Posts Tagged ‘ LA times ’

February 14, 2013 - A headline in this morning's Los Angeles Times screams: "Report excoriates L.A. County agency in child deaths, torture: Thirteen recent child deaths might not have happened if Department of Children and Family Services social workers had taken basic steps to assess the risks, an investigation finds." The article, by Garrett Therolf and Jason Song, is based on a 90 page report delivered to the LA County Board of Supervisors in April, 2012,...Read more »

November 10, 2011 - A new study from Applied Research Center (ARC) examines the intersection of immigration and foster care, finding that over 5000 US foster children have parents who have been detained or deported by immigration authorities. The study's authors note that immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation, has reached historic highs under the Obama administration, setting the course for a drastic increase in the number of children caught in the middle. Most troublingly, the study finds...Read more »

November 10, 2011 - LA County Presiding Judge Michael Nash plans to open the proceedings of the juvenile court to the public in an attempt to increase oversight and accountability. The action comes just months after a bill that would have opened courts across the state failed in Sacramento after losing the support of many unions, advocates, and former foster youth, due to concerns about privacy. In LA, though, public scrutiny of the proceedings...Read more »

November 10, 2011 - Researcher Dennis Culhane has recently completed a study of LA County's emancipating youth, focusing especially on "crossover youth" - those who start out in the foster care system, but are transferred to juvenile probation before turning 18. The study "looked at youth who exited foster care or probation in Los Angeles County in 2002 or 2004 and linked them to records of public service usage from 2005 to 2009 across seven Los Angeles County...Read more »

October 21, 2010 - Two weeks ago, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas led the Board in requesting 20 years of data on child deaths from the county Department of Child and Family Services. The call came largely in response to earlier reportage in the Times about a series of deaths among children known to the Department. This week, DCFS responded the Board's request and released information about a large number of...Read more »

August 05, 2010 - The East Bay Express (Kilduff, 8/4/10) features an extensive profile of former foster youth Kayla Gordon. Kayla's story in many ways illustrates the struggles and strides of former foster youth. Having faced every adversity, Kayla has found her way to a place of stability and permanency. The article features interviews with CYC Outreach Coordinator Kate Teague and Contra Costa County ILSP Program Coordinator Don Graves, and mentions FYA members Bay Area Youth...Read more »

April 01, 2010 - As more L.A. County children die, reform still falters "As deaths among abused and neglected children have mounted in recent months, Los Angeles County supervisors and their aides have summoned child-welfare director Trish Ploehn to lengthy closed-door sessions to explain what's gone wrong in her department and how she plans to fix it." Click the title link to read the full article.Read more »

February 19, 2010 - From the LA Times: L.A. County welfare agency refuses to release files on children's deaths Read more »