• Senator Pam Roach announces Public Hearing on DCFS ~ April 16, 2009

• Little Girl Poca And Our Foster Care System

• Legislative Update ~ March 10, 2009

• Legislative Update ~ January 28, 2009

• Letter to WA Representative~A Must Read

• Washington Foster Parents Unite, Fight Lawmakers
  Other News Provided by Legally Kidnapped

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Foster Care Justice Alliance

Defending the Rights of the Child

http://www.FosterJustice.com

Legislative Update

January 28, 2009 

Contents of Update

• Introduction

• The Budget

• Think Tank Report

• Rally in Olympia – Thursday, Feb. 5, 12:00 NOON

• Foster Families Under Attack

• SB 5431 -Regarding placement of a child returning to out-of-home care

• SB 5510 -Encouraging Early Engagement: Regarding notification in dependency matters

• Not Yet Introduced -Continuity of Care and the Importance of Psychological Relationships

• HB 1183/SB 5609 -Concerning legal representation of children in dependency proceedings

• HB 1607/SB 5477 -Visitation rights for grandparents.

• Contacts

INTRODUCTION

“DSHS has no standards for where they place children. They have no conscience when leaving a child in harms way (black eyes and guns). They are completely out of touch with the thinking of ‘normal’ people and they really are not accountable to anyone so make no one accountable to them. The ones at the top do not discipline poor performance of DSHS employees or contracted agencies and pass off decision making to those lower on the totem pole.”

Senator Pam Roach, 31^st District

August 28, 2008

Pam Roach Report, Blogspot

ACTION ITEMS:

·       Come to the rally Thursday, Feb. 5, 12 noon in front of the Capitol Rotunda in Olympia!

·       Call your legislators:

·       Volunteer to be a court observer

The budget is the big story this session.  There is a $6 billion deficit.  As required by law, the governor delivered a balanced budget to the legislature – balanced by slashing vital services, such as the Washington State CASA, Foster Care Health Centers, housing assistance for foster care youth aging out of the system, and Medicare treatment.  Bill introductions have been much slower this session; anything that costs money is unlikely to get much support.  Hard choices have to be made.  The challenge this session is to hang onto funding for those things that are vital.

On November 1^st, 2008, we brought together experts in law, mental health, attachment, and child welfare to discuss foster care and make specific policy recommendations.  The report can be downloaded from our website, http://www.FosterJustice.com/leg/FCJA Think Tank Report.doc.

The report has been published and distributed, the legislative session is underway, and the first legislation proposed by us since incorporating has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Val Stevens, 39^th District.

Next Thursday, we are joining Senator Pam Roach in front of the Capitol Rotunda in Olympia in a rally calling for greater accountability from DSHS.  Come join us, show your support, and help get the word out.  We need hundreds of foster parents and other concerned citizens to show up in support of our foster kids.  Join us!

Back to Contents of Update

FOSTER FAMILIES UNDER ATTACK

The horror stories continue.  Foster children placed in high risk situations.  Foster parents who complain are subject to retaliation.  I have to echo what Senator Roach said in the quote above; some decisions defy the logic that any normal thinking person would have.  We need your support to continue this fight.  Please consider donating to the Foster Care Justice Alliance.  We are a 501(c)(3) organization.  Donations are tax deductable.

We also need volunteers to be impartial court observers.  If you can volunteer a couple hours to go to court in your local district, to observe a dependency case, please contact me right away.  We need court observers in every county.

Don’t know who your representatives are? Click here: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder

All e-mail addresses: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail

Toll Free Legislative Hotline: 1.800.562.6000 

http://www.FosterJustice.com

http://www.SiritaLaw.com

Find Me in Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/202325

 Back to Contents of Update

SB 5431 Regarding placement of a child returning to out-of-home care

SB 5510 Encouraging Early Engagement: Regarding notification in dependency matters

Status: Referred to Human Services & Corrections

Supported by the Child Welfare Advocacy Coalition

• Modifies the Notification of Dependency (foster care) to inform the parents that both need to be consistently involved in services from the start, even if one wants the other to have custody, or risk permanent loss of parental rights.

• Adds a Warning Notification after six months of no contact to repeat that permanent loss of parental rights may result from no contact

• Modifies the Notification of Termination of Parental Rights to include 15 months of no contact as an aggravating circumstance not requiring reasonable efforts, if the parent had reasonable opportunity for contact and was properly notified.

