We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about foster children in this country. A disability rights organization filed a lawsuit claiming Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services has failed to provide satisfactory child welfare services to children with mental health conditions.

The lawsuit backed by Disability Rights Pennsylvania focuses on the treatment of children found to be “dependent,” or those who can’t safely live at home because of abuse or neglect. The state’s Office of Children, Youth and Families and county child welfare programs must care for them. They are responsible for ensuring the children have a place to live as well as planning for a lasting family connection either through family reunion, foster care, or adoption.

The lawsuit alleges those with mental health condition aren’t treated equally to those without, a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A plaintiff, a 10-year-old boy from Beaver County, identified as S.R, has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, PTSD, mood disorder, ADHD, and mild intellectual disability. This boy was removed from his home at five because of abuse, per the lawsuit. Following several foster homes and hospitalizations, he was placed in a residential treatment facility. He is still there three-and-a-half years later.

The facility feels he has profited as much as he can from their program and its goal is adoption. However, with nowhere for him to go, the facility is looking to transfer him, potentially to out of state, also per the lawsuit.

The lawsuit portrays a terrible cycle where children bounce between several foster homes, worsening behavior issues, and are left in residential treatment facilities much longer than they should be because there is no place else for them to go. Additionally, other children who require a place in those treatment facilities can’t get in because there is no room for them.

The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Our foster homes and systems must do better, especially for those with mental health conditions. Putting children in the same facility for years is not helping. It’s hurting. On our Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR webpage, you can report complaints. Please do.

We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about foster children and the lives they lead. Throughout the world, we’ve seen promising statistics regarding orphans. In the Americas, Haiti suffers from life-threatening poverty and ever-increasing numbers of orphaned children and the government is struggling to control the problem.

Haiti’s main social services agency states there are roughly 35,000 children in 814 homes. In the past, officials said most orphans believe their placement is temporary, attempts to provide education and care their families couldn’t. Additionally, cases of illegal adoption were, and remain, common. Haitian parents report being tricked into placing children in orphanages. To combat this, the Haitian government created new restrictions on adoption following the deadly earthquake of 2010. Since 2015, about 150 homes have been closed.

Here in the United States large orphanages don’t exist. Most orphans and abandoned children enter foster care, or small group homes for those with special needs. In Africa, Rwanda will close all its orphanages. While this is unusual, as there are few services for the millions of children living in poverty, the director of the Rwanda’s National Commission for Children states that about 3,300 children were in orphanages in 2012 when the program began. According to officials, all but roughly 235 have been adopted, returned to their family, or placed with foster families.

In China, most orphans are children who have been given up because of medical concerns. Several families, particularly in poor rural areas, can’t support a child with high medical costs. Because of this, Chinese babies with medical issues would frequently be left alone in fields or other public and private locations. In 2011, China responded with so-called “baby hatches” attached to orphanages. The hatches gave parents a safe spot to leave children who they couldn’t care for. Hundreds of children were left at them and it overwhelmed many departments.

China now wishes to place these children in family settings. Last year, China had roughly 460,000 orphans. Foster care or adoption helped 373,000 of them. Only approximately 88,000 children went to orphanages. But more adoptions and placements are needed.

Around the world children fear for their safety and need a home to go to. If you can help, please do so by contacting a local agent to become a foster parent, or consider adopting.

Our foster homes and systems are overburdened, and these children need real families to take them in. On our Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR webpage, you can report complaints about DHR issues and poor responses. Do it. You can save lives.

We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about children in this great nation, especially in foster care. One New Hampshire foster family is speaking out.

Foster parents Dylan and Jaime Remenar take in children in crisis and are trusted with some of New Hampshire’s most challenging cases. Recently, the Belmont couple spoke out against believed ill-treatment of foster parents by New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families.

Dylan Remenar spoke to the House Children and Family Law Committee, stating, “I am speaking […] as an advocate for all foster parents, especially [those] who have contacted me […] to share stories similar to mine, but were too afraid to speak…”

He opened testimony regarding HB 1562, which would create a foster parent bill of rights, and HB 1234, which provides foster parents the right to intercede in legal actions pertaining to the custody of children in their care.

