The city’s child-welfare agency, which looks out for kids like Jumiya, has fared better in keeping its RTC enrollments down. In August, it had 73 kids in RTCs compared to 82 this past January. Have they suddenly found religion? Well, no. It turns out that the city’s Department of Mental Health—which must sign off on most of the agency’s RTC placements—has started getting stingy: Morilus-Black says her agency now rejects 80 percent of such requests.
Morilus-Black says she knows why the requests keep coming. To move away from the RTC system that failed kids like Jumiya, a government would need to find a way to bring workers from a bunch of different bureaucracies onto each case—finding mental-health assistance, job-hunting help, tutoring, child-rearing advice to a kid’s troubled parents, and any number of other things. But that doesn’t happen much.
“We will never avoid all together kids being in RTCS, all right?,” says Gerald, the CFSA director. “We’re not there yet. We’re building a better capacity on the ground.”
But not very fast. Two-and-a-half years ago, the Department of Mental Health, CFSA, DYRS and the D.C. Public Schools each put in money to start up such a program, known in child-welfare jargon as a “wraparound project.” The pilot program, DC Choices, serves 144 kids who might otherwise have gone to an RTC. Though the program is at capacity, its director was recently told to prepare for a 5-percent budget cut.
“We call it an edifice complex,” says one former DYRS official. “If a kid is not in a building, somehow you didn’t do anything for them. That’s just bullshit.”
Hampton, Va., is not widely known as a hub of progressive policy. Its social-services offices are located in a repurposed high school in a dilapidated neighborhood. In the last year, the big renovation meant the removal of the old lockers in the halls. And yet the Virginia city near Norfolk offers a nearby example of a place that has embraced modern, cooperative approaches to helping kids who wind up in the child-welfare system. It’s also an example of how the idea of ending D.C.’s addiction to RTCs is not a pie-in-the-sky pipe dream.
On a Wednesday morning in mid-November, a mother arrives at the old school building to talk about the trouble with an adoptive daughter who seemed like an 8-year-old version of Jumiya. Taking a seat at a large conference table, she faces five representatives from various government outposts: Mental health, the courts, the schools, child-welfare services, and a multi-agency coordinator.
The woman’s daughter has been in the child-weflare system since she was two months old. The girl’s biological mother has been a drug user. Behavioral problems are starting to show. She bangs her head against walls. She’s been fighting at school; during one incident, her mom says it took three adults to restrain her. “It’s like the kid has no control over what she’s doing,” the mother explains.
“I would suggest getting a psychiatrist,” comforts Jessica McClary, Hampton’s multi-agency coordinator. “It’s just a suggestion.” She mentions one organization that does outpatient and play therapy. Then the cheery coordinator says the magic words that you rarely ever hear among District caregivers: “We’ll brainstorm.”
The mother seems lukewarm on having to drive her daughter to therapy. She rattles off the multiple after-school activities she coordinates each week. Squeezing in one more car ride seems impossible. Suddenly, though, one of the administrators in the room remembers that there’s a therapist who makes house calls. The mother brings up that the daughter had stolen bubblegum and lip gloss from a Walmart. Soon a mentoring program is added to the daughter’s list of services along with the in-home therapy. After the meeting, the daughter’s future doesn’t feel so bleak.
These Family Assessment and Planning Team meetings, which are central to the city’s social-safety net, take place every Monday and Wednesday and on an emergency basis. They cover all the families in the social-welfare system and can last all day.
In 1993, in response to the rising cost of residential treatment, Virginia passed the Comprehensive Services Act for At-Risk Youth and Families. Recognizing that kicking the RTC habit required cooperation across bureaucracies, the law provided significant monetary incentives for local stakeholders—child-welfare, mental-health, juvenile justice, the courts—to work together.
“What we ended up doing was just deciding to make a commitment that we were going to create some community-based options,” recalls Wanda Rogers, Hampton’s director of human services. “Once we began to sit at the table and share that residential treatment was not what we wanted, that conversation led us to saying it is our responsibility to create those resources.”
Our Readers Say
Also, the other thing that stood out to me in this article: WHERE ARE THE REPERCUSSIONS FOR THE MOTHER?!? She verbatim said "I was tired of (Jumiya).' Umm, Sorry lady, but you chose to have the kid, its you're responsibility to take care of her. It frightens me that someone can basically toss their defenseless child out into the streets with ZERO LIABILITY. Lets not even broach the topic that she's probably firmly entrenched in government hand outs to do so. Christ, I'm just in awe that someone could do that to their kid and not have to answer to anyone.... What a Joke.
The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute is accepting applications through January 7 for the 2011 Foster Youth Internship program for young adults who have spent time in the foster care system. The program will run May 31-July 30, 2011.
Please log onto the following websites for further information.
Internship Opportunity -- http://www.sparkaction.org/content/2011-foster-youth-internship-program
About the Organization -- www.sparkaction.org
Please pass this information on to others you feel may be interested.
and when will they start looking at the mother? If she treats Jumiya like i feel for her siblings.
-concerned parent.
Yes, a lot of it is because it’s the easy way out for the people on the frontlines. It’s also the easy way out for politicians. RTCs can be quite seductive with their lovely grounds and therapeutic jargon. Often they’re run by agencies with blue-chip, well connected boards of directors.
