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Archive for the ‘Adoption’ Category

Broward’s Heart Gallery Leads Family to Adopt Teen Brothers

June 12th, 2012   No Comments   Adoption, Advocacy

The photo exhibit called The Heart Gallery of Broward County showcases foster children searching for permanent homes. Created in 2008, the exhibit travels the county – from churches to hospital and malls – revealing the lives of foster kids.

For brothers Tyler and Kyle, one poignant photograph of the blue-eyed brothers brought them to their new family, the Miami Herald reported.

“Since becoming wards of the state’s welfare system five years ago, Tyler and Kyle have each lived in four foster homes. Twice they were separated,” the paper reported.

“’I saw things no kid should see,” 14-year-old Kyle said Monday, as he and Tyler, 16, became the 100th and 101st adoptions made possible by the Heart Gallery of Broward County. “Now I’m going to be with an actual family.”

Read the entire story here.

NYTimes: $68 Million Damages Settlement Proposed in Florida, NY Adoption Abuse Case

December 30th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Court Cases

A damage award settlement is being discussed in a case that’s shaken the Florida and New York social services arena for foster, adoptive and disabled children.

In “one of the most disturbing child welfare fraud cases in New York City in recent years,” Judith Leekin “used four aliases to adopt the children, who had physical or developmental disabilities, including autism and retardation, and later moved them to Florida. The children were caged, restrained with plastic ties and handcuffs, beaten with sticks and hangers, and kept out of school, according to court papers. An 11th child disappeared while in Ms. Leekin’s care and is presumed dead,” according to the New York Times.

Florida children’s rights attorney Howard Talenfeld is handling the case.

Florida Dept of Children and Families Backs Foster Kids’ Adoption

November 2nd, 2011   No Comments   Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Florida wants its foster kids to find a home. During National Adoption Month, the state Department of Children and Families has launched an effort to help some 800 foster kids find permanent homes.

DCF Secretary David Wilkins launched the effort this week to get foster teenagers into permanent homes with loving parents. The issue is vital: Kids who “age out” or leave the state’s care when they become adults – and without having found foster homes – are at a greater risk of dropping out of school, being arrested or becoming homeless, according to a story in the Associated Press.

Read their stories on AdoptFlorida.org.  Read the original news story here.

ChildLaw Blog: New York Child Abuse Cases Similarly Disturbing

September 6th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Court Cases

The ChildLaw Blog writes how “Echos of the Masha Allen case play out in a New York courtroom.” The editorial focuses on the story of adoptive parent Judith Leekin, and how details of her child abuse and the personal injury it caused disabled kids “share shocking similarities to Masha Allen’s second adoption.” The writer commented that, according to the New York Times…

“More than 30 years ago, a Queens foster mother was investigated and cited for scalding a boy in her care. But despite that finding, the city did nothing in the decades that followed to prevent the woman, Judith Leekin, from carrying out one of the most brazen and disturbing child welfare schemes in recent memory.

“The failure of child welfare officials to bar Ms. Leekin from the system after that 1980 episode is one of the most striking revelations in new court reports filed in a Brooklyn lawsuit. Ms. Leekin was arrested in 2007; the authorities determined she had adopted 11 disabled New York foster children using aliases, then moved to Florida, where she subjected them to years of abuse — all the while collecting $1.68 million in subsidies from New York City until 2007.

Read the entire story here.

Child Welfare Attorneys: Now in Florida and Federal Courts, New York Child Abuse Case Points to Lapses

August 25th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Court Cases

The widely publicized child abuse case of Judith Leekin — and the personal injury it caused the children she cared for — has been portrayed in the media and by children’s rights attorneys as a significant breakdown in New York’s adoption system. Documents, which provide a look into her motives, are part of a 2009 civil rights lawsuit against the city brought in Federal District Court on behalf of 10 of those children (the 11th disappeared while in her care and is presumed dead), the New York Times wrote.

The Times reported, “The suit refers to the city’s child welfare system as ‘a maze of dysfunctional bureaucracy operating under unconstitutional policies and practices.’ It also charges negligence by three private organizations that had city contracts to handle some of the adoptions.”

Read the entire New York Times story of Judith Leekin here.

New ‘Chief Child Advocate’ Ann Scott Has Child Advocates, Attorneys Hopeful She Can Continue Florida’s Progress in Adopting its Foster Children

August 10th, 2011   No Comments   Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF), News & Events

Amid budget cuts and tough times for Florida’s most vulnerable citizens, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has named his wife and First Lady, Ann Scott, to the role of Florida’s “Chief Child Advocate.” Her predecessor, Jim Kallinger, made great strides in raising adoptions and lowering the number of kids in state care. Statewide and in the Department of Children and Families, tidings are tough: Funding for children and social services is low – and dropping, and needs of its most vulnerable are high – and growing.

Ms. Scott has a significant role ahead of her in advocating for the state’s most vulnerable citizens: Abused, neglected and abandoned children who end up “in the system” as foster children or seeking adoption. Former state Rep. Jim Kallinger, appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist, held the role as a full-time employee. Meanwhile, oversight and lapses by the DCF have resulted in lawsuits, damage claims and significant awards.

(more…)

Florida Lawyers Argue Whether Victor Barahona Dependency Hearing Should be Open or Closed

July 19th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Court Cases

Should dependency hearings related to the case of Victor Barahona be open or closed? That’s the question posed by advocates, guardians ad litem and media attorneys – and now facing a judge this week in Miami. Lawyers were arguing whether to close or keep open hearings regarding the boy, who at 10 was severely abused earlier this year, along his twin sister, Nubia. Nubia died from her injuries.

