MSN News: Police: TV show reminded man that girl was in car

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/police-tv-show-reminded-man-that-girl-was-in-car

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A child crying on the television show "Game of Thrones" jogged a foster parent's memory that he had left a 10-month-old girl inside a sweltering car while he and his partner smoked marijuana at their house, a police affidavit released Monday says.

Seth Jackson, 29, is charged with first-degree murder in the July 24 death in Wichita. No charges have been filed against his partner.
Police say the girl was inside the car with the windows up for more than two hours. It was around 90 degrees outside. An autopsy showed she died of hyperthermia due to heat exposure.
The affidavit says Jackson's partner told police that Jackson called that day to let him know he would be picking the 10-month-old up from the baby sitter after taking their 5-year-old adopted child to a doctor's appointment. Jackson told police that when he arrived home, he locked the car and went inside with his 5-year-old and the pizza.
Jackson's partner said he and Jackson watched one and a half episodes of "Games of Thrones" and smoked marijuana Jackson had picked up that day, according to the affidavit. The partner told police Jackson realized he had left the 10-month-old outside in the car when he heard a child crying on the TV show.
The men rushed outside, Jackson unlocked the vehicle and his partner removed the child.
The partner told investigators the girl was hot and stiff when he grabbed her from the car and carried her into the house. As he called 911, Jackson attempted CPR but could not get the child's mouth open, according to the affidavit filed by Wichita police detective Ryan Schomaker.
Officers who responded found Jackson still on the phone when they arrived, making calls and repeatedly stating, "I left her in the car, she's dead, she's dead," according to the affidavit.
Meanwhile, the girl was unresponsive and lying on her back on the couch. Firefighters moved the girl from the couch to the floor once they arrived and attempted to revive her.
Later in an interview at police headquarters, Jackson's partner told detectives he and Jackson had been foster parents to the 10-month-old girl since she was 2 weeks old. Police have not released the child's name and documents in the case only use her initials.
Although the girl died of hyperthermia, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said the first-degree murder charge was warranted because the child died during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony, aggravated endangering of a child. The case is not charged as intentional murder.
In addition to the 10-month-old, who they were trying to adopt, Jackson and his partner had five other children in their care. They had three other foster children ages 3, 5 and 18, and two adopted children ages 5 and 7. The two younger foster children were visiting other relatives at the time the 10-month-old died.
Prosecutors and Jackson's attorneys agree the circumstances are entirely different than a widely publicized case in Georgia, where a father faces murder and child cruelty charges on suspicion of intentionally leaving a 22-month-old boy inside a hot car last month as he went to work.

Affidavit: Both Wichita foster parents smoking pot while baby in hot car

http://www.kansas.com/2014/08/04/3581618/affidavit-both-wichita-foster.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Headlines_Newsletter

By Tim Potter

The Wichita Eagle

 

