Too Poor To Parent?
Posted June 30, 2008 | 11:29 AM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gaylynn-burroughs/too-poor-to-parent_b_109971.html
A child accidentally falls off his top bunk. His mother worries. The
child says his knee hurts, and it looks like a bruise is forming on his
arm. His mother wants a doctor to see the child, but hesitates for a
moment about taking her son to the hospital emergency room.
She is afraid that her child's treating physician will not believe her
when she says that her child was hurt in an accident. She knows that a
social worker will call child-welfare authorities. She knows that she
will be subject to an investigation. She is fearful that those
child-welfare authorities may remove her child from her care and charge
her with neglect. She knows that it may take several months before her
child is returned to her care, and she also knows that during that time
she may only be able to see her child once or twice a week. Even then,
those visits may be supervised by an agency caseworker.
Perhaps this mother is afraid because she has been the subject of a
child-welfare investigation before. Maybe she knows someone in her
community who has lost her children. Or maybe she was once the child
that was taken away.
She may decide not to take the child to the hospital. But then the
bruise on her son's arm may seem suspicious to the child's teacher. The
teacher may have other concerns. The child wears the same two or three
outfits to school every day; he tells the teacher that sometimes he
doesn't eat enough at dinner. The teacher may suspect neglect and call
child-welfare authorities.
Parenting while poor almost always leads to suspicion. At least 60
percent of child-welfare cases in the United States involve solely
allegations of neglect, usually for inadequate food, clothing, shelter
or inadequate supervision or guardian****p. Not surprisingly, poor
families are up to 22 times more likely to be involved in the
child-welfare system than wealthier families.
The consequences of contact with the child-welfare system can be
devastating for certain cl***** of people. In particular,
African-American parents are more likely to lose their children to
foster care than other any other ethnic group. According to the U.S.
Government Accountability Office, Blacks make up 34 percent of the
foster-care population, but only 15 percent of U.S. children. Studies
have also shown that Blacks, unlike other minority groups, are
overrepresented within the foster care system in every state of the
nation. Part of this disparity may be explained by poverty itself:
Blacks are four times more likely than other groups to live in poverty.
But, poverty cannot explain everything. In 2004, Black children were
more than twice as likely to enter foster care as White children. This
disparity remains evident even when African-American families and White
families share relevant characteristics: White children are less likely
to be removed from their homes after a child-welfare case is opened than
Black children. It is not clear why Black families are more likely to
experience the trauma of child removal; certainly, however, racial bias
plays a role.
The law surrounding child neglect is full of vague standards that invite
the use of broad judicial discretion. Our legal system asks family court
judges to make far-reaching decisions concerning the safety and welfare
of children based on information presented in fifteen- to twenty-minute
court appearances. Incompetent evidence is routinely admitted in child
protective proceedings, and judges must often rely on the testimony of
caseworkers who may be poorly trained or culturally uninformed, or who
have had only limited contact with the families in question. It is not
surprising, then, that judges' own biases may, intentionally or not,
creep into their decision-making.
Studies also show that Black families, both parents and children,
involved in the child-welfare system receive fewer services than White
families. For example, the Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare
re****ted in 2007 that some Black children in foster care were less
likely to receive mental health services than children of other races.
The Alliance also found that Black caregivers were less likely to
receive mental health services than those of other races. In addition,
state child-welfare workers have identified difficulties with accessing
substance-abuse programs and obtaining housing assistance as factors
contributing to the overrepresentation of Black children in foster care.
Lack of available family rehabilitation services that cater to
African-Americans may help to explain why Black children remain in
foster care an average of nine months longer than White children.
The effect of such large numbers of African-American children in foster
care - 162,722 children according to the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services data from 2006 - is not limited to individual families.
The current child-welfare system, when considered against the backdrop
of our anti-poverty policies and need for social service resources,
threatens to destabilize Black communities more generally. What happens
to communities in which parents are not allowed to raise their own
children? What happens to those children adopted out of their
communities? And what about the children who will age-out of foster
care? Or the pregnant or parenting teenagers who are still in foster
care themselves? This latter population remains extremely vulnerable.
Even as these mothers are under the care of the state, they often
acquire child-neglect cases of their own.
The language that we use to talk about child welfare focuses heavily
upon personal responsibility and choice. This language, however, masks
the larger problems within the child-welfare system, a system that,
unfortunately, is largely classist and racist.
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
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 Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological 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 ***ual 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.
THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6
The Business of Child Stealing in Florida
http://www.nolanchart.com/article4132.html
This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/cfpanalysis.doc
http://www.nccpr.org/index_files/page0003.html
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/asfa.pdf
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relation****ps. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Sup****t
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent
housing.
These studies found thousands of children already in foster care who
would have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away
in the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
http://www.cftl.org/do***ents/2008/FCfullre****t.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
http://www.window.state.tx.us/news/60623statement.html
www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
Walking Wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS 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 ABOLI****NG 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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