So it’s no wonder that when it came to cutting the CFSA budget, programs to keep kids out of foster care were pitted against programs for kids already in foster care – and the RTCs got a free pass. I wrote about this in the Post last month: http://wapo.st/gPEmgK
Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
http://www.nccpr.org
Yes, a lot of it is because it’s the easy way out for the people on the frontlines. It’s also the easy way out for politicians. RTCs can be quite seductive with their lovely grounds and therapeutic jargon. Often they’re run by agencies with blue-chip, well connected boards of directors.
So it’s no wonder that when it came to cutting the CFSA budget, programs to keep kids out of foster care were pitted against programs for kids already in foster care – and the RTCs got a free pass. I wrote about this in the Post last month. I won't include a URL since when I just tried to post that way the comment was "flagged for spam"
Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
Alexandria VA
Thanks for reading. The problems w/ RTCs have been around for years. And have been broken wide open long before I started reporting this piece. See: University Legal Service's report linked in this very story.
Jeff Anderson has written stories on DYRS for Wash Times. But unless I missed something, our stories are completely different in angle, and subject matter.
I stand by my story. I not only talked to Jumiya off and on for more than a year but interviewed her mother, and interviewed two advocates that worked on Jumiya's case. I also interviewed a source who was familiar with her case. And I was able to review her case file i.e. I read the social workers' notes. If you had read the social workers' own file, you would see that the system repeatedly let Jumiya down--in many more ways than could be recounted here. (My story could only be so long).
I am very familiar with the research on RTCs. I could find no one that actually thinks they provide sustainable, positive results in kids. When the director of DMH's children and family services and the director of CFSA both condemn RTCs, I think it's pretty clear.
Georgetown has an entire department aimed at helping state and city agencies move away from RTCs: http://gucchdtacenter.georgetown.edu/index.html
Bazelon provides a pretty good rundown on RTC research as well as NCCPR:
http://www.nccpr.org/reports/residentialtreatment.pdf
Jumiya, and those alike, should be encouraged and inspired to fulfill their dreams or dreams should be imparted in them. Years ago students took classes like PFL (Personal Family Living), Workshop, College Bound youth were noticed and encouraged to go to college, teachers, neighbors, relatives, community groups, churches, older cousins and relatives had a hand in guiding a child. Personal development is a must, no matter what the situation is with a child, especially children coming out of unhealthy conditions and environments.
Show them the movie "Gifted Hands"-The Ben Carson Story, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. EVERYONE is born with a skill, talent, or gift. We are each different, the universe had a need for YOU! Who is assisting YOU as an individual to, against ALL odds, to beat the odds and move forward. To be the person that YOU are being called by the universe to become; to fill that place that was WAITING just for YOU?
We're in a recession, as we all know, some of us feel it more than others. $64 million in the right hands, with the right intentions, and moved towards the right direction would make a substantial change in the lives of D.C. youth; would anyone agree? Also, rethink the recent cuts in foster parent stipends. I was a foster parent for a male and female child, one married with her Ph.D and the other married with 3 children and GREAT dad! My second child I took without pay.
Children should not be made a criminal; who is the REAL CRIMINAL here? A real enigma. If we would "FOCUS" on what's best for the children, where services are needed the most, LOVE THEM out of their hurts and fears, instead of political battles, we would see some progress and less mess.
Prepare them for the real world, LIFE!
Our FOCUS for the youth should be; "How can we help the youth in an already dim situation; launch towards their potential and become a CONTRIBUTOR to society"?
I knew someone was going to bring up family team meetings. Those meetings are not the same as the multi-agency meetings at Hampton. And one last point, the majority of people that I interviewed for this story--include one CFSA administrator--all told me that CFSA's family team meetings were a joke. I haven't followed just Jumiya. But a few others for just as long if not longer.
One youth got a total of one family team meeting in the last four years despite the fact that he had been in crisis several times--for example the two times his foster dad threatened to kill him. He did even get an FTM after those incidents. What does that tell you about FTMs?
Another kid I follow recently had an FTM which I went to. Guess who didn't show up? His court-appointed advocate. Guess who was an hour and a half late? His foster father? Guess who else didn't show? His biological parents.
One last point: Why do we have to license relatives? Why do we have to make grandparents go through a lengthy process just to take care of their grandchildren or an aunt take care of her niece?
Great reporting, and it sounds like you really did your research. My question is, how did you refrain from punching Jumiya's worthless specimen of a mother in the face repeatedly? When I read "I was tired of her anyway," my fists balled up automatically. As others have said, where are the consequences for the mother, who abused and then abandoned her own child? Why must Jumiya absorb all of the negativity while her deadbeat egg donor basks in her newfound "quiet house?"
Perhaps one administrator finds FTMs a joke. One of how many? So, are you saying that the process is a joke because the AGENCY is not trying or those connected to the child?
As for licensing the family members, CFSA must do what is legislatively required of them. Talk to CM Wells, or perhaps the feds. Perhaps they will listen to you. Beating up on an agency that is abiding by legislative mandates gets us nowhere.