Jorge Barahona, their Miami, Florida, adoptive father, was found with Victor in critical condition and Nubia dead in Jorge’s pick-up truck. Both were victims of alleged abuse. An independent panel later found that Florida Department of Children and Families case workers’ efforts in the Barahona case were shoddy and was the result of “fatal ineptitude.”

According to the Miami Herald, “Lawyers for the Guardian Ad Litem program argued before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia that the hearings should be closed to protect Victor.” Read the entire story here.

North Florida Couple Sues Community Based Care Foster Agency After Child Abuse to Adopted Kids

March 30th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Court Cases

All the couple wanted was a “forever family” when in 2009 they adopted foster children as their son and daughter via Family Support Services of North Florida. The couple soon discovered the boy and girl, now 6 and 8 respectively, had been in four foster homes and a failed adoption and suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse — none of which was ever disclosed (as required by law) by the community based agency.

The signs soon were clear. The boy punches his nanny. The girl threatens to kill her adoptive mother. Their savings have been depleted seeking care for the children.

The couple were in Jacksonville, Florida, Tuesday, filing a lawsuit that seeks money to care for the children, plus damages for pain and suffering. It says the agency failed to keep track of JD and WD, as they are named in the lawsuit, or advise the new parents of abuse in the foster homes, at least one of which later was closed, said the parents’ attorney.

“My clients were told the reasons why that home was closed were unknown,” the attorney said. “Records reflect that home was closed due to physical abuse on our clients’ children and/or other foster children.”

Read the news story here.

Palm Beach County (Florida) Judge Agrees Barahona Move to Miami

March 23rd, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Jorge Barahona, the Miami, Florida, adoptive father who was found with 10-year-old Victor Barahona in critical condition and twin Nubia Barahona dead in Jorge’s pick-up truck — both victims of alleged abuse — will be moved to Miami, a Palm Beach County judge has ruled.

The news follows a panel’s findings that Florida Department of Children and Families case workers’ efforts in the Barahona case were shoddy and was the result of “fatal ineptitude.”

Judge Karen Miller earlier this week approved moving Jorge Barahona to Miami-Dade County, where he will face multiple criminal charges. Read the entire story here.

Community, Advocates Demand Change to Florida Department of Children and Families and Private Lead Agencies Hired to Protect Children

March 12th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Advocacy

The report is in from the panel investigating the death of Nubia Barahona, 10, and critical injuries to her twin brother, Victor (read the report here). An editorial from WPLG Channel 10 in Miami held no punches in calling for a total overhaul of the Florida Department of Children and Families for its inability to prevent abuse to children. The Palm Beach Post questioned the role of private lead agencies serving DCF — and requests by them to provide sovereign immunity protections that will cap personal injury damage claims by lawyers.

WPLG wrote how “…past failures have prompted changes at DCF, just not enough. A broken, bureaucratic system needs to be dismantled and staffed with people held accountable. Children’s lives depend on it.”

At the same time, Gov. Rick Scott is calling for deep cuts to DCF, and Secretary David Wilkins blamed issues on high turnover, during a hearing before state lawmakers.

The take-away is this: Our Kids, the lead agency responsible for the overall system, needs to be held accountable for permitting the adoption of Nubia and Victor Barahona. If CEO Fran Allegra does not admit fault, improvement will not come — and more children will slip through the cracks of this dysfunctional and unaccountable system. And more harm will come.

Panel Issues Scathing Report on Florida DCF, Our Kids in Adopted Girl’s Death, State Oversight

March 11th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

A task force empaneled to study the death of 10-year-old adopted child, Nubia Barahona, and the critical injuries to her twin brother, Victor, could not have been more direct in its assessment. They called the Florida Department of Children and Families’ oversight “a case of fatal ineptitude” and questioned the “quality of the services performed by Our Kids and its subcontractors. Our Kids of MiamiDade / Monroe receives about $100 million per year from DCF to perform contracted services.”

Nubia Barahona

Nubia Barahona

Guardians, advocates, attorneys and others in attendance heard a scathing assessment. From DCF to the investigators it employs, the panel cited “a litany of bumbling by state child welfare workers,” noted the Miami Herald, and a host of “missed red flags” — any one of which should have set off alarms among the agency and its people. Read the entire DCF Report here.

Even Pete Digre, a DCF deputy, in apologizing for the agency’s woeful efforts to protecting the Nubia, said, “Our sorrow is compounded by the realization that there were many missed red flags and many missed opportunities that might have created a better outcome. The performance of our staff and community partners is completely unacceptable. Nubia did not receive the care, and prompt and urgent attention that each of us would have given our own children. As such, we failed miserably.’’

That about sums it up. Read the entire article here.

Stories: Palm Beach Children’s, Mom’s Death Show Cases of Rushed Adoptions, Lax Oversight

March 10th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption

The horrible tale of two Palm Beach County children and their mother found dead this month points to key issues related to how the Florida Department of Children and Families handles adoptions among at-risk or violent families — and whether the lure of federal money drives state decisions.

In a story, “Rare adoption ends with mom and kids dead,” the Miami Herald revealed how “a mother, stripped of all rights to her oldest child, later was allowed to adopt him. The two and a younger daughter are now dead, raising questions about whether the state should have allowed the adoptions.” Now a boy, Jermaine McNeil, 8, his sister, Ju’tyra, 5, were found stuffed in luggage, and their mother, Felicia Brown, was found in a county landfill. Read the entire story here.

At the same time, a family member has been left to grieve and wonder. In an Associated Press story, “Relative grieves 2 kids found dead in Fla. canal,” the grandmother of Ms. Brown and her children spoke out about their loss. Read the entire story here.

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