Best Interests of the Children: America’S Dependency System as Seen Through the Eyes of Guardians

By Miriam Fertig M.A. and Robert

What should professionalsjudges, lawyers, teachers, social workers, and Guardian ad Litem or CASA volunteers consider in pursuing the Best Interest of Children who have been abandoned, neglected or abused? How can Department of Children and Families improve their systems?

Best Interests of the Children explains that the ethical principles of Beneficence and Non-Maleficence exist in the medical world to maximize benefit and to avoid harm to patients. The duty is to assist persons in need, and its converse, the duty to refrain from causing harm. These same principles should apply to the Best Interest standard used in the children and families dependency welfare system, to protect defenseless children from parental abandonment, neglect and abuse.

When parents separate, which of them should have primary responsibility for the childs care? Who is the actual psychological parent? With compassion and actual case experiences, the authors, Miriam and Robert Fertig, help readers understand many of the key issues inherent in childcare decisions. They present a dozen Florida cases, as seen through the Eyes of Guardians. They conclude that timely and effective services and continuity of care for the family is essential for the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of children.

Case summaries from other states indicate that Americas Department of Children and Families (DCF) has serious systemic problems. The authors propose realistic solutions to improve this nationwide system. Best Interests of the Children will also enlighten the public and their legislators.

Best Interests is an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, information-packed guide to the world of families in crisis and the crucial role of Guardian ad Litem. Written in a conversational style, it can be blunt and feisty at times, but is always enlightening. I found myself shocked on one page, and then extremely edified and encouraged on the page that followed. Any book that is so provocative and stimulating will occasionally ignite a mental mini-debate between reader and author, but this is part of the fun and education, that comes from any book this stimulating, that penetrates mind and heart at the same time. Highly recommended. Reader Review by: Thomas Woodward (Ph.D. USF), Professor of Trinity College, Founder and Director of the C. S. Lewis Society, in Florida

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491739624

Miriam Fertig M.A.

Robert Thomas Fertig is author of the Beauty and Wonder of Transcendent Truths, a Guide to Universal Truths, the Software Revolution, principal writer of Waves of Change, and the co-author of Engineering Workstations. Robert was President of Enterprise Information Systems, Inc., a Technology Consulting Firm. Currently, he and his wife, Miriam were volunteers for Guardian ad Litem (also known as C.A.S.A.), the objective “eyes and ears” of the courts for America’s thousands of abused and neglected children. Miriam A. Fertig, co-author of Guardians Without Wings, retired after 40-years of teaching at Greenwich High School in Greenwich, CT, and the Middle School at St. Paul’s, in Clearwater, FL, where she was voted by her students and peers “Special Teacher” in the 2005 Year Book. Miriam received The 2007 Endowment Chair for Teacher Excellence for service and professionalism. Miriam earned her BA from Hunter College, in NYC, and MA from Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT. All author books are available from Amazon.com Book profits are donated to support of Christian childcare services.

Book preview

Best Interests

of the Children

America’s Dependency System as seen

through the Eyes of Guardians

Robert and Miriam Fertig, M.A.

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Best Interests of the Children

America’s Dependency System as seen through the Eyes of Guardians

Copyright © 2014 Fertig’s Christian Trust, LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3963-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3962-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014912487

iUniverse rev. date: 8/21/2014

This book is a sequel to our work, Guardians without Wings. This work contains more cases and greater depth of research, including other states.

Edited by Miriam A. Fertig, M.A.

The title, Best Interest of the Child or Children, is the standard used in deciding the disposition of cases following adjudication of Abandonment, Abuse, Neglect, and Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) proceedings.

Guardian ad Litem (known as CASA in other states) is the person appointed by the court judge to look after the Best Interest of the Child. It involves their physical, emotional, social, psychological, and family environment.

All book profits will be donated to Christian Children Charities.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

Major Risk Factors

Prevention

Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Benefits

Our Guardian Story

Objectives of this Work

Guardian ad Litem Mission

Summary of Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Parental Case Plans

Dependency Court Players

Case Plan Staffing

Case Histories

The Jelly Sandwich Case

Florida Cases

The Snake Oil Case

Clueless Parent Case

Defiant Teen Case

Lost in the System Case

Parental Denial Case

Mother’s Visitation Report

Any other information GAL feels is important:

Mentally Challenged Case

Tough Love Case

Baby Machine Case

Summary of Parental Behaviors:

Troubled Lake Case

Sociopath Case

Playing by New Rules:

Disadvantaged Case

Other States Cases

Denver, Colorado Cases

Chicago, Illinois Cases

Phoenix, Arizona Cases

California Cases

Florida Cases Continued

Deaths of Eight children put Florida’s Hillsborough Kids Inc. in Limbo

Foster Care

I Speak for this Child

Our Foster Care Experience

Johnnie-come-lately

Foster Care Graduates

Aging Out of Foster Care

Transitioning from Foster Care:

Our Final Adoption Case

Resolution of Foster Care Cases

Adoption Process

Typical Adoptive Parents Interview

Home Studies

Judge clamps down on DCF Home Study

Our Home Study Experience

Adoption Statements

Income Statements

Background Checks

Autobiographical Statement

References

Juvenile vs. Adult Justice

Recidivism

Drugs, Sex & Violence

A baby is born addicted to drugs about once an hour.

