Overhaul of Social Services? Stop these tragedies before they happen???

New Posts

I know none of this discussion is directed at me personally. I totally agree that those case workers that allowed children to fall through the cracks are a disgrace. I still think you are missing my point. I just want people to realize that most child protection workers are NOT social workers. They don't have the education, haven't passed state licensing board exams, and are not required to adhere to a Code of Ethics. Like you said, here in Florida getting a job with DCF *and also Probation is a fall back job for a lot of college grads with no particular career skills or ambitions....in today's economy they probably just take it as a "j - o - b"....they may not have a real desire or passion for their work, just a steady govt paycheck and benefits. Most child protection workers only have a bachelor's degree and are not governed by any state board. It's just a job, not a career.

It is very hard work to become a professional social worker. Most of us went through it because we wanted to help people. It's not just a job. Trust me, we don't make very much money. Does anyone get what I'm trying to say? I'm more of a talker than a typer. LOL. Anyway, it is a petty argument in grand scheme of things.
 
[quote
I am interested in your viewpoints ....what do you need to make your job more productive ?? Do you find cases where your "hands are tied" cause of laws etc?? thanks[/quote]

I choose not to work in child protection because I would get arrested for not following the law. I would take every child out of his/her home if I suspected abuse, whether I could prove it or not.

I work for my state's special education department. There are times that our policies and evaluation requirements keep kids from getting the services they so obviously need. Granted, these services aren't life or death for the kids. However, I can see problems down the road. Many drop out because they can't do the work and eventually end up in jail.

Also, it isn't a crime for a parent to be a loser. We can make all the referrals and recommendations in the world, but we can't force them to follow through. They have the right to refuse services. As long as they aren't abusing/neglecting their kids, we can't do a thing to help them. That's probably the most frustrating part of my job. So many parents just don't give a s**t.
 
Here is a good article about the case....
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27646

however this was during the investigation of it, and the lady who was hed of DCF that Jeb "had confidence in"...also lost her job...they overhauled their rules and also other people were fired regarding this case..

This was also the fault of the court system ....the Graham women were not related to Rilya ...and one of them had a long rap sheet and was just diagnosed psychotic 6 months before she took in Rilya as a foster child

I followed the case a lot, the case worker in question was a real slacker, her supervisor was a "real social worker" but an inept boss, who appeased her workers I guess you would say

It came out that one of the reasons she didn't visit Rilya was that "on paper" it seemed like a "safe case", a little girl being cared for by her (supposed ) grandmother

The supervisor was signing off on the visits...there were no checks and balances...and basically the case worker enjoyed time at the mall, lunch, etc and logging in imaginary visits to some "easy" part of her caseload.

They brought in new people, new "ideas'....made it a felony to fudge the reports...and I think their new system means that there is more group interaction so that no one case worker can slack off like this without it being seen

however....once again we have a new and crazy problem....the case workers or social workers are meeting their quotas, seeing their clients...the only problem NOW is that they conveniently take on less clients....only a fraction of the calls to report abuse/problems to DCF even get past the 'screeners"

Yes...with a strained budget and "overworked" workers DCF has a new way to keep em happy...now they don't have to "fudge" reports, they simply have less reports to file since only a fraction of the abuse calls ever even get turned over to DCF.,...what a "screening" system huh?

Cries for help to DCF hot line go unheeded by design
Thousands of abuse reports to a DCF hot line go unheeded every month because of a new screening process intended to keep the strained system functioning.

http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/1356292.html
 
In some cases, I think changes in laws would help. In other cases, there is really nothing that can be done. I'm not talking about the cases of inept workers, those are different. But there are cases where parents do everything by the book. They do everything requested of them, the are appropriate during visits, there are no "visible" problems. Children are returned home with services (which, around here, means that there is someone in the home a number of times a week for a few hours to ensure the transition is smooth, work on safety plans, etc.), and the case is closed. But the worker has relatives telling them things are not right. Or the worker just does not feel right about the children going home. But without any evidence of something being wrong, what is the worker supposed to do? Or the cases where the child is doing well in school and won't disclose what's going on. A worker can be sure that something is off, but if the child denies it and the parent denies it and there's no "proof", once again, what can the worker do? It's frustrating. Plus, workers are not mind readers. Everything can be fine during visits. You can talk to a person almost every day on the phone and things seem great. Then you find out they have a second life. You never know what evil someone may be hiding. Heck, look at the BTK killer. Everyone thought he was great and he was highly involved in his church. How can workers know what someone is like? It's a difficult, thankless job. No matter what a worker does, someone thinks they're wrong and bashes them. I can tell you first had that media accounts get things VERY wrong and often do not tell the whole story. But workers are not allowed to defend themselves. They have to keep their mouths shut and take it.

