The Top 10 Most Dangerous US States for Families Targeted by CPS... And why.

The Top 10 Most Dangerous US States for Families Targeted by CPS... And why.

I just did a little study on the current state of Child Welfare in all 50 states.  I sort of took a snap shot in a notebook, of what has been the most recentissues brought up on Legally Kidnapped.  Based on that, I was able to identified certain trends, such as what are the major child welfare concerns in any given state on this particular day, September 20th 2015.  Based on that analysis and the information collected, I give you this list of the Top 10 MostDangerous US States for Families Targeted by CPS.

This list could of course change at any given time.  Each of the state names and numbers is a clickable link that will bring you to the feed for that particular state.  This is a list based on the most current events over the last few months.

Number 10: Kansas

Kansas is a mess.  Lawmakers are looking into it and unable to figure out what to do. With low educational requirements for CPS Agents and unlicensed investigators.  There is lots of abuse infoster care and parents suing the state because of that and unwarranted removals.  Click on the link above to see what's going on.

Number 9: Maine

Maine has seen a sharp increase in the number of child snatching's over the last few years because being a national model wasn't good enough, leading to a recruitment campaign from the top down regarding a desperate need for new homes.   Parents are trying to sue DHHS for not informing them of an ongoing child abuse investigation at their childrens daycare, and Maine's Indian tribes are accusing CPS of cultural genocide and abuse in foster care.  Maine is also in the bottom 10% when it come to returning kids to their parents.

Number 8: South Carolina

With accusations of failures to investigate child abuse, and overwhelmed CPS Agents.  Cover-up's of child abuse at group homes, a class action lawsuit by the New York based child advocacy group Childrens Rights, and foster kids staying in Motel Rooms.   South Carolina was a shoe in for the list.

Number 7: Rhode Island

Rhode Island makes the list thanks to investigations of fraudinto child welfare agencies, lots of abuse in the foster caresystem, spikes in the number of kids in care and too many of them being warehoused in group homes.  Rhode Island's child welfare system is in a total state to chaos.  

Number 6: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania makes the list thanks to the complete over-reaction to the Jerry Sandusky case, which has brought about a sort of child abuse hysteria and knee jerk legislation that is unique to that state. Schools and child centered organizations are loosing volunteers due to stringent background checkrequirements, and mandated reporter laws are intense. There is also lots of abuse in the states foster care system.

Number 5: Florida

With high rates of children aging out of foster care, kids sleeping in CPS offices and motel rooms, violence in juvenile detention facilities, shortages of foster homes, and lots of failure to protect cases, Florida has certainly been an interesting state to watch.  

Number 4: Texas

Texas has a knack for placing foster children in homes where they are murdered.  They also take lots and lots of kids while providing little in terms of preventative services. CPS Agents are also known for evidence tampering.

Number 3: Vermont

Vermont is on a total child snatching spree, with record numbers of kids in foster care. The sudden spike is due to panicky workers who are over-reacting to two child deaths. CPS Agents are also in panic mode after one of them was recently shot and killed by a pissed off parent.  Parents with disabilities are routinely targeted for having their kids removed and the media is right up their assses, analyzing every little move they make. It's better to be safe than sorry.  Vermont is a very scary state for families right now.

Number 2: Arizona

Arizona is arguably the state where you are most likely to loose your child to CPS.  It was a tough decision between this and the number one spot.  Arizona's child welfare system is plagued with shortages of foster homes, and tons of frivolous child snatchings.  Still they react more and more every-time a kid falls through the cracks, but just can't figure out that sending their worker out on wild goose chases takes up too much time so they can't focus on the real abuse cases.  Therefore they just keep taking more and more kids and packing them into wherever they can fit them.  Often more dangerous than their homes.

And the number one most dangerous state for families targeted by CPS in United States at this point in time is....

Number 1: Massachusetts

Massachusetts is in a total state of child abuse hysteria, over-reacting to lots and lots of failure to protect cases where children, both in foster care and while under CPS watch in their homes are being abused, killed, left on the side of the road, and turning up dead in trash bags on the beach.  Panicky CPS Agents have crisis level work loads, an ever increasing number of child removals with a lack of adequate homes to put them in.  Lots of systematic failures and unstable leadership.  It was a tough call between this state and Arizona for the number one spot, but the fact that the Massachusetts Child Welfare System is the worlds biggest media circus right now makes it the clear winner.  

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Rhode Island: A Day Late, A Dollar Short On Oversight

I suppose these youth can be enjoined in the class action law suit against the state. Rhode Island just cannot seem to get it right when it comes to oversight of its contracts and operations.

Perhaps it has something to do with the status quo of the nation's child welfare accreditation system...

R.I. shuts down group home for teen boys in Johnston

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2010

By Lynn Arditi

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — State officials have shut down a group home for teenage boys in Johnston pending an investigation into allegations that the toilets and showers were not working and that some of the boys had been confined for hours inside a sweltering common room last week following a report that clothing was being stolen.