I LOVE YOU JUMIYA
You’re absolutely right about the absurdity of licensing relatives. The feds don’t require this per se, but CFSA won’t get federal aid for the placement except in a licensed foster home. But there’s an even bigger obstacle to common sense on this one:
Marcia Lowry, whose organization, the one that calls itself Children’s Rights, has a consent decree with the District, is a fanatic about demanding licensure. In Michigan, her consent decree has forced at least 1,800 children out of the homes of relatives because they couldn’t fulfill ten pages of single-spaced hypertechnical licensing requirements that are geared to middle-class strangers. If DC tries to loosen these requirements she’ll be back in court in seconds.
That’s Marcia’s m.o. everywhere – to Marcia there is no problem that can’t be solved with another form, another procedure and a lot more bureaucracy. Her group is like the clerk you least want to see when you finally make it to the front of the line at the DMV - yet she gets a free ride from media all over the country.
All of which does NOT mean the District should be fighting the consent decree. The DC system is so bad, even a Marcia Lowry consent decree would improve it a little.
Also:
--LeaveCFSAalone has it backwards. The reason budgets keep having to be cut is because the RTCs are scarfing up all the funds that should be going to better alternatives.
--And concernedmumsie is flat wrong about happy endings. Of course there are some, but they are few and far between. A major study of foster care alumni found only 20 percent doing well as young adults. So excuse me, mumsie, if I’m not inclined to stand up and cheer for a system that churns out walking wounded four times out of five.
And while you may dismiss what Jumiya went through as merely “the frying pan” it sounds more like one of the hotter cicles of Hell to me.
Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
Alexandria VA 22314
What is WRONG with our systems is we believe a parents rights trumps all. That Jumiya's mother has the right to destroy that which she has brought into the world. Our policy should be "What Is In The Best Interest Of The Child" NOT family reunification if the reunification is with a parent who has proven they are NOT worthy or grandparent, etc.,
The process should be more welcoming to family members IF those family members have any credibility and many times they do not. If you are a family member and you know kids are being abused and you remain quiet then you are not worthy either.
The Jumiya's of the world are dismissed by governmental agencies all the time and by us as a society. Whether we like it or not...too many ppl are having children who shouldn't be. And, this goes for the under-educated mother or the one with the gucci purse and a Harvard education!
But, how does any of this help Jumiya and the thousands like her across this country?!!! At the end of the day how will this article and our epinions help offer her a better chance in a life she had no choice in participating in????
I know that personally I must be demonstrating this hideous lack of professionalism by working around the clock (frequently for free, not that this matters to anyone else) tracking down people that everyone else has given up on or by spending my own money buying kids lunches, coats, and school supplies, or by taking time away from my own family to participate in events for "my kids" so that they have someone supporting them at their basketball game or school play (and, yes, our kids do normal things like shoot hoops or sing in a concert).
While I recognize, Jason, that you took an interest in several youth (and I do commend you on this) I find that most people who feel so comfortable critizing everything about child welfare really don't know much about it and don't do much, if anything, to demonstrate that they've every cared about one of our kids other than leave some holier than thou comments on newspaper article.
I'm not seeing any community members around or helping when I'm trying hopelessly to console a newborn withdrawing from heroin or bathing a child covered in ringworm or endeavoring to rid my own home of bed bugs carried home from a client. Child welfare is not glamorous work and it would be much more motivational for these organizations to successfully change and improve (because not everything is bad) if the people constantly espousing criticism ever once stepped over the bridge and actually (gasp) did something to help.
Because change is needed and if you ask pretty much any child welfare professional about this they will agree, as long as you're not calling them a callous idiot during the conversation. Considering that we need the employees of child welfare agencies to buy into change and innovative ideas, we may want to stop incessantly berating their organizations and try some inclusion. I challenge you to make your next child welfare article about something that is actually working well, and I can provide a list if it's too challenging to try to see the positive aspects yourself.
Too often we work from polarized positions and take that same polarization into the solutions that we present to problems... RTCs stink for many clients- 86 them all; licensing relatives has other inherent problems- well scrap the whole thing... It's helpful to look at the reasoning behind how we got to certain situations and practices to be able to find something that draws on the aspects that have worked and find what could work better.
For example, relative licensure did not always exist. I, a child welfare professional, am not particularly fond of it- at least to the extreme that we take it. Is it a beneficial idea for relatives to not meet licensure requirements if the only issue is that a child would have to sleep on a pull out couch and would not have a "room"? I know I've slept on my parents couch and shockingly (read the sarcasm) I am still alive. However, would it be a good idea for me to turn over a child to a relative without any checking into that individual at all? Too bad that could have us leaving children with sex offenders or violent individuals. Too bad that could have us sending children into other jurisdictions without any monitoring at all. (This is the "go with God, hope it all works out" philosophy.) As long as we're not "licensing" anyone, sure, this sounds like a great plan and how beneficial that we kept that child with "family" who can inflict some new and more creative abuse on them. Gee, that sounds right (again with the sarcasm, I know).
The point is, care about our kids for longer than the time that it takes you to read a self-righteous article (if you're looking for some more in that vein, read everything about the Jacks case and rest comfortably in your ability to blame people without ever getting your hands dirty). Take the time to do things like:
volunteer to work with at-risk kids and get to know their families
become a foster/adoptive parent (202/671-LOVE)
reach out through a prison ministry
reach out through a literacy program
volunteer with any kind of social organization (domestic violence, substance abuse, etc.).
