Kentucky’s Missing Children Problem: Last in Nation with Percentage of Kids in Foster Care who are Placed with Relatives

There are more than 9,000 Kentucky children in state care right now spending an average of 22 months moving between three different home placements. According to data compiled by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, there were 121 foster children statewide listed as AWOL, Absent Without Leave in November. Forty-nine of them, almost half the statewide total, were listed as AWOL in just one county: Jefferson. “Been in out of home placement for years and years,” Gross said. “They go from foster home to residential care to hospitals and a lot of time they just lose hope, like why ever bother trying.” “Our fence, it’s easy to just jump the fence and go,” Home of the Innocents program manager Rick Isaiah said. “So it happens quite a bit. I think they want to go home.” The fence at Home of the Innocents may be easy to jump, but the problem goes far beyond this place. And it’s not about a fence. Many believe it is about home. Or at least family. Or relatives. And further investigation reveals that’s not a priority here when it comes to foster child placement. In fact, Kentucky ranks 50th, last in the nation in the percentage of kids in foster care who are placed with relatives. Seventy-five percent are placed in homes with non-relatives. And the percentages of child placements with relatives in Kentucky has been dropping steadily for years. What's at stake in all this? The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that of the 18,500 runaways reported, 1 in 6 were likely victims of child sex trafficking, and of those, 86 percent were in the care of social services. "We’ve had situations where a kid has AWOL’d and come back a day or two later and they’ve been molested or raped or used for drugs, sex, things like that,” Isaiah said.

Wrongly Accused Dad in Maine is Pardoned for False Shaken Baby Conviction

Nearly five years after being falsely accused of abusing his infant son, Brandon Ross of Maine has received a full pardon from the Governor. A nightmare that no family would ever want to endure began back in 2014 when Brandon and Cynthia Ross brought their baby to the doctor because his leg was swollen. We published their story on MedicalKidnap.com back then and wrote: "Brandon and Cynthia Ross became concerned after noticing their baby’s leg was swollen. Even though Ryder was not crying excessively, had no bruises, red marks, or any outward signs of injury other than the swelling, the couple took him to the doctor for an examination. After performing some x-rays and finding the infant with multiple fractures throughout his body, the doctors sent the family to the Maine Medical Center (MMC) for further evaluation. Before the couple understood the depths of the evaluation, they were deemed guilty of child abuse by officials at MMC. Six days after Ryder was admitted to the hospital, the state of Maine chose to remove both Ryder and his two-year-old sister Rosalynn from their parents’ care." However, blood work showed vitamin D and calcium deficiencies in the baby, and a doctor at Boston Medical Center diagnosed the baby with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Is Arizona a Hub of Child Sex Trafficking? Why does Arizona Take the Highest Percentage of Children from their Homes?

It has been well-documented that the State of Arizona removes children from their homes and places them in foster care at a rate that is higher than any other state in the U.S. In 2015, Arizona House Democrats wrote a letter to the governor asking why this rate continues to increase, and has reached a rate of 1 out of every 100 children in Arizona is in foster care. In 2017, reporter Bob Ortega ran a series of articles on the state of Child Welfare in Arizona in the Arizona Republic. The front page of a January Sunday edition had a photo with this inscription: "Every 40 minutes, an Arizona child is removed from his or her home. We’re still asking, Why?" In 2017, Health Impact News reported on the arrest of Arizona foster parent David Frodsham, who allegedly ran a child pornographic and pedophile ring out of his state-approved foster home. After he was arrested, one of his foster children, Devani, was placed into another state-approved foster home where 80% of her body was burned by scalding water, forcing the amputation of her toes. Another boy who was part of his foster home aged out of the system at 18, and filed a lawsuit for $15 million for years of torture and sexual abuse. In April of 2018, federal law enforcement officials arrested Arizona residents Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin after years of investigating their involvement in human trafficking, including child sex trafficking, mainly through their online classified ads website “Backpage.com.” The website was also seized and closed down. Backpage.com has been linked to 73 percent of all child trafficking in the United States, as was revealed in a Senate investigation in 2017. Why are these horrific situations allowed to continue in Arizona? Why was it necessary to bring in federal agents to arrest David Frodsham, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin after years of being involved in sexually trafficking children? Is there something going on in Arizona preventing local authorities from dealing with what appears to be a massive child sex trafficking system?

