Indiana System

A place to post and discuss news.

Moderators: family_man, LindaJM

Marina
Moderator
Posts: 5496
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:06 pm

Indiana System

Postby Marina » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:14 pm

.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... /707110505

6:58 PM July 11, 2007


Court lifts order from child welfare

By Rob Schneider
[email protected]

A federal court judge today lifted a 1992 order imposed in response to a lawsuit alleging child welfare workers in Marion County had failed to provide minimal services to abused, neglected and other children and their families.


U.S. District Court Judge John Tinder agreed to dismiss the consent decree after receiving assurances that the Indiana Department of Child Services has made progress in addressing deficiencies in the system.
The department administers child support, child protection, adoption and foster case throughout the state.

It has taken a number of steps in recent years to fix its problems, including hiring hundreds of additional family case managers and expanding training.

The Indiana Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in 1989 on behalf of wards of Marion County and their parents.

Under the consent decree, improvements in training for supervisors and caseworkers were required. Today, according to the Daniels administration, the department exceeds the stipulations established by the consent decree.

A federal court judge today lifted a 1992 order imposed in response to a lawsuit alleging child welfare workers had failed to provide minimal services to abused, neglected and other children and their families.

U.S. District Court Judge John Tinder agreed to dismiss the consent decree after receiving assurances that the Indiana Department of Child Services has made progress in addressing deficiencies in the system.

The department administers child support, child protection, adoption and foster case throughout the state.

It has taken a number of steps in recent years to fix its problems, including hiring hundreds of additional family case managers and expanding training.

The Indiana Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in 1989 because the state’s “crushing caseloads and inadequate standards” had left children injured or dead in Marion County — the state’s most populous county.

Under the consent decree, improvements in training for supervisors and caseworkers were required. Today, according to the Mitch Daniels administration, the department exceeds the stipulations established by the consent decree.

“Obviously the system is not perfect, but it’s clear that the state is working to correct all of the problems that gave rise to this case,” said Ken Falk, legal director of the ICLU.

Susan Tielking, a spokeswoman for child services, said about 60,000 allegations involving abuse or neglect of children are made each year in Indiana, and about a third of those cases are substantiated.

Currently, about 2,300 children in Marion County are involved in the child welfare system, she said.

Tielking said that over the past two years, the agency had hired 400 additional child welfare caseworkers and is expected to have hired an additional 400 caseworkers by next July. Those additions will boost to about 1,600 the number of state caseworkers, she said.

.

Marina
Moderator
Posts: 5496
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:06 pm

Postby Marina » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:48 pm

.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbc ... /712150461

Saturday, December 15, 2007 E-mail this | Print page



State workers, police share knowledge of at-risk kids
Domestic violence data is included in new protocol

By Charles Wilson
Associated Press



INDIANAPOLIS -- If police make a domestic violence run to certain homes in Indianapolis, they'll now have access to data from the Indiana Department of Child Services that authorities hope will help get at-risk children out of danger.

The state agency will share information on 500 homes where children under state supervision stay with their families, and police in turn will notify child welfare workers about potentially dangerous situations.



The new protocol, authorized by a court order yesterday, is an outgrowth of the child services department's internal review and recommendations following the Nov. 27 beating death of TaJanay Bailey. A court hearing on the child's status also was scheduled on that day, at which a counselor and child advocate planned to ask a judge to remove the child from the home.

Child welfare workers didn't know that police had gone to the child's home 17 days earlier for a reported domestic disturbance. If they had known, Child Services Director James Payne said, TaJanay might have been removed from her family's home immediately.

"In looking back, I think the domestic violence issue would have had great bearing," he said yesterday at a press conference releasing the department's report.

The report focused on ways to improve communications among those responsible for the well-being of children, including families, foster parents and officials.

The court-ordered protocol was one of the most concrete recommendations. Payne said officials hope to put the system in place statewide, with regional department offices working with local law enforcement agencies and possibly state police.

