Sex Offenders Penetrate Foster Homes

A Kentucky audit discovered at least 12 instances of children living or being cared for in state-regulated homes where sex offenders lived. The report, released last week by the Kentucky state auditor, compared the addresses of registered sex offenders with those of foster homes; the residences of other children under state care; and homes that provide state-subsidized day care for low-income families. The addresses of registered sex offenders were compared through an electronic data match to the addresses of homes and facilities that provide care and out-of-home placements for children, resulting in matches for 30 different homes. Follow-up reviews ...

Feds award $39 million for increasing adoptions

Last week the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $39 million to 38 states and Puerto Rico for increasing the number of children adopted from foster care. States use the funds from this adoption incentive award to improve their child welfare programs. "All children deserve loving, safe and permanent homes," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "It is gratifying that most states continue to excel in promoting the adoption of children from foster care. I sincerely thank every adoptive family that has welcomed a child into their home." States receive $4,000 for every child adopted beyond their best year's total, plus a payment of ...

NYTimes: Child’s Ordeal Shows Risks of Psychosis Drugs for Young

Now just imagine if this child were in foster care (a topic I have written about frequently on this blog). At 18 months, Kyle Warren started taking a daily antipsychotic drug on the orders of a pediatrician trying to quell the boy’s severe temper tantrums. Thus began a troubled toddler’s journey from one doctor to another, from one diagnosis to another, involving even more drugs. Autism, bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, insomnia, oppositional defiant disorder. The boy’s daily pill regimen multiplied: the antipsychotic Risperdal, the antidepressant Prozac, two sleeping medicines and one for attention-deficit disorder. All by the ...

The Rights of Foster Children – legal update

Appellate decisions regarding foster care are rare and decisions that focus on foster children are rarer still. So when two decisions appear in the space of about a week they deserve some commentary. One is from the Maryland Court of Appeals, Maryland's highest court, and addresses an issue of great interest: under what circumstances and to what extent does a foster child's attachment to foster parents impact the rights of the biological parents when such parents are confronting the termination of their parental rights? The other case, from the New York Appellate Division, also addresses an issue of interest: can foster children sue foster parents ...

Wrongful Death of Children in Foster Care

The first law review article on the topic of wrongful death of children in foster care has just been published. It is co-authored by Daniel Pollack, Professor at the School of Social Work at Yeshiva University in New York City and a frequent expert witness in child welfare lawsuits, and Gary Popham, Jr., an attorney in Arizona. For a PDF of the article please contact Professor Pollack. For more articles on ChildLaw by Professor Pollack click here.

ASFA Failure – Only 71 Interstate Adoptions Last Year

This just in from blogger Jeff Katz of the Huffington Post: The simple fact is that it is virtually impossible to adopt a foster child across state lines in the United States. In the most recent year for which we have data, states reported that only 71 children in the entire country were adopted from foster care across state lines by non-relatives. Why is interstate adoption so rare? The primary reason is that we do not have a national adoption system. Instead, we have 50 different child welfare systems, each with its own process for adoption eligibility, recruitment, approval, and training. Even worse, our current system has created profound ...

Birdman Adoptive Father Stephen Melinger Back in the News

Look who's back! Was it adoption for love? Child trafficking via surrogacy? Or something else? The bizarre case of birdman Stephen Melinger is back in the news, this time in a New York Times article on the perils and pitfalls of surrogacy. Do check out this story in the Times, but just remember from Melinger to womb outsourcing, snowflake adoptions and sperm donor introductions for lesbians, this blog gave you the scoop first.

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