Like I said, inept workers are a different story. Yes, there need to be checks and balances and those workers should not be in the field.

Mikeysmom ~ it hurts me to hear what you've been going through. Every state, and every county in each state is different. What you've been having to deal with isn't right and isn't the way I'm familiar with things working, but I'm in a different state. I wish I could help you. I will keep those children in my prayers.
 
Well here in Florida I guess it doesn't matter if the said social workers or case workers are good or bad now...cause so many "cases" are not even referred to them

due to budget cuts they seem to just have found ways to "ignore" or dismiss so many of the "reports" called into them

One in particular...a judge was calling in about a child she felt was at risk....her reports were not acted upon...child is dead now....??? I don't know...the system seems to not be working very well to me
 
That pretty much sucks. How can we have the money to study Mars and not have enough money to fund efforts to prevent child abuse and/or child deaths as a result of abuse? I am disgusted when I think about all the money that is wasted on nonemergency things when we have children dying every day in this country!!!!!!!
 
Spurser said:
That pretty much sucks. How can we have the money to study Mars and not have enough money to fund efforts to prevent child abuse and/or child deaths as a result of abuse? I am disgusted when I think about all the money that is wasted on nonemergency things when we have children dying every day in this country!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Prevention programs have been cut due to budget issues. Instead, massive amounts of money are spent trying to clean up the mess that occurs after an incident.
 
Can we post links to stories about children who have been hurt or killed while in state custody here, or is there a thread where that's permissible ?
 
Hi....I think we could post links to stories as they would all be on topic

Since I started this thread we have seen more tragedies like that of little Jozlynn , where the social services had been called in various times

In reading over the sad cases on these boards I started to realize that in soooo many cases the state already "knows" these so called "families"...they have been under various social services investigations, have been in court/s, have records, have restraining orders, and so on and on

Yes, let's list some of the many cases here..thanks
 
Spurser said:
That pretty much sucks. How can we have the money to study Mars and not have enough money to fund efforts to prevent child abuse and/or child deaths as a result of abuse? I am disgusted when I think about all the money that is wasted on nonemergency things when we have children dying every day in this country!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I don't think throwing more money at it will fix it. The child welfare system is one of the best funded agencies in the government.
Medicare, medicaid and the military are the only departments I can think of that get more $$.
As with every other gov't agency, the only thing that will fix it ( I personally don't think it can be fixed) is accountability.
We shouldn't be paying for services to help people who beat their children to KEEP THEM, they should be in jail.
 
I have posted before about my disgust at the DCF in Florida..I also posted this on the thread about California not following Jessica's Law etc

Here is proof of how "budget cuts" can affect social services

people on these boards say "report abuse"...or "I would turn them in" or "why didn't anyone turn them in?" but the fact is that with double speak and double talk our DCF found a way to cut their case load...they just don't take the cases

Cries for help to DCF hot line go unheeded by design

Reminds me of "newspeak" in George Orwell's 1984 book....just change the parameters and all is "well"....
Florida solved the problem of too many cases by just not taking more cases, by ignoring them. A quote from the article

" Beginning last year, DCF dramatically increased the number of abuse calls considered unworthy of investigation.

In an effort to reduce workload -- and the system-wide stress that high case loads generate -- intake workers at the Tallahassee-based hot line have been screening out tens of thousands of calls"
 
I'm sure a lot of cases have their own threads, I'll make sure I only post those that have the child welfare system in common.

