What should be done to prevent cases like these? Can adoption be made safer?

Question

Just in the last month, there have been several cases of adoptive parents who adopt several children, many of whom were special needs, from the state, abuse the children and collect thousands and in one case MILLIONS in adoption assistance. Several of these people had multiple bio kids as well, some of whom are also being charged with abuse.

Lynn Paddock - NC, Ramon & Janet Barreto - TN, Shirley Allen - IL & Judith Leekin - NY/FL. (News searches will provide you with the awful details...)

These cases are horrible and some of these children have suffered unspeakable things and even died. All of these people are facing criminal charges and the children are either re-adopted or in state custody.

What are your ideas for how we can prevent people from "collecting" multiple children from DSS/CPS/The State for the purpose of making money while abusing and neglecting these kids? How can we better weed out people who use the system for their own gain without thought to the kids?

Answer 1

Adoptions can and should be made safer but there are a lot of obstacles.  Especially for the older, special needs kids.  While there are tons of PAPs and APs who are waiting to adopt, they are NOT waiting to adopt an older or special needs child.  It's actually extremly difficult to find a good placement for these types of kids.  So sad.  Okay I'm getting depressed now.

Answer 2

First of all, I think it is irresponsible to adopt many children close together, and it shouldn't be allowed.  I'm not sure exactly what the limit or rules should be because I do think people should be able to adopt sibling groups -or maybe two unrelated children at a time.  I think there should be AT LEAST a year between adoptions.  

How are these families collecting millions in adoption assistance?  I have heard of foster parents fostering simply for the money and being abusive (I'm NOT saying most do), but I don't think financial gain is ever a motive for adoption because it just isn't a financial gain.  It's not possible to get any more assistance than you've spent on adoption expenses, and assistance is usually much less than the expenses.  

Anyway, I guess it's up to social workers to be responsible in allowing families to adopt multiple children.  I don't think it's possible for anyone to parent multiple special needs children effectively, especially adopted close together.  Certainly, social workers should know this.  On the other hand, I guess they need to find homes for kids and have to find someplace for them and there aren't enough qualified families.  So, then the question becomes how to attract qualified families for childdren who need homes.

Answer 3

hey MamaKate,

  I think accountability would be a step in the right direction,that the social workers involved be held accountable for there actions or lack there of, Put better systems in place to support family's instead of running around with dollar signs in our elected officials eyes . The other thing we could do as a people would to be more educated on the officials we are electing to office if we elect people like G.W. than we might as well step right back into the dark ages, stop paying so much assistance to the people who are adopting, people that have there own children don't get paid like that, they usually go deeper into debt and then it turns into this ugly downward spiral that eventually winds up with social services and CPS involved which brings us right back around to where the cycle began, The only way we are going to curb this issue is to be more educated on which public officials are elected and how we treat people in general, more systems to keep the American Family together..............................

Answer 4

i truly and strongly advise that there should be a very strict and thorough background check with adoptive parents because we are talking about another human life here people. i do agree that there should also be a limit to how many kids you adopt unless the state approves that the couple can have more than three children. i just wish that people in this world wouldn't take advantage of such innocent souls, its just not right.

Answer 5

I think the fault lies in the worker who is handeling the case. There has to be a sign somewhere that there is abuse/neglect going on or will be potential for it at home studies and interviews, I think some workers just choose to ignore something once and it gets out of hand. One thing I hear too frequently from people in foster care or who have adopted is they want to

"save" a child, or they "saved" a child. If i were a social worker I'd automatically pull them from the system because that is not a valid reason to adopt - and often leads to emotional black mail for the child. People should adopt/care for children because they love the child and they want to build a family, not to "save" them. Many child  collectors are trying to "save" as many children as the possibly can, to make themselves feel better about themselves or some trauma they have suffered, and sadly many of those who have been abused become abusers.... So I think the problem is not thorough enough screening - I will also add that most of the times cases like this involve children who are "difficult to place." And i think part of the problem there is the system just wants the child out of their hair so they over look more things.

Some families ( thing Duggars!) have more than 11 kids and anr healthy functioning families. I think setting a limit is a bad idea.

Answer 6

There ARE limits in some (all??) states. In SC, you cant foster or adopt more than 5... five kids is the limit. However, some workers bend the rules to make a decent placement. Thorough background checks, mandatory psychological exams for foster & adopt parents, REQUIRING caseworkers to actually be SOCIAL WORKERS with a degree in social work (BSW or higher) instead of English or Comm or Library science or drama majors.... lots of things could be done. They wont be done until somebody higher up in Government starts to really care about our kids.

Answer 7

A through background check and surprise visits would do a lot to cure the problem. Unfortunately, the  "State" doesn't have the man power in their child service divisions to do this on a regular basis. The last I heard, the  "system" was so undermanned and poorly staffed that visits were back logged for years in some cases. Perhaps if neighbors took a more active part in finding out who lived next door, this would come to a halt. Today nobody really know who's living in the house next door. An occasional wave is a poor substitute for becoming real friends. Society has become more hermit like with the advent of the Internet. We now have friends across the country and around the world, but still have no idea what our neighbors look like. Sad isn't it?

Answer 8

When I first tried to adopt through DCF they strongly discouraged adoption. They wanted the children to remain in foster care for as long as it took for family reunification, at least with extended family.

I just went back to get my foster care license and now they really want adoptive parents instead.  To make adoption more appealing, in my state, they will pay you to do it.  I had heard that the state will pay for the kids' college tuition. What I didn't know was that if you adopt a special needs child they'll give you either a lump sum payment or the same monthly check that foster parents get.  I'm in a state that gives one of the highest monthly stipends in the US.  

So now you can adopt children rather than foster, get paid for it, but not have the continued oversight that foster parents have to work under.  The state meant well, but that's a recipe for disaster.

As for weeding out the bad parents, I just don't know how it can be done.  Besides that the state is always short of potential homes for these kids, there's already a mountain of paperwork and physical, psychological, and criminal checks done.  People can jump through every hoop and still be horrible parents.  

I don't know enough about the system to be able to say how to prevent this, but I did think your question is a good one.  Maybe adoptive parents who receive stipend checks should get a lesser amount than foster parents, and the remainder of the money should go to the budget for the social workers to continue home visits.  Parents who don't comply with the home visits should be accountable.