How come foster parents do not receive equal treatment under the law?

My question is simple:  "How come foster parents do not receive equal treatment under the law?"

In this particular instance, Legally Kidnapped has illuminated a rather serious issue.

Being that an original parent who, more than likely, has had a child removed from the home and placed under the jurisdiction of the state for being poor, undocumented as an immigrant, or just in need of medical assistance, would be in violation of some form of gag order, and immediately be penalized with orders of psychological evaluations or, even in some cases, termination of parental rights, for speaking out on social media about the injustices of the application of child welfare law, why is it foster parents do not face these similar constrictions when it come to foster children?

It only takes a few classes, a criminal background check, and a home visit to qualify as a foster parent.

Oh, and one gets paid to be a foster parent, too!

For original parents who have encountered the child welfare system, there is a gauntlet of criminal background checks, and, believe it or not, background checks to see if the parents have been victims of a crime, psychiatric and psychological evaluations, parenting classes, of which are a waste of time, money and effort, and multiple levels, depending on state requirements, of hoop jumping just to meet the so-called litmus test of being found to be without any economic or moral depravity.

So why is it foster parents do not have to undergo the same level of scrutiny, illustrated in child protection law?

To answer my own question, I even created a term for it:

The Imperialistic Morality Parade.

Why?  Because selling chattel is the oldest form of survival and these were the new guidelines of the Adoption and Safe Families Act.

The ASFA of 1997 was specifically designed to "create jobs" for individuals who lacked the skills to participate in the traditional workforce.

These new jobs were to care for the children who fell into the newly created chasm of poverty of 1996.

The following is an op-ed from our friends at Legally Kidnapped.

A Foster Mom Who Stalks The Facebook Pages of Real Parents

In the modern age, the internet has us all connected and people are putting too much private and personal information out there on social media accounts.  Now, thanks to a dear friend who brought this to my attention, we see even more of the harm that can come from this.

That said, I have warned time and time again against discussing the private details of your case on Facebook because it is likely that you will be retaliated against by CPS or the court.  In fact, the practice of lawyers checking the Facebook posts of the opposition for dirt has become quite common.  I've also seen this happen back in the Yahoo Groups days, when that was the big thing, but now, (and yes it's time to pick on a foster parent blog) we see that not only will CPS Agents and the lawyers stalk you, but the foster parents will too.

Okay, I admit it- I have totally Facebook stalked the parents of my foster children and/or the birthmother and birthfather of two of my children who I am not Facebook friends with.  (Please tell me I'm not the only foster parent out there who does this!) 

More >> I Foster; Therefore, I Facebook Stalk

What is the harm from this?  Well, it enables the foster parents to formulate an opinion about you.  When that happens, they'll think that it's there job to interfere with your reunification efforts, like in the recent Lexi case.  "How can CPS give this wonderful child back to that horrible bio-family when they have me to take care of them?"  A foster parent who falls in love with your child can be a very difficult obstacle to overcome.

Now it is true that this foster care provider sugar coats it by saying that she does it so she can share baby pictures with the real parents, but I'm sure her motivations are much more invasive.  Perhaps it's simply a part of her emotional justification process or perhaps it's a part of her overall scheme to undermined your reunification efforts.  Who knows?

But now we're onto her.  

So there.

LK

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Federal Report To Congress On Child Welfare Fraud

Some time ago, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey found that there was serious public corruption in the Administration on Children and Families with administration of grants and programs in child welfare.  Administrators would be biased in the awarding of grants to certain organizations where the administrators either have previously been employed or were found to retain lucrative paying positions upon departure from the Department.

To better understand these conflict of interests, I have taken a table from an HHS OIG report on "Conflicts of Interest".  Here you shall see that officials have financial stakes with the research grantees.

HHS OIG Institutional Conflicts of Interes at NIH Grantees

How is this relevant to child welfare?  The following two reports were identified as having severe conflicts of interest.  The subject matter is foster care.  I would go into detail on the biases found in HHS OIG methodologies of their foster parent program report, but I believe the chart I have provided, above, says it all.  Child abuse propaganda.
HHS OIG

Recruiting Foster Parents Audit Report

HHS OIG Retaining Foster Parents Audit Report

What I have just presented is first hand knowledge of child abuse propaganda and it has just been reported to the Congress.  See how billions of your tax dollars are squandered in child welfare programs, including Medicaid and witness how the child abuse propaganda machines will fight tooth and nail to keep their gravy train rolling strong.