On Jan. 31, 2001, 5-year-old Logan Marr was found dead in the basement of her foster mother's home in Chelsea, Maine. The foster mother, Sally Schofield, a highly respected former caseworker for Maine's Department of Human Services (DHS), would later be tried and convicted of manslaughter after police determined that Logan had died from asphyxiation after being bound with duct tape and strapped into a high chair in the basement.
At her supervised visits with the girls Christy could see that Logan wasn't doing well. She was discouraged by DHS, though, from discussing what was making Logan unhappy. At their videotaped Christmas visit on Dec. 18, 2000, while a DHS supervisor sat listening, Logan stopped opening her gifts and told Christy that Sally had hurt her. She squeezed her cheeks together with one hand, and said, "She did this to me, and I cried, and it hurts me. She did it to my sister, too." When Christy tried to find out more about what happened, she says the DHS supervisor shook her head, forbidding her from going into detail about the incident. In early January 2001, during another supervised visit, Logan again told Christy that Sally had handled her roughly, wrapping her up in a blanket. Again, Christy was signalled not to pursue the matter.
DHS rules require caseworkers to visit foster homes quarterly, and to promptly investigate any complaint of physical abuse. Logan's caseworker, Allison Peters, did neither.
Caseworker Allison Peters testified at the trial, but was never asked about her failure to respond to Logan's complaints about Sally. She was placed on paid administrative leave for a month, and has since left DHS. No formal disciplinary action was taken against any DHS employees in connection with Logan's death

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fostercare/marr/

The mother battled with DHS for another year before finally getting her surviving daughter back.
The mom made some bad life choices, but there was no evidence that she ever abused or neglected her children.
Grandma wanted custody and told DHS that she had always worried "that Christy is too immature and troubled to be a good parent to Logan," and that "Christy can't or won't put Logan's needs before her own. Kathy said that Christy screams and hollers at the baby all the time and handles her extremely roughly."
DHS sent caseworker Diane Sanborn to assess Logan's situation. Despite Kathy's allegations, she did not find anything that immediately concerned her about Christy's parenting. She did believe that Christy should work on what DHS considered an unhealthy relationship with her boyfriend, an admitted drug user.
Even though they weren't immediately concerned, they still set the mom up with a strict set of rules.
 
LogicalMinds said:
I have posted before about my disgust at the DCF in Florida..I also posted this on the thread about California not following Jessica's Law etc

Here is proof of how "budget cuts" can affect social services

people on these boards say "report abuse"...or "I would turn them in" or "why didn't anyone turn them in?" but the fact is that with double speak and double talk our DCF found a way to cut their case load...they just don't take the cases

Cries for help to DCF hot line go unheeded by design

Reminds me of "newspeak" in George Orwell's 1984 book....just change the parameters and all is "well"....
Florida solved the problem of too many cases by just not taking more cases, by ignoring them. A quote from the article

" Beginning last year, DCF dramatically increased the number of abuse calls considered unworthy of investigation.

In an effort to reduce workload -- and the system-wide stress that high case loads generate -- intake workers at the Tallahassee-based hot line have been screening out tens of thousands of calls"
Click to expand...

I hear you and agree to a point. All abuse accusations need to be investigated.
False reporting in these cases is rampant. People call out of revenge when they get mad at their neighbors, family members, etc.
I don't think they should have to investigate calls about messy houses, someone seeing a parent swat their child on the butt or anything other than what could put the child at risk of physical harm or death. That's what they're there for. They spend so much time on non- emergency cases that the kids who are really abused fall through the cracks.
I don't speak to many of my family members, I don't want them around my kids, but when my oldest sister got mad at my other sister she called the hotline and they came out to investigate because my niece was almost four and not potty trained. BTW, she's 20 now and hardly has any accidents (JK).
She could have used the bathroom, but she chose not to (IMO). DHS then wanted to provide all kinds of expensive services that we'd all pay for so that she would be a better mother and her stubborn child would start pooping in the potty. I'm glad she declined, that's not really something I want to pay for.
I recently heard from an old friend who had sought help for problems she was having with her teenager and she stupidly volunteered that she smoked marijuana on occasion when her children were not with her. She has never laid a hand on any of her kids and there's no evidence that her activities had any impact on them (they didn't even know their mother had ever smoked pot) yet the state of Kansas wants custody of her 11 year old son who will be devastated if they give him to strangers.She has court next week to find out if she'll keep him.
No, she's not perfect, but will he be better off ? It's supposed to be about him, right ?
 