Both foster parents of a 10-month-old girl who died after being left in a hot car were smoking marijuana while she remained in the vehicle outside, a Wichita police affidavit says.
The affidavit, filed in Sedgwick County District Court and released Monday, provides new details about what led up to the July 24 death, including that one of the foster parents realized that the baby remained in the car when he heard a baby crying on a television show they were watching.
They rushed outside, but her body was hot and already stiff, and she was unresponsive, the court document says.
Seth Jackson, 29, the parent who left the girl in the car according to police, has been charged with first-degree murder. The affidavit spells out the alleged facts upon which authorities are basing their prosecution of Jackson.
The affidavit, signed by homicide unit Detective Ryan Schomaker, gives this narrative: At about 6:41 p.m. July 24, officers were dispatched to an unknown call for police and arrived at 1525 S. Topeka and were let into the home by the other foster parent, identified in the affidavit by his initials. An officer saw Jackson on the telephone and the baby, identified as K.P.J., lying on her back on the couch and not breathing.
Wichita fire personnel arrived and moved the baby to the floor to use lifesaving techniques.
The other foster parent told the officer that he estimated that the baby had been left in the car about two hours. The other parent said he ran to the Dodge Charger, parked on the street, and found the baby in the back passenger seat and took her inside, where “they tried performing CPR but could not get her mouth open,” the affidavit says.
Another officer arrived and saw Jackson standing in the front yard. Jackson made about four phone calls and said, “I left her in the car, she’s dead, she’s dead.” Jackson told the officer that he had gotten home after getting the girl from the baby sitter in his silver Dodge Charger and picking up pizza, that when he arrived home, he locked the car and went inside with the pizza and a 5-year-old child, the affidavit says.
Jackson told the officer that after about two hours, he realized the baby had remained in the car, the document says. He and the other parent ran together to the car and carried the child inside.
Schomaker and Detective Robert Chisholm interviewed the other foster parent at police offices at City Hall and found out that he and Jackson had been foster parents to the baby since she was 2 weeks old. They also learned, according to the affidavit, that Jackson had taken a 5-year-old child to a doctor’s appointment scheduled for 2:30 p.m. that day. Jackson called the other parent at about 3:30 and told how the appointment went. Jackson told the other parent he was going to pick up the 10-month-old from the baby sitter and drive home, the affidavit says.
The other parent told the detectives that he had been working in the backyard and went inside, where he found Jackson. It was 4 to 4:15 p.m., and the other parent said he thought Jackson had just gotten home. They decided on leftover pizza for dinner and went into their room on the main floor and watched one and a half episodes of “Game of Thrones.”
The other parent told one of the detectives that “they smoked marijuana that Seth (Jackson) had picked up that day,” the affidavit says.
When watching the show, the other parent said, Jackson heard “a child crying on the television show and that is when Seth realized that K.P.J. was still inside the vehicle.” The other parent ran to the car as Jackson unlocked it from the front porch, reached in and unbuckled the baby from a rear car seat, the affidavit says.
The other parent said the girl “was hot to the touch and stiff when he grabbed her,” the document says. The 10-month-old was unresponsive. He called 911 while Jackson tried to do CPR.
A coroner’s official who did an autopsy on the girl listed the cause of death as “hyperthermia due to environmental heat exposure due to enclosure inside a vehicle outdoors,” the affidavit says.

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/08/04/3581618/affidavit-both-wichita-foster.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Headlines_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

 

Foster Child dies after being left in car in south Wichita

Foster Child dies after being left in car in south Wichita http://www.kansas.com/2014/07/24/3567161/child-dies-after-being-left-in.html One arrested after baby dies in hot car in S. Wichita http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/baby-dies-in-hot-car-in-south-wichita/27139842 Wichita Foster Dad of Baby Who Died in Hot Car 'Wants to Die' http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hot-cars-and-kids/wichita-foster-dad-baby-who-died-hot-car-wants-die-n164706 Police, state conducting own investigations into child’s death in hot car http://www.kansas.com/2014/07/25/3567640/child-who-died-was-in-car-during.html#storylink=cpy Ten-month-old girl dies after being left in a hot car in Wichita http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/25/ten-month-old-girl-dies-after-being-left-in-a-hot-car-in-wichita/

Where Is Adam Herrman? $50,000 reward offered in Butler County disappearance of 11-year-old Adam Herrman

December 20

BY AMY RENEE LEIKER

The Wichita Eagle

EL DORADO — A $50,000 cash reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the disappearance of a Towanda boy in 1999, Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet announced Friday.

The reward is being posted by an anonymous donor who “would like to see some closure for the family” of Adam Joseph Herrman, Herzet said at a news conference in El Dorado.

Adam was 11 when he went missing, but authorities didn’t learn he had vanished until late 2008, when his older, adoptive sister shared concerns about him with law enforcement.

The boy’s adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, did not report him missing. They later were declared suspects in the case by the county’s chief prosecutor, Jan Satterfield, who said the investigation could result in first-degree felony murder charges.

