PALO ALTO KIDS WILL BE RETURNED TO SANTA CLARA COUNTY; MAY NOT GO HOME

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_12788097

By Patrick May

pmay@mercurynews.com

Posted: 07/08/2009 05:23:40 PM PDT

Updated: 07/09/2009 09:53:19 AM PDT

Two Palo Alto children taken from their parents last month and put in a foster home after a family fight near Omaha will be returning to the Bay Area after Nebraska authorities agreed Wednesday to turn over the case to child-welfare officials in Santa Clara County.

The parents — Stanford University physicist Suwen Wang and his wife, paralegal Charlotte Fu — still face misdemeanor criminal charges in Nebraska for allegedly striking their 13-year-old son in the face during an altercation, said their attorney, Michael Nelson. Both deny hitting the boy and will plead not guilty to charges of assault, child abuse and disturbing the peace, said Nelson.

The boy and his sister, 12-year-old Alice Fuzi Wang, should be back in their home county in a matter of days following a judge’s approval of the multiagency agreement at a Wednesday court hearing in Nebraska. Where they’ll go after that, however, is still up in the air.

“They’re residents here so we want them back,” said Carol Robinson, Santa Clara County’s lead deputy county counsel for the child dependency unit. After a social worker completes an investigation, she said, the children could be placed in one of several places.

“Obviously our first choice is to return them home to their parents,” said Robinson. “If we can’t do that, then our second choice is a relative or what we call a nonrelative extended family member. Based on news accounts, I think this family has a lot of strong friends and they’d absolutely be considered for that under our rules.”

Neither parent would comment on the case. Sharon Silverman, a longtime family friend who lives in Kensington and once worked as an attorney with Fu, said the family was emotionally drained but thrilled to be getting their children back after being separated since the incident on June 6 in Plattsmouth, Neb.

“This has been an exhausting situation for them,” said Silverman, one of about 10 friends who traveled from the Bay Area to support the family during Wednesday’s court hearing.

“They’re very, very happy. It’s the very best outcome for this. They’re coming back to California which is where they belong.”

Wang and Fu had taken their family to Omaha because their daughter was being honored in a United Nations-sponsored international art exhibit. During a short road trip, they pulled over to the side of the road and an altercation broke out. According to police, a witness saw Fu get out of the car and punch her son in the face several times.

Nelson said the boy had been “needling his sister, and they pulled over to discipline him.” The father then struck the boy in the face, a witness told police.

According to Nelson and accounts in the Omaha World-Herald, the responding officer said Fu had blood on her face from a cut on her nose and that the children appeared to be upset. The parents were arrested and spent two nights in jail before being released on bond. (but the 13 year old didn’t have any marks…weird, if indeed mom ”punched” him 4 or 5 times in the face and dad ”puched” him once, you would expect the 13 year old to have marks on him…not the mom!)

Wang and Fu are still hoping their daughter can travel next month to South Korea as part of the international art contest that first brought her to Omaha. It’s unclear whether Santa Clara County child-welfare officials will allow the family to travel out of the country.

In an interview earlier this week with the Omaha World-Herald, Fu called Alice “the ultimate victim” in this case and said that traveling to South Korea “would be a lifetime opportunity for her. It would be devastating for her to not go.”

Neither the county attorney handling the criminal matter in Nebraska nor officials with that state’s Department of Health and Human Services returned calls seeking comment.

Patrick May may also be reached at 408-920-5689.

INVESTIGATORS: POCA CASE AUDITOR FINDS CRACKS IN SYSTEM

 

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_070909INV-poca-independent-reviewer-KC.264ff0f7.html

11:16 PM PDT on Thursday, July 9, 2009

By SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 News

An independent reviewer looking into the case of the 4-year-old foster child nicknamed Poca has identified potential problems throughout the child welfare system that led to the child being in limbo her entire life.

Governor Gregoire ordered the review, led by Dr. Benjamin de Haan, one day after the KING 5 Investigators asked her several tough questions about the case in May.

Poca has spent her entire life in foster care; all but a few months of it with foster parents in Snohomish County. She was abruptly and controversially taken away from them two months ago.

In the 10-page preliminary report, Dr. de Haan writes, “Poca should have had a permanent home a long time ago.”

Susan Dreyfus, the new Secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), appointed by the governor, met with KING 5 to discuss the report.

“I was pleased that in such a short time frame they were able to look at the case, figure out what they thought were the big issues that we’re going to need to address at a systems level, and again, we’re going to learn from this case and keep improving the system as we go,” she said.

The report identifies some of the problems that led to Poca without a permanent home her entire life.

Dr. de Haan further says social worker turnover was a factor – there have been 10 on the case.

He cites a lack of competent, goal-oriented case supervision at DSHS – even for a brief time – played a role.

He also found a lack of sustained, clear direction in the case plan for Poca.

Over the years, the child’s plan bounced all over the place.

Poca was born weighing just over 2 pounds. She was critically ill and remained in intensive care for 3 months.

After that she lived with her biological parents for a few weeks.

CPS removed her, and placed her in foster care after her father tested positive for meth. The mother had a prior baby die after testing positive for meth at birth.