Michigan Parents Falsely Accused of Abusing Own Child by Child Abuse Specialist Have Case Dismissed

Heather Catallo of ABC7 in Detroit is reporting that a family falsely accused of child abuse by Dr. Bethany Mohr of Mott Children’s Hospital has had their case dismissed in court. “I thought we lived in America where you were innocent until you were proven guilty," Allie Parker told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo. "We were guilty until we proved we were innocent.” Child Protective Services workers removed Dylan and 1-year-old Isabella from the Parkers' care, and for 3 weeks Allie and Jimmy were not allowed to see their babies at all. “Parents have a constitutional right to parent their children,” said attorney Lisa Kirsch Satawa. “And when you interrupt a breast-feeding mom and child you are disrupting the bond, you’re disrupting the ability to parent.” Satawa says she knew she needed to bring in outside experts when she saw Dr. Mohr’s statement in her report that “Dylan’s bruising is diagnostic of physical abuse.” After 8 months and a lengthy trial, a Wayne County judge dismissed the case and apologized to the Parkers saying in his ruling, “I heard a lot deeper science from some of the other witnesses than I heard from Dr. Mohr.”

Top Cities with Highest Rate of Child Removals: Philadelphia Overtakes Phoenix as Most Dangerous City for State-sponsored Child Kidnappings

For several years now Phoenix, Arizona has had the dubious distinction of being the #1 city in the U.S. for taking children away from their parents and placing them into state-funded foster care. Phoenix judges and CPS workers have consistently taken children out of homes and families and put them into harm's way at a higher percentage than any other city in the U.S. for the past several years. Health Impact News started their MedicalKidnap.com website in 2014 due mainly to the sheer volume of parents contacting us from Arizona and complaining about their children being medically kidnapped. However, based on public statistics compiled by the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR), Philadelphia has now overtaken Phoenix as the top city in the U.S. having the highest percentage of the children being removed from homes and put into foster care. NCCPR reports that Philadelphia has become so bad, that they now take children away from parents at triple the rate of New York City, and quadruple the rate of Chicago. Sadly, while Philadelphia has assumed the #1 position in the country for state-sponsored child kidnappings among large U.S. cities, this is a problem that affects ALL Americans in every city. This problem will continue to grow worse as long as there are billions of taxpayer dollars to fund the Child Welfare system incentivizing the removal of children from families to feed the foster care and adoption business that employs hundreds of thousands of government workers, whose jobs depend on taking children away from families.

Child Sex Abuse and Trafficking Through Foster Care Continues in the U.S.

A year ago this month (January 2018) attorney Michael Dolce wrote an opinion piece published in Newsweek titled: WE HAVE SET UP A SYSTEM TO SEX TRAFFIC AMERICAN CHILDREN. Attorney Dolce speaks from experience from representing children abused in foster care. He wrote: "Here’s the ugly truth: most Americans who are victims of sex trafficking come from our nation’s own foster care system. It’s a deeply broken system that leaves thousands vulnerable to pimps as children and grooms them for the illegal sex trade as young adults. We have failed our children by not fixing the systemic failures that have allowed this to happen for decades." A year later, has anything changed? If you monitor news reports about abuses in foster care, apparently not. Even local corporate-sponsored "mainstream" news organizations are now reporting on many of the abuses happening in foster care. Large-scale studies have been done comparing children in foster care with children left in troubled homes, even with parents who have issues like drug-abuse, and the results are clear: children left in troubled homes do far better than children put into the foster care system. So we have identified the problem, but so far no one seems willing to implement the only solution possible: abolish federal government-funded child welfare. The system is broken and beyond repair.

Oregon to Become First State to Mandate Universal Home Visits of All Families with Newborn Children

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has submitted her 2-year budget proposal to the Oregon state legislature, and it includes several health initiatives aimed at children's behavioral (mental) health under the oversight of the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon's Coordinated Care Organizations, a "uniquely Oregon approach to blending a wide array of health services under one umbrella." One of the key pieces of Governor Brown's legislation is: "the beginning investment in a six-year program to create universal home visits for new parents." The Beaverton Valley Times interviewed Patrick Allen, the director of the Oregon Health Authority, who reportedly expressed excitement at the prospect of requiring home visits of all new parents, including adoptive parents: "When the program is complete, every new parent — this includes adoptions — would receive a series of two or three visits by someone like a nurse or other health care practitioner. The visits could include basic health screenings for babies; hooking parents up with primary care physicians; linking them to other services; and coordinating the myriad childhood immunizations that babies need." Allen made it clear that they were targeting all children, not just troubled families: "This isn't something for people in trouble. This is stuff all kids need." Allen said. The state of Oregon sees about 40,000 births per year, and the universal home visit program has apparently already been piloted in Lincoln County.

