Monday, October 31, 2011

My Response To: How To Fail A Child – The American Foster Care Way

I always enjoy when I come across one of my earlier pieces of work and my ability to promulgate the truth about the American child welfare system.



There are basically two areas that really need to be fixed to make that foster care system really work for those who need it.

Number One: Change The Philosophy

One should not cower in terror when Child Protective Services (CPS) is mentioned. If the state agency would operate with open arms to provide services to those who request help, without fear of retaliation or retribution, CPS would find that the low-income caregivers and guardians would approach for help to improve the lives of children and themselves.

Child welfare is designed as an entitlement program, meaning the child and family must pass the poverty means test established under Social Security Title IV-A. Instead of penalizing one for being poor by removing the child, it would be more cost effective to provide assistance by rebuilding the social safety net.

Michigan has resigned its child welfare funding structures by channeling indigent/no medical insurance cases through the family courts. Naturally, you will see a dramatic increase in the reports of child abuse and neglect because it is the only way to get medical treatment for children.

Number Two: Regulation

Since the inception of the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, there has been absolutely no accountability or transparency.

What this basically means is that, as privatized, faith-based, non-profits, these child placing agencies are never examined.

There is no scrutinization of records because they are excluded by the Freedom of Information Act to be made public as they pertain to matters of child welfare.

There is no enforcement or vehicle to report transgressions to state authorities. In essence, the state may not prosecute itself for it defends its actions of the privatized and public child placing agencies.

Last but not least is the issue of fraud. In foster care, the main funding source is not Social Security Title IV-E as everyone would like to believe, but it is Medicaid Targeted Case Management. Since there is, basically, never the chance of being challenged in the legitimacy of operations, waste, abuse and fraud, run rampant in the form of double-billing, false claims, phantom programs and your classic racketeering.

As long as there are uncapped and unscrutinized federal funding streams for child welfare, you bet your bottom dollar there will be fraud.

THE PHILOSOPHY: Removing children is more cost-effective for the economy. To make the historic story of foster care and adoption short and sweet, allow me to cost-effectively sum up the policy for the Industry of Marketing Children: Poverty is abuse and neglect. Abuse and neglect is a crime. A parent(s) who is poor abuses and neglects the child. The state must protect the welfare of the child. The state never questions the work of God. Foster care and adoption residential institutions are in the name of God. People and corporations make tax write-off financial contributions to the institutions. Children get medicated; pharmaceutical companies get profit; social workers get jobs. The longer a child is in foster care; the more jobs are sustained. Sustaining and creating jobs saves money for the state. Foster parenting is a job. The state and the institutions are given financial incentives and receive financial rewards for each child transitioned into adoption. States need to make budget cuts. States need to create more jobs. Foster parenting is significantly more economical than providing social assistance to a poor family. Adoptive families receive financial rewards for each child adopted. The state no longer is financially responsible for the child. The state is no longer financially responsible for the birth parent. Statistically, foster children will age out to begin again the cycle of poverty, rather abuse and neglect, keeping the market industry of child welfare sustainable. Everyone contributes to the economy. A stronger economy eradicates poverty. Poverty is a crime. When you stop poverty, you stop abuse and neglect.

The time for accountability and transparency has come, and so have I.

Michigan Child Welfare Propaganda To Cover Up Medicaid Fraud

Before you watch the video, read this:
Statement of Beverly Tran to the U.S. House of Representative Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Inc...


This is Michigan's finest work of Child Welfare Propaganda.  What horrified me the most is that I know these people.  I know these organizations.  I know what they covered up because I lived it.  I have my documents but the state and court files were shredded.  Just ask Kelly Ramsey a fellow alumni.





This is an email communication response to my question of Medicaid fraud in child welfare.


Dear Ms. Tran,
I serve as the coordinator of our Faith Communities Coalition on Foster Care. The Kirk in the Hills Foster Care ministry team has been planning to host our next meeting at the Kirk on Nov. 8.
Yvonne Rundell, one of the Kirk’s coordinators, forwarded your email to me. In it you asked an important question,“Will the DHS Director be speaking about Medicaid fraud in child welfare and if not, why?”
 I believe that we share in the general concern about fiscal responsibility on all levels of our government and child welfare agencies.  You need to know, however, that the purpose of our Faith Communities Coalition on Foster Care meetings is not about political or economic matters-but rather on the spiritual issues which compel us to awaken awareness in our diverse congregations about the desperate needs of our foster children and youth in Michigan.
Our meetings are geared  to challenge every congregation to take some small part in collaborating with service agencies to help change the life of a child. We seek to inform members of faith communities of this crisis and to motivate action through collaboration and partnerships on  a grassroots level. 
To further clarify the content and focus of our meetings, here is something which Detroit Public Television recently did on our work: http://www.youtube.com/user/saveourchildren1.

