TODDLERS LEGACY IS REVIEW OF MISSOURI’S FOSTER CARE SYSTEM

 

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/2D8E55EC734E4C98862575DF000049AB?OpenDocument

Dominic James

 

 By Nancy Cambria

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

06/24/2009

Seven years after a toddler was killed in a Missouri foster home, his legacy lives in a final push to gain accreditation for the state agency that failed him.

Missouri has spent nearly $17 million reorganizing and upgrading its Children’s Division to gain the New York-based Council on Accreditation’s stamp of approval. That designation is expected as early as this fall, making Missouri one of a handful of state child welfare agencies to be fully accredited.

Reviewers completed their audit of the St. Louis division of the state Children’s Division last week. The visit marked the end of three years of on-site reviews of the division’s 45 offices and its headquarters in Jefferson City.

Lawmakers mandated that the division gain accreditation after Dominic James, 2, was shaken to death by his Springfield foster parent in August 2002 — three months after state caseworkers removed him from his parents’ home. An investigation revealed that caseworkers and managers ignored strong claims by his father, Sidney James, and court advocates that Dominic was being abused in the foster home. That review also cast doubt on whether Dominic should have been taken from his parents.

“I didn’t know enough about the system and who to talk to,” explained James, who now lives in north St. Louis.

Officials with the Children’s Division said the designation is like a gold standard.

“This does mean something for families,” said Paula Neese, Children’s Division director. “It gives them a feeling that certain standards have been met. We feel like we owe that to our most vulnerable children and families.”

But at least one child welfare watchdog said accreditation doesn’t guarantee safety or fairness.

Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform said the accreditation focuses on paperwork, not people.

“It accredits file cabinets,” he said.

The Children’s Division, an arm of the Department of Social Services, is responsible for child abuse and neglect investigations and the care of about 9,700 children in state custody.

State officials say accreditation will better ensure communication, fairness, proper services and safety for people who come into contact with the division and its employees.

The state Legislature has so far appropriated $16.8 million to comply with the council’s standards. Many of the improvements have been in facilities, staff training and education. Regulators found early on that levels of staff education were too low and office facilities inadequate, Neese said.

About $60,000 went directly to the council to pay for the review. The state also pays expenses for site visits.

Reid Scher, head of accreditation with the council, said reviewers looked to see if procedures were being consistently followed and clients given the proper information and services they needed. No major problems were found during reviews of individual offices, and no offices needed extensions to comply with standards. Missouri was far ahead of most other states with programs, he said.

But skeptics like Wexler argue that accreditation focuses too heavily on procedures and not enough on the actual experiences of foster children and their parents. He points to Kentucky, which also earned national accreditation. Even with the designation, state officials there released a scathing report on its children’s division, accusing it of unjustly taking children from poor families and manipulating caseloads to meet accreditation standards.

“What is crucial here is what they don’t measure,” Wexler said of the reviewers. “They don’t look face to face enough with foster children. There’s nothing in those standards that asks, did you make the right decision when you decided to remove a child from a home?”

Scher said that assessment is unfair. Reviewers do meet with foster parents, biological parents, caseworkers and children in prearranged interviews. They also randomly pull one or more case files during reviews and visit foster homes to interview clients on little notice.

But Wexler said that is a small window to gauge an enormous state system.

He noted state accreditors do not review foster care cases or residential homes managed by private child welfare agencies, though many of those agencies are individually accredited. In Missouri about a third of its foster care cases are now contracted out to those agencies, and all of its residential facilities are run independently of the state.

Nevertheless, Wexler and state officials agree the Children’s Division has come a long way since Dominic’s death. The number of children in state custody has shrunk by 17 percent, and Wexler noted the state does a good job of not mistaking poverty for neglect — a common reason children are unfairly placed in foster care.

James, now a volunteer with Joyce Meyer Ministries’ Dream Center in north St. Louis, said he’s on the mend after sinking into drugs and alcohol following his son’s death. Clutching a fading photo of Dominic, he says he doesn’t know what accreditation means — though he’s glad Dominic’s death has prompted action.

He hopes to one day open a homeless shelter for men with children — a place that he said could have saved Dominic from “the system.”

 

 

The sad legacy of Dominic James

 

http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2009/06/the-sad-legacy-of-dominic-james.html

The name is probably familiar, but most people have probably forgotten why Dominic became a news story. Back in 2002, state officials removed the 2-year-old from his parents’ home in Springfield and placed him with a foster home — where he was later shaken to death.

There were big questions about Dominic’s removal in the first place. But the most damning fact is that his dad and court advocated warned case workers that Dominic was being abused at the foster home.

