Colorado Bill to Offer Free College to Foster Care Kids

A bill that would provide free college tuition to all kids coming out of foster care is making its way through the Colorado congress. If it passes, all public higher education institutions will wave undergraduate tuition fees for Colorado residents students if they‘re products of the foster care system.

While this may not reflect the usual tone of crisis inherent to our usual blog articles, The Raskins are very civic-minded and believe in fair and balanced reporting. They understand that there is rarely a deficit of items to complain about, but once in a while, something promising, almost miraculous, comes along that restores an iota of faith in the system. At the end of the day, we all care about the livelihood of children, and this bill looks pretty good.

In theory, the dollar value typically assigned per child is normally awarded to the foster parent per foster child under 18 or 21, depending on the state. Much of what we report on seems to be related to abuse of this system for the money, while the child is neglected, physically or sexually abused, and sometimes tortured or even killed.

To see a common-sense program like this is a breath of fresh air. Why? Simple. The money to pay for college doesn’t benefit the parents as much as the kid. This gives them hope on the horizon to have a life outside of foster care. Without regard to Colorado’s foster care system, in particular, this bill could pave the way to a solution for each state. After all, who better to promote ideas to fix state foster care systems than college-educated adults who grew up in the rotten foster care system themselves?

Click here to read the article: https://www.fox21news.com/news/state/bill-aims-for-free-tuition-for-co-foster-care-children/

2 Toddlers Dead Within a Year of Adoption

The Rivera family of Fort Bragg, NC, had four kids, two of them adopted. A year later, the two adopted kids are dead. Each precipitated a 911 call, each for the child unexplainably turning purple and not breathing. However, in each case, autopsies cite the cause of death as “blunt force trauma” to the head, neck, and throat, not including similar injuries likely incurred at earlier dates. No investigation has been made despite one police report following the death of the second child.

Thanks to state laws shielding the records of these cases, there’s no way of knowing what has been investigated thus far. However, no children have been removed from this home, which violates state laws regarding the abuse, neglect, and death of children. This is an ongoing story under state investigation, so we hope you’ll continue to check in with us to see what develops.

The Raskins are bringing this story to you because they know what it’s like to be victimized by the foster care system, family courts, and the unfair “guardian ad litem” laws. As a result, they tirelessly follow these stories and report them here. In every case, they’re big enough to make the local and state news and even become an ongoing report, but it never makes it to the national news.

Click here to read the rest of the story: https://abc11.com/feature/deadly-adoptions-anthony-rivera-child-abuse-welfare/11658903/

49 States Withhold Money From Foster Kids

As always, the Raskins are on this story like a bloodhound on a fox to ensure everyone can keep up with issues regarding the safety of children.

In accordance with the Social Security Administration, children in foster care with a disability or who suffered the death of a parent are entitled to disability funds or the parent’s social security income. However, a legal loophole in 49 states prevents the kids from getting the money. According to the current laws that make up this loophole, it’s up to the states to provide their own resources for foster care, but the states are legally able to become the children’s financial representatives.

Currently, the Foster Care system in NY has a plan to lead the way for everyone. They offer training to the kids and their families on financial literacy. This goes hand-in-hand with setting up a bank acct for each child once they’re adopted or ready to age out of the system. This can lead to a shot at moving out into their first apartment or paying for college.

Slowly but surely, some of the other states are coming around. Better late than never, as this has been going on for how long? Exactly. Pay close attention to the states that drag their feet on this, which could shed light on underperforming foster care systems around the country.

For info on this story, click here:

https://www.abc15.com/news/national/loophole-is-preventing-some-foster-children-from-accessing-benefits

Massachusetts and New Hampshire Battle in Court Over Who’s Worse

In 2020, New Hampshire child protective services visited Adam Montgomery, the father of the missing 7-year-old, Harmony Montgomery, to check on the child’s welfare. The man said she was with her mother, Crystal Sorey, in Massachusetts. The officials left and updated their reports without calling the child’s mother to verify this. Two years later, Crystal would like to know why she still doesn’t have her daughter back. Robert and Kathleen Raskin have been following this case, as always, and are dedicated to ensuring that stories like these don’t go unnoticed just because they aren’t in the national news cycle.