For the first half of FY 2011, we reported expected recoveries of about $3.4 billion consisting of $222.4 million in audit receivables and $3.2 billion in investigative receivables (which includes $620 million in non‐HHS investigative receivables resulting from our work in areas such as the States’ share of Medicaid restitution).

Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report To Congress Spring 2011l

John Schafer sent a message to the members of Grandparents Rights Association of South Carolina.

Special Request from John Schafer:

Then become a foster parent!*

I do not do this very often, but this is so offensive to us all that I feel I must.  This websitehttp://www.facebook.com/l/f905b5c_YcwQ0gDxO4oiBptv2fw;www.adoptuskids.org/ has a National Advertising campaign going that is nothing short of an ad for child trafficking.  They work hand in hand with the foster care system to move our children into foster and adoptive homes using the slogan. "You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent".  While our kids are being advertised for sale Nationally, state DSS/DHS/CPS offices are demanding perfection from birth families in order to try to keep their children.  This is discrimination against birth families on a National level and it is being promoted in every state by the agencies who are taking our children.  For me, this is the last straw!

I am placing a Cease and Desist letter on the GRASC website that can be copied and pasted into your email program.  If we all send these emails to everyone on the list provided as quickly as possible, they will have no choice but to sit up and take notice.  I am calling for an immediate NATIONAL EMAIL PROTEST.  Please do this for the sake of our families and most of all our children.  I am also placing the same message, with addressed and instructions here, just scroll on down:

December 11, 2010

CEASE AND DESIST

From the State of____________________

Name:____________________________
Address___________________________
Phone_____________________________

TO: (email each individually so it doesn’t end up in trash. If you have the moxie, print this, get it notarized, and send it return receipt)info@adoptuskids.org; cswr@utlists.utexas.edu; nwae@nwresource.org; nfo@nacac.org; bretrum@adoptionchoices.org; rpratt@adoptea.org

This is a demand to CEASE and DESIST from discriminatory advertising marketing children to the community. A national class action will be pursued should you continue to violate our request and due to the following:

• Children are being removed who are not in imminent danger
• Relatives wanting placement are nitpicked for any character defects
• Relative placement is extremely low in most states who desire title IV compensation
• Relatives are not allowed “to be themselves” with a double standard value system favoring surrogates
• The standards and mandates are so stringent for relatives most cannot live up to the unreasonable standards
• Children are being removed disproportionately with people of color and parents with disabilities
• Children who could benefit from in-home placement are being denied that opportunity in favor of surrogates

WE DEMAND THE FOLLOWING:

• Strong wording advocating for grandparent and extended family adoption will be included in your advertising
• Stop trafficking children to strangers and supporting an unconstitutional system
• Stop supporting the wholesale removal and adoption of children who would fare better with their real families
• Include supportive services to family wanting to adopt or parents who are getting their children removed for poverty or petty reasons
• Stop exploiting children for financial gain and trendiness

Should you continue discriminatory advertising in states, note that action will commence.

Sincerely,

Report Michigan Child Welfare Fraud With iPhone App

Stop Child Medicaid Fraud

Michigan DHS leaders launch a mobile smart phone app to report abuse, fraud and get help

Published: Thursday, December 09, 2010, 10:47 AM     Updated: Thursday, December 09, 2010, 10:59 AM

Michigan Department of Human Services launches a Droid app. iPhone app coming.

Michigan residents can now find out how report child abuse, suspected fraud, or become foster parents by clicking a button on their smart cell phone.

Today, the Michigan Department of Human Services launched a free mobile application for Android cell phones. And iPhone app will be available by the end of the month.

The app can be found in the Android Market and will allow partner agencies and advocates, as well as everyday folks, to find the closest DHS office. Or, find information about applying for emergency energy assistance, find out how to report abuse of children or adults, suspected DHS program fraud, or become a foster or adoptive parent.

