DCF incompetence costly to taxpayers South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Page
February 10, 2008
ISSUE: DCF lawsuit settlements cost
taxpayers millions.
Florida's lead social services provider has long needed an overhaul, but
state officials have chosen band-aid solutions instead. Now taxpayers
are paying the price in lawsuit settlements costing the state millions
of dollars. Such expensive payouts couldn't have come at a worse time
for a state already strapped with a $1 billion budget shortfall.
The most recent case involves a Southwest Ranches foster parent accused
of molesting little girls placed in his home. There had been previous
sexual misconduct allegations against 79-year-old Thomas Ferrara dating
back to 1992, and yet DCF continued to place children in his house. As
many as 400 children were placed in the home from 1984 to 2000, the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
The public is right to question why DCF workers kept placing children in
his care despite allegations of abuse in 1992 and 1996. True, no charges
emerged from the allegations, and those investigations were dropped. But
red flags should have been going up.
Broward Sheriff's Office arrested Ferrara in 2001 after a 9-year-old
girl told police he had molested her over a two-year period. Ferrara
pleaded no contest to the charges, and later accepted a plea deal,
getting two years house arrest and 20 years probation. No prison time.
Taxpayers didn't get off as easy. The state will end up paying $2.26
million for Ferrara's misdoings, and the trust the agency kept in him,
the result of three suits involving two different girls.
In some ways, the payments are progress and in keeping with DCF
Secretary Bob Butterworth's vow to open up the secretive agency and
admit wrong-doing. But such cases are also an enormous expense that
The agency deserves its share of blame. But Floridians must also do a
little soul-searching, for DCF's woes wouldn't have gotten this
expensive if the state's leadership had not been so inattentive and
neglectful in addressing the agency's shortcomings.
BOTTOM LINE: It's the worst time for such an expense, but hopefully a
lesson learned.
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS. every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more Constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & Civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6 This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.s...
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing.
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp...
The full study is available here.
http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:EUtnanxlHSIJ:groups.google.com/group/alt.support.foster-parents/browse_thread/thread/186e9c76d62e4e1e+dcf+florida+lawsuit&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Sadly I could have told you this 35 years ago when a little boy named Alphonso Thompson died in foster care. My friends had been baby-sitting him while his mother worked until she was killed. They wanted to adopt Alphonso and were told they had to prove they could afford to raise him. The family (children included) worked odd jobs and saved up the money to prove they could raise him. In the mean time he was left in foster care where he died from "a fall down two flights of stairs" or back in the 80's when a child in foster care was drowned in the toilet for peeing his pants. He had been returned to his parents and then removed from their care and placed back with the same foster family that had abused him before. That made front page news. Oh and then there was the child whose head was crushed in a crib because of a crib cover, all of the children in the foster home had these hinged bubble covers on them, supposedly to protect the child from a fall attempting to climb out. Of course you're supposed to lower the mattress. I could have told you, but no one would listen. You have only to read the newspaper to know the system is broken. They investigate parents more than foster parents, they give more money to foster a child than to the parents to raise the child. They are of the opinion that if you have children you should be able to afford them, otherwise give them up. What about the girl who shot herself in the stomach because the state would cut off her assistance if she had a second child, yet medicaid wouldn't pay for an abortion. She accidentally shot the unborn infant through the wrist, the unborn fetus died and she went to jail for murder. Her child went into foster care, the child she was trying to protect by sacrificing her unborn one. Does anyone remember? I do.
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