Sexual Abuse of Children

Death of Outrage

Hard & Soft Judges

Child Custody Contests

Multiculturalism

Responsibility of Families

Responsibility of Parents

Dysfunctional Parents

Responsibility of Children

Responsibility of Society

Program Effectiveness

Challenges & Opportunities

Recommendations

Placement

Summary of Family Issues

Future Exploration

Psychology:

Faith Heals:

American Constitution:

Education:

Universities:

Family:

Parenting:

Equality:

Listening:

Epilogue

America’s Predicament

Faith-based Services:

Bill of Rights

Collapse of the Evil Empire

What Others Think

Goals:

Beliefs:

Media:

Demographics:

Immigration:

Appendix

Therapy or Psychotropic Drugs?

Food Stamp Program

Violent Video Games

Generic JR Report

IN THE INTEREST OF:

Summary:

Generic TPR Report

Typical TPR Report

Reason for removal:

Manifest Best Interest

Respectfully Submitted, Guardian ad Litem

Internet Reference Sources

About the Authors

DEDICATED TO OUR GRANDDAUGHTER, AVA

Our legacy is the knowledge, understanding, wisdom and love we have left with our children and grandchild—and to all children and their parents—who value these words and works of charity.

Acknowledgements

The following excellent sources were used in our research work:

Alan Chapman, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Bennett, the Death of Outrage

Casey Family Program, Child Welfare Fact Sheet

NCANDS, 2012 National MCH Center reports

Dr. Scott Peck, People of the Lie

Carol Marbin Miller, Innocents Lost, Miami Herald

Audra D. S. Barch, Lost Children-USDHHS, Wall Street Journal

Jennifer Brown, Denver Post

Chicago Sun-Times & WBEZ

John Barry, Tampa Bay Times

Gay Courter, I Speak for this Child

E.S. Scott & L. Steinberg, Juvenal vs. Adult Justice

Judge Irene Sullivan, Raised by the Courts

Karen Kaplan, L. A. Times

Katherine Timpf, UC Berkeley Exposes

Rev. Bryant, Runaway Slave

Herbert Benson, Timeless Healing

Debra J. Sanders, St Petersburg Times

Thomas Frieden, CDC report

Dr. Gene Arnold, Study of ADHD

The Heritage Foundation, Food Stamps Program

Brad Bushman & Jeff Grabmeier, Violent Video Games

Preface

Why do parents abandon, abuse or neglect their children? How can our society address family problems much earlier and more effectively? What can be done do to improve Department of Children & Families systems? A dozen Florida cases and five other states cases were studied, which gives readers a picture of what’s happening, as seen through the eyes of Guardians.

These authors worked as Guardian ad Litem volunteers for five years. During this time, we handled 15 cases involving about thirty children. This work required discussions with parents and/or visitations to foster care providers. We interviewed schoolteachers, and had deliberations with caseworkers and their supervisors. We spoke to police officers, parents’ doctors, and reviewed therapist’s reports. Finally, we had consultations with attorneys, and numerous appearances before judges and magistrates.

Our direct experience as long-term Guardian ad Litem volunteers has been extremely fruitful. Although we criticize the Department of Children and Families, many of the people within it are magnificent, compassionate professionals. They have dedicated their lives in the service of children and their troubled families. Some are as frustrated with these systemic failures as we were. Many could not express their frustration openly. Now, from the outside, we can speak for them, about these fundamental system glitches.

The basis for this book is the author’s personal work product notes and experiences. These were real cases. The events described in this work are true. To assure anonymity, individuals are composites. We altered all identifying characteristics of people, including gender, time and places.

These authors particularly acknowledge the excellent reporting of Carol Marbin Miller, in "Innocents Lost," published by the Miami Herald. This series of articles, in 2014, motivated us to carry on our investigation.

Guardian ad Litem and C.A.S.A. did not support or sponsor this book.

Introduction

The public must know how our national child protection system works—or does not work—so that people can participate politically in its reform.

