Child's Play: Foster Care's Fiasco
Comptroller Strayhorn Statement On Foster Care Abuse
"If you compare the number of deaths of children in our state's population to the number of deaths in our state's foster care system, a child is four times more likely to die in our state's foster care system.
"Based on Fiscal 2004 data provided by the Health and Human Services Commission, about 100 children received treatment for poisoning from medications; 63 foster children received medical treatment for rape that occurred while in the foster care system; and 142 children gave birth while in the state foster care system.
"As alarming as these cases are, we can only imagine how much worse the Fiscal 2005 data is because Gov. Perry's Health and Human Services Commission has refused to provide the data needed to complete my investigation.
psssst... it's me, interjecting... there is a nasty little political war going on here
EAST TEXAS CASEWORKERS ROTATE IN POLYGAMY CASE
“The largest child-custody cases in history and it's filled with issues few Texas lawyers and public agencies have ever faced. It also comes at a time that's likely bad for Child Protective Services because just last week, Texas was ordered to pay a four-million dollar fine for not seeing foster children enough.
And now - social workers from all around the state are heading to San Angelo - taking case workers off other tasks.”
Foster care quick fix is adding up
Housing youths in CPS offices doubles the bill; no end in sight to crisis
The system absolutely is dysfunctional right now," said Irene Clements, vice president for family services at Lutheran Social Services of the South Inc., the state's largest foster-care contractor. "And a big part of that is the divisions of [the state Department of Family and Protective Services] are not working together; at times, they're working against one another," said Ms. Clements, a 27-year foster parent. Mr. Crimmins said CPS is doing all it can to ease the crisis.
"We're scouring the state every single day to try to find appropriate placements for each of these kids," he said. "There's not anything that's off the table as far as consideration."(*me again--- do you know one consideration is "campsights or such group facilities?)
To date, more than 450 children have spent nearly 900 nights in CPS offices because there was no place else for them to go. CPS caseworkers have to watch them in four-hour shifts through the night. Overtime pay for the workers is the biggest factor in the increased cost of care.
At least twice recently, the emergency arrangement has led to violence. On May 30, a melee broke out at CPS' main Dallas office. It took seven police officers to restore order. Three teens were arrested. Earlier in May, a CPS worker in Tarrant County was injured during a similar altercation among two foster teens who were spending the night at a state office.
The children involved are some of the hardest cases CPS sees. Some 76 percent of the foster kids are ages 11 to 18, and half have been through at least 11 foster-care placements.
"These are very, very difficult kids with a lot of issues," Mr. Crimmins said, citing mental retardation, mental illness and severe emotional problems. "They are for the most part very difficult to place. ... Most have been in the system for quite some time."
I promise you... this is the tip of the iceberg.
I encourage you to "really" do homework on this issue.
Until you have looked into the eyes of a little girl so ravenously raped that her insides have to be repaired, including her intestines, I don't want to hear your pathetic erronous percentages. One is too many... even if that is .00001%.
Removing a breastfed infant from a mother who is willing to leave the "ranch"... anything it takes... is straight out of the Chineese handbook. Hell yeah I'm gonna stand up against that crap.
No one is saying that foster care doesn’t need to be better.
But compared to FLDS, Foster care looks great! At least as far as child rape and underage pregnancy is concerned.