Notice that I'm not suggesting that you give money. Although money is needed, too, money is not what is going to solve our problems. Community is going to solve our problems. If you don't want to be involved with a population or treat them like they are unworthy or your time, it doesn't matter how much money you throw at them the problems will not get better. Stop looking at child welfare clients as if abuse or neglect is the only issue. People don't become violent, or drug addicts in a vaccuum. There is a reason and often, if you'd reflect on your own self, you might come to grips with the fact that you could have gone down the very same path if your circumstances had been even a tenth as hard as theirs. For all of those of you who felt so comfortable judging Jumiya's mother (and all the other mothers like her), learn something about how they got that way and what their struggles are. Take some time to reflect on your own life and the "breaks" you might have gotten that helped you succeed. Not everybody is so blessed. And don't mistake me, all adults have personal responsibility for their actions. However, at some point after taking responsibility for our actions, we have to pick ourselves back up to be able to move on. And you're much more likely to actually be able to move on and improve with concrete support and genuine understanding, not with condemnation.
I am saddened that a tremendous opportunity (in a town that happens to be the seat of power) has been wasted. There are no new solutions in your article to improve the plight of troubled, DC youth currently in the foster care system who remain in the local community.
There are several contradictions in your responses to readers that you DO NOT entirely know the reason for certain outcomes (i.e. why her siblings were returned, why Jumiya was not returned) in Jumiya's case....yet you claim to have taken the time to read her ENTIRE court record and all the agency reports. There is no rubber-stamping process for sending children like Jumiya to RTC. I am not aware of many professionals currently on the front lines of the child welfare system who believe that sending a child to RTC is a one-size, fits all solution adequate to address every child's mental health needs. This is not a decision that these professionals WANT to make. Notwithstanding the difficult decision these professionals make to determine what's best for a child (when the child's extreme at-risk behaviors in the community place them in danger), the current, poor state of our economy actually prevents the government from readily outsourcing our children!
To demonstrate sufficient medical necessity for RTC, there has to be evidence that all community mental health resources were exhausted during a rather lengthy, multi-teaming process. A DC ward's medical insurance, the funding source for RTC, requires this. Did you attend all of these multiple, multi-disciplinary team meetings, teleconferences for children like Jumiya and offer alternative resources/solutions before writing your article (since you represent extensively interviewing individuals working on her case)?
What a missed opportunity, Mr. Cherkis! The real issues that you should be reporting on are: Why don't enough mental health providers in the DC community (and the surrounding suburbs where our children are often placed) accept the type of medical insurance that DC foster care kids have to allow access to more diverse services/approaches (i.e. art, play, music, dance therapy)?
Perhaps our DC wards could be more responsive to other forms of mental health services that are often reserved for youth with better medical insurance. Does your article provide a solution for filling the financial gap when alternative (but temporary funding sources) run out to help youth like Jumiya access better mental health care? Our D.C. youth in foster care have varied mental health needs requiring some to take psycho-tropic medication....but where are your answers for helping the percentage of youth who may not really need medication but instead better mental health options?
Where are your efforts to recruit this large pool of skilled and talented DC work force (likely reading your article) to become mentors, tutors, CASAs, and foster care parents? Do you have the solution for youth who too often chooses to self-medicate with illegal drugs rather than opt to access what limited mental health resources are actually available for them? Are you going to be there to encourage children like Jumiya who often have no continuity of mental health care because they frequently abscond and miss the numerous appointments made for them? Do you have any anti-gang solutions for the DC ward whose complicated, biological family dynamics prevent him/her from having better alternatives? Do you offer a solution to address an increasing problem with adolescents (yearning for the love of an absent or unknown father) who subsequently seek love/attention/self-worth from adult men (from all the wrong places) who intend to exploit their vulnerability?
Do you know where Jumiya and other youth are tonight? Are you sure that Jumiya (or another youth you happen to know)is not actually the unidentified child on the evening news who has been seriously harmed or found dead? For our troubled, DC wards who remain in the community, refuse mental health care, who cannot count on the unconditional love of their families (who often set high standards for providing consistent support), are justifiably angry, and engage in severe at risk behaviors to cope with these circumstances....what are your solutions? Your article states a conclusion about RTCs (that most already knew) without offering new suggestions/guidance for professionals currently in the trenches of the child welfare system.
I have worked in child welfare in multiple jurisdictions during my career and let me tell you, the problems and failures outlined in the article exist in child welfare across the board. I have participated in many Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT) meetings and they are far from novel or progressive processes- they are mandated by the state of Virginia as multi-agency "discussion" about where shared funds should be allocated. They often are not supportive to the families, children, social workers, or agencies and end up being a mechanism to continue to plug in a multitude of services to families that may or may not help them address the underlying issues they are facing. The District has been utilizing similar types of meetings for years as a way to manage local funds (every jurisdiction has a similar process to manage money, we just all call them different "fancy" names). Similar to in VA, they are minimally effective at really supporting families and youth.
The author writes a compelling piece about the concerns that many of us in the system deal with everyday. It would just be nice to see balanced reporting that also shows the challenges families often face (limited resources, multi-generational problems, homelessness, substance abuse, just to name a few), the struggles social workers face (not having adequate placements for youth, ridiculous bureaucracies and policies, pressures to check the little boxes to appease our never-ending court battles, etc.), and the endless vitriol of those who don't do anything but stand in the sidelines and criticize.