This is a true story of our direct experiences with children, less than ten-years old. They are clearly the most vulnerable and innocent of children. They could not speak for themselves. We were voices for these voiceless children. This narrative will give readers a vivid portrait of how State Departments of Children and Families (DCF) system works nationally, to protect children, with the independent support of volunteers known as Guardian ad Litem (GAL), also known as CASA in many states.

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reports information collected from Child Protective Services (CPS) and Department of Children and Families (DCF) in 51 states. In 2012, families received 3.4 million referrals involving 6.3 million children. There were 686,000 unique victims of child of abuse and neglect: 62% were screened-in (accepted). Nearly 78% of these victims were due to neglect, 18% were due to physical abuse, 9.3% were sexual abuse, and 8.5% were psychological maltreatment. In 2012, 1,640 children died from neglect and abuse, or 2.2 children per 100,000. Later chapters will present sample cases reported from New York, California, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois, and from Florida.

Most maltreatment deaths result from physical abuse, especially children under six years of age receiving injuries to their heads (22% were in their first year of life). Head trauma injuries occur when a child’s head is slammed against a hard surface, or when a child is violently shaken.

Our summary analysis of NCANDS national profile shows that children, who died from physical abuse by the mother (53.5%) and the father (45.3%), are primarily in the age groups of 25-34 years (39.6%), and 35-44 years (23.4%). Abuse occurred over time but a one-time event caused death. The majority of victims were White (38%), Hispanic (32%), and African-American children (15%). The most common reason given by caretakers, who fatally injured their children, was that they lost patience when the child would not stop crying. Other common reasons given by the abusers include bed-wetting, fussy eating, and disobedient behavior.

Fatalities from neglect include a number of different ways in which parents failed to adequately provide for, or supervise their children. Some caregivers failed to provide food and nurturing for their children, leading to malnutrition, failure to thrive, starvation or dehydration. Many caregivers failed to seek medical care when their child was sick, leading to serious illness and death. Neglect cases result from failure to adequately supervise children. This often results in drowning (especially in sunshine states, like Florida), suffocation, poisonings, and other fatal incidents.

Nationally, the child population reporting to NCANDS was 64 million and the victimization rate was 9.2 per 1,000 children. Children under six years of age account for 86% of all maltreatment deaths, with infants accounting for 43% of these deaths. Fatal abuse undeniably correlates with poverty, domestic violence, depression, and especially substance abuse.

Major Risk Factors

• Younger children, especially under the age of six.

• Parents or caregivers who are under the age of 35.

• Young parents with serious depression issues.

• Low income, single-parent families experiencing major stresses.

• Children left with male caregivers who lack emotional attachment to the child or children.

• Children with physical, emotional and mental health problems.

• Lack of suitable childcare services.

• Substance abuse (especially pills) among the primary caregivers.

• Caregivers with unrealistic expectations of child development and behavior. Many do not know the basics of good parenting.

Prevention

• Training hospital emergency room staff to improve their ability to identify child abuse fatalities and improve Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD) reporting to the appropriate agencies.

• Providing an advisory on the mandated reporting of child abuse and neglect to local human service agencies, hospitals and physicians.

• Case management, referral and follow-up with infants and young children sent home with serious health or developmental problems.

• Media campaigns to inform the public on known fatality-producing behaviors, such as violently shaking a child out of frustration.

• Crisis Nurseries which serve as havens for parents on the edge where they can leave their children for a specified time, at no charge.

• Intensive home visiting services to parents of at-risk infants.

• Education programs for parents such as the Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.), the Parent Nurturing Program and Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (S.T.E.P.).

Source: National MCH Center for Child Death Review (Adapted for this book. Further preventive measures are proposed in this book)

Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Benefits

Children with GAL or CASA independent advocates get substantial help while in the dependency system and more services are provided for their children and caregivers. They are more likely to have a consistent, responsible adult presence in the state dependency system. Volunteer Advocates spend significantly more effective time with the children.

Children with GAL or CASA advocates spend less time in foster care and are less likely to be bounced around from home to home. These trained and certified Guardians directly represent the children in the court. Judges have rated these independent advocates more highly than many defense attorneys, because they are the objective eyes and ears of the judge.

Most importantly, there is no question that thousands of children have been saved from parental or caregiver maltreatment by having an objective and independent voice to speak for them in all state courts.

DCF could not report numerous cases of children saved by intervention because of family privacy requirements. Many children would also have been abused, neglected and have died, without Guardians to look after them. We must never compromise the Best Interests of Children.

Our Guardian Story

The malevolence that these Guardians expected to experience was a broad-spectrum of parental abuse and neglect of God’s gift, their innocent children. What we did not expect to encounter was a dysfunctional Department of Children and Families (DCF) system, not just in Florida, but systemic failures existed in most other states. It is a national problem!

