Domestic Violence Victims Suing Child Welfare Agency:
Class Action Lawsuit Charges ACS Policies Endanger Women and Children
June 15, 2000
New York, NY
A class action lawsuit was filed in federal court against the New York City's Administration for Children's Services (ACS) and the New York Police Department. The plaintiffs claim that ACS and the police take children from victims of domestic violence and put them in foster care -- whether the children are in danger or not. The children are removed from their mother's care because the mother is said to have "engaged in domestic violence" while the children were present. It is claimed that this policy discourages abused women from seeking help by branding battered women "bad mothers." For example, Sharwline Nicholson called 911 for help when her ex (who had moved out of the area) suddenly returned and began beating her. New York police officers later removed Nicholson's children (ages one and five) at gunpoint and handed the children over to ACS, who kept the children in foster care for 3 weeks. Even after returning the children, ACS continued to charge Nicholson with child neglect in the Family Court.
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Non-offending parents get victimized by CPS
http://www.justicewomen.com/tips_bewarechildprotectiveservices.html To see full article
"And in 2004, in New York state, there was a landmark settlement in a class action lawsuit against that state's child welfare agencies. The lawsuit, Nicholson v. Scoppetta, had been brought by mothers who had their children removed for no other reason than that the mothers, victims of domestic violence, had failed to protect their children from 'exposure' to the domestic violence. The 2004 lawsuit agreement and an earlier injunction prohibited child welfare agencies from using this reason alone to remove children from non-offending parents.
Though the lawsuit put CPS agencies around the country on notice of their wrongdoing and harm done in these cases, to date it has brought only modest change in practice. The vague laws and weak evidence standards governing CPS means that CPS workers need only adjust the language used in their justification for removing a child, offer the usual scant proof, and many juvenile courts continue removing children in these situations as before."
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Competing child death bills reviewed
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AMANDA FEHD
Associated Press Writer
March 15, 2007, 4:01 AM
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Nevada lawmakers reviewed two bills on Wednesday aimed at boosting disclosure requirements of child welfare agencies when a child in state custody dies or nearly dies due to abuse or neglect.
Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, pushed for AB261, which would require child welfare agencies to release information to a legislative auditor on circumstances of a death or near-death.
Buckley also took issue with AB263, a broader and, at times, competing bill that also was heard by the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee.
AB263, backed by the Department of Health and Human Services, allows for more exemptions from reporting requirements than Buckley's bill. It prohibits releasing information "that tends to undermine or adversely affect an ongoing or future criminal investigation," and Buckley said that language was too broad.
"Certainly that bill would prevent more information from being released," Buckley said, adding later that "the reason most of this information isn't released is because it embarrasses the agency."
Clark County's Department of Family Services came under fire last year for underreporting child deaths due to maltreatment, and again in January after disclosures that the county's district attorney's office had censored part of a report that detailed abuse and death cases.
Family Services Director Thomas Morton and Darryl Martin, Clark County assistant manager, voiced support for both bills on Wednesday.
The Nevada Press Association supported the spirit of both bills but took issue with provisions in the AB263 that would exempt some meetings on child death cases from open meeting laws.
"We're trying to shine light here, not draw the blinds," said Barry Smith, executive director of the association.
The Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also opposed the closed meeting provision, along with another that would place requirements on prosecutors choosing whether to pursue cases of child deaths.
"We don't always agree with judges and prosecutors .... and yet we recognize that prosecutorial discretion is a cornerstone or lynchpin of the entire justice system," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU.
The union that represents child welfare workers opposed a section that would allow disciplinary action against employees.
Renee Ruiz, with the Nevada Service Employees International Union, said child welfare workers support transparency and public disclosure required by the two bills, but fear that AB263 would jeopardize workers' rights to due process.
The bill requires disciplinary action against an "employee who substantially contributes to the noncompliance of the agency" to the disclosure law.
Both bills came from an interim committee covering child death issues. Buckley said members of that committee were frustrated by how hard it was to obtain information, and what they did get often was cursory.
"It was deplorable in its scantness. It didn't tell you anything about what really happened to the child," Buckley said.
www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2007/mar/14/031410126.html
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http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4292085
Colleen McCarty, Investigative Reporter
Update: Child Deaths in Clark County
Updated:
Dec 27, 2005 05:46 PM PST
Next week a legislative committee will begin to try to figure out why so many children in Clark County are dying despite intervention from Child Protective Services. The answers, though, will likely be limited because of privacy issues.
Clark County maintains state law prohibits them from releasing any child's death records. In short when a child dies we can't find out why or learn what, if anything, could have prevented the death. There's no public accountability.
In September, the Las Vegas Sun joined by KLAS-TV filed a lawsuit to get the records related to the death of Adacelli Snyder -- a 2-year-old who starved to death. The judge denied our request. But shortly thereafter, the county filed legal papers asking what records can be released. That effort, however, seems to be going nowhere. No hearing date has been set and the District Attorney's office tells the I-Team it can't procede unless the state participates.
The federal government has demanded the records be released and the state has asked for an attorney general's opinion on the issue. It, however, is non-binding. So without guidance from the district court we may never have public scrutiny of the agencies that are supposed to protect children.
A state review of child deaths in Clark County over the last four years found more than 200 children have died despite intervention from county and state agencies.
Contact Investigative Reporter Colleen McCarty | | | | | |
a foster parent
speaks out
Mary Callahan is an author of two books, an emergency room nurse, and a foster parent in Maine, a state forced to confront the failures of what was then its Department of Human Services (DHS) when five-year-old Logan Marr was taken from her mother, Christie, only to die in foster care, bound to a high chair with 42 feet of duct tape. The foster mother was convicted of manslaughter.
As new leadership faced up to the problems in Maine, Mary Callahan became a respected voice for reform. Callahan was invited to give a presentation to an Advisory Commission working on restructuring human services in Maine. That restructuring now is complete, and there have been dramatic improvements since Callahan gave this presentation, on August 7, 2003. It is reprinted with permission.
http://www.nccpr.org/reports/fosterparent.doc
Excellent written piece coming from a foster parent.
Just Who's Abusing Whom?
By: Annette M. Hall
Today in America, 935 children were forcibly removed from their home and entered the national foster care system. Admittedly, some of these children may actually be helped by the system on some level. What about those children who get caught in the web unjustifiably?
Did you know that 20% of all children in California are in foster care. I wanted to bring you the actual numbers, so you can see for yourself just how tragic the situation is. However the way the numbers are tabulated, showing exact numbers of children and families affected by current child welfare laws is nearly impossible.
For full article see: http://kidjacked.com/fostercare/whos_abusing_whom.asp
Legislator seeking accounting of kids’ meds
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More children are on psychiatric medications than ever, according to state and national data, and Arizona taxpayers last year paid more than $26 million for these drugs to treat kids in publicly funded health programs.
For full article see: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/105985
Foster care system still falls short
Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the filing of the Braam lawsuit on behalf of Washington state's foster care children. That landmark case, settled in July 2004, showed substantive flaws in the way the Department of Social and Health Services handles the 9,700 children in foster care.
For full story see:http://www.theolympian.com/opinion/story/289215.html
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Foster care abuse in Michigan. Distraught father cannot get the system to hear.....as usual
  
 
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