Please step in the ring and try to make a difference yourself. Hundreds of us are doing it every day in DC despite the frustrations and blame we face (often from our own so-called “leaders” in the city). Maybe then you will understand that we all play a part in meeting the needs of those most vulnerable in our community. Until we all come to the table acknowledging our mistakes and celebrating our (all too few and far between) victories, nothing will change.
Second, I agree with the policy position purported by Cherkis that youth should be placed in the least restrictive settings when consistent with public safety AND also provided high-quality community-based intensive mental health services to meet their behavoiral health needs.
Nonetheless, I would caution interpreting increased spending in RTCs as a direct correlation of increased placements. Increased placements is undoubtedly a driving factor; nonetheless, a few things to consider are:
1. Has the increased in spending amounted to local expenditures or total expenditures (i.e. federal+local match)?
2. Have more providers transitioned to Medicaid decreasing local costs but increasding total costs?
3. Has DHCF increased reimbursement rates for providers so local+federal costs increased?
4. Is there data on the number of youth placed in FY08 vs. Fy10
5. Has the rate of increase in RTC placements by DYRS correlated with the rate of increase in commitements? That is, what is the per capita
rate?
I understand the purpose of the City Paper article was to promote a certain policy position. And again, I can't retiterate enough that I agree 139% that the policy should be least restrictive settings and quality community-based services. As a former employee of District government, I wish I had done more to have a positive impact on this issue despite our best efforts to do as much as humanly possible.
Yours in positive youth development,
James
It is the kind of story that helps us understand and fosters empathy for the teen and her family.
In all of the comments that I have seen you post over the last years, you without fail defend the DC Child Protective
Services (CFSA) , and usually cast doubt on the person or persons who take on the issues of CFSA's continual failure
to serve all the childre in all the areas ( including the wealthiest war 3, Georgetown that according to CFSA in 2009
has 0% abuse or neglect. Not one child was abused or neglected, for the money and status shields the abusers.
ConcernedMumsie, you seem to know so much about CFSA, even its inner policies and dealings.
It is obvious that you work directly with CFSA, likely n the Executive offices.
Why not be transparent as to who you are, since your comments help to reveal
who you are....perhaps the General Council, James P. Toscano
(who has had his own legal case against him for illegal sexual activity in a public toilet in Arlington, Virginia).
Seems that Dr. Roque Gerald, the Director, was appointed with as a known sexual offender with a patien
in Virginia is more than enough, but to have the General Council too is ourtrageous! By law, the DC Child
Protection Services ( CFSA) should not be "lead" by two known legally proven and documented sex offenders
(as found in the numerous documents on the internet).
How do you justify these facts? I am sure that as usual you will find another way to justify both of your immoral
and illegal activities by somehow blaming the others, or the system, but will not take responsibility yourselves.
Until the leaders of CFSA change, there will be no change or improvement in the lives of Washington, DC's
most vulnerable residents, the children.
The DC Child Protective Services (CFSA) needs to have for children a H.E.A.R.T.: Honesty, Efficiency, Accountability,
Responsibility and Transparency.
Dr Ariel Rosita King
Advocate for Children's Human Rights I
President, Ariana-Leilani Children's Foundation International
(www.Ariana-LeilaniFoundation.org)
You are my hero. You are so brave, girl. Keep fighting the system (in a peaceful way). Don't let anyone deny your dreams. You are going to accomplish great things. Advocates, please consider Jumiya as a youth ambassador for juvenile justice. She would be amazing. More people have to hear her story. It is unbelieveable that we are warehousing our youth in "dungeons" only to see most of them commit crimes when they are eventually released. It is medieval.
2011 is your year, Jumiya. Bless you.
AK
Change starts at the top....It is not Jason Cherkis' job to solve the problems. Solving those problems is the job of the overpaid top executives of CFSA. Jason has done (and hopefully will continue to do) an excellent job at pointing out these problems, Hopefully one day we will have a CFSA administration that has the healthy response of: "Thank you Jason Cherkis for making very good points and highlighting them for the public. We are working on it, and we are going to solve it." That kind of "can do" approach can only come from administrators who are problem solvers -- and not problem hiders and excuse suppliers.
Mayor Gray should search for a new CFSA director and new CFSA legal department head who have: a) a successful track record solving these problems in other jurisdictions which experienced similar problems to those in DC, b) have the effective communications and management skills to implement them in DC, and c) do not resort to excuses like we are hearing here.
In closing, we should keep in mind that part of the problem is that there is a cottage industry of folks both inside and outside CFSA who are making money off of the system's status quo, at the expense of local and federal funds and the children. They are the ones who are getting paid handsomely and seem to be running to the defense of CFSA with all of the excuses.
I am not a social worker, but I have advocated on behalf of young people committed to child welfare agencies in DC and several states, and I have worked for the DC Government. I want to share with you that my heroes include not only many young people in the child welfare system, but also those social workers who genuinely devote their hearts, time, and energy to some of our community's most disempowered residents--abused and neglected children.
