CPS: Children placed in offices due to lack of available beds
6/26/2007 6:02 PM
By: Amy Hadley
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=186960
Kids spending the night in conference rooms -- that's been a solution
Child Protective Services has used to house foster children it is unable
to place.
Air mattresses, pillows and blankets are tucked away in cabinets and
closets, ready to turn rooms at CPS office buildings into makeshift
bedrooms.
Since January, foster children have been sleeping at CPS offices as a
short-term solution to finding foster placements. And the numbers have
been on the rise every month, from 32 in January to 160 in May. The
total since January is 479.
This problem is a symptom of a shift of CPS resources to child abuse
investigations, at the expense of finding placements for foster children.
"The system as it exists now is maxed," Patrick Crimmins, with CPS, said.
Crimmins said the problem is tri-fold. First, there are 40 percent more
children in foster care this year than last, but only 26 percent more
foster homes and facilities.
"The number of kids in foster care is increasing faster than the
number of placements we have for them. So it's a supply and demand
problem," he said.
Crimmins also said some providers are refusing to take certain children.
He said the ones housed at CPS offices are those who are harder to place.
"Mental illness, some of them are violent, they can be aggressive. Some
of them are runaways. So these are very, very difficult children to
place," he said.
And the third problem, he said, is there are facilities that don't meet
CPS's minimum standards, so those are not an option.
Texas CPS will have to find real places to sleep for all the children in
foster care after July 1.
Regardless of the reasons, the 10 Travis County civil district judges
signed an order last Thursday saying children cannot be housed in state
offices. The exception is in emergencies.
"It appears to me, this is a lack of planning," 126th District Judge
Darlene Byrne said. "I know it's not easy. So is it lazy? I wouldn't say
it's lazy. It certainly isn't creative. It is not finding the
appropriate long-term solution for the issue before us."
As of July 1, CPS cannot house Travis County children in offices.
"I can't help but believe there is someone in the system who is really
good at math, really good at budgets, and can draft really good
contracts and figure out how to develop a long term plan to adequately
provide housing for our kids," Byrne said.
"We do need more facilities. We need more residential treatment
facilities and we need more emergency shelters," Crimmins said. "Every
single day there's kind of an emergency meeting that's held here in
Austin to go over each one of the cases of the children who've been in
the offices the night before. And we discuss what we can do to get this
child out of an office and into a regular placement."
Caseworkers are paid overtime to stay overnight with the children, two
for every child. Judges say given the types of children having to stay
in offices, caseworkers are not adequately trained to care for them.
"The children they provide a safe home for are sometimes children that
have lived through some of our worst nightmares and these children do
need a lot of special care and support," Byrne said.
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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