Senate holds 2nd hearing on DCYF
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 17, 2007
By Steve Peoples
Journal State House Bureau
http://www.projo.com/news/content/dcyf_hearing_08-17-07_LP6PC1J.34ba0ff.html
PROVIDENCE — Peter Sleicher’s son was 7 years old when the boy first
visited the Sexual Assault Trauma Resource Center.
With the police watching from the other side of a one-way mirror, the
boy told a story that no one should have to tell.
Peter and Tina Sleicher had opened their home a few weeks earlier to a
troubled boy in the custody of the Department of Children, Youth and
Families. The Sleichers had been temporary foster parents for about four
years. Even with two young boys of their own, the Warwick family felt an
obligation to help troubled youth.
“We feel we have more than enough for ourselves and we want to share it
with others,” Peter Sleicher said.
One Monday the family met with a DCYF representative to talk about the
foster child’s history. Nothing came up about sexual abuse. Five days
later, Tina Sleicher caught the foster child molesting their 7-year-old son.
“His innocence is lost,” Peter Sleicher said of his son, now 10. “He had
it taken away. He didn’t deserve it.”
Peter Sleicher had not spoken publicly about his family’s ordeal before
yesterday.
The 43-year-old man waited three hours, sometimes pacing the vast halls
of the State House, before sharing his experience with a packed meeting
of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.
It was the second in a series of hearings focused on the inner workings
of the DCYF, which is the target of a lawsuit by Child Advocate Jametta
O. Alston. The class-action suit, backed by the New York group,
Children’s Rights, claims systemic breakdowns at the child-welfare
agency that has caused alleged widespread physical and mental abuse
among the 3,000 children in state care.
Sleicher was the 14th person to testify at last night’s meeting. The
people before him had told stories of children being stripped from
mothers, allegedly for no reason; loving foster parents barred from
contacting children raised in their home; social workers drunk on the job.
Sleicher read his statement quickly in a soft voice that betrayed his
fear of public speaking. He stumbled over his words a few times. He
nervously rubbed his fingers together.
“We feel that we have been used. We feel as though this type of conduct
is destined to continue,” he said. “Is it appropriate to call these
actions state-sponsored rape?”
Across the crowded room, DCYF Director Patricia Martinez’s face was in
her hands.
It had been a long day for her too.
Before the public testimony began, Martinez had fielded questions for an
hour and a half about staffing levels, abuse and systemic failures at
her agency.
She told the committee that there had been 45 allegations of abuse or
neglect this year in residential facilities that care for children in
state care. There have been another 42 alleged incidents in non-relative
foster homes. And 24 allegations of abuse or neglect were reported in
relative foster homes.
Martinez cited statistics that suggest Rhode Island is on par with its
New England neighbors in the relatively low rate that abuse is repeated
— 91 percent of reported abuse isn’t reported again, she said.
The Senate committee, led by chairwoman Sen. Rhoda E. Perry,
D-Providence, asked Martinez to detail the shortage of DCYF field
workers charged with monitoring children in state care.
The Child Welfare League of America suggests that each caseworker
monitor no more than 14 families, Martinez said. The average caseworker
in Rhode Island works with nearly 18 families, and as many as 20 in some
parts of the state, according to data provided by the DCYF.
The state would need to add 44 caseworkers to its work force of 158
full-time caseworkers and another 4 supervisors to the current 38 to
meet the recommended staffing levels, Martinez said. And while 15 new
caseworkers are expected to be added early next month, Martinez said
that simply adding bodies isn’t enough.
The department is working to shuffle responsibilities to allow
caseworkers to spend more time working with families. She acknowledged
they are overburdened now. She also acknowledged a system often
complicated by the directives of the Family Court, which has ultimate
authority over children’s placements.
“It’s really difficult because on the one hand, the things that are
coming out are things that have been embedded in a culture that for two
years we’ve been trying to change,” she said. “But we could do much more.”
Governor Carcieri appointed Martinez to head the DCYF in 2005.
When asked about the Sleicher case, Martinez said she received a letter
from the Warwick family late last month. She said she immediately
started an investigation into the situation, including the DCYF staffer
involved.
“When I read the letter, my heart broke because here you have somebody
taking someone in,” she said. “It’s very overwhelming. We talk about
cases. And they’re not cases. There’s a face behind every single case.”
The child advocate’s lawsuit did not come up at yesterday’s hearing. And
Alston did not attend.
There has been “very little movement” in the case so far, Alston said in
a phone interview earlier in the day. The state attorney general’s
office was granted an extension and is scheduled to file a public
response to the lawsuit in early September, she said.
But Peter Sleicher knew very little about the lawsuit. His primary
concern was changing state law to require the DCYF to inform prospective
foster parents of allegations of foster children’s prior sexual abuse.
He was willing to swallow his fear and tell his story to a Senate
committee and a horde of strangers.
“It happened. There’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t change it. But
I can try to move forward. This is my way of trying to do that,” he said.
speoples@projo.com
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
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
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
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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