A key finding of the report is a need for training so agency officials can better understand domestic violence. It also calls for better communication with foster families and more involvement by family members and others in team meetings to discuss plans for the child's well-being.

Deputy Director of Field Operations Stephanie Yoder said child welfare workers would be "very aggressive" when factoring domestic violence into decisions on whether to remove children from a home. But she stopped short of saying there would be a blanket rule to remove children amid domestic violence reports, saying cases must be judged individually.

But, Payne acknowledged, "Domestic violence raises the level of concern."

Domestic violence allegations were recanted or later denied by TaJanay's mother, the report found, but caseworkers must be trained to recognize signs of violence despite such complications.

Prosecutors say TaJanay died after being repeatedly beaten for wetting her pants and soiling herself. Her mother, Charity Bailey, is jailed on murder and neglect charges. Charity Bailey's boyfriend, Lawrence Green, 20, also is charged in the case.

.

Marina
Moderator
Posts: 5496
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:06 pm

Postby Marina » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:20 pm

.

http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/ ... 65104.html

"Suspicious Person" Misidentified




YouNewsTV™Story Published: Jul 1, 2008 at 12:44 PM EDT

Story Updated: Jul 1, 2008 at 12:44 PM EDT
By Jessica Toumani


Monday, police warned you of a man they believed was impersonating a Child Protective Services officer and could be a danger to your kids.

Now, officers have confirmed, he wasn't just posing.

The man was in fact a CPS officer.

Two middle-school aged girls walking on Rothman road were approached near midnight on saturday by a suspicious car, a married couple told police they noticed the scared looks on the girls faces and gave them a ride home.

They told police the driver of the car yelled out the window "we're with the CPS, we need to get the girls home".

Once they arrived at the girls house, the couple says the driver approached them shouting "Do you know who I am?" and holding up his badge.

Because of bad lighting, the husband says he pulled up the man's hand to see his ID card.

At which point, the couple tells police the man said "you don't touch my badge" and continued to yell.

The husband did observe a picture and the letters CPS at the bottom of the badge, but never saw a name.

Police originally told us this man may be a threat and were positive he wasn't a CPS officer.

.

Marina
Moderator
Posts: 5496
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:06 pm

Postby Marina » Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:23 pm

.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... /807270394

Cases spur call for oversight, open records

By Tim Evans
Posted: July 27, 2008

Concerns about the Department of Child Services' response in the cases of TaJanay Bailey and Destiny Linden have renewed calls to open juvenile court records and create an ombudsman to oversee the agency.

State confidentiality regulations make it impossible to determine whether the communications lapses revealed by the two deaths are indicative of a widespread problem within DCS.


Most of the records in the roughly 10,000 child abuse and neglect cases that require court intervention each year in Indiana remain confidential, with details of only the worst tragedies coming to the public's attention.

Destiny's death this spring, coming so closely on the heels of the death of TaJanay, reinforces the need for an ombudsman to watch over DCS, said state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary.

About 30 states have child services ombudsmen who serve as independent watchdogs, helping to resolve disputes and investigating problems within child welfare agencies.

Brown introduced a bill to establish an ombudsman late in the legislative session this year, but it died before getting a vote on the House floor as lawmakers turned their focus to tax reform. He thinks the child welfare system is improving but said more oversight is needed.

"I'm certainly going to introduce something again next year," Brown said.

Dawn Robertson, spokeswoman for Honk for Kids, a group that works with families involved with DCS, said she wants state officials to go further.

She wants to see juvenile courts, including abuse and neglect cases, opened to the public.

The idea, endorsed in 2005 by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, is gaining momentum elsewhere, including Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon and Utah, a state that Indiana officials are looking to as a model for some of the child welfare reform efforts under way.

"We have to open the records," Robertson said, "so the public can find out why an innocent little child like Destiny died."

.

Marina
Moderator
Posts: 5496
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:06 pm

Postby Marina » Sat May 09, 2009 7:28 pm

http://www.indystar.com/article/2009043 ... /1001/NEWS

High court sides with judges over DCS

By Tim Evans
Posted: April 30, 2009


A The state Supreme Court has issued a decision that should make it easier for judges to defend rulings that clash with Department of Child Services recommendations.

