CJOnline, Child abuse reports, foster care placements rising in state, More children in state custody despite high standard for substantiating abuse claims,

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-07-26/child-abuse-reports-foster-care-placements-rising-state More children in state custody despite high standard for substantiating abuse claims, Posted: July 26, 2014 - 2:47pm By Andy Marso andy.marso@cjonline.com The number of children in state custody has risen to record levels in Kansas, correlating with a rising number of child abuse and neglect complaints. As of the beginning of June there were about 7,000 children in the custody of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, including 6,168 in out-of-home foster care placement. Bruce Linhos, executive director of the Kansas Children's Alliance, said it is a higher number than ever before and child advocates, social workers and government officials are struggling to pinpoint a cause. “There’s been a lot of discussion, and I don’t think anybody’s come up with any great answers about why the number is growing,” Linhos said. An in-depth report by the Kansas Health Institute in June included some advocates saying that state policies arestraining and stressing poor families, while a DCF spokeswoman attributed the increase to heightened awareness and reporting of child abuse and neglect. The state is investigating more abuse and neglect claims compared with five years ago and the percentage of those claims that results in a "substantiated" finding is ticking up. But the vast majority remain "unsubstantiated." In Fiscal Year 2009 the state investigated 26,543 child-in-need-of-care complaints and 94.8 percent were found "unsubstantiated." In FY 2013 the Department for Children and Families investigated 32,130 complaints and 93.5 percent were unsubstantiated. Through the first 11 months of FY 2014, the department had assigned 33,052 complaints for investigation. Of those, 29,946 had been declared unsubstantiated and 1,828 had been substantiated. The remaining 1,278 complaints are still open. Substantiated claims are passed to local county and district attorneys, who decide whether to file a child-in-need-of-care petition with the court. Only judges can decide whether custody of the child in question should be granted to DCF or another person. As part of a series of reports on child abuse, the Wichita Eagle in June outlined a court case in which a 14-year-old girl who weighed 66 pounds was removed from her home after nine reports of neglect and abuse, eight of which were determined unsubstantiated. A prosecutor in Sedgwick County, where reports of child abuse and neglect have risen by more than 25 percent in the past five years to over 12,000 a year, told the Eagle his office is sometimes shocked by the number of unsubstantiated complaints in a child's past by the time a case is referred. Lee McGowan, a spokesman for the Shawnee County District Attorney's Office, said that's familiar to local prosecutors. "Our office concurs that it is sometimes surprising at how many previous reports may have been made before a case ever reaches our office," McGowan said via email. McGowan said he also agreed with his counterparts in Sedgwick County that there is sometimes a difference in philosophy between prosecutors, whose "focus is always on safety of the child first and foremost" and social workers, whose approach "may well be to try to keep the child in the home." "That is not to say, however, that safety is not a priority for the social workers," McGowan said. Ron Nelson, a prominent family law attorney in Lenexa, said it is no surprise that more than 90 percent of abuse and neglect complaints are determined unsubstantiated. To substantiate a complaint, state law requires "clear and convincing evidence," which Nelson called a "very high standard." "It is a standard that requires more than a belief that something occurred or that the person who is alleged to have committed the abuse or neglect is the one who committed it," Nelson said. "It is more than that there is some indication that something occurred or that the person alleged to have committed it performed the act. It is less than 'beyond a reasonable doubt.'" Nelson also said that the list of those whose professions require them to report suspected abuse and neglect is long, and reports may be made "out of an abundance of caution." Theresa Freed, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, said a substantiated claim is not necessary to temporarily remove a child from a dangerous situation. "The rate of removal is much higher than the rate of substantiating," Freed said. The process of removal has been under increased scrutiny recently as well. Craig Gabel, the president of a Wichita-based conservative group called Kansans for Liberty, last year proposed cutting DCF's funding if the agency does not meet family reunification goals. "In my opinion, the worst family in the world is better for a child than the best foster home," Gabel said at the time. During the 2014 session a member of Gabel's group teamed up with other disaffected parents to lobby for changing the state law that instructs courts to act "in the best interests of the child" to one that instructs them to choose the "least detrimental alternative for the child." The measure, House Bill 2450, died in committee. Linhos said that in addition to promoting family reunification, Kansans should also be working toward greater adoption rates so children aren't aging out of the foster care system and trying to prevent abuse and neglect from occurring in the first place. He touted programs like Topeka's Safe Families for Children that help families manage crises before they become damaging to children. “Those kind of very front end, early interventions are the kind of things I think the system has really struggled to kind of be able to address," Linhos said. "In my mind, those are the kind of hopeful things where we really are able to get the people assistance prior to getting to the point of abuse or neglect.” Andy Marso can be reached at Capital: (785) 233-7470; Office: (785) 295-5619 or andy.marso@cjonline.com. Follow Andy on Twitter @andymarso.

