New Jersey Child Welfare Agency
I read an article today "Child Welfare Agency is Under Fire", in the New York Times written by Tina Kelley which can be found at the following website, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/nyregion/25abuse.html. The article discussed some major problems that New Jersey's child welfare agency is having. Currently, there is a lawsuit be filed against the State Division of Youth and Family Services by one of the programs adoptive mothers. This mother is demanding reform in the states child welfare policy, focusing specifically on medical care for the children that need it. This is not the first time the State Division of Youth and Family Services has been sued. In 1999, Children's Rights, an advocacy group sued the agency for endangering New Jersey's youth by having an inadequete child welfare system.
In response to the 1999 case the welfare agency has been working under a court ordered reform plan. Apparently, there has been slow improvement but for some this is not good enough because the lives of children are still at risk.
The women who is currently sueing the child welfare agency is doing so because of the way the state dealt with her adopted daughter. This little girl was abandoned by her 15 year old mother at 10 months old. The state them put her in the custody of her father. The girl's father was 21 years old at the time and the state gave him custody while ignoring the fact that he had impregnated the mother by statutory rape in the first place. Once in custody of the father the little birls was abused by the burning of her feet and vaginal area. The state ignored reports of abuse when the girl first was sent to a hospital. When the second report of a abuse was sent to the state agency a caseworker went to the girl's home. The abuse was obvious to the caseworker, but the girl was not removed from the father's home until almost a month later. When the girl was finally removed the state placed her into foster care and the dad was completly let off. The agency had failed to even file charges against the father for abuse. The little girl was in and out of failed foster care situations until she began living with her current adopted mother. This mother's main concern is that the welfare agency for children did not treat the girls burns physically or mentally after she was removed from her abusive home, the abuser was never prosecuted, and this type of inadequate childcare is happening to many other New Jersey children.
Throughout the article there are other horrific examples of the failures on the part of the State Division of Youth and Family Services. It is frightening to know that the state issued protection for our children and families in the United States could be so choppy in their policy and practice. Hopefully, with media attention from this current lawsuit there can be a more progressive reform made to this welfare system. Most of all I hope that medical care will be something that these young victims are recieving from these agencies.