My first case in the D.C. child welfare system involved an adolescent who came into the child welfare system when he was at rock bottom. Less than three years later, he was a public servant with a nice apartment. More importantly, he was happy. When his case closed, he said he would not have been able to turn his life around without the immense support of his CFSA social worker. That worker didn’t overhaul the child welfare system, but she has helped many adolescents turn their lives around. How many people can say that?
PS: Many critics of the juvenile justice system would have argued that this young person’s criminal activity warranted placement in a secure setting, not a group home. (Recall the series of Washington Post articles a few years ago about how so many young offenders are in congregate care settings from which they can so easily abscond?) The young person in my case thrived in his group home more than any other group home resident I have ever known. These cases are complicated, and things are not always what they seem to reporters and their audiences.
Best of luck with whatever endeavor you undertake to address the deficits of the child welfare system--whether you choose to help a child in great need or join an effort to promote systemic change.
Here we have a young female who has cried out in the past and is still
crying out for help and here we have so called professional attacking a gentleman who simply let Jumyia tell her story, am I the only one who see something wrong with this picture? I honestly can say that I am shocked that not one professional has said anything about helping this poor child. The main concern is saving face for CFSA WHAT THE HELL! When did an agency become more important than a child? Maybe if somebody would just listen to her and I mean really listen to her and understand what she is saying then maybe just maybe she can move forward and become a productive citizen. I will agree with the professional concerning the Mental Health Services for our youth and their parents this is a serious issue for the Nation’s Capitol we as a people need to come together and find a solution instead of attacking each other over who is right and who is wrong.
For most of my professional life, I was either a journalist or a professor of journalism, but not a Ph.D, by the way. I covered my first child welfare story in 1976, while I was still a journalism student.
I interviewed a woman who was, at the time, 21. By the time she was nine years old, she had been in nine different foster homes. She told me she survived by keeping the rage inside, “unlike my five brothers who’ve been in every jail in New York State.”
This is some of what she said:
“When you spend your life going from place to place and knowing you’re not going to be in any place for very long, you learn not to reach out, not to care, not to feel.
“My bitterness is not that I went through what I did, my bitterness is that I don’t think it should have had to happen. There was no reason why my family’s life should have been destroyed.”
After speaking to this woman for two-and-a-half hours, I reached a couple of conclusions:
First, I was very glad I chose journalism as a career.
Second, I knew I would keep coming back to the story.
As I did keep coming back to the story, I kept finding that the facts on the ground were not matching what the most widely-quoted so-called “experts” were saying. When the dichotomy became too much to bear, I wrote a book on the topic, Wounded Innocents. Ultimately, that led me into advocacy.
As I said, that interview with a former foster child was in 1976. Sixteen years later, I was working in that same city, and I took part in a panel discussion of foster care.
Also on the panel was a representative of one of those big, “respected” private agencies with blue-chip boards of directors that lives on per diem payments for keeping children in foster care - the kind voteforchange mentions in her or his excellent comment. He was going on about how supposedly children are removed only as a last resort, and never for even a day longer than necessary.
But, he said, maybe after another generation, we’ll consider changing the financial incentives under which we operate.
After another generation.
Nothing that had happened to that young woman, that former foster child, and all who came after really mattered to him at all.
Why am I angry?
Because now it’s another 19 years, and we read the story of Jumiya and so many others like her suffering exactly the same way.
And then you, mumsie, come along with exactly the same kind of smug, sanguine, condescending response – (only without even the common courage or common decency to sign your name) to the point of actually suggesting that everything Jumiya endured is just the “frying pan” while placement with her loving but unlicensed grandmother or aunt could be “the fire.”
You criticize anyone who dares suggest CFSA is imperfect – even Judith Sandalow, for crying out loud – and then bemoan your hurt feelings when people disagree. (You should see Mumsie’s similar comments, and gratuitous swipe at Jason Cherkis and CityPaper, over at a similar discussion at the Washington Post. This comment would’t go through when I tried to post a link, so I’ll just say it’s the discussion under the column in which Marcia Lowry accuses me of wanting to take toys from foster children.) Mumsie, it’s not all about you.
Don’t worry about the people who see what happens to children like Jumiya day after day and get angry. Worry about the people who see it day after day and don’t.
Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
Alexandria VA
The thing that struck me from the pro-CFSA side is this idea that nothing that's ever written about them is balanced or shows off its positive side, its heroics. When faced with say a factually-accurate story, there's always this circling of the wagons. No matter what.
In the wake of the Banita Jacks case, the union rightly slammed the Fenty Administration for firing employees w/out much if any due process. I'm sure that cop who lied in the Jacks case is still in uniform. Anyway, the union also made a great point: Fenty should have used the Jacks case to reform CFSA. Instead, he fired some people and never really brought up the agency again. But CFSA workers, at a rally I attended, snickered about the Jacks case. They argued that "she was crazy, what could we do?" It sort of undercuts whatever defense they could make in the Jacks case when they're bad mouthing the mother they ignored. It's hard to believe CFSA would tolerate such attitudes.
In Jumiya's case, within a few weeks, one worker reported finding Jumiya "unpleasant." How comforting is it to know that social workers are passing judgments on the children they are charged to follow? That kind of attitude was prevalent in her case. I wonder how we'd be if we were removed from our family and dumped in a group home? And barred from seeing our grandmother?