The November 8 meeting with Director  Corrigan and others already has a tight agenda with the focus on getting responses from local congregations to help. So to answer your question directly, this is not the setting to address the issues you are raising.  There  will be no place to address your concerns, nor is there time for questions and answers from the floor. 
Instead, we have allocated time for individuals  to visit the 24 booths of our local service agencies to form partnerships to serve our foster children.
Here is a copy of our notice. I hope this further clarifies our intent.
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW IN FOSTER CARE?
State Director Maura Corrigan, of the Michigan Department of Human Services, to speak at the next Faith Communities Coalition on Foster Care meeting
Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 6:30pm, Kirk in the Hills Refectory, 1340 W. Long Lake Rd, Bloomfield Hills, Hear dynamic presentations and updates concerning foster care and adoption in Michigan. Local  service agencies will provide booths of information on ways individuals can make a difference. Large or small contributions all add up to help change a life. For more information and reservations contact  Katie Page Sander, director of the Save Our Children Coalition at kpage@umd.umich.edu313.593.5052 or the FCC coordinator, Rev. Kate Thoresen at 248.835.8151.

If you would like for me to forward your email and issues  to  Director Corrigan, I’d be glad to do that.
I hope that you will find people of similar interests to pursue your concerns in settings that provide opportunities for the dialogue you seek.  Meanwhile, you are welcome to come and experience the energy, enthusiasm and dedication of our many foster and adoptive parents and all those who seek to serve together to make a difference in the life of a child.
. .Warm regards,
Kate Thoresen, Coordinator of the Faith Communities Coalition on Foster Care,
a community outreach of the Save Our Children Coalition, University of Michigan, Dearborn, School of Education, Katie Page Sander, director        Phone:313-593-5052;    email: SOCCProject@umd.umich.edu ; www.SaveOurChildrenCoalition.org 

This was my response:



Kate,

Thank you for your response.

As an external consultant to the U.S. Judiciary and personal advisor to U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr., I will ask you to join the national stage in bringing awareness to child welfare fraud as it has been raised to the national agenda, proceeding with federal investigations and hearings.  Perhaps we can partner to have a public forum to discuss the role of child welfare organizations, such as yourself, in protecting the civil rights of those individuals who wish to report as Medicaid fraud in child welfare whistleblowers and the components of the State Medicaid Fraud Office of Inspector General legislation.

Now, allow me to share the general concern about spiritual issues which compel me to awaken your awareness to the desperate need of ameliorating Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

In numerous instances, children are improperly and unnecessarily removed from the home and placed in foster care.  In even more situations, the original custodians and guardians are stripped of any access to due process to challenge the validity of placement of the child.

What is even worse, poverty is codified as the crime of abuse and neglect leading to an artificial need for increased services and the filing of false claims.

Medicaid fraud in child welfare was so rampant during the time of the creation of your coalition that children were being severed from their legacies to suffer at the hands of poor and inadequate services, many which are double-billed and phantom services, for no reason more than a false cost reimbursement in Targeted Case Management.

I respect that this forum is only for the promotion of your private agenda but challenge you to address the pervasive multi-billion dollar industry of child welfare fraud as there is no oversight to privatization of the child welfare industry.

What will you do to reduce the need for foster care?  What will you do to end improper and unnecessary removals of children?  What will you do to stop the drugging of foster children?  What will you do to stop Medicaid fraud in child welfare? These are the spiritual issues which have been abused and neglected from public discussion.

I thank you and shall take you up on your offer to forward my concerns to the Director, but I shall give you advanced notice that she will avoid addressing the situation of Medicaid fraud in child welfare at all legal costs.  This is why I have approached you.

I look forward to working with you in the near future.

Let's see if they acknowledge that there is fraud in child welfare or watch them run and hide under the Rock of Jesus, oops, I mean the iron curtain, because you know Save Our Children Coalition is comprised only of Christian organizations.