“This mobile application will provide an additional resource to ensure the safety net and help those who are truly in need,” said DHS Director Ismael Ahmed.

The application is being launched at a time when DHS and other human service agencies are seeing an “unprecedented” increase in demand, said Janet Snyder, Michigan Federation for Children and Familiesexecutive director.

In 2010, DHS served nearly 3 million Michigan residents – and estimated 30 percent of the population – with cash, food, emergency, and medical assistance.

The DHS application is a first for any Michigan state department, said Spokeswoman Gisgie Gendreau

Happy National Adoption Month

Despite the fact that the only way for most children to be released from the foster care industry is to age out, the only current viable alternative is adoption.

There are no reinstatement of parental rights laws that would allow a child to be reunited with the ones who are loved because the industry was intentionally designed to be that way.  The child welfare system was designed to function to, by any means necessary, sweep its failures under the rug of secrecy.

The baby boomers will make sure there is protection in their precious Medicare programming, but will devote little, if any attention to the other side of the spectrum: Medicaid.

All they have to do is apply these same standards to Medicaid child welfare services, but no.  The dead rules live on live!  There has been a suspension of the Medicaid rules for regulation for the past few years and the child welfare propaganda machines want to make sure it stays this way.

The Use of Payment Suspensions To Prevent  Inappropriate Medicare Payments, OEI-OI-09-001S0  


The problem with fraud, waste and abuse in child welfare is well documented, yet it continues to be funded, with no contractual debarment, suspension, prosecution and recovery, or exclusion.


DHHS Fraud Warning to Administration for Children and Families


Unfortunately, child abuse propaganda machines will use every form of industry mastication, emotionally skewed and biased statistics to shove down the throats of the information starved public to maintain an industry.


CWLA Letter to CMS on Medicaid Regulation


The reason there is no regulation to stop Medicaid fraud in child welfare is because it is survival of the fittest, and children do not stand a chance when it comes to a multi-billion dollar industry.


The child welfare factory process children like this. Child protective services acquires the raw material. Foster care processes the children. National adoption month markets the final product to the public.


Here is an example of child welfare administrators in action:





November is the national clearance sale of the child welfare industry. The warehouse is over-flowing with product, ready to be shipped, overnight to your front door, with a substantial bonuses and tax rebates. The child welfare industry must make room for the new season inventory. There are even manufacturer recalls.

Start giving and you will find there will be no need to hold blue light specials to encourage people to adopt and become foster parents.

Reducing the supply of foster children increases the demand for caregivers.

This is why I say the world celebrate National Adoption Month in a new fashion by adopting policies to end fraud, waste, and abuse in child trafficking which is better recognized as foster care and adoption.

 It is time to close this dark chapter in the annuls of time.

Adopt policies to end Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare.

HAPPY NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH

Advanced SystemSuckOlogy: The Magic of Foster Parents

Advanced SystemSuckOlogy: The Magic of Foster Parents

Believe it or not, I am only human.

That said, in order to do a blog like Legally Kidnapped, I have to set some boundaries for myself. For example, I can not get emotionally involved. So it's not that I don't care, it's that I can't. It's like a nurse who cares for the dying. How can you do a job like that day to day, involving so much pain and suffering? How can a doctor or a nurse comfort a elderly woman who at that very moment lost her husband after 50 years of marriage and have that that kind of situation be a regular part of their jobs? There are people who do that. The answer, you learn not to become emotionally involved.

I have people asking me about this blog, how can I deal with so much negativity on a daily basis without becoming burned out? All of these stories about systematic failures, institutional abuse, abuse of power, child abuse, death and lives being destroyed. Rarely do I post anything positive here. And a lot of what I read about and post here on a daily basis is sickening.


Just the other night, I was talking to Ms. Tran about just this sort of thing. She made an interesting statement. She said, "I used to have emotion, but they forced it out of me." And I know exactly what she's talking about, because I have to keep a similar distance between my own personal life, my feelings, and this blog.


So in all honesty, I have to admit that it takes an element of coldness in ones heart, just in order to do this kind of work. Does this mean that I don't care? Absolutely not. If I didn't care, I wouldn't work so hard to expose these people for the fakes and frauds that they are. If I didn't care I wouldn't work to expose the horrors or the injustices that families are forced to endure. There is a fine line here. It's something that one really needs to be faced with in order to understand. I do it for many reasons. I do it because they f***** with my family. I do it because I believe that it is the right thing to do.