Missouri’s elected officials were outraged. So they set aside almost $17 million and told the state Children’s Division to get its act together. Now, after significant upgrades in training and facilities, Missouri is expected to get full accreditation from the Council on Accreditation. We’ll be one of the few states to have that distinction, the Post-Dispatch reports.

Of course, other watchdog groups are warning people not to get too excited. The accreditation is nice, but it mostly looks at paperwork and not people — and it’s people that failed Dominic James.

“SHE AIN’T NO ROBIN HOOD…SOCIAL WORKER ‘ALLEDGEDLY” ROBS FROM THE POOR TO GIVE TO HERSELF”

Social Services Supervisor Arrested For Fraud

 

Donna Marie Key

 

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=126114&catid=57

Posted by: Devetta Blount Created: 6/22/2009 4:54:39 PM Updated: 6/22/2009 7:14:38 PM

Surry County, NC– A former supervisor at the Surry County Department of Social Services has been charged with obtaining money by false pretense through her position at DSS.

Donna Marie Key, 51, of 2593 S. Main St., Mount Airy, was arrested Tuesday, according to Sheriff Graham Atkinson.

The charges against Key date back to 2004 when she directed a subordinate social worker to go with a client and withdrawn $155 from the client’s bank account to help pay rent on the woman’s subsidized housing. Key explained to the social worker that DSS was paying two-thirds of the rent for the woman and her children, but that she had to make up the difference and that the amount would go into a special account for that purpose.

“She had the subordinate go with the woman each month to get the money,” Atkinson said. “When the social worker asked for a receipt, Key told her she was her supervisor and she did not have to give her one.”

Because of that reaction, the social worker kept notes on each transaction, including other DSS personnel who were around when she gave Key the money.

Last September, she also went with Key on a shopping trip to Wal-Mart that Key explained was to buy items for a family that had been burned out. “As supervisor, she had the county credit card and she told her subordinate what to buy and directed her to sign the receipt,” Atkinson said. “She did, but she also noted on the receipt that Key was with her.”

The shopping trip cost the department about $700, according to Detective David Hamlin who handled the county’s investigation. Video from Wal-Mart confirmed that Key was with the woman who signed the receipt.

Earlier this year, the social worker ran into the department’s financial person and asked about the special account into which the funds she had collected each month had supposedly been going. She learned there was no such account and she contacted the sheriff’s department.

“Because of her notes, we were able to find witnesses to many of the transactions,” Hamlin said. “They said she always put the money in her desk or under her leg to try to hide it. She never left it where anyone could see it, which they thought was unusual.”

Hamlin said he attempted several times to interview Key, who was dismissed from her position with DSS, but that she never had time. Key was released on a $25,000 secured bond.

Surry Co. Sheriff/WFMY News 2

 

 

DSS worker arrested for allegedly stealing from poor

 

by Staff Report

http://www.mtairynews.com/pages/full_story?article-DSS%20worker%20arrested%20for%20allegedly%20stealing%20from%20poor%20=&page_label=home&id=2773365-DSS+worker+arrested+for+allegedly+stealing+from+poor&widget=push&instance=secondary_news_left_column&open=&

DOBSON — A former supervisor at the Surry County Department of Social Services has been charged with obtaining money by false pretense through her position at DSS.

Donna Marie Key, 51, of 2593 S. Main St., Mount Airy, was arrested Tuesday, according to Sheriff Graham Atkinson.

The charges against Key date back to 2004 when she allegedly directed a subordinate social worker to go with a client and withdraw $155 from the client’s bank account to help pay rent on the woman’s subsidized housing. Key explained to the social worker that DSS was paying two-thirds of the rent for the woman and her children, but that she had to make up the difference and that the amount would go into a special account for that purpose.

“She had the subordinate go with the woman each month to get the money,” Atkinson said. “When the social worker asked for a receipt, Key told her she was her supervisor and she did not have to give her one.”

Because of that reaction, the social worker kept notes on each transaction, including other DSS personnel who were around when she gave Key the money.

Last September, she also went with Key on a shopping trip to Wal-Mart that Key allegedly explained was to buy items for a family that had been burned out.

“As supervisor, she had the county credit card and she told her subordinate what to buy and directed her to sign the receipt,” Atkinson said. “She did, but she also noted on the receipt that Key was with her.”

The shopping trip cost the department about $700, according to Detective David Hamlin, who handled the county’s investigation. Video from Wal-Mart confirmed that Key was with the woman who signed the receipt.

Earlier this year, the social worker ran into the department’s financial person and asked about the special account into which the funds she had collected each month had supposedly been going. She learned there was no such account and she contacted the sheriff’s office.

“Because of her notes, we were able to find witnesses to many of the transactions,” Hamlin said. “They said she always put the money in her desk or under her leg to try to hide it. She never left it where anyone could see it, which they thought was unusual.”