To make the historical story of foster care and adoption short and sweet, allow me to cost-effectively sum up the policy for the Industry of Human Trafficking:
Poverty is abuse and neglect. Abuse and neglect is a crime. A parent(s) who is poor abuses and neglects the child. The state must protect the welfare of the child. The state never questions the work of God. Foster care and adoption residential institutions are in the name of God. People and corporations make tax write-off financial contributions to the institutions. Children get medicated; pharmaceutical companies get profit; social workers get jobs. The longer a child is in foster care; the more jobs are sustained. Sustaining and creating jobs saves money for the state. Foster parenting is a job. The state and the institutions are given financial incentives and receive financial rewards for each child transitioned into adoption. Michigan needs to make budget cuts. Michigan needs to create more jobs. Foster parenting is significantly more economical than an institution. Adoptive families receive financial rewards for each child adopted. The state no longer is financially responsible for the child. The state is no longer financially responsible for the birth parent. Everyone contributes to the economy. A stronger economy eradicates poverty. Poverty is a crime. When you stop poverty, you stop abuse and neglect.
This is why no one wants regulation or reform of the multi-billion dollar health care.
If I have offended anyone, then I suggest you stand up and do something about it.

Stop Child Medicaid Fraud

A Very Spooky CPS Halloween

GoAnimate.comA Very Spooky CPS Halloween by beverlytran

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!


'Worst thing that ever happened'

Woman says suit challenges policies of hospital, Lawrence County CYS
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Sara Rose, left, with Elizabeth Mort, holding her daughter Isabella, at a news conference announcing a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Ms. Mort and her fiance, Alex Rodriguez, against Lawrence County Children and Youth Services and Jameson Hospital over a failed drug test caused by Ms. Mort eating a poppy seed bagel.

Losing her infant for five days, after a bagel caused a false positive drug test, was "the worst thing that ever happened to my family, mother Elizabeth Mort said Thursday. Because she doesn't want it to happen to other families, she has sued Jameson Health System and Lawrence County Children and Youth Services in U.S. District Court.

"I'm hoping that they'll either change their policies so it doesn't happen to another family, or they'll investigate it better before they take babies from their homes," said Ms. Mort, 21, joined by lawyers, her fiance Alex Rodriguez, 23, and 6-month-old Isabella Rodriguez at the American Civil Liberties Union's Oakland office.

Those policies, according to her complaint, call for mandatory urine testing of all maternity care patients at Jameson Hospital, with a finding of 300 nanograms per milliliter of opiate metabolites considered a positive for drug use. (The ACLU contrasted that with federal workplace drug testing standards that don't consider a result to be positive unless opiate metabolites are 2,000 nanograms per milliliter.) When a test is positive, the hospital tells the county CYS agency, which seeks judicial approval to place the child in protective custody.

ACLU Attorney Sara J. Rose said the policy results in the removal of some infants who are in no danger.
"We had a client two years ago whose newborn was taken away from her [in Lawrence County] because she had a positive drug test for marijuana," said Ms. Rose. "She missed the first two months of that baby's life," with the exception of short visits.

A hospital spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. County representatives have said they acted properly given the hospital's report.

Ms. Mort said she told hospital staff that she tried marijuana in high school, but didn't like it, and hadn't used illegal drugs during her pregnancy. She told reporters Thursday that she got two drug tests during pregnancy and passed.

When county workers and police showed up at her door on April 30, the day after she brought Isabella home, and took the baby away, the family hunted for answers. They realized that Ms. Mort ate a poppy seed bagel the day before giving birth, and that the seeds contain opiates. She then had her doctor prescribe a drug test, which she passed.

She said that the county agency's workers admitted their mistake a few days after the April 30 taking of Isabella but kept her in foster care for five days before returning her. Since then, motherhood has been "the most amazing thing in the whole entire world," Ms. Mort said.

Ms. Rose said that the policies of the hospital and the county result in the removal of infants from parents where there is no evidence of danger to the child.

The lawsuit seeks policy changes, "nominal" damages and attorney fees.

>

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10302/1098960-455.stm#ixzz13m57cDse

The Boogie Man Is A CPS Worker - Baby LK Report For October 30th 2011


Baby LK recaps the week in news for the child protective industry.





Sunday, October 30, 2011

Beverly Tran Lectures On Copyright At Brooklyn Law School

Beverly Tran lecturing on copyright at Brooklyn Law School
This lecture at the Brooklyn Law School was a major event, not because it showcased the brilliance of civil rights icon George Clinton, but because I was there.

Yes, I lectured at the Brooklyn Law School and   made history.