Shortly after, the state placed Poca with new foster parents, Dick and Amy Langley, who agreed to be an adoptive option for the baby.

The Langleys raised her for 3-and-a-half years until CPS found them guilty of neglecting one of their other children.

Poca was moved to another foster home because of that.

A judge ordered her back to the Langleys after a day.

Then the state tried to move her to an aunt’s home. That transition failed when the state realized she lived with a convicted criminal.

Afterward the plan was to transition her back to her birthparents. That fell apart when the parents had another child removed from CPS after it was discovered they had violated their safety plan for the boy.

The Langleys were cleared by an appeals judge of the neglect finding, which led them to believe Poca could remain in a stable home.

But she was removed anyway. State social workers and the child’s court appointed advocate told a judge the Langleys were trouble makers and meddlers who were getting in the way of reunifying Poca with her biological family.

Two months ago, she was placed in yet another home: family friends of the birthparents.

 

“From my standpoint, are there things we can learn from this case? Yes. Will we? Yes. But right now I just want permanency for this little girl,” said Secretary Dreyfus.

The review also says Poca was let down by the Attorney General’s Office. Three times over the years DSHS asked the AG’s office to file papers to legally terminate the parent’s rights so Poca could be adopted.All three times, they wouldn’t do it.

“I’m disappointed in the (legal) representation in this case,” said Dreyfus. “I’m also disappointed in terms of the representation in terms of not filing three different times, when it was sought. But I don’t want to blame the Attorney General’s Office for this because there’s plenty of blame to go around on this case, starting with us.”

Secretary Dreyfus tells us she checks on Poca’s well being every week and that the child is doing well in the new placement.

The AG’s office has finally filed the paperwork to terminate parental rights.

A more in-depth report on Poca’s case from Dr. de Haan and an Independent Review Committee, is due to the governor next month.

As for her former foster parents, the Langleys, they want to adopt Poca if she becomes legally free from her birthparents.

Despite court filings by the Assistant Attorney General on the case, recommending Poca never be placed back with them, Secretary Dreyfus tells us the Langleys are definitely being considered as an adoption resource. She was unaware of the court filing but assured us she would look into it.

CHILD PROTECTIVE EXPERT DEFENDS PUEBLO DSS

 

http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=10673417&nav=menu552_3_1

Posted: July 9, 2009 09:12 PM EDT

Updated: July 10, 2009 11:02 AM EDT

PUEBLO – The deaths of two children within the Pueblo County Department of Social Services over the past week have launched an internal investigation. It is standard for the DSS in the event of a child’s death but this week has been far from standard.

Nine-month-old Iyana Perez was killed last Friday. Police have her 22-year-old cousin Kevin Buehler in custody charged with child abuse resulting in death. On Tuesday, 13-year-old Derek Gonzales was accidentally shot in the face allegedly by his brother. The 14-year-old is in custody. The link between both cases is that both victims were in the care of family members after being removed from their homes by DSS.

Foster care leaders in Pueblo say though it’s easy to blame the system in circumstances like these it is not broken. Placing youth with family members, or kinship care, almost always takes top priority over foster care because it’s an environment the kids are more familiar with.

“When something does happen we all get very concerned of course but I think the best efforts are being implemented,” said Shannon Richter of Journeys, Inc. “We’re a lot better than we used to be.”

Journeys has been in Pueblo for five years. Before starting her own foster placement agency, Richter was the director of the Child Advocacy Center. She says the need for foster and kinship care has remained a constant over that time with between 400 and 500 kids moving through the system in Pueblo every year. She says some have bad attitudes but you have to understand the situations that prompt the need for temporary care.

“These kids have been hurt and this is their defense mechanism,” said Richter.

She says to become a foster parent you have to go through a background check and be trained up to state standards. Richter wouldn’t say if there are different standards for kinship care but says she is encouraged by a new task force in development at the state level to oversee child protective services.

“I think things need to be looked at a lot more carefully by the state and overseeing other individuals,” said Richter.

Criticism has come from outside of Colorado’s borders. In a 2003 report by the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform the director blasted the state’s system for taking kids out of their homes.

Richard Wexler, Executive Director of the NCCPR, notes that Colorado is too quick to pull at risk youth from their homes. The figures he cites from six years ago puts Colorado in the top ten in terms of states rushing to act. He writes: Often, a family’s poverty is confused with “neglect.”

Richter says in her experience the system does more good than harm. She says more exposure to the issue of child abuse has kept the need for child protective services strong in Colorado.

“Everybody thinks child abuse is growing but I think there are more people reporting it,” said Richter. She believes there are less cases of families just sweeping abuse under the rug or hiding a problem to protect relatives.

She also says it’s hard to group the entire state together in terms of evaluation. Her argument is that every county is different in it’s standards for removing a child from it’s home. In her mind, today’s focus should be on providing enough quality homes for kids in need.

“We’re always looking for good people to help these kids,” said Richter. Of foster parents she says, “they’re planting a seed and we’ve had some kids come back to foster parents and say this is what I learned while I was staying here.”