GAL and CASA volunteers work without sufficient resources, without adequate training, with insufficient supervision, and the program lacks suitable state funding. Volunteers do works of charity, without faith-based backing, due to our secularized governmental system. We do not mean they are atheistic; many are very spiritual, but they are not permitted to express their Christian beliefs— Love of God and love of neighbor.

Objectives of this Work

(1) To inform readers about the charitable works of many thousands of volunteers, known as GAL/CASA, who sacrifice so much for abandoned, neglected and abused children, throughout America.

(2) To enlighten the public and state representatives about the successes and the shortcomings of the DCF welfare system. This imperfect nationwide system exists primarily to protect innocent children, but it also attempts to rehabilitate many misguided parents.

(3) To suggest some of the root causes of this societal predicament and recommend realistic solutions to improve and further develop the Department of Children & Families dependency system.

This book is not a replacement for excellent training documents created by others. We do not want to rehash what more expert writers have produced. This is principally a personal story that we hope will provide greater insight and motivation for future caseworkers and volunteers.

The role of Guardians is not to take children away from parents (as some misinformed persons presume); it is actually the reverse—to help parents reunite with their children. It is the Child Protection Investigator’s (CPI or CPS) role to remove children from parents, when warranted by sufficient evidence of abandonment, neglect, or abuse—not Guardians.

A case begins with CPI or CPS removal of a child or children, followed by adjudication by the judge. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) contractor, Community Based Services subcontracts with agencies, such as Eckerd Community Alternatives (ECA) among others, to produce a case plan that parents accept. Children may be supervised with parents, or live with a relative caregiver, or with a foster care family. At this stage of the process, a Guardian ad Litem may get the case—if and only if, supervisory resources and sufficient volunteers are available to handle the case.

This book also examines the fundamental parental, cultural, and spiritual challenges of our society that have influenced, and will continue to affect Americans in the future, especially how we look at the family nucleus.

All children are born good, innocent and lovable. It is the parents, their relatives, the role models, and especially our education systems that cause some of these children to grow-up to become dysfunctional, and in so many cases, they grow up become dysfunctional parents themselves.

What are some of these destructive forces? Its our high divorce rates. Its explicit violence and sex in movies, in games, and on the internet. It’s paramours (unmarried couples living together), who are unwilling to take responsibility for their children. It is abuse of substances, especially pain pills, that has become a national epidemic. Finally, since the Roe vs. Wade decision, abortion-on-demand in America has been responsible for nearly sixty million abortions (more than all deaths from two World Wars).

We have met the enemy—and he is us. Walt Kelly

Many parents are clueless. They have no idea about the fundamentals of parenting. They are immature adults themselves. As one Judge said, they are like rabbits that keep on reproducing. Immature adults should not have children, if they are not prepared emotionally, psychologically, and morally, to be loving parents. If a child has not experienced love, can they become loving parents? We answer that vital question in later chapters.

The first and best victory is to conquer self. Plato

Guardian "ad Litem (GAL) means Guardian at law, for the court case." It is an old concept. During Anglo-Saxon times, at common law, the King of England appointed a person to speak on behalf of children or incompetent adults. They are volunteers that willingly give of their time, talent, and treasure without any compensation. Why do they do it? What motivates them? We can only speak for ourselves. For us it is simple: we do it to prevent child tragedies, such as the extraordinary media reports found in this book. We try to save one child at a time. We do this work to serve our Lord’s precious little ones.’ We try, with His grace, to follow the two most important commandments: Love of God, and love of neighbor.

The Basic Needs of Children: (by Alan Chapman):

1. Biological Welfare: Food, shelter, health, clothes, clean air, sleep and water;

1. Safety & Security: Protection, domestic order, stability, sense of security;

2. Love & Belonging: Parental bonding, family relationships, positive role models;

3. Self Esteem: Personal responsibility, achievement, status, reputation;

4. Cognitive: Knowledge, finding meaning, self-awareness;

5. Aesthetic: Beauty, balance, form, sounds and colors;

6. Self-actualization: Personal growth, sexual development, fulfillment;

7. Transcendence: By helping, others self-actualize.

What does Chapman mean by self-actualize? Does he mean someone’s’ perceived personality, or one’s own individual interests and welfare, when placed before those of other people? If this is his meaning, then it suggests self-esteem or ego is more important, not self-sacrificing for others.

Guardian ad Litem Mission

Every year there have been on average of about 32,000 children in the child dependency system in Florida, with about 10,000 Guardian ad Litem volunteers to work with them, or over three children per guardian. Our