foster care is not the warm fuzz panacea it’s cracked up to be. Without clear convincing evidence Foster care has become foster carceration and a place to restrain kids to become throway children in society. Many kids only become ‘orphans when they were taken from their parents…CPS agencies, in taking children who do not meet the statutory definition of abuse or neglect from loving homes is creating more throwaway children then they are legitimately saving. Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act, The Federal government pays $4000 bounty for every child adopted out of foster care who exceeds the 1997 baseline. If the child is ’special needs’-and most of them are virtue of the psychological trauma they suffer at being separated from their parents-the bounty goes up to $6000. These children come with adoption subsidies-a monthly check from government -Medicaid, food stamps, a hefty tax break and intensive support services. Just think what the biological parents could have done with those resources. Since the vast majority of the children are taken due to poverty related issues, the money provided to foster parents and adoptive parents could have prevented the removal of the children in the first place. The best interest of the child has become the equivalent of the Nazi’s ‘Final Solution;’ a phrase that sound good and justifies their destructive and abusive actions. Clearly, the U.S. has an extensive history of plugging other people’s children into whatever slot they feel is best, the child’s and the families need notwithstanding, placing political expediency above the humanitarian issue of truly protecting children. CPS will also say the children need a ‘reunification’ process before being returned home. Why was it acceptable to remove children precipitously form their parents, but they can’t be returned in the same manner? Could this be reverse brainwashing time? Or is it merely a mechanism to extend more control over the family? Whatever it is, CPS is extremely reluctant to allow foster children to return to their birth parents even if they haven’t proven abuse or neglect. CPS should be known as Critical Parent Services, when wrongful removals take place.
There have been cases where children have been seized by Child Protective Services unjustly and unnecessarily due to false allegations or extremely trivial allegations of child abuse and neglect which do not merit governmental interference. Critics suggest that these unnecessary removal of children from their natural families and homes are due to perverse federal financial funding streams which promote removals of children instead of family preservation measures.
There have been actual cases reported in Kansas and nationwide where children have been seized by CPS/SRS due to children having birthmarks which were wrongfully reported as bruises; where poverty has been confused with"neglect" and over not having cell phones (In Kansas and many other states, conditions directly related to poverty are not to be considered abuse or neglect); where homes were in disarray from spring cleaning, remolding and while moving into or out of a residence and this was wrongfully reported as neglect due to the condition of the home.
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