The bills’ sponsor, Rep. Sean Morrison, R-Epping, said there’s a great deal at stake. The supply of foster families has been declining as the demand for these families’ services surges.

Without change, the availability of foster homes could be significantly affected, according to Morrison. Leaving the hundreds of children exiled by the opioid epidemic with nowhere to turn.

According to the DCYF Annual Progress and Services Report, by 2016 the number of available foster homes had dropped to 593 from 896 in 2010. While the number in 2017 has gone up to 737, it’s still not another.

“It is my [argument] that, if the treatment of foster families continues […], that the numbers will go down once again,” Morrison stated.

Dylan Remenar had stated, “We initially had some great years working with DCYF and fostering children, but the past year has been the worst year of our lives […] because of DCYF’s incompetence.”

After caring for a child for a year and a half, the Remenars were told by DCYF workers that a judge had approved them for adoption. Dylan said this was shared with all parties involved, including the child’s biological family. They celebrated excitedly, only to find out months later that the DCYF made a mistake and had misunderstood the court order.

What followed was months of misunderstandings and legal battles. The Remenars were told once again they were approved, and then again that they weren’t.

More heartbreaking was the end result. Dylan stated, “After the child spent every night with us for over two-and-a-half years, DCYF […] scheduled to have him transition back to his family on Mother’s Day. Choosing this date was […] cruel to my wife after she raised the child as her own and was told by [the] DCYF she would [get to adopt]. My family has been devastated […] and we are […] in counseling and struggling to find a way to continue life as we once knew it.”

The Foster Parent Bill of Rights would require foster parents to be given notice about child placement decisions. It would allow them a voice in court and in planning visits between birth parents. And, it would give foster parents deliberation if adoption becomes the primary goal.

Additionally, it would guarantee “freedom from coercion, discrimination, and reprisals for voicing concerns about a child in the foster parent’s care.”

Dylan stated the couple was assured by newly-confirmed DHHS Associate Commissioner Christine Tappan, managing child protection services, that they could speak freely with no fear of retaliations.

A petition by the New Hampshire Foster and Adoptive Parent Association (NHFAPA) for a bill of rights has gained over 1,000 signatures. But Morrison upholds the NHFAPA has been taken over by the DCYF, and this is seen in what he stated was a “weaker proposal.”

A legislative subcommittee, led by state Rep. Mariellen MacKay, R-Nashua, is trying to resolve the opposing documents and create a single suggestion for the legislature.

If you see issues regarding your local foster care system, report it on the Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR site. Then, contact your state officials and hold them responsible for giving our foster children the homes and funds they greatly need.

We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about our country’s children, particularly in foster care. A Department of Health and Human Services official told Nebraska senators that vacancies for child welfare specialists and trainees, and turnover for those positions, went down last year.

This Nebraska foster care staff is at the front-line when to protecting children at risk of neglect or abuse.

Turnover rates dropped from 32% in the 12 months between July of 2016 and June 30, 2017, to 19% in the six months between July of 2017 to Jan. 1 of 2018, according to Matt Wallen, director of the Division of Children and Family Services. Open positions went from 10% to 5.5% between January and December of 2017.

Wallen shared the information at a briefing for the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee on child welfare worker caseloads. They had failed to meet the standards of the Child Welfare League of America and requirements of state laws.

Julie Rogers, Inspector General of Child Welfare, stated in September she was “deeply troubled” by the high child welfare caseloads which continued to affect children in the state.

Rogers said when a staff is overworked, corners get cut, people miss things, and errors are made.

The department stated following Rogers’ report it was attempting to combat its high turnover rate and to quickly fill vacancies. The department was also studying its training, career paths, and ways to help better job satisfaction. Staff talked to team members in the field about how to improve their workload.

For initial assessments, the necessary caseload numbers for a month-long period are 12 assigned families in urban areas, and 10 in rural areas. Caseloads for families with in-home placements are 17 and out-of-home placements are 16.

The standard for in-home and out-of-home mixtures is 17 families or children. The caseload for blended first assessment, and in-home and out-of-home, placements is 14 cases.

