Child Welfare in the News - March 15, 2011

FL: 'Fatal ineptitude' causes state child welfare shakeup, firings
Florida Courier March 14, 2011
In response to the scathing report of an independent panel, the new secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families is firing and reprimanding employees, overhauling the state's child abuse hotline and hiring 80 new investigators. Also: http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6138/0/
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6139/0/

FL: DCF to overhaul abuse hotline after girl's death
Tampa Bay Online March 14, 2011
The head of Florida's child welfare agency announced major changes Monday to an abuse hot line and other sweeping remedies intended to help overburdened child protective investigators after the death of a 10-year-old girl whose body was found in her adoptive father's truck.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6140/0/

IA: Guest opinion column: Bill addresses due rights in cases of child abuseDesMoinesRegister.com March 13, 2011
It did not specifically include lack of supervision as one of those offenses. And on that basis, the court made its initial ruling. Due to the court's ruling, the DHS determined that it may be forced to remove half of the nearly 60,000 people on the registry.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6141/0/

NV: Cutting child services? Lawmakers shouldn’t gut budgets for critical programs to protect children
Las Vegas Sun March 14, 2011
In testimony before the Legislature this month, Tom Morton, director of the county’s Family Services Department, said things have improved. He said the number of children at the shelter daily has been reduced from more than 200 in 2006 to fewer than 10 last year, and the number of days children stay in foster care has been reduced by 41 percent. More significantly, there have been no deaths of children in an open case since October 2007 — in the first part of that year, there were nine child deaths in open cases.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6142/0/

NH: $209 million slashed from HHS budget ; Deep cuts proposed for social services
Concord Monitor (New Hampshire) March 15, 2011
Last week, Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas presented the House Finance Committee with a list of $346 million in potential cuts. Toumpas made clear that he did not support the cuts, which he believes would shift costs to cities and towns and dismantle the infrastructure the department has set up to maintain services for vulnerable citizens.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6143/0/

NY: City to Revise Treatment of Children in Foster CareNew York Times March 14, 2011
New York City is no longer allowed to keep troubled foster-care children in psychiatric hospitals after doctors have recommended their release, and must closely adhere to laws that require such children to be placed in the least restrictive setting possible, after reaching a settlement agreement in federal court last week.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6144/0/

OK: Adoption process decried
Tulsa World (Oklahoma) March 13, 2011
"It's not any one thing they do to you," she explains. "It's a hundred little things that add up to making you feel intimidated and harassed, like you've done something wrong by asking to adopt these precious little children who need a home."
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6145/0/

OR: Sex abuse law offers imperfect solutions
Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon) March 11, 2011
Such was the debate this week when Oregon lawmakers opened the first public hearing on House Bill 3057, which would end the time limits for prosecuting sex crimes against minors. The testimony was vigorous, and the hearing spilled over into a second day.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6146/0/

PA: Fund used to fill gaps in social service budgets will be cut under Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed budget
PennLive.com March 14, 2011
If Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget is passed as presented, that money and money for scores of similar programs across the state will disappear. The administration wants to eliminate the fund — a total of $23 million this year split between the state’s 67 counties. Counties use that money, often doled in a few thousand dollars at a time, to fill gaps in their social service budgets and keep vulnerable residents a step ahead of destitution.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6147/0/

TX: A tale of two mamas
The Houston Chronicle March 13, 2011
Robinowitz argued that CPS plotted from the beginning to give the baby to another family and received the cooperation of Judge Shelton, who placed the baby with a foster family pre-cleared for adoption and ordered the mother and the Porters to have no contact with the baby. Unaware of the other couple's intentions to adopt, Porter pressed CPS for months to do the home study that would make her eligible. Whether through incompetence or design, the study was begun but not completed.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6148/0/

US: OC mother wins right to keep Baby Vanessa in a case followed by legal scholarsLos Angeles Times March 14, 2011
The settlement could end legal proceedings in the case, which legal scholars believed had the potential to go to the Supreme Court to explore the issue of children’s rights in foster care situations. Also: http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6149/0/
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6150/0/

INTERNATIONAL

UK: Child abuse images removed fasterBBC News March 15, 2011Internet companies are getting better at removing images of child sexual abuse, according to the charity that monitors the problem.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6151/0/

CAMBODIA & VIET NAM: US envoy to take up Cambodia, Vietnam adoption
Straights Times March 14, 2011
A US ENVOY will head this week to Vietnam and Cambodia to look at ways to resume adoptions, which have been suspended due to concerns over child trafficking, the State Department said on Monday.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6152/0/

JAPAN: Abducted to Japan: Hundreds of American Children Taken
ABC News February 16, 2011
Among the circles of left-behind parents in the U.S., many of them fathers, Japan is known as a safe haven for parental abductions. Once in Japan, the parent who abducted the child is protected by their government's unwillingness to sign the Hague Convention, a treaty that provides for the return of abducted children to the other parent.
http://listserve.icfi.com/t/343878/506004/6153/0/

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