As of Friday, though, Adam’s whereabouts remain unknown to authorities. The last tip, Herzet said, came in months ago.

Adam would be 26 now.

“We’ve not had any contact with anyone who’s called and said, ‘Hey I’m Adam Joseph Herrman. I want to come talk to you,’” Herzet said. “It’s an open case here in Butler County, and we’re still trying to get to where we need to be to on getting some closure – finding him, his whereabouts, his remains, whatever it may be.”

He called the case “very frustrating.”

“We’re hoping with a reward, this might make somebody call.”

Anyone with information about Adam Herrman is asked to call the Butler County Sheriff’s Office at 316-322-4257 or 866-484-5924 or El Dorado Crime Stoppers at 316-321-1080.

Tipsters also can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s hotline at 800-THE-LOST (843-5678).

Doug and Valerie Herrman have not faced charges connected to Adam’s disappearance. They claim he ran away from the family’s Towanda trailer home after Valerie spanked him one night.

The couple have said they did not report him missing out of fear they would lose custody of their other children.

Relatives have said that the Herrmans told family that Adam, a home-schooled child, had been returned to state custody.

After learning of the disappearance, authorities dug for Adam’s body in the Towanda mobile home park where he’d lived but turned up nothing. A search of nearby wooded areas also yielded no clues.

In 2011, Doug and Valerie Herrman pleaded guilty to felony theft for continuing to accept a state subsidy to help them care for their adoptive son after he vanished. They were ordered to pay $15,488 in restitution — the amount they pleaded guilty to wrongly accepting — and a fine of $2,500 each.

The couple received the $700 monthly subsidy until Adam’s 18th birthday, in 2005.

Butler County District Judge David A. Ricke also ordered Doug Herrman to serve nine months in prison for the theft and gave Valerie Herrman a seven-month prison term.

Herzet, who was the lead investigator on the case before becoming sheriff that year, said at the time that he was “focused on working this case as a homicide.”

“The Herrmans still are, in my eyes, suspects,” he said in 2011, “and we’re going to continue to work the case as the leads come in, and I hope we can resolve the case in the very near future and arrests are made.”

On Friday, he echoed similar resolve.

“A lot of my detectives have pictures of Adam hanging in their office. He’s not going to go away, and the case isn’t going to go away.

“ ... Every time we get a lead or something comes up, one of the detectives assigned to the case jumps right on it, and we follow it through to the very end.”

Contributing: Tim Potter of The Eagle.

 Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/20/4704909/butler-county-sheriff-expected.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/20/4704909/butler-county-sheriff-expected.html#storylink=cpy

Brandon Blackmon, Court: Man deserves trial over use of restraints

Link to the lawsuit

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-ksd-6_05-cv-01029/pdf/USCOURTS-ksd-6_05-cv-01029-3.pdf

"The court noted that the Supreme Court had held that the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of due process prohibits any punishment of presumptively innocent individuals awaiting trial. It said there is "ample evidence" in the case that the defendants at least sometimes used the chair to punish the boy"...."The problem is that the evidence also suggests that the boy was shackled to the chair for long stretches when there was no hint he posed a threat of harming himself or anyone else, according to the decision. On one occasion the boy was stripped out of his clothes and forced to wear a paper gown while restrained in the chair."

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/11/08/3104560/court-man-deserves-trial-over.html#storylink=cpy

Previous lawsuit

Kansas Reaches Settlement to Pay for CPS Abuse $875,000 "The Rev. Thomas Campbell, former vice president at St. Francis, predicted Blackmon “would be 'fresh meat’ and the 'target of sexual predators,’” court records say."http://kscpsabuselawsuit.blogspot.com/2009/07/state-agrees-to-pay-875k.html

State agrees to pay $875K "Blackmon, 23, alleged his civil rights were violated by SRS employees who had him sent to a residential facility serving adolescent male juveniles convicted of sex crimes. He also asserted SRS didn’t respond appropriately to abuse he suffered at the center." http://cjonline.com/news/state/2009-07-07/state_agrees_to_pay_875k