Of course, there are the members of my fan clan who will childishly attempt to spew imbecilic and nefarious venom upon my work to smear my name in hopes of exonerating themselves of their severe cognitive deficiencies and psychological developmental disorders as a desperate attempt to salvage the dearth of spiritual existence which allows them to wake up every morning, devoid of conscious and guilt, to destroy an historic civil rights icon, who is a beautiful man, or any other woman or child who gets in his way, just to make daddy like them.  And, as always, we shall continue to encourage them to use my first and last name when attempting to defame my character in exclusive political circles, of which they are denied entry and possess no knowledge of their existence.

I love free publicity and a good comedy show.

What made my appearance at the Brooklyn Law School historic was that I revealed the origins of the copyright, which are parental rights.  What many fail to understand is that parental rights do not exist in the form of which we readily know.  Therefore I have written a book.

U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr., unfortunately, could not be in attendance, as he was busy implementing my master plan.

Keep in mind, this is only the beginning...

P-Funk at Brooklyn Law School
by Ryan Thompson (court@brooklyneagle.net), published online 10-20-2011


Parliament Funkadelic’s George Clinton Joins Local Attorneys Monday To Discuss Music and Copyright LawBy Ryan Thompson
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

JORALEMON STREET — Funk music mastermind George Clinton is coming to Brooklyn Law School.

George Clinton with President, Chancellor and Deans
of the Brooklyn Law School
Clinton, singer and leader of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic in the 1970s and ’80s, will join Brooklyn Law School Professor Jason Mazzone and Manhattan attorney Michael Elkin on Monday evening to discuss music and copyright law.

Perhaps there is no better musician than Clinton to discuss such legal issues, as Parliament-Funkadelic’s music and distinctive “P-Funk” style continues to not only be imitated but sampled in various hip-hop songs today. Clinton, who is now 70 years old, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over a decade ago.

Using Professor Mazzone’s new book, “Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law,” as a springboard for the discussion, Clinton and Elkin, a Brooklyn Law graduate and managing partner at Winston & Strawn LLP, will examine the challenges faced by today’s artists and music labels, the impact of digital technology, and possible reforms that could benefit the listening public.

Dr. Funkenstien's Dream Team
For full coverage of the event, see an upcoming issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle & Daily Bulletin.

Copyright, Composers and Hendrix
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg invoked her fellow Brooklynite Aaron Copland. The chief justice countered with Jimi Hendrix.
The high court’s generational divide was on display earlier this month as the justices heard arguments about whether Congress acted properly in extending U.S. copyright protection to millions of works by foreign artists and authors that had been in the public domain — meaning they could be performed and used in other ways without paying royalties.

Community orchestras, academics and others who rely on uncopyrighted works are challenging a 1994 law that made copyrights available to the foreign works. Google, with its YouTube and digital art and library projects that depend on works in the public domain, is backing the challenge. Composers, authors, songwriters, photographers and others who depend on copyright protection are urging the court to uphold the law.

Copland and Hendrix were Americans — Copland from Prospect Heights in Brooklyn and Hendrix from Seattle, Washington. The two justices used them to illustrate differing views of the case.

Larry Rohter of New York Times and George Clinton
For the 78-year-old Brooklyn-born Ginsburg, the case appeared easy. She talked about two Russian-born composers, Dmitri Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky, whose works were never copyrighted in the United States. A copyright allows artists, or the copyright holder such as a deceased artist’s estate, a fixed period of time in which they can permit or deny others the right to use or reproduce their work or demand a royalty payment for doing so.

“What’s wrong with giving them the same time Aaron Copland got?” Ginsburg asked the lawyer representing the law’s challengers.

Chief Justice John Roberts was 14 years old when Hendrix performed his “distinctive rendition” of the “Star Spangled Banner” at the Woodstock music festival. Roberts, now 56, voiced concern that Hendrix’s freedom of expression could have been compromised under the government’s argument.v “Assuming the national anthem is suddenly entitled to copyright protection that it wasn’t before, he can’t do that, right?” Roberts said.

George Clinton and Jason Mazonne
The court ruled in 2003 that Congress may extend the life of a copyright, but it has never said whether published works lacking a copyright could later be protected. The case argued Oct. 5 concerns a 1994 law that was intended to bring the United States in line with an international agreement.





Another Bethany Christian Services Expose By Judith Faye

Judith Faye, President of Michigan Republican Women's Caucus exposes child welfare fraud in Michigan.  The agency is Bethany Christian Services.



Find out more about Bethany Christian Services.  Make sure to read the last post on the agency's license.

Bachmann says she would 'not do anything' for children of illegal immigrants

Bachmann says she would 'not do anything' for children of illegal immigrants

That's because child welfare already has a plan.

