Therapeutic Foster Care Not a Legal Relationship

I suppose there is no place like the beginning to start a blog. When I finally reached Kidjacked.com I decided I should run a blog to see what others are up to who have similar problems.
I represent the next layer of victims and along the way my “was to be” son and daughter are just hung out there in foster care land. Essentially they have become “property” and not people since the Dept of Family Services has collected nearly $500,0000.00 in revenues for 4 siblings who currently reside in the system. Two of these children were in my home for a little over a year and a half until February, 2009 and were removed when the school reported a “scratch” to the local DFS. They were removed and placed back in the therapeutic foster care environment where they came from just before my wife and I took them in. Their placement with us was an emergency placement that developed into a long term attachment; on that naturally would have led to adoption but it was disrupted in February. There was an assessment conducted but it took over 2 months to complete; case was closed, nothing came of it but it allowed just enough time for a contract mental health agency to achieve the agenda they had been working on from the time we let them know we were interested in adopting (within a month after taking them in) until that point.
We spent our money, of course, taking this thing to court. On September 11, 2009 we were “seen” but not heard. Rather we were herded. In the judges response about a week later we were informed we had no legal standing and were considered strangers at law.
Good enough…….But all along, for over a year and a half, we had been literally begging the contract mental health agency and DFS to help us start an adoption; still are as far as I’m concerned. Nobody raised a finger; even the Guardian Ad Litem, who is supposed to represent the children and their “best interests” misrepresented the case. I know for a fact that the oldest child, Johnathan, asked her directly to speak to the judge and let him come home. In court, she said nothing.
I find this utterly shameful since the “system” got to pull in the State Attorney General, the County Attorney, and the Guardian Ad Litem, not to mention a judge who, by indicating he doesn’t “make policy” his role is to “enforce” policy is probably not moved much by a set of therapeutic foster parents who want to do the right thing, know that the fit is not only comnpatible but very positive, and who now have become labeled as the bad guys in this case.
One of the irony’s here is that I am completing a PhD in clinical counseling, have been a child/adolescent/family therapist, and openly admit that I have cultivated a very strong relationship with Johnathan and his sister. Johnathan, as recently as an hour ago, continues to try to connect with me despite knowing that the DFS folks and the contract mental health agency have asked me not to make contact. I can’t stop Johnathan from doing what he’s doing; I did help him become a technology enthusiast but; he has done all the rest. He continues to initiate contact under their noses. I’m sure that will come back to haunt us soon. He has simply taken bigger and bigger risks to get to me and to talk. What a crime.

What we learned so far is that we had no legal standing and no case because we had not completed the WY DFS home certification. We did complete the home certification for specialized or “therapetic” foster care (which you would think, naturally, has to exceed the requirements of the standard DFS certification/homestudy) however, the way this works, as described to us by our attorney, is that therapeutic foster care is only supposed to be used for a couple of months to help stabilize children who have been removed from their natural parents and when parental rights have been removed: they call this in the legal world (or at least the one we know) “Free for Adoption”. They really don’t mean that though. These kids have been in this system since 2004, over half their lives. We persistently encouraged DFS and the Mental Health Contractor who administered the therapeutic foster care program we were involved with to help us get an adoption going but, this all has to do with money. You see, the case worker for the TFC group; she’s related to the family these kids are with right now. When we noted the conflict of interest, it was acknowledged once, but only when we were being lied to as the kids were being removed from our lives. We were informed they would have to have a new case worker since this would be a conflict but, they also didn’t mean that. They gave us a name of another case worker who would be picking up their belongings but we also learned that this individual only heard about this assignment about 5 minutes before she was to contact me and make arrangements to pick up the kids’ belongings. Since then, ever faithful Johnathan, has given me kind of a blow by blow accounting of their deception. Yet another crime that will probably catch up to us at some point.

In court we were viewed as strangers at law but I wonder why we had to attend Multidisciplinary team meetings? I wonder why when we wanted to go shopping across the border into a nearby state (where nearly everyone from our rural area goes on weekends) why we had to have DFS’s permission with at least 24 hours notice. I also wonder why when the law specifically spells out rules like: the Caseworker must have monthly FACE-TO-FACE contact with the children AND the foster parents why that never happened? Apparently the rules (the laws) only apply to non-government employees. I also wonder why, when I read about the Guardian Ad Litem’s legal responsibiltiy which also requires contact that we never saw her until nearly a year after we had the kids and why she only saw them twice during the entire year and half we had them, not to mention she’s really only seen them 3 times in just over 2 years now. In court, the GAL tried to bring up a different blog I had started (just not published yet pending the outcome of the hearing) instead of stating what Johnathan felt was in his best interests. I had invited Johnathan to join the blog but he got discovered making an attempt to contact me so, of course, DFS et al. tried to make a federal case out of that situation. Luckily, (I think) my attorney was quick to point out in rebuttal that Johnathan is making the contact; not the other way around. Somehow, maybe that justifies it but I sense the DFS/CPS folks will figure out how to make me own that as well, since I have no “legal” standing. We all know where this will go if something doesn’t change. I’ll not only lose my reputation in the community but somehow the evidence, were there to be something easily manufactured to file a criminal charge, will likely occur, given the power these organizations possess. I find it so disconcerting that the DFS folks and other agencies who leech the State’s coffers can simply use the law that is designed to protect these kids to spoil their lives. There is definitely an agenda. They told the judge they had a plan. To date, as of Johnathan’s last contact (you didn’t hear me say that) they have not even informed him of his options nor of the outcome; they haven’t shared any plan with him. My wife and I think there is no plan. He specifically asked this GAL to represent him in court and, according to him her reply was “we’ll see what the judge says.” While in court, like I said, there was no such advocacy. Interestingly enough, that meeting took place just two days after our attorney finally got in touch with the GAL and the day we signed a “motion to intervene”.

That’s a starting point so I can hit the publish button and see what folks think. There’s plenty more but I am interested in what others might say or what help is available. My wife and I cannot afford to hire a team of attorneys to take an appeal forward and we certainly can’t compete with the resources of three major state agencies along with the State Attorney General’s office. Yet another irony: My taxes are paying these folks to punish us for trying to do our fair share…………..