So What?? Judge Henderson wants the State to review adoption recommendations

Are people really that gullible to believe this story? http://www.kansas.com/2013/11/04/3097090/judge-asks-state-to-review-some.html#emlnl=Morning_Headlines_Newsletter

This looks more like a cover up as the state will investigate itself, it's contractors, the DA's who prosecute the cases for the state and the Judges. Does anyone really expect the state to find wrong doing? After all the state would then be liable.

What about Judge Henderson? 

Let's not forget the mother that was jailed and her child who was shackled

http://bhazenwasjailedmotherinsedgwickcounty.blogspot.com/

The family that filed a complaint against Judge Henderson 

http://taoprotectchildreninks.blogspot.com/2013/06/complaint-against-judge.html

Kansas Foster Care IS Rampant With Secrecy, CoverUPS, Forced Illegal Services

Per the article below, SRS/DCF wants families who have complaints about Faith Builders to contact the State. I would contact Rick Plumlee at 316-268-6660 or rplumlee@wichitaeagle.com. Follow him on Twitter: @rickplumlee.

Can you really have faith in a system that falsifies records to steal children? Are you concerned that the State files allegations against parents to remove children, then places the children in State custody with an agency with no oversight? ""Gilmore she said that DCF doesn’t have a contract with Faith Builders. DCF contracts with St. Francis in the Wichita region to provide foster care and family preservation services, she said. St. Francis contracts with DCCCA, a Lawrence-based organization, which works directly with Faith Builders, she said.""

Does anyone really believe that SRS Secretary Phyllis Gilmore is going to do something about violations of children and parental rights when she was over the KSBSRB and refused to investigate social workers when parents and families made complaints to the KSBSRB? http://changingkansas.blogspot.com/2012/02/phyllis-gilmore-secretary-of-srscps-is.html

What about these legislators who have known about these issues and have done nothing to help children and families? Our State lawmakers have written laws that give immunity to State workers with no consequences for violations of law by these individuals. When Don Jordan was the SRS Secretary he was recorded in a closed meeting stating that the Sedgwick County DA Nola Foulston's office bullied social workers to alter records to place children in foster care. The State did an audit, found this to be true, then dropped the ball. What was the purpose of the audit and multiple hearings over the years except to cost the tax payers money and fund the legislators retirements.

As for Brownback, he made promises to improve the foster care system and failed. Under his watch, more children are being removed from their parents custody each year that he has been in office. At this point, anyone would be a better option than Brownback.

2008 March 18, 2008, SRS Secretary Don Jordan said the Social Workers were bullied into falsifying records: "But in Sedgwick County oftentimes we end up writing things because it's what our social workers get bullied by the district attorney's office ( Sedgwick County) into writing. So they really have no belief in what it says." "The reality comes down to, you send a 25-year-old social worker into a room with a 15-year county ADA who is willing to yell at them, cuss at them, scream at them and threaten them," Jordan said. Don Jordan said, “I am working on our staff that we do our assessments properly and we not get bullied into writing things we don’t believe” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2BhDnnC2x4
Jun. 08, 2008, Concerns arise over SRS files' validity, BY TIM POTTER, The Wichita Eagle ""For years, some families have complained that court documents filed by social workers that result in children being removed from the home have contained false or fabricated information. " Now, some say they have proof. The head of the state's child welfare agency was recorded in a meeting with a family advocacy group saying that Sedgwick County prosecutors have "bullied" social workers into putting information they don't agree with in affidavits....But critics of the state child custody system and some legislators say the remarks by Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, raise questions about the affidavits' validity. "" http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.child-protective-services/browse_thread/thread/3db7b9c96116196d/8ae03d3a4852077d?lnk=gst&q=nancy+berry#8ae03d3a4852077d
Child removal inquiry's focus Posted: Friday, October 31, 2008 The Legislative Post Audit Committee last month approved the SRS probe after statements by SRS Secretary Don Jordan that the Sedgwick County prosecutors "bullied" social workers to put things in affidavits that they didn't truly believe. Jordan since has backed off those statements, and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston has denied the accusation. But lawmakers still pushed for an investigation — saying they had heard such allegations even before Jordan's widely publicized statements. Senator Schodorf said she asked for the audit after Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six declined to investigate, citing Jordan’s retraction of his statements. http://cjonline.com/stories/103108/kan_350202188.shtml

