Child Welfare in the News - March 7, 2011

IA: Complaints target Waukee adoption agencyDesMoinesRegister.com March 7, 2011
The six complaints on file with the attorney general center on cases in which birth parents ultimately rejected adoptions for which the agency had already collected large sums. Prospective adoptive parents have said they were owed refunds or questioned whether the company misrepresented the availability of the children for adoption.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110307/NEWS10/103070323/Complaints-target-Waukee-adoption-agency?www

NE: Bill giving adoption information in Neb. passesNECN March 4, 2011
Nebraska lawmakers have passed a bill to give adoptive parents access to state files on the child they're adopting.
http://www.necn.com/03/04/11/Bill-giving-adoption-information-in-Neb-/landing_politics.html?&blockID=3&apID=e3b875b3a1a04950bd32a287ecbb2a57

NV: Officials warn about plan to cut child welfare services
Las Vegas Review - Journal March 4, 2011
Tom Morton, director of Clark County's Department of Family Services, told the panel that the $7 million cut for foster care and adoption services cost his budget closer to $11 million because of lost federal matching funds. Also: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/mar/04/officials-budget-cuts-threaten-states-child-welfar/ and: http://www.8newsnow.com/story/14191061/foster-care-system-faces-deep-cuts
http://www.lvrj.com/news/officials-warn-about-plan-to-cut-child-welfare-services-117446978.html

NY: CALLING CPS: When the economy goes down, Child Protective Services calls go up
Lockport Union March 6, 2011
“We’re only 30 reports behind Niagara Falls,” said Burt Marshall, the Niagara County director of Social Services. “It’s not a good sign for people living at this end of the county. The biggest increase was in Lockport.”
http://lockportjournal.com/local/x1771110925/CALLING-CPS

NY: Queens Program Helps Transition Incarcerated Moms
NY1 March 6, 2011
"Most of the children that are here at our daycare center were born in prison and spend the first year of their life with their mothers in prison," said "Hour Children" Coordinator Jelena Starcevic. The program helps many mothers, including 17-year-old Isabella Crowell, whose son Cody was born while she was behind bars serving a year-long sentence.
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/135071/queens-program-helps-transition-incarcerated-moms

OH: 'Baby Vanessa' custody case resumes today
Dayton Daily News March 6, 2011
Doss, who is single, began adoption proceedings, which were halted by Mills’ petition for custody not long after Vanessa’s birth in Dayton in June 2008. Some legal experts believe the case has strong potential to go before the U.S. Supreme Court because it’s a test case pitting the rights of children against the rights of birth parents. Also: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/baby-vanessa-custody-battle-may-end-in-u-s-supreme-court-1100039.html
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/baby-vanessa-custody-case-resumes-today-1100038.html

OR: Bill would remove statute of limitations in Oregon for sex crimes against minors
The Oregonian March 05, 2011
The proposal, contained in House Bill 3057, gets its first public hearing Monday and will likely generate a fight pitting prosecutors against defense attorneys. Some district attorneys say young sexual assault victims need extra protection. Defense lawyers say the change would make it far more difficult for people to make the case that they've been wrongly accused.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/bill_would_remove_statute_of_l.html

OR: Foster Care Conundrum: Do Social Workers Get Too Close To See The Problems
Oregon Public Broadcasting March 4, 2011
Most foster parents provide good, supportive homes for kids. But multiple outside reports identify a system-wide problem. The same people who recruit and retain foster parents also have to report suspected wrongdoing.
http://news.opb.org/article/71671-foster-care-conundrum-do-social-workers-get-too-close-see-problems/

PA: Mennonites' informal lifeline for jailed mothers Philadelphia Inquirer March 7, 2011
In the last 12 years, 91 babies born to mothers in Riverside have been fostered in central Pennsylvania through Mennonite Caregivers Program, an informal arrangement in which incarcerated women turn over their children to Mennonite families unsupervised by any government agency. Many mothers without family or friends to care for their infants are grateful for an alternative that avoids the Philadelphia Department of Human Services - an agency that may have intervened with the women's other children or that may hold bad memories for them from their own childhood.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/117505868.html

TX: Proposed budget cuts hurt state's most vulnerable populationPlano Star March 6, 2011
Just when adults began to wrap their heads around the proposed Texas budget, the state's children began scratching their heads as some child-specific services could take a big hit to the pocketbook.
http://www.planostar.com/articles/2011/03/06/plano_star-courier/news/251.txt

InternationalCANADA: Council seeks national campaign to boost adoption rates
Canada.com March 5, 2011
OTTAWA - The Adoption Council of Canada, a non-profit advocacy group, says that of an estimated 78,000 children in care in Canada, about 30,000 are available for adoption. Yet only about 2,300 are adopted each year. So the council wants the federal government to help foot the bill for a national campaign to raise awareness of the large number of children who need permanent families.
http://www.canada.com/Council+seeks+national+campaign+boost+adoption+rates/4388019/story.html

ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia to Cut Foreign Adoptions by Up to 90 Percent
Voice of America March 4, 2011
Ethiopia is cutting back by as much as 90 percent the number of inter-country adoptions it will allow, as part of an effort to clean up a system rife with fraud and corruption. Adoption agencies and children’s advocates are concerned the cutbacks will leave many Ethiopian orphans without the last-resort option of an adoptive home abroad.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/-Ethiopia-to-Cut-Foreign-Adoptions-by-Up-to-90-Percent-117411843.html