Again in stories like this, CFSA's default response seems to be: we're trying, this work is hard, give us a break. One time, I'd love for the agency to just simply own up to their mistakes. How does meaningful reform happen if CFSA won't admit when they screw up?
To say that someone should not have been in a residential facility because he was "both a victim and perpetrator of sexual abuse" misses an important distinction. Once he crosses the line to perpetrator, society deserves protection from him -- and protection frequently means getting somebody off the streets.
Re the comments posted above, #24 by TRUE MOTHER stands out. Everyone, especially kids, need to know they're loved.
To Jumiya, listen to people who care. There's a better world out there for you. Grab it and don't let go.
We need to be helping more children and families in D.C. through proven in-home and community programs. With tight budgets on every governmental level, we desperately need to be doing what works -- and not what doesn't.
Thanks for spurring discussion on these important issues.
Connie Mills
www.youthvillages.org
And to those who would obviously take issue with anything that someone has written, please be the change you want to see in this world! Do something for the betterment of our youth...they desperately need you!!!
Mr. Cherkis, if you would like to contact me, by all means feel free. God speed.
Or you could write letters to Judge Milton Lee expressing your support for Jumiya.
http://www.dccourts.gov/dccourts/docs/DCSC_Bio_Lee.pdf
I'd like to add my 50 cents to this. In 1996, my parents decided that after their divorce, they did not want to take care of me and my 1 year old son. I did not have a problem with that, I knew they would always be my parents. But CFSA was garbage and I will take that to my grave. Yes, some of you are new to CFSA and will try to change the tarnished image: all the best to you and it would be a great thing and I would change my thought pattern.
I was placed at the Fedora Center, a therapeutic center for mentally challenged children in care. Their were no other beds for me and son. I am not mental, but this is where I was placed. The staff were all perverts, one staff member: Mr. Bey (Darkskin Male with birthmark on his face, lives in NE DC) had sex with me numerous times even while I was on my period. Let me tell you that in 1996 I was 15 with my son. Yes I had sex and had my son, but I was not being molested or raped by some geezer. My sons father passed 6 months after his birth in a car accident; not a random dealer. N.E.Way, after being sexed constantly, I was placed at the teen mother program on Maryland Ave, no direction and then on Saratoga Avenue, Mrs. Dora Hunter, the program coodinator stole all the money that we saved in our accounts. She is a theif, so they fire her and we still did not get our money. My mother raised me the best she could. I got an intership at the Naval Yard and was emancipated at 17 and several months before I turned 18. I signed my first lease for my own place in NE DC and continued to raise my son.
Today, I am 30, my son is 15 ( do the math) I also have a 10 year old girl and a 7 year old daughter. My 10 year old (J-girl) went to Bright Beginnings Day Care on New York Avenue, they tend to get gov grants and watch children whose parents are on low income ( I dont mind, I needed the help and this is what my tax dollars are for). They are cheap too! they allow the students from Gonzaga (around the corner from them) to volunteer with the children, and this guy that was watching J-girl (14 months at the time) swings her in the air and she get nursemaids elbow; he sends her home like that and does not say a word. Later during trial, he admits to his wrong doing, but Judge Linda Turner is so wrapped and tarnished from her divorce that she has no feelings about children or my family. I take my girl to Childrens Hospital, and later on request that Bright begginnings pay the bill or a portion of it. They did even better, they called CFSA and accused me of abuse. I was pissed off at this. My son and my daughter was taken, the judge placed them in Alabama, ( at this time I had just given birth to my now 7 year old) I was ordered to travel there four times a year and talk on the phone twice a week. Why??? Cause Dr. David Missar ( Court Appointed Psychologist that sees all children and gives all of them the same diagnosis, this supports his private practice in Georgetown) He says I am bipolar, narcissitic, multiple personality disorder and some stuff I cant spell. He said that i was going to blow up and if my children were around, it would be a disaster. This is all puzzling to me. My social workers were two young girls fresh out of college, thinking they making a change. They were irritating and immature. Lakita Witherspoon and her sidekick. It got to the point that when I gave birth to my baby girl, Lakita accused me of molesting her and abusing her. My daughter has mongolian spots on her and she had a diaper rash. I had to go to the hospital (police followed me) and have my daughter examined, a case was open and later closed(unfounded), but this is total B.S. I know they get commission for every child they place, but I aint for it. My kids are in Alabama for what? Oooh, I was only too bipolar for them two, not for my baby girl. Alabama live lavish off the foster check and make no mistake, half of the foster parents do it for the money. It's a quick fix for anyone in debt, it's granted every month and their theory is " the child been neglected so they wont know the difference, I'll just take them to payless and McDonalds unless the Social Worker can give me vouchers for that too".
Jamiya cant go to her mom for some reason..... just like only one of mine can be with me. She ran to what she considered love and it was deemed not fit, but if I call the number and apply to be a foster parent, they would give me everything to house a child, why not her grandmother or aunt? They truly dont care, just cause it's the government dont make it perfect.