For the current story, read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/10/24/3076954/kansas-dcf-halts-placements-with.html#emlnl=Morning_Headlines_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Kansas DCF halts placements with foster-home operator Faith Builders pending review

 By Rick Plumlee The Wichita Eagle Published Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, at 5:21 p.m.

Legislators criticize DCF for keeping report secret Results of internal review of Kansas agency for children, families won’t be disclosed DCF's letter to legislators In a letter to state legislators, the secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families said her agency wouldn’t place children at foster homes operated by Faith Builders until a review of ongoing concerns is completed.

Phyllis Gilmore wrote in the letter dated Thursday, “I want you to be aware that in an abundance of caution, I have instructed our contractors and sub-contractors to do no further placements with homes associated with Faith Builders.”

Faith Builders and its association with DCF’s regional office in Wichita became a topic of concern among legislators. Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, contacted DCF staff in August, prompting the initial review.

She cited such concerns as the agency’s Wichita office directing children to Faith Builders’ foster care homes, improperly providing confidential information to Faith Builders and Faith Builders circumventing the court process on parental rights.

That review was completed and given to Gilmore on Oct. 10, but Gilmore would not release the results publicly, citing attorney-client privilege. That resulted in a bipartisan group of legislators calling for the review to be made public, which prompted Gilmore’s letter.

Theresa Freed, a DCF spokeswoman, said the letter was sent to eight legislators who have spoken publicly to the media about the issue. The letter will be sent to additional legislators, if they request it.

Diane Bidwell resigned last week as director of the Wichita office. DCF officials have said the resignation was voluntary.

Gary Ayers, attorney for Faith Builders, said Thursday he wasn’t aware of the content of the letter until a copy was provided by The Eagle.

“I was trying to reach our client,” he said. “I don’t know if Faith Builders has received any notification from DCF. This comes as a surprise.”

Ayers said Faith Builders has 25 foster homes in Wichita. Since it began operation in 2007, he said, it has helped many families by providing food, cribs, rent, furniture, respite and foster care.

When he met with the DCF investigator during the preliminary review, Ayers said: “We asked if Faith Builders had done anything wrong.

The DCF investigator said no. “The DCF investigator also indicated there had been no family complaints,” he added. “It seems the only complaint has come from a politician.”

Faust-Goudeau could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Gilmore said in her letter that the initial review has prompted her to request additional “work be done to address DCF’s association with Faith Builders.”

“I want to assure you, we are quickly and thoroughly reviewing each and every case in which Faith Builders has been involved,” she said. Information from the additional review will be shared with the legislators after it’s completed, she added.

Gilmore she said that DCF doesn’t have a contract with Faith Builders. DCF contracts with St. Francis in the Wichita region to provide foster care and family preservation services, she said.

St. Francis contracts with DCCCA, a Lawrence-based organization, which works directly with Faith Builders, she said.

Reach Rick Plumlee at 316-268-6660 or rplumlee@wichitaeagle.com. Follow him on Twitter: @rickplumlee.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/10/24/3076954/kansas-dcf-halts-placements-with.html#emlnl=Morning_Headlines_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Results of internal review of Kansas agency for children, families won't be disclosed http://www.kansas.com/2013/10/18/3066320/results-of-internal-review-of.html

Legislators criticize DCF for keeping report secret http://www.kansas.com/2013/10/23/3074507/legislators-criticize-dcf-for.html

 DCF's letter to legislators http://media.kansas.com/smedia/2013/10/24/16/32/14wqUC.So.80.pdf

Wichita DCF Director Diane Bidwell Resigns At Same Time Her Office Is Being Investigated... Coincidence?

