Sociology > Education > Texas House steps up foster oversight because of the beating deaths
| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"fx" |
| Date: |
22 May 2007 02:47:25 AM |
| Object: |
Texas House steps up foster oversight because of the beating deaths |
House steps up foster oversight
Legislature: Bill that curtails privatization at odds with Senate plan
12:05 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 22, 2007
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/052207dntexcps.39eda85.html
AUSTIN – A bill that would strengthen protection of foster children –
and roll back almost all of the privatization of foster care lawmakers
ordered last session – was endorsed by the House on Monday.
Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, said the Legislature is "learning
from the mistakes of the past, where children were kept in placements
that proved to be unsafe and even deadly."
News reports about the beating deaths of three foster children in North
Texas since August 2005 have revealed spotty state oversight of foster
care contractors and state officials' lack of information about Texas'
nearly 10,000 foster homes.
The bill, which the House tentatively passed on a voice vote, now
returns to the Senate.
Mr. Rose, its House sponsor, and a spokesman for Sen. Jane Nelson,
R-Lewisville, its Senate author, said the Senate is likely to refuse to
accept House changes.
That would set up negotiations between the two chambers – though
turbulence in the House over Speaker Tom Craddick's leadership might
make Ms. Nelson hesitant to demand a conference committee because she
might lose the bill in an end of session meltdown.
The bill calls for annual inspections of foster homes. Currently, about
one-third are inspected each year.
It also would provide money to families considered at risk of abusing or
neglecting their youngsters because of their poverty. The authors hope
the move would help reduce demand for loving, competent foster homes,
which are in short supply.
The measure also would require a database be kept on foster parents who
have been dismissed by private child-placing agencies. Some law
lawmakers fear that a small number of foster parents are evading
detection by jumping from agency to agency.
Mr. Rose, who heads the House's social services panel, said its major
disagreement with the Senate version was over a 2005 protective services
overhaul's mandate that about 100 child-placing agencies that contract
with the state take over all recruitment of foster homes and arrangement
of adoptions.
He said the House version "steers the state back in the right direction,
away from the overly aggressive privatization" approved last session.
More differences
While Ms. Nelson's bill would wipe out the jobs of 250 Child Protective
Services workers who recruit foster homes and arrange adoptions, the
House version would let them continue to oversee about one-third of
foster homes and arrange two-thirds of adoptions
Both chambers backtracked on another outsourcing mandate – that CPS
conservatorship workers' "case management" duties be handed off to the
private sector by 2012.
The Senate would allow a pilot involving 10 percent or more of the
30,000 children who are in state care on any given day. It would start
in fall 2009.
The House would also allow the pilot, but cap it at 10 percent and start
it a year earlier. It also makes clear that CPS conservatorship workers
– not a private company's employees – would be in court, reporting to
judges on the welfare of abused children.
Rep. Stephen Frost, D-Atlanta, told Mr. Rose that some way should be
found to give CPS conservatorship workers a salary increase.
"They are extremely underpaid," he said. "And that's part of the
turnover issue."
Almost one-third of the conservatorship workers, who help children
who've been removed from their birth families, quit each year.
Requirements
The House stopped short of endorsing a push by some child advocates to
require CPS workers to have college degrees in fields closely related to
social work. Instead of mandating degrees in those fields, the House
would require CPS to target people who hold them in its recruitment efforts.
The House also used the CPS bill to resurrect another measure arising
from a child tragedy in North Texas last year – the "Jacob Fox Act,"
which had passed the Senate but is stuck in House Calendars Committee.
Jacob, 4, died of heatstroke in a van while in the care of a Pleasant
Grove day care center last summer. His body allegedly was moved to a
playground to deflect suspicion.
Blynithia Washington, the owner, has been charged with injury to a child
and evidence tampering.
The Dallas Morning News has reported that state day care regulators
initially let Dream House operate without a director and later with a
director who did not meet state qualifications.
The bill, which Ms. Nelson wrote and Rep. Jim Jackson, R-Carrollton,
offered as an amendment to the House's CPS bill, would require state
Child Care Licensing workers to meet with a day care center's director
personally – and verify credentials – during unannounced visits once a
year. State regulations have not required personal contact.
The Jackson amendment also would require fingerprinting of day care
employees.
The agency already has the power to require fingerprinting but isn't
doing it widely, The News reported last August.
Avonda Fox, Jacob's mother, has said inadequate background checks
resulted in several felons being allowed to work at Dream House Learning
Center.
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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