Massachusetts’ reaction is to dump $50M new dollars into overhauling their existing guardian ad litem program, with no discernable reason if the program was flawed in the first place. As usual, it’s all lawyers and legal battles over who’s going to do what to prove they’re complying legally, but what about the children? There may never be a fix to the problem of children needing foster families, and they’re certainly will never be an end to the predators abusing the system for their own nefarious purposes. There must be a Federal intervention into the current system in each state that prevents incompetence, gross negligence, legal loopholes, and whatever else causes a system bought and paid for to fail at its most critical moment.

Stay tuned for more articles like these.

Click here to read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/13/opinion/another-child-tragedy-another-case-state-reacting-without-thinking/

South Dakota Lawmakers Vote to Expand Courts’ Discretion in Growing Child Abuse Cases

South Dakota is struggling to manage its overburdened child protection program as senators vote to decide if the courts should have the right to appoint a child’s guardian ad litem and an independent advocate to work with the child and make recommendations to the court. Rob and Kathleen Raskin are making sure you and everyone else outside of the local and state coverage area are aware of issues like this, which seem to be happening simultaneously in every state.

Currently, when the South Dakota courts are presented with a child abuse case by an attorney, the child is accompanied by the guardian ad litem, which means the child’s legal guardian for the purposes of the case, and a representative of an existing program called the Court Appointed Special Advocates aka CASA, who has been trained to work with the children and make recommendations to the court.

Due to the shortage of CASA volunteers, their importance to the outcome of a case and for arriving at justice for the children is what’s currently being discussed. House Bill 1110 allows the courts to appoint the advocates needed in a case of child abuse or neglect, which it typically sources from CASA, and guardians ad litem “when determined necessary by the court.”

While both sides of the aisle agree that it’s a good program, some lawmakers on both sides are concerned the lack of existing CASA caseworkers combined with a legal necessity to have one for each case will do two things: 1. Slow down the court’s already slow pace at handling caseloads, which keeps the children in jeopardy, and 2. Shift costs to the county for paying to recruit and train new CASA workers with money it doesn’t have.

Click here to read the article: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2022/02/28/proposed-bill-expanding-judges-discretion-child-abuse-cases-goes-noems-desk/9321678002/

FBI Report: San Francisco Bay Area # 1 in Nation for Sexually Exploited Youth

According to the FBI, 98% of the sexually exploited youth in the Bay Area were involved with the child welfare system. Unfortunately, as Robert and Kathleen Raskin will show you, stories like these may make the front page of a local newspaper but are often not even on the ticker tape of national news. We’re here to keep everyone informed of this national crisis.

A 2017 report from 22 agencies in charge of helping the survivors of sex trafficking states that housing and shelter are among the top service gaps for kids between 10 and 17. The current problem includes a shortage of beds in existing facilities, a shortage of support services and residential care at shelters, and restrictive policies that prevent youth from returning to shelters once they’ve left.

The problem is further exacerbated by a lack of adults willing and able to care for these kids, either cause they don’t want to, or they lack the credentials, including knowledge, training, and skills, to help children who’ve experienced complex trauma.

For years, this has been a steadily growing problem, but COVID has created an enormous setback. This is an uphill battle with the highest rents in the country, a high cost of living, and many people unable to live with a job, work with a home, or afford their homes without roommates.

Meanwhile, in SF, a family-based program seeking out foster parents called Family and Me has been created to address the problem. If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a caregiver, please visit https://joinfam.org/

Click here to see the original news article: https://www.ktvu.com/news/san-francisco-groups-seek-foster-care-parents-for-exploited-youth