Indian Mother and Attorney wins Award for Fight Against Child Protection Services and Children Civil Rights Abuse

We have previously reported here at Health Impact News how authorities in India are now providing information to families planning to visit or work in the United States in helping them to avoid having their children kidnapped by Child Protection Services. The Sunday Guardian reported: "Young Indian couples travelling to the United States on short to mid-term job assignments are increasingly facing the menace of child confiscation by the country’s child protection agencies, who wrongly accuse them of abuse. The 'child abuse' is determined using the controversial Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) indicator, the veracity of which is contested. Suranya Aiyar, a New-Delhi based lawyer, who has been providing counsel and aid to Indian families in the US, Norway and other countries to help them get back their confiscated children, recently submitted a 'Report on Indian and India-Origin Children Confiscated by the United States Child Protection Agencies' to the Ministry of External Affairs. Based on her extensive case study of 12 Indian families, who were falsely accused of child abuse, her report sheds light on the US agencies’ many biases and flawed methodology. The report wants a travel advisory to be issued to young Indian families moving to the US of possible confiscation of their children as, in most cases, the victim families are not aware of what might goad the child protection agencies to initiate action against them." Last year (2018) Indian mother and attorney Suranya Aiyar was awarded a laureate by the Nordic Committee for Human Rights (NCHR). NCHR is a human rights organization specializing in advocacy against wrongful child removals by child protection agencies in Nordic countries. In her acceptance speech, attorney Aiyar appeals to policymakers in India to resist and reject the Western models of child protection. Such is the sad state of affairs here in the U.S. today, where attorneys and policy makers in other countries must issue travel advisories and warn against child kidnappings by American child "protection" agencies.

2-Day Old Baby Medically Kidnapped at Hospital in Canada Filmed Live on Facebook

Staring down at her child's tiny hospital wristband, the mother of a newborn girl whose apprehension into care was streamed live on Facebook spoke out about her pain during an emotional press conference Friday morning. The mother said she was "blindsided" by the apprehension by Winnipeg Child and Family Services because she said she had made arrangements to have her aunt take over guardianship of her baby. "It's a huge letdown," she said. Melanie Ferris, communications officer for the First Nations Family Advocate Office at the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said the baby girl was two days old when she was seized Thursday by Winnipeg CFS. Cora Morgan, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs First Nations family advocate, said the family had been in touch with CFS prior to the birth to make arrangements because they suspected the agency might have concerns with the mother. The mother was looking for help with parenting skills and addiction issues, Morgan said. But when the mother arrived at the hospital via ambulance to deliver, a CFS worker told her that the baby had to be apprehended then because someone said she was intoxicated when she arrived at the hospital, Morgan said. Morgan said family members spoke to doctors who told them the mother was not intoxicated when she arrived. Morgan also says the family was contacted by CFS soon after the video was posted Thursday, with a warning to take the video off of social media. "CFS phoned and said 'you take that down or you'll have a harder time getting your baby back'," said Morgan. "So they were threatened that they needed to take that video down." However, the video has now gone viral....

Is Free-Range Parenting a Crime?

It only takes about 50 steps to get from Monica and Devon Jones’ Stapleton house to the pocket park across the street—maybe 100 if you’re a pint-size person. In fact, when the Joneses bought their house in 2014, they picked it in part because of its proximity to the green space: They could see the playground from the front porch. On August 21, 2017, Monica Jones stood on that porch and watched her four-and-a-half-year-old daughter confidently take those 100 steps to cross the street and join her friends at the playground. It was the day of the solar eclipse, and a number of neighborhood kids and adults had gathered there; Monica’s daughter had asked to play with them. Monica knew some of the parents in the park, and the Joneses had been working with their daughter for months on crossing the street, so Monica felt comfortable letting her child go on her own while she watched. “We wanted to give her a little taste of freedom and independence,” she says. The Joneses’ daughter made the trip unscathed and spent the next couple of hours going between her house and her friends, with her mom watching from the porch and through the windows. A couple of weeks later, there was a knock on the Joneses’ door. Someone who had seen the little girl playing unsupervised had called the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) hotline to report the incident, and now two caseworkers were standing on the Joneses’ porch. They introduced themselves and asked to come in. Monica wasn’t home, but Devon invited the caseworkers into the kitchen, where they delivered some shocking news: They were there to investigate an allegation of neglect.