[Mkap]

Our system is so broken. There is something seriously wrong with the way CSB works. Our first baby that we fostered last June went to an elderly aunt and uncle. The uncle had cancer but they took her anyway. That was 9 months ago and today our worker called to ask if we would foster her again because her aunt and uncle can't make a long term committment to her. What? Why then did CSB move her to them to begin with? What is wrong with our system? Now this poor baby is going to be disrupted again at 9 months old. It breaks my heart. We are not taking er. We can't right now. We still have our sweet angel and are expecting an adoptive placement in less than two months. I just pray that our first foster baby finds a good and stable home.

[Ians mom]

We had a 5 yr old girl RUd with her grandparents, neither of whom were well. Less than a year later grandpa passed away, grandma was put into a nursing home and fd ended up with strangers. Since grandparents moved out of state with her, we were not permitted to take fd.

This system is truly broken and the children are paying the price.

[EandDmom]

My foster kids mom told me yesterday at the visit that as soon as she is cleared from DCS she is taking her kids and running out of the state. It broke my heart as we all know she wont make it with them. They will now be in another state and put with another set of strangers. That would be placement number 3 and I guarantee the other state wont know about the trouble she has had in this state with CPS. I just hope since she has a small income job and no car just maybe she wont be able to follow through with her plan.

[dachshunds4you]

Our second foster placement was with us for 6 months and 1 day. She was moved out of state with uncle and aunt who were supposed to adopt her if parents didn't get their act together. After about 9 months the state called saying would we be willing to take her back...aunt and uncle don't want to adopt her and deal with their family.

I was so MAD! She should have never been moved from our home to begin with. It ended up that maternal grandmother was able to have her criminal history waived and got her instead. We were glad, since grandma has always been in her life but couldn't take her initially because state wouldn't approve her with her background.

We wished she would have stayed, but when we look back at it, it's worked for the best. We wouldn't have got our 4th placement who was the one we got to adopt!

Sometimes things to do work out for a reason.

[lyly]

I have two girls that our home is there 14 placement. Right now the mom isn't doing her part but it looks like in 6 months they'll be back with her. It's really sad that the kids have to go through all this.

[AmahMama]

Out of all the sibling sets we've had in our home - only 3 have been ru'd and then returned to care. In all 3 cases - I had long conversations with sw about timliness - and letters to the judge. I KNEW (in my gut) that ru was not ready to happen. I was told once that I was only the fp - by a worker they'd had for 2 weeks before she decided to send them home - and the other - I could tell when we took the kids and belongings to thier home that it wasn't going to work. No one listened. In all 3 cases I was the one doing the supervised visits - and they went straight from 1 hr supervised to ru. I feel that it is all about the numbers - toward the 1/2 and annual budget times - they need numbers to show how good the system is working. All 3 sets went on to adoption - they were all under 2 - and we have the 2 under 2 rule here - So when they called I couldn't take them back.

But again - out of all the children we have had - I guess that it isn't a bad percentage - but why, oh, why do we have to have a percentage at all? I feel so badly for the poor kids. Parents rights ~~~ bah!!! Kids come first - we have to raise them right - they are OUR future!

[Mummy_Big_Bird]

Sigh...I always like to think that we are the only family who have dealt with a “return trip”...but I know the system keeps sending kids home before everyone is ready.

D was RU for only 8 weeks. During that time, she was living in a drug treatment program with her bio mom.

There is a new stunt the rehabs are pulling around here (MA). DCF likes the moms to be in a program for 60 days, before their baby moves in with them. The programs now want to get their funding for the child faster. They tell DCF that they have to get the child living there within 30 days, or they will kick the mom out of the program, because she is supposed to be there with her baby.

This is what happened to us. The workers on our case knew it was a bad idea to send D to her mom, but they felt forced to. They couldn’t have DCF look bad in front of the judge, if they had to explain why it was the department’s fault the mom was kicked out. D ended up being abused IN THE PROGRAM, and the program didn’t report it! They were telling DCF that everything was going fine. They didn’t call the abuse in until it escalated. So I got back a baby who was more damaged than when she first came to me. There was a court date set for the following week, and they were going to close the case, because they thought it was going so well. Luckily they ended up being able to push for adoption, since the abuse happened while D was still a ward of the state.

What sickens me the most is that the rehab has yet to get in trouble for letting the abuse go on!!! I just hate to think that there could be other babies at that program going through the same thing my D did.

They system is truly broken.