The problems were reported to the state Department of Children, Youth and Families by Rhode Island Child Advocate Jametta O. Alston after her office’s investigators received a tip and visited the group home, The Johnston House, on Greenville Avenue, last Thursday.

The investigators reported that in the middle of last week’s heat wave, five of the seven boys had been confined to a common room with no air conditioning — a claim that the group home’s chief executive denies —– in an effort to get the boys to confess about the theft of some clothing.

Toilets at the home also couldn’t be flushed and the bathrooms stank of backed-up waste, the child advocate’s office reported. And the showers were not functioning properly, so staff had been taking the boys to a local YMCA to shower.

The DCYF has placed the group home’s license on probation, as is done during any abuse and neglect investigation, and has moved all the boys into other group homes, the agency’s deputy director, Jorge Garcia, said Tuesday.

The Johnston House is operated by the Windsor, Conn.-based nonprofit operation Community Solutions Inc. The company’s chief executive officer, Robert D. Pidgeon, said Tuesday that his employees are cooperating with the DCYF in the investigation.

The Johnston House is one of 102 licensed residential facilities in the state operated by agencies that have contracts with the DCYF. Rhode Island currently has 324 youths in DCYF custody who are living in group homes, according to Garcia.

The state pays a per diem rate of $215.57 per bed to house up to eight teenage boys at the two-story house in Johnston, which has a staff of 12 to 15 people to care for and provide therapeutic services to boys with behavioral and emotional problems.

The problems at The Johnston House surfaced last Thursday when the state child advocate’s office — an independent agency created to serve as a watchdog over the state child-welfare system — received a call from a social worker who had a scheduled visit at The Johnston House last week. The social worker, Alston said, was accompanied by a DCYF employee.

Two investigators from the child advocate’s office visited the group home, Alston said, and interviewed the boys, who repeated the allegations.

“In order to get a confession, you have the children sitting still in a hot room,” she said. “That’s, to me, disturbing.”

Pidgeon, the group home operator’s chief executive, denied that the children were confined to one room.

“It would be impossible to confine them to a room because we don’t lock the doors,” he said. “They have free access to come and go in the building or on the grounds.”

The staff at The Johnston House had placed all but three newly arrived residents on “house restriction,” Pidgeon said, in hopes that one of them would confess to who was stealing clothing. House restriction means that the boys were confined to the house or the yard, he said, so they couldn’t go on trips to the movies or out for Chinese food. However, he said, they were free to move around the property. Their bedrooms had air conditioning, but not the dining room or living room, he said. The restrictions had been in place for 8½ days, he said.

“It’s not part of our policy to have restrictions that last that long,” Pidgeon said. “It just strikes me that’s a little too long.”

The Johnston House also had been having intermittent problems in recent months with its water pump, but it wasn’t until July 1 that the water pressure became so low that it restricted showering and staff began taking the boys to a local YMCA to shower.

“By July, you couldn’t take back-to-back showers [and] couldn’t flush the toilet,” Pidgeon said. “It’s not like they were ever out of water. They just didn’t have the water pressure they needed.”

The two-story house, built in 1920, has a gabled, clay tile roof and decorative glass doorways, but its original clapboards have been replaced with vinyl siding and the wood façade is worn.

The group home’s operator, Community Solutions, bought the house in 1997 through its real-estate arm, Collins Group Inc., for $210,000. At the time, Pidgeon said, the company owned a number of properties used for residential juvenile care. But since then, the company has moved away from residential services for juveniles to home-based care, and the Johnston house is one of the last three properties it owns. The others are a group home in Coventry and a safe house in Windsor, Conn.

Community Solutions operates in 14 states, including Rhode Island, and is accredited by the national nonprofit Council For the Accreditation of Residential Facilities.  (Actually, it it the Council On Accreditation) The DCYF’s Garcia said he could not recall ever having had a problem with the company’s facilities.

Last Friday, the water pump at the Johnston group home was replaced and the pressure problem resolved, Pidgeon, the company’s CEO, said. By then, the residents had been unable to flush the toilets or use the showers for eight days. The same day, investigators from the DCYF’s child protective services and licensing divisions showed up at the home and interviewed residents and staff. The DCYF ordered that the home be shut down and the boys move out pending completion of their investigation.

The group home’s staff has not been working since Friday, Pidgeon said, and is not being paid pending the results of the investigation.

“What was most disturbing to me was that the DCYF social worker [who visited Thursday] didn’t make the calls” to report the problems, Alston, the state’s child advocate, said.

DCYF social workers are required to conduct monthly on-site visits of all children the agency places in group homes, Garcia, the agency’s deputy director, said. However, he said, the plumbing problems at the Johnston home were not necessarily something that a DCYF employee would notice if he or she didn’t use the facilities during the visit.

“I’m not sure if some of those issues would have been obvious,” he said. 

"I'm not sure if the group home staff were provided proper, mandated, restraint training.  Probably not."

larditi@projo.com