OSKALOOSA, Iowa—Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann waded into a sensitive area of immigration policy Saturday during a somewhat charged exchange at a campaign stop in southeast Iowa.
Bachmann entered an extended exchange with a college student (and Democrat) over how to handle the immigrants who are brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

After finishing a speech that focused in part on repealing the federal health care law and overhauling the tax code, Bachmann opened the floor to questions from the 100 or so people gathered at Smokey Row restaurant.

A 19 year-old college student, identifying himself as Latino, asked what Bachmann would “do to” the children of illegal immigrants.

Bachmann responded that she is “not doing anything to them,” and described why she is against the federal government rewarding citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.

“Their parents are the ones who brought them here,” Bachmann said.

"They did not have the legal right to come to the United States," Bachmann added, of the parents. "We do not owe people who broke our laws to come into the country. We don’t owe them anything.”
Bachmann went on to draw a parallel to her own family’s journey to the United States more than 150 years ago.

"I dare say that probably every single person in this room descends from immigrants,” Bachmann said.
“I did—my immigrant family came here in the 1850s, and they came into the United States legally. They received zero benefits.”

The exchange was somewhat charged, because the student, Roy Aguillon, cast the question in personal terms.

“These guys were my friends," Aguillon said. "They are the guys who sit next to me in class, who I see in Walmart.”

Aguillon, who is from San Antonio and is a student at nearby William Penn University, is a second-generation American citizen and is active in local politics—serving as the vice president of the College & Young Democrats of Iowa.

In an interview with NBC News, Aguillon said he didn't intend to draw Bachmann into a discussion about the DREAM Act—legislation which would offer benefits, including citizenship, to the children of illegal immigrants.

Instead, he says, he was looking for a practical answer for young illegals, given Bachmann's hard line position.

“These guys don’t know anything else," Aguillon said during his interview with NBC. "What are you going to do, send them back to Mexico? The place is basically in the middle of a drug war.”

Aguillon says he didn’t attend the event to raise trouble, and despite his leadership role in the Iowa College Democrats, he would consider voting Republican in 2012.

He complains that President Obama abandoned the DREAM Act, and hasn’t been hard enough on Wall Street. He says, of Obama: “He’s not enough of a fighter to be my president right now.”

Despite the personal tone of their exchange, Aguillon and Bachmann chatted following the event, and they posed for pictures together afterward, along with Aguillon's girlfriend.

As the campaign team left the restaurant, Iowa state co-chair Brad Zaun, a state senator from Urbandale, pulled him aside.

“Thanks for your honesty,” Zaun said.

A Case Of Waste In Child Welfare

Here is a classic example of waste in child welfare.

A Hawaii couple’s 3-year-old daughter was taken away from them for 18 hours after they were arrested for forgetting to a pay for two $5 sandwiches.

"This is unreal this could happen to a family like ours," Nicole Leszczynski told Hawaii’s KHON.
The outing-turned-nightmare happened Wednesday while the family was shopping at a local Safeway.
"We walked a long way to the grocery store and I was feeling faint, dizzy, like I needed to eat something so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and eat them while we were shopping," Leszczynski told the news station.


Leszczynski, who is 30-weeks pregnant, her husband, Marcin, and daughter Zophia bought $50 worth of groceries -- but forgot about their two chicken salad sandwiches. Read more


Let us perform a basic cost analysis here.


Portion of propaganda training for manager to call child protective services:  $200


Police intervention in dealing with child (dispatch operator, two officers, transport, desk paperwork): $1000


CPS worker, supervisor, case manager, foster care worker, placement of child and paperwork: $1000


Court (judge, clerks, court officer, attorney for child, prosecutor, paperwork): $2000


Continuing case investigation as woman is pregnant: $5000


Miscellaneous service costs: $800


Estimated waste over $5 dollars: $10,000


Estimated post traumatic expense of child: priceless


And people wonder why the country has a deficit.



Saturday, October 29, 2011

Detroit Charter Commissioner Reggie Davis Shares With The Public

Detroit Charter Commissioner Reggie "Reg" Davis publicly responds to Commissioner Ford's statement that "Commissioners Personal Information Should Not Be Shared "


Detroit Charter Commissioner
Reggie "Reg" Davis

To Mrs. Ford


On behalf of the community which houses (according to the socially superior folk like yourself) such groups of disdain as the have nots, the working class, the children, the seniors, the disabled and the returning citizens to name a few, I thought I would discern for you what evidently you are not able to see. If you and those directly connected to yourself (i.e. 70% of our board) could penetrate through your elitist type membrane and then blink twice you would begin to see a totally different picture.