Diane Bidwell — who runs the DCF office in Wichita — and Rep. Forrest Knox in a photo posted on Twitter in early 2012 by the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

"DCF officials in Topeka earlier this month confirmed that they were investigating complaints that the Wichita office was steering children at risk of entering the foster care system toward FaithBuilders, a faith-based group that some parents said was undercutting their efforts to be reunited with their children." "The accusations prompted Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat, to ask DCF officials to investigate." read more here: http://www.hayspost.com/2013/10/15/head-dcf-official-in-resigns-amid-investigation/

Kansas increased number of children in foster care while the USA numbers dropped over last decade

Privatization has done nothing for preserving families in Kansas. While the USA foster care system has decreased the number of children in foster care over the last decade, Kansas has continued to increase the number of children placed in foster care.

"In 2012 the number of U.S. children in foster care dropped for the sixth straight year, falling to about 400,000 compared to more than 520,000 a decade ago, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services.1 The latest figures show there were 400,540 children in foster care as of September 30, down from 406,412 a year earlier and from approximately 523,000 in 2002. Privatization has continued to play a role in reducing the number of children who enter the foster care system." Read more here: http://reason.org/news/show/apr-2013-child-welfare-privatizatio

Under Governor Brownback and DCF Phyllis Gilmore RECORD Number of Kansas Children are in Foster Care

http://www.khi.org/news/2013/aug/12/number-kansas-children-foster-care-continues-grow/
 The Kansas Health Institute's KHI numbers for children in foster care don't seem to match the State's own records.

Taken from the KHI website: "In Sedgwick County, the state’s most populous after Johnson County, the average number of children in out-of-home placements has increased from 950 in fiscal 2011 to 1,319 in fiscal 2013. On June 30 across Kansas, there were 5,719 children in out-of-home foster care settings, a mix of foster homes, relatives’ homes, group homes, psychiatric facilities, and juvenile detention facilities. That’s only the second time in the past 10 years that the number has exceeded 5,700 on the final day of the state’s fiscal year. The last time was in 2008, the onset of the Great Recession."

One thing is for certain, under Governor Brownback and DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore more children are being taken from their families, lives are being destroyed and Kansas children don't stand a chance of having any stability in their lives.

The numbers don't match. On the State's website it shows the total number of children served in Sedgwick County in fiscal 2013 was 1,452 which is higher than the 1,319 KHI reported. On the State's website it shows the total number of children served in out-of-home foster care settings was 8,853 which is also much higher than the 5,719 KHI reported. See link here: http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Documents/FY2013DataReports/ServedInDCFCustody/OOHPChildrenServedSFY2013.pdf

The Wichita Eagle Reported: "Over the past two years, near-record numbers of children have entered the state’s foster-care system, the Kansas Health Institute News Service reported. In Sedgwick County, the average number of children in out-of-home placements has increased from 950 in fiscal year 2011 to 1,319 in 2013. Statewide, there were 5,719 children in such placements as of June 30 – only the second time in the past 10 years that the number has exceeded 5,700 on the final day of the state’s fiscal year (the last time was at the start of the Great Recession in 2008)."