Download our position paper here: http://www.fosterjustice.com/leg/Encouraging%20Early%20Engagement%20of%20All%20Parenting%20Resources.doc

ACTION ITEM: Thank Sen. Stevens for sponsoring this bill and thank Sen. Hargrove, Sen. Swecker, and Sen. Shin for co-sponsoring it!  Thank the senators, and ask Sen. Hargrove to please schedule it for a hearing.

Senator James Hargrove         (360) 786-7646           hargrove.jim@leg.wa.gov

Senator Paull Shin                   (360) 786-7640           shin.paull@leg.wa.gov

Senator Val Stevens                (360) 786-7676           stevens.val@leg.wa.gov

Senator Dan Swecker              (360) 786-7638           swecker.dan@leg.wa.gov

Continuity of Care and the Importance of Psychological Relationships

• The child is languishing in foster care

• The child’s due process rights are not being protected

• The privacy of the birth parent is respected, including limited records access, with personal information and unfounded allegations removed

• The intervener has no involvement in parental rights

• Circumstances detrimental to the child exist if relief is not granted

• a substantial relationship exists between the grandparent and the child

• the relationship was actively encouraged by the parent

• contact has unreasonably been denied

• the child would suffer harm if contact is not awarded

• contact is in the child’s best interest

This is a complex issue that does not relate directly to foster care, however, many of the kids affected by this are foster kids, and many of them would have become foster kids if the grandparents had not stepped in.  Although this bill speaks to any grandparent with a substantial relationship, my main concern is for the grandparents that have become the primary caregivers for years at a time through an informal arrangement, and then lose all contact with the child when the natural parent returns.  There’s no doubt in my mind the child is harmed by that, and it happens far too often.  This ties in to our own proposal for continuity of care, and in fact a representative from GROWS participated in our think tank.

ACTION ITEMS:

Ask Sen. Hargrove to please schedule SB 5477 for a hearing.

Ask Rep. Pedersen to please schedule HB 1607 for a hearing. 

Senator James Hargrove         (360) 786-7646           hargrove.jim@leg.wa.gov

Rep. Jamie Pedersen               (360) 786-7826           pedersen.jamie@leg.wa.gov

Contacts

Toll Free Legislative Hotline: 1.800.562.6000

Find out who are your legislators: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder

E-mail addresses for all lawmakers: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail 

FCJA Facebook Page: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/202325

http://www.FosterJustice.com

Back to Contents of Update

Letter to WA Representative

Hello Rep Kagi,

I would like to discuss some recent developments with family rights here in the State of Washington and around the country. We are joining forces with all persons affected by Parens Patriae to include parents, extended family, foster parents and father's and mother's rights groups. While this is a difficult endeavor due to various divisions, the focus will be on challenging the system with the unified goals and commonalities that each are suffering under in family courts and through CPS. I am meeting with a national foster parenting interest group next week and we will be discussing ways to do this.

I have several areas that I will be addressing this legislative session but there are five that I will share at this time. The first is making the DSHS/CPS head an elected position.  The affect on families with little to no due process rights, weak evidence laws and unbridled CPS power needs to stop. Our elected officials cannot be trusted to appoint to this position anymore.

The second is the free use of our Social Security money to pay for the destruction of the family and Civil Rights violations. Perhaps those in elected positions have found ways to make money and won't need the extra government support, but many of us who are close to retirement do need it and we are requiring that this funding and the state acceptance of this funding stop and to find alternative funding for necessary child protection. The Federal Government is borrowing this money and has no intention of paying it back. This constant borrowing affects only older persons of limited means and is discriminatory.

This brings me to the third. Child Protective Services should be restricted to misdemeanor and felony actions only. The rest should be delved out to private industry funded by foundations and other means. This can greatly reduce CPS staffing and shift the emphasis from child removal to family preservation.

The fourth is regarding mandatory reporters and who they have to report to. Right now they have two options - one CPS and the other the police or face legal actions against them. With the advent of change, the other option would be family preservation programs for non-legal issues.

The fifth is the constant screening out or ignoring of extended family seeking third party custody or guardianship. There is a different set of criteria for extended family than foster. Foster parent's character defects are frequently ignored while extended family go under a microscope with every issue made out to be a major concern. The stated percentages of extended family placement are not correct because they leave out unsubstantiated removals. The percentages of family care is much lower. 

Sincerely,
Jan D. Smith
Washington State Extended Families

Washington Foster Parents Unite, Fight Lawmakers

by Austin Jenkins

Day to Day, December 18, 2006 · A group of foster parents in Washington state became the first in the nation to unionize earlier this year. Now they're preparing for the first legislative session as an organized body, and they have plenty of issues they plan to take up with state lawmakers.

Austin Jenkins of Northwest News Network reports from Olympia.

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