Wallen told the committee that of 78 members of the staff performing initial assessments, 28 had higher caseloads than required in June 2016. On Jan. 15, that number had gone down to eight of 80, or 10%.

There is an improvement over a year ago, but in many areas, they are still not in compliance. In his report, Wallen stated, he was trying to establish progress toward meeting those standards.

More still needs to be done.

If you see issues with your state foster care system, report it on here, on the Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR site. Then, contact your state officials and hold them accountable for providing better futures for our foster children.

We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about children in this great nation, especially in foster care. An Indiana bill could change things is their foster care system.

A bill before the Indiana Senate committee would create added requirements for the DCS when they’re looking to remove a child from long-term foster care. DCS representatives object to the bill, sighting caseloads and child safety.

The Senate Family and Children Services Committee heard the bill earlier this month. Its author, Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, stated he has heard many horror stories of kids being removed from foster care without warning or reason. Frequently, the lack of explanation is because of DCS confidentiality necessities, Head stated. However, foster parents are irritated when said requirements keep them in the dark.

To that end, the bill would require DCS to file a motion with the court or other similar case before removing a child who has been with the same foster family for at least 12 months. The foster family would have the opportunity to object the motion, forcing the court to hold a hearing.

Head stated he plans to present an amendment to the bill which would clarify exceptions for emergencies, such as abuse or neglect. In those situations, foster families can still object, but the DCS wouldn’t have to file a motion prior to removing the child.

Even with that planned amendment, the DCS legislative director Parvonay Stover advised the committee to vote against the bill. Stover raised many concerns, including the influence additional mandatory hearings in CHINS cases would have on stressed court dockets. Stover stated more congestion in juvenile courts could delay a child’s path to permanent placement, which is the DCS’s goal.

Additionally, removal of a child from long-term foster care placement is typically discussed thoroughly according to Stover. The decision would only be made for an undeniable reason, such as a threat to safety or the chance to place the child with a biological relative.

However, Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, stated based on her experience in the CHINS realm, those thorough discussions don’t always take place. Stover admitted that the DCS can fail to meet requirements at time but stated the department’s goal is always to act in the foster child’s best interests.

Rather than passing this bill, Stover stated the DCS would encourage the General Assembly to support SB 233, a Foster Parent Bill of Rights. Both bills will come before the Family and Children Services Committee.

If you see concerns regarding your local foster care system, report it on the Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR website. Then, contact your state officials and hold them accountable for giving our foster children the resources they desperately need.

We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about foster children in this great nation. And what they really want is a home. Growing up in foster care, Christian Cruz trusted very few. Too many people had let him down.

He’s lived in five foster homes, a group home, and two short-term placements when he entered foster care at 9. He was also homeless for six months. He waited at the ER until the state’s child welfare agency retrieved him. And, he’s been incarcerated. He is currently a student at Lincoln Tech.

He lost all his things when he left a foster home, and he feels that only one of his placements really cared about him.

Cruz described how stressful and traumatic it is for foster kids to an audience of foster youth, social workers, advocates, and officials from the Department of Children and Families at the state Capitol.

This story about moving continually displays an all too common theme among about 4,000 children in foster care in Connecticut. Youth in foster care in the state can move once every 342 days. And, this is better than the national average of 243 days.

A Connecticut Voices for Children survey shows the number of places a foster child lives during their time in custody differs considerably. In the last year, some kids had moved four times. While the average number of placements was three, some had lived in up to 30.

The notice they received before the move also varied widely, from months to prepare to having a foster parent arriving at school with their bags to being told by a social worker on the way to the next home.

All these moves wear on youth. Youth that had been removed from their families because of abused or neglected.

A report released by Voices pointed to studies on the psychological results of such instability. Principally, youth dealing with anxiety about abandonment and other insecurity issues are more likely to have lifelong issues with developing relationships.

Worse yet, end the cycle is extremely difficult.

The DCF has struggled for years to locate enough foster families. In the federal government’s most recent evaluation of Connecticut’s welfare system, the Administration for Children and Families saw many of the state’s foster families were struggling without necessary support. Only five states were marked weaker than Connecticut.