LogicalMinds said:
I have posted before about my disgust at the DCF in Florida..I also posted this on the thread about California not following Jessica's Law etc

Here is proof of how "budget cuts" can affect social services

people on these boards say "report abuse"...or "I would turn them in" or "why didn't anyone turn them in?" but the fact is that with double speak and double talk our DCF found a way to cut their case load...they just don't take the cases

Cries for help to DCF hot line go unheeded by design

Reminds me of "newspeak" in George Orwell's 1984 book....just change the parameters and all is "well"....
Florida solved the problem of too many cases by just not taking more cases, by ignoring them. A quote from the article

" Beginning last year, DCF dramatically increased the number of abuse calls considered unworthy of investigation.

In an effort to reduce workload -- and the system-wide stress that high case loads generate -- intake workers at the Tallahassee-based hot line have been screening out tens of thousands of calls"
Click to expand...

OMG. Sorry, the other post was before I read the article. I still don't think they need more money, I think they need smarter workers with common sense.
I think this is happening during the screening process, the screeners in these cases were either stupid or sadistic. The Sacramento Bee reported that a large number of DHS employees have criminal records, some pretty serious.
Until they start paying law abiding citizens skilled at common sense, giving them more money would be a total waste.

http://www.sacbee.com/2009/03/22/1719235/dozens-in-cps-have-criminal-records.html

Drug possession, domestic violence, repeatedly driving drunk, assault with a deadly weapon – any one of these charges or convictions could lead child protective services workers to remove children from a home or force a parent into counseling.

But all of those crimes and many others appear in the backgrounds of employees of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, a Bee investigation has found.

http://www.sacbee.com/2009/03/22/1719235/dozens-in-cps-have-criminal-records.html
 
Christina White pleads not guilty; Defense attorney slams Children's Division

White is accused of setting her six-month-old son, Wayne Anderson Jr., on fire July 11. Baby Wayne died of his injuries July 31.
In a surprise statement to the press outside the courtroom, White's Jefferson City attorney Keith Halcomb pointed the finger at the Missouri Department of Social Services Children's Division.

http://lakeexpo.com/articles/2007/10/16/top_news/07.txt

The police took him into emergency custody but the juvenile officer gave him back the same night. 18 days later he was burned to death.
 
Sweet little Jozlynn Martinez....her "missing" description says "scab on chin"...
and a patch of hair missing on one side of her head...wonder how???

Now her mom's crack addict boyfriend says he dumped her and she may have been incinerated...just heartbreaking

the thread for her is here.....another child well known to her state

MI MI-Jozlynn Martinez, 2, Grand Rapids 2/24/10 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

they say they were investigated 3x by child protective services this past year...the courts knew them from the restraining orders/violation

they were homeless off and on it seems...yet they still had custody of these kids....I hope they take the baby boy and let him find a good family
 
Another child "description" where the scars of their abuse is what you should "look for">>>

sweet little 4yr old Marc Bookal

NY - Missing 4yr old Marc Bookal, Newburgh - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

his little hands were scared from burns....that was on his "missing" poster

his bio mom was back with her lover..the father of her 11 year old son who the monster nearly beat to death and served time for beating...

now Marc is still missing

and of course the courts and social services were involved with this so called "family"

NY - Missing 4yr old Marc Bookal, Newburgh - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community
 
The bio parents of little Shannon Diedrick, the "baby in the box" were investigated by our infamous DCF....and her situation was considered to be "intermediate danger"

unlike Kansas apparently pot smoking parents get a 2nd chance, even when smoking around an infant??

this was a happy ending (no thanks to her bio mom who never "cracked" regarding the hoax and 911 call etc)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 80 more.
Total: 3,765 (members: 81, guests: 3,684)

Online statistics

Members online
81
Guests online
3,684
Total visitors
3,765
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
592,620
Messages
17,972,010
Members
228,846
Latest member
butiwantedthatname
Back
Top