It is an important decision, legal experts and child welfare advocates agree, because a law that went into effect Jan. 1 seemed poised to discourage such rulings.



The new law, which was included in a property tax measure, shifts the cost of providing care for children in DCS custody from the counties to the state.

But there's a catch: If a local judge disagrees with the DCS recommendation, the county must pick up the tab unless the judge can prove the agency's recommendation is unreasonable or contrary to the welfare and best interests of the child. The fear among some is that the requirement would pressure judges to go along with DCS to avoid costing the county money.

A LaPorte County judge's decision to overrule DCS was the first case challenged since the law went into effect.

An appellate court agreed in March with the judge's recommendation, and now so has the Indiana Supreme Court.

But perhaps more importantly, the court said in its April 17 decision that the proper test for the appellate court in such disputes is that it must find the judge's decision was "clearly erroneous" and not merely assume a DCS recommendation is correct.

"To say this decision was eagerly awaited would be an understatement," said Marion County juvenile court Judge Marilyn Moores.

...

Marina
Moderator
Posts: 5496
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:06 pm

Postby Marina » Sat May 23, 2009 7:06 pm

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/2 ... -1/LOCAL11

Last updated: May 15, 2009 8:39 a.m.
Top court considers custody of foster kid
Niki KellyThe Journal Gazette

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Supreme Court justices Thursday weighed the interests of a 9-year-old boy awaiting adoption against the parental rights of his previously incarcerated parents.

No decision was made in the case of J.M., a juvenile living in foster care in Allen County.

The boy’s mother and father were recently released from prison after serving sentences for conspiring to deal methamphetamine and other charges.

They appealed a November 2008 Indiana Court of Appeals decision that found there was no guarantee either parent would be able to care for J.M. after their release, and terminated their parental rights.

That decision overturned a February 2008 ruling by Allen Superior Court-Family Division Judge Charles Pratt denying the termination. Pratt said then that the only basis for the termination was the parents’ incarceration and that they should be given an opportunity to establish a stable and appropriate life.

J.M. was removed from the mother’s care in April 2004 by Montgomery County officials and lived with his aunt and grandmother in Vermillion County, but they grew tired of caring for him, according to court documents.

After a brief stint in foster care, the boy was sent to live with a paternal uncle and aunt in Allen County, in spite of objections by local officials regarding the danger of child abuse in the home.

Within months, the boy was removed from that home because of allegations of abuse. He was placed back in foster care.

According to court records, the boy’s mother wrote him letters every week from prison but saw him only a few times, and his father had not communicated with the child since 2005.

"They hardly know this child. This child hardly knows them," said Daniel Pappas, the child’s attorney.

He told the Supreme Court justices Thursday that the child’s need for permanency outweighs his parents’ rights. And he focused on the repeated criminal conduct of the parents when the child was in their care.

But attorneys Tom Allen and Richard Williams – representing the mother and father, respectively – said the parents are now out of prison with jobs and housing and want to reunite with their child. The couple are not married.

They argued that a federal rule triggered a mandatory termination petition by the Allen County Department of Child Services based solely on how long the child had been in foster care.

And they noted when the petition failed it was Pappas who appealed, not the state child protective agency.

Allen said there is a false impression that foster care has failed the child.

In fact, he said the boy is doing well in foster care and there is no harm in keeping him there for a bit longer while finalizing a reunification plan with his parents.

Williams also assured the justices that the boy’s father is on probation, receives random drug tests and has not re-offended.

He also said there are no allegations that the parents specifically did anything wrong with regard to the child’s care.

Justice Brent Dickson candidly told Pappas during the argument that he was struggling with the case because the original decision not to terminate the parental rights was made "by one of the state’s most thoughtful juvenile judges."

And he also pointed out that Indiana’s penal system is supposed to be based on reformation – not vindictive justice.


Return to “In the News”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests