The Miami Herald published a joint Op Ed by the next friends in the H.G. v. Carroll suit detailing why they (we) felt a lawsuit was both necessary and good. Kids in foster care aren’t getting what they need – that’s why we’re suing DCF.
A lawsuit against Lutheran Services, Children’s Network of Southwest Florida, Camelot, and others has partially survived a motion to dismiss. The suit alleges negligence and 1983 violations from the various agencies’ failure to seek dental care for a child who experienced significant medical harm.
More kids are getting Baker Acted, some as many as 10 times in a row. Having someone committed for stabilization results in their extra-judicial confinement in a lockdown psychiatric facility with no meaningful possibility of review. One or two times may be necessary for their safety, but ten times means you’re not solving the underlying problem and/or severely violating that person’s constitutional rights. Someone should look into that.
I do not think it means what you think it means. State has plan to fix care for foster teens says DCF Secretary Mike Carroll. Also says Mike Carroll, “We have zero tolerance for any management or practices that could result in anything less than excellent care for the children and families we serve.” I’m curious what “excellent” means in that sentence.
CHS, on the other hand, says we need to end foster care (as we know it) by embracing prevention services. Also, a ton of money is about to come down for prevention services, so this is a truly brave stand against the system.
You would save a lot of anguish by just believing kids. A juvenile detention center employee was arrested on federal charges after the death of a 17-year-old boy who died after being beaten by other kids in the facility. The employee used a honey-bun bounty system to encourage violence. Kids have been describing this practice for years, but nobody really believed them.
In case law news, I recognize there is a well-defined community of people who hate the idea of adoption intervention. However, when a parent consents to a private adoption, you can’t ram their TPR trial through to cut them off at the pass. Hold the intervention hearing and go from there. Y.G. v. Dep’t of Children & Families, 1D18-49, 2018 WL 2066792 (Fla. 1st DCA May 3, 2018).
On the other side, when your private adoption intervention gets denied, remember that the Juvenile Rules apply to adoptions from foster care. Be careful: motions for rehearing do not toll the time for an appeal under the Juvenile Rules. B.S. v. Dep’t of Children & Families, 1D17-2515, 2018 WL 1954457 (Fla. 1st DCA Apr. 25, 2018).
Relatedly, you can’t bifurcate a TPR trial into grounds and MBI and then kick the parent out (or go on without them) after the grounds are proven. R.E.B. v. Dep’t of Children & Families, 5D18-588, 2018 WL 1972642 (Fla. 5th DCA Apr. 27, 2018). Terminating someone’s parental rights should actually be hard.
Here’s my current reading list. Family Court Review published a special symposium on The Trump Administration and Children’s Human Rights. The intro by Barbara Stark lists all the reasons it’s worth getting your hands on a copy.
The Souls of Poor Folks report is a fantastic study of structural forces that reproduce poverty across generations. The growth of foster care as an organized industry is mentioned briefly as one of those structural forces. Quoting Margaret Prescod of Every Mother is a Working Mother:
What increasingly happened [with welfare reform] was that monies that would previously go to mothers on AFDC, and therefore to families headed by single mothers, got sucked into child welfare agencies and states were using those resources for child custody, foster care, and adoption services. Instead of going to support mothers with their housing or other basic needs, children are being taken away and placed in foster care, or are up for adoption, not because they are abused or neglected but because they are poor.
Thanks for having me! I had the pleasure of presenting at the Florida Disability Conference last week. The topic was using due process fees to expand your advocacy team. We had a great audience of people who definitely knew a lot more than I do. I’ve been told there will be a video at some point. The powerpoint and sample pleadings can be found here.
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