Foster youth at the event pleaded to the audience to make time for them, and not just send them on to the next home.

DCF officials stated they have administered several plans to smooth these transitions, including scheduling more meetings prior to a new placement, providing support for the children, listening more, and encouraging more foster parents to allow youths to live with them permanently.

But officials also realized much more work is required.

If you’ve seen a child foster care issue or know of a problem in a specific area, please report it on our Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR webpage. You can also do your part to encourage your state officials to give our children the resources they need.

We are Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas, and our #1 priority is the health and safety of our nation’s children, and that goes especially for those in foster care. We want DHR, across the country, to be held accountable for their actions and give our children the best futures possible. Currently, New York has been working to help foster children visit their siblings.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York State has signed legislation which gives siblings separated by the state’s foster care system the right to visit and contact each other. This is a positive development for a system fraught with problems.

Gov. Cuomo stated, “This action will allow some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers to preserve family bonds [which] otherwise would be severed due to no fault of their own. I [am] proud to sign this compassionate legislation, which will bring us closer to a stronger and more humane New York for all.”

Though children with active abuse or neglect cases in the New York foster care system can file motions for visitation or contact with their siblings, the present law was unfortunately vague and unclear on whether or not the other children in foster care could petition for this same right, generating needless difficulties for siblings to sustain ties to their loved ones.

Under the bill (A.7553/S.4835), adjustments to the Family Court Act and the Social Services law permit contact or visitation between siblings, which does include half siblings, who have been separated by foster care. This will extend to:

• Children who are in foster care because of intentional placement by a guardian or parent
• Children who are in foster care because of a court decision and judicial surrender of parental rights
• Children who are in foster care and whose sibling, or siblings, is not presently in foster care

This law can be seen as a step toward make the lives of foster children better, but it isn’t enough by any means. New York, and many other states, still have a long, long way to go.

We are Kathey and Rob Raskin, and at our website Stop DHR we support holding DHS responsible and want to see change without delay. If you’ve been witness to concerns with your local foster care system, report them on our site. Then, do your part to get your state officials to work on bettering the situation. Contact your state representatives here.

We are Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas, and we believe the care of our nation’s children is the top priority. Kansas’ problematic child welfare agency is a good place to start. On Monday, they asked lawmakers for funds to solve growing concerns with foster children sleeping in offices, kids lost in the system, and a caseload that’s hitting the roof.

Legislators and advocates voiced their indignation earlier upon hearing news that children have been sleeping in foster care contractors’ offices because there was no room in foster homes. The Department for Children and Families’ secretary Gina Meier-Hummel stated some of the desired funds would go toward keeping beds open for difficult-to-place children.

The funds, $16.5 million over 24 months, would also permit DCF to bring on more individuals to find run-aways and those who’ve otherwise disappeared from foster care placements.

Meier-Hummel’s forerunner, Phyllis Gilmore, was disparaged for being apparently unaware of three sisters missing from their foster home in Tonganoxie for several months. Meier-Hummel receives a daily report of missing children and she stated roughly 70 children are currently missing from foster care placements. She also stated that $6.55 million of the additional funds would go toward keeping children with their families safely and out of foster care.

Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer stated the appointment of a new DCF secretary, in addition to the legislative interest regarding a child welfare task force which was created in 2016, has given them a chance for change.

Colyer stated, “We’re at a juncture where we have legislative support, we have […] new ideas and we’re […] doing a top-to-bottom review – we want to deal with problems.” Colyer is taking the lead on child welfare in the hopes that he’ll soon replace Governor Sam Brownback. He’s also running for election in November.

Representative Linda Gallagher, a Lenexa Republican, and a member of the Child Welfare Task Force, stated the suggestion for additional funds tells her Brownback plans on making child welfare a priority this legislative session.

Gallagher stated, “All of the […] funds are needed, and they […] address problem areas that we heard about last year. Most of the legislature is aware of the problems […] and has the willingness to address it with additional funding.”