You would begin to see, via this new prospective, people who look just like YOU. And the reason you would begin to match vibratory patterns with those that you now react to as your subordinate, or those that are unadulterated, is because you would, at this point, be able to easily connect with YOU, yourself because in actuality WE ARE ONE!

I say this to say that it is time for you and those just like you to WAKE UP! You and your kind were elected by the People. And once the People entrust their vote and their lives with you, it is at that same point in time your responsibility to effectively communicate with them. The major problem you have with the People of this Great City we call Detroit is that you continue to separate yourself from them. If the People vote for you it is not the responsibility of your secretary to answer to them, it is YOUR absolute reliability to answer directly to the them; accountability is the name of the game. Therefore, if one who represents the community of the People decide they want to reach out to you by any means, they should be able to do so. However, when you continue to run from the gentle giants like Minister Malik Shabazz at the Charter convention at Cass Tech as if he means harm to you, when in essence he is only trying to confer with you or when you act as though your defecation has no order to it, and the People wish to call out to you and you reject their wishes, you will continue to see an act of defiance from many who represent the have nots, the working class, the children, the seniors, the disabled and the returning citizens to name a few because you have misrepresented them.

Mrs. Ford, WE THE PEOPLE ask that you make an effort to be like Jesus and allow ALL to come to you in order to expedite the much needed revision of the way our city operates. I am Reggie Reg Davis and it has been my pleasure to represent the People at the table with you for I AM THE PEOPLE! And never forget Mrs. Ford, the only entity worth fearing is God due to his Almighty power and the wrath by which he is in control of. Mrs. Ford you have absolutely NO reason to fear the People, and on behalf of the PEOPLE of this Great City we call Detroit I am allowing you to know that they mean NO harm to you.

May all the Glory be given to God for he is the exalting, the beneficent, the merciful, the all knowing, the omni present, the absolute which should resonate through me and you!

God Bless,
Reggie Reg Davis
Charter Commissioner

Friday, October 28, 2011

Report: South Dakota Removes Hundreds Of Native American Children From Their Homes, Collects Millions In Federal Funds

Report: South Dakota Removes Hundreds Of Native American Children From Their Homes, Collects Millions In Federal Funds

One of the taken children. Photo Credit: NPR
There was a time in this country when thousands of Native American children were forced from their homes by public and private agencies, then sent to boarding schools where the school founder’s motto was “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” This practice wiped out cultural ties and traditions from an entire generation on which tribes depended to carry on their legacies. In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law meant to ensure that Native American children stay with Native American families, especially when placed in foster care.
But an NPR investigation reveals that 32 states are “failing to abide by the act,” with the most egregious violations occurring in South Dakota. In this state, “Native American children make up only 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half the children in foster care.” According to the investigation, “the state is removing 700 native children a year, sometimes in questionable circumstances,” claiming generic “neglect” when there isn’t any. State records reveal that “almost 90 percent of the kids in family foster care are in non-native homes or group care.”
Meanwhile, these questionable decisions to break up families create a massive inflow of federal money into the state:
Every time a state puts a child in foster care, the federal government sends money. Because South Dakota is poor, it receives even more money than other states – almost a hundred million dollars a year.[...]
Then there’s the bonus money. Take for example something the federal government calls the “adoption incentive bonus.” States receive money if they move kids out of foster care and into adoption — about $4,000 a child. But according to federal records, if the child has “special needs,” a state can get as much as $12,000.
A decade ago, South Dakota designated all Native American children “special needs,” which means Native American children who are permanently removed from their homes are worth more financially to the state than other children.
In 10 years, this adoption bonus program has brought South Dakota almost a million dollars.
As an example, the Children’s Home Society, the state’s largest foster care provider, has close ties to the state. As NPR notes, the foster home used to be run by state Gov. Dennis Daugard who “was on the group’s payroll while he was a lieutenant governor — and while the group received tens of millions of dollars in no-bid state contracts.” Meanwhile, tribal foster homes remain empty.
State officials insist that the money never played a part in the state’s decision to remove a child. “The state doesn’t financially benefit from kids being in care,” said one official. “The state is always paying some part of it.” But as state records show, the federal government reimbursed the state “for almost three quarters of the money it spent on foster care.”
Essentially, the state is removing children under nebulous circumstances and getting a huge pay out in return. As on tribal social worker put it, “they make a living off off our children.”