Now, switching gears: Have you ever wondered how that mean old caseworker who stole your child is able to sleep at night?


Same thing.


You see folks, there are two types of Child Welfare Workers out there.

1. Those who are in it for the long haul.
2. Those who can't handle it and get out after a short time.

Thus accounting for the high turnover rate in the Child Protective Industry.

The workers who can't handle it, are the ones who do get emotionally involved. Emotional involvement leads to a condition known as Burn Out. Therefore, in order to maintain ones sanity, child welfare workers who have been on the job for years, must put up this same kind of a wall between their inner beings and all of the emotional insanity involved in the Legalized Kidnapping and trafficking of our children. On the other hand, it takes an element of caring, and for some it is the belief that it is the right thing to do.


So with many social workers, I do share this common phenomenon regarding the self-preservationist aspect of human nature. The difference is, I'm posting news articles on a blog and they're lying, cheating, and swindling you out of your own flesh and blood and bouncing them through and abusive system claiming it's in their own best interest, and a good many of them don't give a hoot about it. They're trying to advance in their careers and you and your families are simply a stepping stone on that path.


Now, as I'm sure you're all wondering what the point of all of this is, I got to tell you that I came across a video clip that on the surface appears to be two wonderful people being interviewed on this topic of helping our nation's most vulnerable children. A concept that I have no problem with. First, we have a wonderful woman who works to recruit foster parents, and a foster care success story who is a talented bundle of personality and also works to some capacity within the system. We have them here painting a picture of the rewards associated with foster parenting. WE HAVE THEM WARMING THE HEARTS AND MANIPULATING THE EMOTION OF TELEVISION VIEWERS, in the hopes that some of these suckers for a sob story will "open their hearts and their homes to a child in need."


Thus we have them selling you a line of bullshit via a method of emotional marketing.



Okay. Credit where credit is due.


This guy is good. It's just too bad that he's either been brainwashed and now sells snake oil, I mean children for a living or he's simply a total sell out who doesn't understand the value of family, because he never had one. Still, using a foster care success story in this way paints the picture that such outcomes are common.


You also got to love the batch of lies from the old hag. "and then know that foster care is temporary, you're helping children go back home, and become a part of their family." Now, I do I have to point out that this video clip comes from the state who raked in the most money from the Adoption Bonus this year?

This is where it gets interesting.

If you are considering foster parenting, or taking on a legal risk child think about whether or not you can handle these emotions with the potential loss of a child. As a foster parent you will not keep every child that comes into your home. You will have to say goodbye. Sometimes you will be fine with the decision, and may even ask for the child’s removal. Other times your heart will break at the loss of a child you love completely. The only way to avoid this is to not take these children into your home at all.
http://fost-adopt.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/saying-goodbye-to-a-child (you may need to copy and paste the link into your browser as adoption blogs had me blocked in the past.)

So what happens when a foster parent becomes emotionally involved?


Well for one, you'll have them thwarting your reunification efforts. You'll have them fighting to adopt, dragging it out in court and crying, "We're the only family the child has ever known!"



No agreement reached in the Baby Vanessa case; custody hearing set



And in many cases, you will never see your child again.


So perhaps this emotional capturing of the hearts of potential foster parents on media presented foster parent campaigns is simply a form of the Child Protective Industry preaching the wrong message. A foster parent who becomes emotionally attached to your child could be your greatest obstacle to you getting your kids back.


But hey, they gotta feed the beast to maintain the cash flow, right?

Whitney Walker prays for a second chance to get her three young children back

RICO Gets Adopted

This is a blog post by a foster parent. The child placing agency has forced the foster parent to enter into a contract with penalties if there are any disclosure of anything to the media or the internet.

It seems like my secrecy campaign of not telling the public is catching on.

There are already penalties for public speaking on what happens in the foster care system for parents (i.e. no visitation, termination of parental rights, referral for psychotic medications), now the foster parents are silenced.

All records of billings, costs and donations are kept from public disclosure as these are non-profit organizations...all in the best interests of children.