If you’ve seen a child care issue, anywhere in the foster care system, please report it on our Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR webpage. Do so now, and do your part to get your state officials to give our children fighting chance for a better life. You can contact your representatives here.

We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about foster children in this country. California is looking to improve child care today.

The state is standing up to the current administration and becoming the first state to discontinue jailing poor children who can’t pay court fees and fines. The state will remove juvenile administrative fees completely as a way to protect low-income families and children from these “debtors’” prisons.

When youth are detained and cannot to pay administrative fees, they can be jailed. However, these fees enforce huge financial burdens on some of the country’s most helpless families, and create little to no income for the government.

The Justice Department is blocking repeal on a nationwide scale. Just prior to Christmas, Attorney General Sessions withdrew legal direction which advised state and local courts to minimize or eradicate juvenile fines and fees. While the federal government still stands in the way of juvenile justice reform, states can follow California’s lead and eliminate statewide fees and fines.

Currently, the majority of states still charge youth and parents administrative fees based on a variety of system expenses, such as detention, “free” and guaranteed legal representation, probation management, electronic monitoring, and drug testing. Administrative fees can be unbelievably substantial. In fact, the average probation term in Sacramento County costs families around $6,000.

Youth and families who don’t, or more accurately can’t, pay these fees can face severe penalties which, in addition to jail time, can include driver’s license suspension, civil judgments, a bar on sealing records, and lengthy stages of probation. One juvenile probation officer stated, “Most kids are living in poverty and are […] unable to pay […] fees. About 19 out of 70 kids could be off probation but […] these fees […] We are trying to get money from poor people by keeping them on probation.”

If children and families could afford these fees, they could maybe be defensible. However, several judges enforce fees on families without considering their ability to pay. A recent study exposed that a majority of states don’t have a judicial process in place to contemplate the child or family’s capability of paying supervision fees.

In fact, the only state which has hearings to determine a family’s capability of paying is Montana, but these hearings take place without the person’s right to counsel.

Children must be kept safe and out of prison, which can lead to foster placement and slew of other problems. On our Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR webpage, you can report complaints regarding foster care and department issues. Do so today and do your part to encourage your state officials to give our children better care.

We’re Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas and we care about foster children in this country. And we could learn something from Ireland.

The Irish government’s decision to present obligatory reporting of child protection issues will be seen by several people as a breakthrough development. Following decades of assurances, today there is a legal requirement for professionals who work with, or have contact with children, to raise any concerns they might have to social services regarding a child’s welfare. This sends a message to the community that child welfare is extremely important. However, there are more and more concerns about whether the system will be able to cope with the expected outpouring of child protection complaints.

Tusla, the Irish Child and Family Agency, will require enough staff and resources to be able to respond to referrals in a timely fashion. Right now, this is not the case. Even in Ireland the department is lacking funding and political will. There is not enough right now to help prevent issues instead of simply taking care of them after the fact, after a child has been harmed typically.

The indication from other countries who’ve introduced similar procedures is that solely expanding the system doesn’t make enough of a positive effect. While it encourages a culture of reporting issues, it doesn’t really foster a shared responsibility through the community for intervening on behalf of vulnerable children. As Dr. Helen Buckley of Trinity College Dublin has pointed out, this may create a kind of “social” emergency department, like one seen in a hospital. It will be fraught with the same high thresholds, waiting lists, overworked staff, and short-term responses as the ER.

The failings of the child protection system are universal. There is a lack of early involvement, excessive focus on fire-fighting emergency cases, poor co-operation between State department, and late responses to neglect and welfare concerns. In Ireland, these issues have been reported over the past 20 years and it’s the same in America.

Mandatory reporting isn’t enough. A sustained investment and even wider reform are needed. There are real dangers young people in foster care will continue to face as they fall through the cracks. These are the most vulnerable children among us and they need more then reports, which do help, they need our departments to do better and receive better funding.

Our foster homes and systems must be held accountable, children’s lives are at stake. Silence can be a killer and so can a lack of response. On our Kathey and Rob Raskin Stop DHR webpage, you can report complaints. Do so today and do your part to encourage your state officials to provide our foster children with better care through improved resources.