Hamlin said he attempted several times to interview Key, who was dismissed from her position with DSS, but that she never had time. Key was released on a $25,000 secured bond.

GIRL’S FATHER WAS INVESTIGATED FOR ABUSE IN OTHER STATES

 

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/06/girls-father-was-investigated-abuse-other-states

By Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer

Mike Saewitz

The Virginian-Pilot

© June 23, 2009

CHEASPEAKE

The father of 5-year-old Carly Sawyer, who is charged in her June 11 death, had been investigated by social service workers in other states, according to a city memo, but their counterparts in Chesapeake never knew about it.

The information came in a memo about the case prepared for the Chesapeake City Council. City officials declined to elaborate.

One advocate said the case illustrates how difficult it is to track such investigations from state to state.

“There is no system in place to transfer cases from state to state,” said Betty Wade Coyle, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Hampton Roads. “Even worse, there’s no national registry of founded cases. Every case is kept state by state.”

On June 10, one of the Sawyers called 911 after Carly became unconscious. Brandy Sawyer, Carly’s stepmother, had spanked Carly and the girl had thrown herself to the floor, the parents told police.

The girl arrived at the hospital with cuts, bruises and burns and ligature marks on her wrists. Police say Joshua and Brandy Sawyer put Carly in a box as punishment, tied her up with mesh netting to keep her from getting food from the refrigerator, and hit her with a belt as a method of potty training.

Joshua Sawyer, who as a Marine corporal had spent time in Iraq, has been charged with second-degree murder. Brandy Sawyer has been charged with first-degree murder.

In court last week, prosecutors described what they call “long, systematic abuse” of the girl by her father and stepmother.

By the time she was 2 years old, Carly was involved in a custody dispute in Onslow County, N.C. Documents in that case say her mother had been involved in at least one social services investigation there in 2005. That investigation was terminated after Joshua Sawyer’s parents got involved with caring for Carly, according to court records.

Carly’s mother, Jennifer Kimery, said she’d again contacted the Onslow County Department of Social Services in the summer of 2006, after she’d driven up from Georgia to visit Carly and noticed her behaving strangely. Kimery said Monday that the department told her it had contacted Josh Sawyer, then dropped the case.

A few weeks later, Kimery took Carly with her back to Georgia. There, she said she brought her to the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany and asked the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to examine her daughter. She brought her to a hospital and gave a statement to investigators, she said. She said she never learned the outcome of the investigation.

North Carolina Division of Social Services would not comment on whether the agency had any cases involving Carly’s family. A representative for NCIS said Monday that he wasn’t familiar with the circumstances and that the service is checking its records.

In general, if a case has been closed – meaning there were no concerns about the child’s safety or that those concerns had been addressed – the division does not alert other agencies out of state about the family, said Kevin Kelley, assistant section chief for child welfare services.

“If it’s been closed and we felt like the child was safe, they’re free to move about,” Kelley said.

Sawyer told a judge last week that he’d moved to Chesapeake about a year ago, after leaving the Marine Corps.

Chesapeake did not have any prior involvement with the family, and social services workers here did not know that Joshua Sawyer had been investigated in other states, according to the June 15 memo to the Chesapeake City Council.

Officials with Chesapeake Social Services say they generally get calls or letters from social services officials in other states – but only if child abuse or neglect cases are founded or substantiated, and only if the agency knows that a family has moved.

Even if there is a substantiated case, social service agencies in other states aren’t obligated to pass case information along to another state, Coyle said.

And “there’s no way the agency in North Carolina would have known that they had moved” unless the agency was providing the family services at the time, Coyle said.

She said it is “very easy” for cases to get lost between states.

“The obligation is on the friends and family and parents of the child to make sure the system follows that child,” Coyle said.

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com

FROM FOSTER CARE TO FAME

 

http://www.shorenewstoday.com/news.php?id=2322

Ashley Rhodes-Courter, a former foster child and New York Times bestselling author, delivered the keynote address at the fifth annual Community Awareness Breakfast of Court Appointed Special Advocates Wednesday, May 27.

With more than 130 community members in attendance, she described the nine years of her life that she spent in and out of 14 different foster homes, enduring abuse in some and having to switch schools frequently. Of all the people who could have changed her life, Rhodes-Courter mentioned one with special fondness: Mary Miller, a CASA volunteer.

“The one person who wasn’t paid to help me was the only one who really did,” Rhodes-Courter said.

At the breakfast, CASA honored Jeff and Carla Ropiecki for their individual contributions to area children and CapeBank Charitable Foundation for its longstanding support. For information about CASA call (609) 601-7800, email jessica@atlanticcapecasa.org or visit www.atlanticcapecasa.org.

 

Ashley:  From one former foster kid to another….

 

YOU GO GIRL!!!!!