Does Brad Heyen also feel fortunate that his adoptive parents use to joke that his biological parents were Amish?

Kansas Children’s Service League’s focus shifts from adoption to prevention and keeping families together Kansas Children’s Service League’s focus shifts from adoption to prevention and keeping families together By Elizabeth Scheltens The Wichita Eagle ""Brad Heyen doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t know he was adopted. It was a topic that was up not only for discussion in the house where he grew up but also for questioning and for even humor. “My parents and I used to drive past Hutchison and see Amish horse-drawn buggies on the road,” Heyen said. “They always used to joke that my birth parents were inside.” Heyen’s story begins like many adoption stories in Kansas: with the Kansas Children’s Service League. The nonprofit organization, which celebrates its 120th anniversary this year, has been responsible for thousands of adoptions statewide since its founding in 1893."" Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/07/28/2911728/kansas-childrens-service-leagues.html#emlnl=Morning_Headlines_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

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

Child Rapists Are Walking Free In Kansas

In Sedgwick County the DA's office is filing false petitions against parents that report their children are being sexually abused. The DA's office places those children in foster care where they are at risk of  further abuse by strangers, then the DA works to give sole custody to the child's rapist.

US Attorney General Barry Grissom Called To Account By Donna Roberts, ACRA, A Childs Rights Association

Kansas.com Article Today:
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom adopts active, aggressive approach to fighting crime
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/15/2176917/us-attorney-barry-grissom-adopts.html#storylink=cpy

Donna Roberts, ACRA, A Childs Rights Association, Advocate responded with a comment on this article:

Donna's Post:

I personally spoke to Mr Grissom last year on the telephone, I expressed my concerns for children who have been sexually abused and the abuse covered up by the child protection system, no protection and no justice for these children. What really concerned me is when he said it was a "State Issue" I understand many things are, but the sexual abuse of a child is also a Federal Crime under the Adam Walsh's Act.

 

His other response to me was that they have saved thousands of children, like its ok that we fail one child, that this one child's life is not as important because they save thousands, tell this to the children who are suffering today because of the cover up within our own state.

 

Every child should be protected and if the state is failing to do so then our US Attorney should have some power to ensure these children are protected and get justice. Just because a parent is the child molester should not make the crime any less heinous than if it was a stranger. In fact it is worse, because most stranger crimes are committed one time to the victim and in cases of children being forced to live with sexual abuse the crime is being committed on a daily basis. Children who live in these homes have no escape, they are held prisoner by our own government entities, they are held prisoner and abused and this is a crime in itself, it is a clear violation of Human Rights, Victim Rights and a Violation to their constitutional rights to protection.

 

All across this Nation and right here in Wichita/Sedgwick County Kansas, Judges and individuals involved in the child protection system betray molested children seeking protection from an abusive parent by putting them in the hands of their molester/abuser.

 

I have all the evidence to back everything I write, the problem is that no one is willing to look at the evidence instead they are sacrificing the lives of children and turning a blind eye to the sexual and physical abuse. What good is it to have law enforcement and child protective services, judges, district attorney's ect when the laws are NOT being enforced and when a child has to live their whole childhood sexually and physically abused because the system protected the child molester? I am so disgusted with our child protection system in Kansas, I am a mother who's daughter fell victim to a sexual perp when she was only 5 years old, my daughter was raped, kidnapped, sexually exploited, drugged and more. Sure this perp was prosecuted, sure he is prison today, and as Mr. Grissom said,"the system worked in my daughters case".

 

So once again, since it worked in my daughters case it excuses the wrong in these other children's cases? Mr. Grissom, why didn't you even take the time to look at the evidence I have of wrong doing in cases of child sexual abuse? Why isn't the life of these children worth a few minutes of your time? One thing we all have to remember, these children will not stay children then they will speak out and they will tell of how our child protection system in Kansas failed to protect them.

 

Taking children from an NON-ABUSIVE home where the children have at least one parent who tried to protect them and then the system turn around and take the child/children and give SOLE CUSTODY to the child molester/abuser, what kind of system does this? Corrupt system, people who work together to protect the abuser and silence the victim.

 

I have been speaking out on this issue for 6 years and will continue to do so until someone listens, these children have been re-victimized by a system that covers up the sexual and physical abuse of children.

 

I have a law that will be presented this year, it is called the "Kansas Protective Parent Reform Act", this is just the beginning of what needs to be done to truly protect children who are victims of intra-familial abuse.

 

The bottom line is what is happening in the Penn State case is happening right here in our own backyards, the only difference is that its the professionals involved in these cases who are doing the cover up and of course when you try and get help there is no help for these children, everyone wants to look the other way, turn a blind eye because how in the world would professionals do such a thing? Well, they do, and I have the evidence to back every word I say.

 

If you are a parent who has children who have not been protected email at achildsrights@att.net my name is Donna Roberts/Founder of ACRA-A Child's Rights Association, child activist.