The RAnts of RA

California – AB 519 – Parental Rights

Under the conditions stipulated by AB 519, this bill allows a child to petition for reinstatement of parental rights in circumstances where the child would otherwise remain a legal orphan. In order to reinstate parental rights, the juvenile court is required under the bill to find that changed circumstances exist such that the child is no longer likely to be adopted and that reinstatement of parental rights is in the child’s best interest.

Excuse me? Let me get this straight. The State of California has terminated a parents rights and then because the child has remained in foster care for a period of three-years and has not been adopted, [read: costing the state money] they are going to find that being reunited with the parents may well be in the best interest of the child?

Now, don’t get me wrong, this could be a great thing for children and parents who are caught in never-never land but let’s think about this a minute.

If after a period of three years, the state can find that it’s in the best interest of the child to be reunited with his or her parents, perhaps that child should never have been removed from those very same parents in the first place.

Can you imagine how hard it will be for this family to come back together and have any meaningful kind of life together? A great deal can change in the space of three years.

While I commend the author (Assemblyman Leno) for trying to provide a remedy for a bad situation, I would encourage legislators to take another giant step in the right direction; by providing more family services, to keep the family unit together from the start and making it more difficult to terminate parental rights in the first place.

Today foster parents receive services and monies that are not available to the parents of these very same children. Why are foster parents eligible for respite care, when the parents of these very same children do not receive these services. It would be far less costly for the state to help a homeless family, find housing and employment than it is to remove the children and pay a foster care worker to feed, house and cloth them.

I am not a strong proponent of big government, but we all know big government is here and not going anywhere, anytime soon. A family deserves every opportunity, every chance we can give them to become a strong support system for each and every child.

I know too many parents personally who have lost everything, fight the state to keep or get their children back from the foster care system. The costs mount up quickly with attorney fees, court fees, mental assessments, therapy sessions and the like, that even if they do win the fight (and most don’t) to reclaim their children, they often have little left to provide the necessities for their children. This is wrong folks and this much change.

I urge you to support this bill but let’s not stop here. We must see changes in child welfare laws and they can’t be passed soon enough.

For complete details See AB 519

In recent years we’ve heard a great deal about missing and exploited children. As any parent can testify our heart goes out to that family, when ever a child is missing. It’s your worst nightmare come true.

What if the state removes a child from their home without just cause? Without following proper investigative procedures? What if the state then takes further unfair advantage of a family by publicly charging a parent with kidnapping?

If you think it can’t happen. Think again.

As a previous foster child, who has witnessed first-hand the games social workers play with the emotions of children and their parents, I wish I could tell you it’s a rare occasion, but that would be a lie.

A quick glance on the Child Abduction Section of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s website will show the truth.

Child abduction is a serious and traumatic crime. While everyone has become aware of  frightening “stranger kidnappings,” abductions are most often carried out by people who  know the child. The District Attorney’s Office is committed to combating both types of  abductions and to protecting the custody rights of parents and legal guardians throughout  Los Angeles County.

While I certainly can sympathize with any parent who’s child is missing. One parents rights do not take precedence over the others’. This is why divorce is such a terrible thing. A child can not be split in half. In most cases, the non-custodial parent is not a threat to the well-being of the child.

Let’s focus on those cases where the child has been “kidnapped” from the state. The child has been ripped from their mothers arms, the only security he/she has ever known and  placed into foster care.

A reasonable person would argue, that the parents must have done something wrong. The state doesn’t just come in a steal a child for no apparent reason.

You are right, of course.

Government Supported Kidnapping

The state doesn’t just take a child for no reason, they take them for a much more sinister reason. Money! We aren’t talking just a few bucks here and there. We are talking about a billion dollar industry, compliments of our Federal Government.

Warehousing children has become big business over the past twenty years.

For fiscal year 1998,  Federal expenditures to States for major child welfare programs  exceeded $4.5 billion. This figure includes child welfare services, foster care,  adoption assistance, and family preservation and support, but excludes Medicaid dollars, an important source of treatment funding for children and families.

Parental Abduction

Every last child on display has been abducted by a parent, not a stranger.

It’s a perfect racket, really. Children are abducted by “caseworkers”  on a flimsy excuse such as having a “dirty house” or “educational  neglect,” then placed in foster care. The state receives money for each child  placed into the system, they are paid again when the child is moved and yet again, when that child is adopted.

The worst part is that low or modest income families are most often targeted, in courts  set-up to prevent justice from taking place. Parents are gag-ordered by the judge and  prevented from talking about their case — to “protect the  child’s  privacy.”

The parents are often forced to submit to psychological evaluations, at their own  expense — which they most likely can not afford, by psychologists who are on the  courts payroll and find in the courts favor every time.

If a family is provided legal council the attorney is often ill prepared at best,  in the courts debt at worst, and at times refuses to do even the least bit of  research on the families behalf.

Financial Ruin

A family who was barely making ends meet before the children were abducted, now finds themselves  in dire straights, putting everything on the line for that chance the court will find mercy  and return their children.

If the parents are lucky enough to have the children returned, the family is often totally destroyed. The children, traumatized by their ordeal, are unable to sleep, revert to bed-wetting  if they were potty trained, are terrified of being removed again. They often lash-out at anyone  and everyone.

Their trust in their parent has been destroyed. Their secure little world has been ruptured. They now know their parent is powerless to protect them. Most will require many years of therapy and life will never again be the same for them.

I have purposely avoided using specific case histories here. Not because they don’t exist, because they do, in the hundreds of thousands, each and every year. However, the individual stories are in many cases so outlandish as to be considered fantasy. I can assure you this is far from fantasy and is in fact, a parents worst nightmare.

You are probably wondering what you can do. You can start by questioning every story you see in the media. Ask yourself…What details have they left out? What aren’t they telling us? The media puts a slant on every story they report, often omitting vital facts of the case.

If you know someone who has lost their children to the state, be there for them. Lend them moral support. Offer to go to court with them, be a character witness and write letters.

Parents are not perfect and often make mistakes in their parenting. The vast majority are not monsters and want the same things you want for your children.

It is not a crime to be poor. Support parents rights.