I knew a crack addict and the social workers removed her kids, the kids came home the next day, it was a waste of time for them to constantly remove the children since they would run home. There are neighborhoods with children that run the streets all night and the police drive by. Why is this? Cause CFSA take kids they can profit from, kids that can be placed and are wanted. Crack babies are rarely wanted. But CFSA could profit from a crackbaby if someone wanted it cause of medical neccesity. So they place a decent child with you (and later you rant and rave about their success in life, no thanks to you since they came from someone else) and perscribe medicine to the child. Usually, ADHD meds, knowing that the child is adjusting to living arrangements and separatation anxiety, naw, just give em ritalin and lets make more money and BTW give the foster parent more money too, cause they cant cope with ADHD and they deserve to be compensated. In the meantime, the child can sit in a corner and figure things out for himself, or maybe not. Let drill the child that there mom was not the best fit or in the perfect interest of the child.
GS-11 signing off.
I am 29 and 15 years ago my family paid to have a man come take me from my home to go to one of the wilderness treatment facilities, and after that they took me to an RTC. My experiences at the RTC were bad (I won't go into it but it is now closed for child abuse), and I chose to run away.
I now work to advocate these RTC's and other programs that take in youth that is too much for families or the state to handle get regulated. Currently the only regulations are by state which I find ironic considering DC isn't a state.
My family still won't talk about what happened, if I share anything about negative experiences or RTC's being a problem they lash out at me for wrongs when I was a child.
I felt so sad when I read your article because I was recently told that some huge percentage of the kids in RTC's are adopted. This means that the kids have already somehow been taken away from or have never had family, and are now being sent to these institutions that break them down, demoralize, and certainly don't treat whatever ails them.
You writing about these things is inspiring, I write about my experiences too but I am not a professional writer and definitely am not a third party having experienced the RTC world first hand. I appreciate this article just as I appreciate Maia Szalavitz and her work on this topic of RTC's in "Help At Any Cost".
Thanks so much for your kind words and your heartfelt testimony. You must be a great advocate. If you want to send along any links or websites about your work and the work of others on RTCs, please free to post again!
In this report, you’ll see that foster care children are prescribed drugs at a rate much greater than that of other kids. Concern over their well-being — not to mention the amount it costs to treat them — has prompted the Government Accountability Office to investigate potentially abusive prescribing practices in America’s state foster care systems. The GAO findings are expected to come out later this year.
Talk about a lack of transparency! I've been able to do a little research on your so-called "credentials" in this arena. What I've learned is that you are a convicted felon with a child kidnapping past and an obvious bone to pick with child welfare agencies in in MULTIPLE jurisdictions because of decisions that did not go the way you wished them to go. That a veteran social worker in Maryland found your behavior to be so bizarre that she had to bring it to the Judge's attention, and similar findings in Virginia by the Courts and system, make ALL of these organizations and States wrong, right? It sounds like you are a bitter woman who has not taken personal responsibility for your own complicity in the situation where you find yourself. Dr., heal thyself.
She was convicted of kidnapping. OK, I'll grant that. Now, then: how does her criminal record disprove a single claim she made?
I respect Jason for his journalism and his willingness to shed light on this matter, I reject the all or nothing premise that has been promoted by some, as well as the judge and jury castigation of those who work to help dissect and solve problems affecting maltreated children. I would recommend reading the latest issue of The American Academy of Pediatrics Journal (January 2011) it contains a state of the art review on Child Maltreatment and Transition to Adult Care. Children of all ages need a "home" that is comprised of caregivers, in whatever form that is established we should be open to create that setting. Innovation around the use of local and federal matching dollars should be the priority to ensure each child a home but also to lower the cost associated with institutional care. We should promote communities that start with "care" that is provided by caregivers and supported by services that are 1) Documented and auditable 2) Attributable to positive outcomes and 3) Replicable . This will require a collective move to problem solving that involves each of the personalities that have responded to this blog. It will require true partnerships between, CFSA, DYRS, DMH, Managed care, Advocates and most of all families. Understanding the various interest and mandates that drive each of these entities is key to forming a better system.
By the way Jason I am taking a trip to NY next month to see their approach for myself and to learn how I might be involved in making things better. I would encourage you to continue to tell the story and point out the challenges that impact our youth. I would hope that where there are cases in which the system has been successful that you would point them out so we can gain additional momentum to replicate and document our success.
Also, on a side note, my efforts at getting involved with DC youth five years ago were rejected by several nonprofits and DC agencies due to the fact that I am white and they are black, as were the kids needing help. It wasn't voiced specifically but generally I was told the kids needed someone they could "identify" with and my calls and emails were not returned. In other words, my help was simply not welcome. I understand this general feeling on some level but have always wondered how much other help is refused on the same grounds, and are there enough 'upstanding' blacks to meet the needs of the 'dysfunctional' black community who can come forward? You can start flaming me for racism for mentioning the word 'black' but I am just a simple man trying to understand.
Lastly, I do believe we need to find ways to get people, kids especially, out of DC. It is not designed for folks to live here, unless you're rich. Abandoning hope is perhaps the most necessary step towards a solution.
May God have mercy on the soul of any adult who ever ordered a kid into these institutions.
I just checked back here as I'm preparing for this weekend, I will be presenting with the director and president of the CAFETY board on Saturday at the NATSAP conference in Arizona, it will be our first time there and we are looking forward to it.
Best link I can recommend is the http://www.cafety.org which is all created by and for survivors of RTC.
I write sometimes about experiences on my blog as well which is http://www.KristinBennett.com
Thank you again,
Kristin
The results will be interesting, to say the least.
Leave a Comment