The numbers above are below the actual numbers listed by the State but then the Eagle took their story based on the KHI article. Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/18/2947009/eagle-editorial-foster-care-increase.html#storylink=cpy

Megyn Kelly With America Live Discusses Baby Sammy Wrongful Removal From Parents

More Children In State Custody Under Gov Brownback

FY2013 DCF/SRS Stats and History










Total Number Children Removed Last 4 Years:

FY2013 Statewide 3,974 children removed http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Documents/FY2013DataReports/ServedInDCFCustody/RemovalReasonByCountyFY2013.pdf 

FY2012 Statewide 3,623 children removed

http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Documents/FY2012DataReports/ServedinDCFcustody/RemovalsByPrimaryReasonFY2012.pdf

FY2011 Statewide 3,408 children removed

http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Documents/FY2011DataReports/ServedinSRScustody/RemovalsByPrimaryReasonFY2011.pdf

FY2010 Statewide 3,444 children removed

http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Documents/FY2010DataReports/ServedinSRScustody/RemovalsByPrimaryReasonFY2010.pdf

Kansas continues to warehouse the children

Kansas total number of children languishing in foster care has increased in the last 4 years under Brownback

Total Number Children Served In OOHP, Out Of Home Placement:

6/30/13 Kansas total 8,853, Sedgwick County 1,452

http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Documents/FY2013DataReports/ServedInDCFCustody/OOHPChildrenServedSFY2013.pdf

Prior Years:

 

http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Pages/FosterCareServiceFrequency.aspx

FY2013, Of the 3,974 Children Removed, Only 2,086 Were Substantiated For Abuse:

http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Documents/FY2013DataReports/Intake_Finding/Investigative%20Findings_FY2013.pdf

116,991 Kansas Children "Served" In Out Of Home Placement Since 1997

http://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/PPS/Pages/FosterCareServiceFrequency.aspx

Mother, Grandmother File Complaint Over Suspected Abuse In Foster Home

Friday, February 8, 2013
Each picture of the bruises makes Mary Crow and her daughter, Nicole, more and more angry.
"I'm very concerned about it and I'm not going to put up with it," Mary Crow said.
Nicole snapped the pictures of her daughter, who is in foster care, during her weekly visit Wednesday. In the pictures, she says, you can see bruises all over her daughter's cheek. She suspects the bruises are from abuse.
The State removed Nicole's daughter, Juliette, last February over allegations that Nicole's abusive boyfriend made the home unsafe. Nicole says her daughter was never abused in their home.
So, she says, it's not right that for the second time since Juliette has been out of her care, she's had to file a complaint with the Department of Child and Family Services over suspected abuse in Juliette's foster homes.
Nicole says this time a Youthville case worker told her the foster family's dogs were playing and Juliette somehow got caught in the middle. Nicole says she doesn't believe that story.
"My first thought was that she was getting abused again in another home and I needed to do something about it," Nicole Crow said.
In November, she says her daughter showed up for a visit with bruises and bite marks. Nicole says Juliette was removed from that foster home after she and Mary filed a complaint.
"Then they move her to another home and the same thing happens to her where a dog is attacking her? What is going on?" Mary Crow said.
Representatives for Youthville and the Department of Child and Family Services told KAKE News Friday they can not comment on any specific case due to privacy concerns.
Youthville Director of Marketing and Sales, Lynn Deckinger, says there is a process in place to help families with any kind of concern or incident. She says after a concern is brought to their attention, their first step is to ensure the child is "safe and protected." Next the team informs the parents and connects them with the Department of Child and Family Services which conducts an investigation.
"We definitely understand all parents concerns and that is one reason it is so important for agency's to have a process in place for families," Deckinger said in an email.
But Mary and Nicole say they think there's a bigger issue than just their case. They say they think the state's foster care system is failing vulnerable children.
"Even if they (the case workers) are checking once or twice a month, they need to do a lot more checking," Mary Crow said.
They say they don't want what they think happened to Juliette, to happen to other children.
"It's not right, these children need to be protected," Mary Crow said. "If they are not protected by the State, who will protect them besides us?"
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Nicole says she is no longer in a relationship with her previous boyfriend. She says she has a steady job and a place to live. She says she has a court date scheduled for February 28th. She hopes to get her daughter back at that time.
http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Mother-Grandmother-File-Complaint-Over-Suspected-Abuse-in-Foster-Home-190471551.html