Our foster care system is struggling.
In 2015 there were 43,399 children under 18 living in various types of foster care.
Just ten years earlier there were 25,454.
The numbers have nearly doubled.
THE horrific extent of sex abuse against children in state care over four decades has been revealed in the 600-page report of the Mullighan inquiry to State Parliament.
Retired Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan, QC, yesterday issued a stark warning that children in state care would remain vulnerable to sex abuse unless urgent action was taken to overhaul a system in crisis.
His $13.5 million inquiry considered hundreds of allegations of widespread child abuse within government and non-government institutions, spanning 40 years.
DoCS Strawberry Hills has just funded a nice new vehicle for a foster carer convicted of drink driving just recently for the third time. Yes you heard it right, the foster carer has been charged with drink driving three times and still has the kids. Now Child Protection Officers are enabling this drunk who has children in his care to drink drive more often.
Would it surprise you to know that this offender has numerous drug charges also, yet the children remain in his care, whilst the child protection officers who are fully aware of the criminals record, find it appropriate to give other members of the family the usual four one hour visits per year, supervised at a local docs office. Also note these family members have never done a thing wrong except try and protect their children, do not have criminal records and were more than appropriate caregives for the children until DOCs CSC and Strawberry Hills decided that the children were much better off with abusive carers.
Congratulations Strawberry Hills, you are the docs officers of the month! What a croc! You ARE BREAKING THE LAW and MUST BE PUNISHED ... Considering Section 246 of the Child and Young Persons Care and Protection Act (Separation of children and young persons from offenders) States :
(1) A child or young person who is in the care responsibility of the Director-General or in the parental responsibility of the Minister under this Act must not be accommodated in:
(a) premises for the accommodation of persons who have committed offences, or
(b) premises for the accommodation of persons who are on remand awaiting proceedings in respect of offences alleged to have been committed by them.
The Georgia House approved legislation that would make it illegal for foster parents to have sexual contact with children they are caring for.
The legislation is part of a package of bills backed by Gov. Brian Kemp as he aims to overhaul the state’s foster care system.
House Bill 911 would make it illegal for a foster parent to engage in a sexual activity with those in their care, closing a loophole the legislation’s sponsor said exists once a child in foster care turns 16 — Georgia’s legal age of consent.
"I hate you and I hope you burn in hell," a sex abuse victim told former Child, Youth and Family Services (CYF) caregiver Rex Lawrence Wilson before he was jailed for 12 years.
The 64-year-old's two victims – he was found guilty at an eight-day Christchurch District Court jury trial in January – both read emotional victim impact reports at his sentencing in the same court on Wednesday.
Judge Paul Kellar said the two women, now aged in their 20s, had been done "incalculable harm" over six years of his offending.
Pedophiles recently arrested for child sex abuse. Top left & center: Christopher Almaguer and his wife Sarah Rashelle Almaguer – Top right: Daniel Wayne Spurgeon – Bottom left & center: Simon Chavez and his son Simon Magana Chavez – Bottom right: Larry Austin Reed. These are just a few of the foster parents recently arrested for child sex trafficking in the past month that have been reported in local media sources.
Attorney Michael Dolce from the law-firm Cohen Milstein, who speaks from experience from representing children abused in foster care, wrote an opinion piece published by Newsweek in 2018 stating that the nation’s foster care system is set up to sexually traffic children.
Mr JOHN ROBERTSON: My question is directed to the Minister for Family and Community Services, and Minister for Women. Can the Minister explain to Margaret and Jim Pope, who are kinship carers in the gallery today, why the Government has decided to make life harder for them by cutting the allowance they receive for caring for their 17-year-old granddaughter by $212 a fortnight?
Ms PRU GOWARD: I thank the member for his question. I welcome the presence of carer groups in the Parliament today. I emphasise that my door is always open to them and I would be very pleased to meet them. I acknowledge the important role that all relatives—including kinship carers and grandparents—play in caring for children who cannot live safely at home. I remind the House that the former Labor Government for many years before 2006 reduced allowances to take into account the youth allowance for young people in out-of-home care.
Anything you say they will twist, so always answer their questions with a question or smile and say "why do you want to know that?" This is the most important technique you need to learn. It's called Verbalising. And they will do it to you.
Always have your own psych report, their are some counsellors out there who are not a fan of Doc's. If you use theirs or a Court one they then have the opportunity to diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder. This is a permanent mental health issue and is grounds to take your kids into perm. care. Depression is temporary so is not grounds to take them. Be very wary of one called Toni Single.
CHILDREN in foster care are still being sexually and physically abused by their foster parents, a high-ranking official in the Department of Family and Community Services has revealed today.
Katie Alexander, whose job is to make things better for children and young people, said there had been failings and that she was aware that abuse did occur despite tough screening of foster parents and other carers and high levels of supervision.
She told the royal commission into institutionalised responses to child sex abuse that the horrors of the Parramatta Girls School and the Hay Institution for girls were not the only government-run places where children had been abused in the past.
There would be “other stories” coming before the commission, Ms Alexander said.
THE NSW Department of Family and Community Services will pay a substantial settlement to two children it forced into foster care after caseworkers noted the infants' parents used marijuana. Mediation with each of the parents is also likely to result in significant payments to them.
Judge George Palmer, who heard the case to have the children, named Georgia and Luke for the purpose of the proceedings, returned in late 2008, noted at the time that there was "no evidence whatsoever that the parents have ever abused Georgia and Luke physically or emotionally". He said that the requirement for parents to remain "drug-free" was "questionable".
Mrs ROZA SAGE: My question is directed to the Minister for Family and Community Services, and Minister for Women. What additional support is the Government giving to help carers protect vulnerable children and their families?
Ms PRU GOWARD: I thank the member for her question and for her ongoing support for services for vulnerable children and young people. This is Foster Care Week and a time to reflect particularly on the fantastic work of our State's carers.
A major problem in the United States that children are victims of every day is the corrupt foster care system. This is a topic that has appeared in far too many news headlines, most all of them being negative. Being someone that has never had to experience the foster care personally, I decided to read a few stories written by foster children in order to understand and empathize better. The traumatic incidents other kids had to go through led me to doing more research on the subject and learning just how much we need to bring more attention to this.
There are many reasons why kids are put into foster care, some more innocent than others. A common case is that parents simply can’t afford to support their children and are either forced to give them up or see them as being better off in foster care. Then there are those cases where parents have been reported for abusing or neglecting their children. Along with this goes reasons why people decide to become foster parents. Of course, some people do have good hearts and simply want to help/care for children with no home. But, there are also those who see fostering as a chance of self-benefit. If someone decides to be a foster parent, they will receive anywhere from $400-$800 per month (depending on the circumstances and state) while the child is in their care. This money is meant to pay for the child’s basic needs, yet many decide to use it for themselves.
Just like everything else, money is what runs the foster care system. Although in this case, it has led to the neglect of innocent children.
