OK - Study Shows One In Eight Kids Abused In Foster Care

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LCoastMom

LCoastMom

JUSTICE FOR CAYLEE MARIE - STILL WAITING
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TULSA, OK — One out of eight children in a massive review of Oklahoma foster care cases has suffered confirmed abuse or neglect in the custody of the state Department of Human Services (DHS), according to a new report by independent child welfare experts released today by the national advocacy group Children’s Rights and local counsel.

An additional nine percent of children for whom reports of abuse and neglect in state foster care were not substantiated were nonetheless found to be in such troubling circumstances that services were required.

http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/new-report-reveals-shocking-number-of-oklahoma-kids-abused-in-foster-care-forced-to-change-homes-repeatedly/

The full text of the new expert report released today and more information about Children’s Rights’ efforts to reform Oklahoma’s child welfare can be found at:

http://www.childrensrights.org/reform-campaigns/legal-cases/oklahoma-dg-v-henry/

  • Children are abused and neglected in DHS custody at a very high rate.
  • DHS places children in unsafe homes and overcrowded, understaffed emergency shelters.
  • DHS bounces children from one unstable foster placement to another.

The lawsuit links DHS’s inability to protect children from abuse in state custody to longstanding problems in its management and infrastructure, including:

  • Excessive caseloads and turnover among DHS workers.
  • Dangerous monitoring and oversight practices.
  • Insufficient efforts to develop and maintain an adequate pool of foster care placements.
_________________

I haven't had a chance to finish reading this study but it seems pretty typical of what we have been finding everywhere.
 
I hate to sound like a broken record but foster parents MUST be highly trained and sufficiently funded professionals. I'm sick to death of hearing people talk about "doing it for the money". Our most successful foster families command the highest rates and work miracles. The adoptive families receiving these children know just what I'm talking about.

I helped an incredible co-advocate and dear friend, Dr. Rita Laws, on a book she wrote several years ago concerning the issues surrounding foster care and specialized adoption. She was my counterpart in OK. No doubt these statistics do not surprise her one bit. The general public has no earthly clue as to what is expected of foster families. Sadly, human nature often clicks into gear and children get hurt when families are not appropriately supported. People can start out with the kindest intentions but have no idea as to what they are getting into.

Folks, children in foster care are NOT easy children to raise or to love. They are NOT the children you are are raising. They have been traumatized, raped, abused, neglected. They import their own family pathology into their foster and adoptive homes. They are very hurt and damaged children.

It takes a team, a village, an entire array of services to achieve any level of success. If we truly care, to any degree, about succeeding with these children, no expense can be spared. None.

I hate to type the next sentence. I thank God every day that he/she's made me unable to continue in my active advocacy for children in the system. I don't think I'd have the heart to go on. I fought the "good fight" for twenty years. My job now, as I see it, is to post about these issues and to try my hardest to raise public awareness. I can no longer go to Washington, Sacramento, or Salem but you can.

You can.
 
Missizzy said:
I hate to sound like a broken record but foster parents MUST be highly trained and sufficiently funded professionals. I'm sick to death of hearing people talk about "doing it for the money". Our most successful foster families command the highest rates and work miracles. The adoptive families receiving these children know just what I'm talking about.

I helped an incredible co-advocate and dear friend, Dr. Rita Laws, on a book she wrote several years ago concerning the issues surrounding foster care and specialized adoption. She was my counterpart in OK. No doubt these statistics do not surprise her one bit. The general public has no earthly clue as to what is expected of foster families. Sadly, human nature often clicks into gear and children get hurt when families are not appropriately supported. People can start out with the kindest intentions but have no idea as to what they are getting into.

Folks, children in foster care are NOT easy children to raise or to love. They are NOT the children you are are raising. They have been traumatized, raped, abused, neglected. They import their own family pathology into their foster and adoptive homes. They are very hurt and damaged children.

It takes a team, a village, an entire array of services to achieve any level of success. If we truly care, to any degree, about succeeding with these children, no expense can be spared. None.

I hate to type the next sentence. I thank God every day that he/she's made me unable to continue in my active advocacy for children in the system. I don't think I'd have the heart to go on. I fought the "good fight" for twenty years. My job now, as I see it, is to post about these issues and to try my hardest to raise public awareness. I can no longer go to Washington, Sacramento, or Salem but you can.

You can.
Click to expand...

A good majority of foster children have been raped or abused or neglected.. but not all.....
 
peeples said:
A good majority of foster children have been raped or abused or neglected.. but not all.....
Click to expand...

Perhaps not, but the mere fact they are in the foster care system has got to be pretty traumatic in and of itself, don't you think?

I had an incident in my life where my children were taken by the state, in Oklahoma City, for only one night. They were 3 and 7 years old. They are now 16 and 20, and they still remember it as a frightening experience in their lives. They were not abused or mistreated, just taken away, one put in a house with people she did not know, and the other put into a facility. One night has stayed with them.
 
Oklahoma failing to protect children in state custody, report alleges

“We can now add the findings of yet another child welfare expert to the deafening chorus of voices affirming what we have been saying for three years,” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, Children’s Rights executive director.

“Abused and neglected children are suffering and dying while DHS denies the problem and continues to defend its dysfunctional child welfare system.”
Click to expand...

the rest at link above
 
I just have to add my tow cents :twocents: and say the ones that set thier standards high are far and few between and the hard cases to raise are the majority. What about the ones the that are taken from thier families and placed in an unfamiliar environment at a very young age like infancy,the toddlers years, or preschool age, for sometimes the smallest infraction? They are taken from loving parents who did nothing more wrong than fall on hardtimes. These children often end up worse; feeling angry, alone, and afraid, with anxiety disorders, mistrust, and depression just to name a few. In the beginning the goal was to keep families together at all costs now the goal is generate revenue for the state and if that means that some of these infants and toddlers are adopted out of foster care and sold on the black market so be it! It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that if something is generating money than it will be utilized. The foster care system is definitely overused, abused and the children coming out are no better off, if not worse then when going in. It is nice to see in this forum that I am not the only one with these things in mind. Follow the link below for a quick look at the history of child foster care as well as the statistics on growth.

http://http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/topics/fostering.htm
 
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