The child welfare industry has adopted its final piece of racketeering policy.

The $1,000 blog (or the 1 year in jail blog)

I have a real reason to have not posted lately. Besides just worn our end-of-the-days.

I signed a new contract.

It’s a privacy contract.

And it effectively forbids this blog.

So I’m not sure what I’m going to do. The contract doesn’t explicitly say ‘no blogs, anonymous or not’ but it says not to share confidential information with media, including on the internet. And I am publishing a blog. Okay, maybe that is pretty explicit.

Before I signed this contract, I knew this blog wasn’t really jiving with my agency’s rules, but I reasoned I could claim ignorance if I was outed. And I have tried very hard to make it anonymous – but I also want it to be real, and with those two somewhat conflicting goals in mind, lately I have veered much more towards being real. If Mark and Nikki’s mom or aunt or Lulu found this blog and read more than one post, they would know who it was.

I’m an ethical person, and now that I’ve signed this contract, I feel duty-bound to honor it. Plus there’s that $1,000 or year in jail for breaking it. (Okay, that’s up to $1,000 or a year, but maybe they’d want to make an example out of me!)

And really, all jokes aside, I do care about the kids’ privacy rights. They have no control over their lives as it is, so maybe I do need to be a lot more thoughtful about their personal details…

So for the time being, I’m taking down all my old posts and figuring out if and how I’ll be continuing this blog. It’s been really helpful for me to have a record of events, but I’m not sure how much I’m actively contributing to the foster parent world. Especially when I don’t post for weeks at a time. I believe it is possible to blog about being a foster parent without compromising anonymity; it just takes a lot more focus.

So maybe when I have more focus.

Whenever that will be.

Michigan Realities of Relative Placement

There is a reason why relative placement in Michigan has stagnated in the Senate.

Re: 2007 House Bill 4735 (Give preference to relatives over foster care )

"...If a parent or relative within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity of a child who is a ward of the institute establishes a suitable home and is capable and willing to support the child, the department may restore the child to his or her parent or relative. The institute may assist the parent or relative with the support of the child if the aid is less than the cost of care the institute would otherwise provide."

It seems, in part, there is already legislation on the books to reinstate parental rights. Unfortunately, there, also, exists a desperate need to clean up all the statutes pertaining to child welfare, for they are extremely antiquated and incoherent.

(3) Before determining placement of a child in its care, a supervising agency shall give special consideration and preference to the child's relatives. If a supervising agency determines that a child's relative is willing to care for the child, [ ] is fit to do so,[and would meet the child's developmental, emotional, and physical needs,] the child shall be placed in that relative's home unless that placement is determined to be [ ] not in the child's best interests.

There are two terms which have also hindered the passage of this bill. The first being "shall". The supervising agency "shall give special consideration" to relative care givers but is not mandated to do so. There is no State oversight to even enforce the matter.

The second term is "fit". A caregiver is determined to be "unfit" if they are not able to provide for the needs of the child, meaning, poverty or a reliance upon social support systems deems the relative who is impoverished not eligible for relative placement.

Poverty is not a crime, but it is in Michigan's child welfare system.

Michigan entered the Children's Rights settlement agreement because it was unable to come into federal compliance in other substantial areas of its child welfare system.

The Legislature needs look no further for legislative analysis as this is my area of expertise.

Beverly Tran

An Original Source

From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/forums/writeus.php#ixzz0t7OLxkQn

Foster Parents Recruited in Child Welfare Fraud Schemes

Child welfare fraud manifests in all shapes and forms. Here is a child welfare fraud scheme where the foster parent has been unscrupulously recruited to participate in aberrant billing, questionable ethical practices, multiple civil rights and criminal violations.

This foster parent blog describes a foster care fraud scheme that results in the generation of fraudulent documentation submitted for state and federal reimbursement of costs.

Note: Here is an interesting blog post from a foster parent. The real mother is being lied to and thinks that she is working towards reunification while everybody else involved in the stealing of her children is working towards just the opposite, and lying to her about it in the process.

When Special Agent Perez made this speech, he did so to stop people like this.

Testimony of DHHS OIG Special Agent March 4, 2010