Yet another child dies in a hot car; a foster father is arrested

I don't understand how people can be unaware of the dangers of this, for both young children and pets. Especially in today's day and age where enough people harp upon this subject everywhere that most Americans should be well aware of it by now.
 
Since a foster parent is arrested for this, all foster homes in Kansas are being inspected. That's a dumb move I have heard. That's totally unacceptable.

on Friday prompted state officials to launch home inspections of adoptive and foster families.
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It shows that Kansas officials are shitheads.
 
Terrible!

I wonder if the father took on too much responsibility with the kids; that is, he was in over his head in child care. He and his "partner" (whatever that means) had two adopted children and four other foster children in their care. One the "kids" was 18, only 11 years younger than the foster father. :hmm:
 
CrazyPaul said:
Since a foster parent is arrested for this, all foster homes in Kansas are being inspected. That's a dumb move I have heard. That's totally unacceptable.

It shows that Kansas officials are shitheads.
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They should have been inspected all along. I don't know why they wait until something tragic happens.
 
Reba said:
Terrible!

I wonder if the father took on too much responsibility with the kids; that is, he was in over his head in child care. He and his "partner" (whatever that means) had two adopted children and four other foster children in their care. One the "kids" was 18, only 11 years younger than the foster father. :hmm:
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I was wondering who the "partner" was as well. Bottom line though, whatever the circumstances, you don't leave an animal or your child in a hot car. It's been said over and over again...what does it take for some people to "get" that? The more children you have, the greater the responsibility. I think it should be required of all parents (and animal owners) to take, and pass, a safety class. I have to wonder if Social Services was somehow complicit in this as well.....

Laura
 
Since society demand less spending on welfare caseworkers, meaning much more cases that each caseworkers have to overseen, image yourself as a caseworker dealing with 5,000 welfare cases, can you inspect every of them within limited time frame? I don't think you can.

It is kinda of unrealistic to inspect everyone, and that would violate privacy rights.

Reba said:
They should have been inspected all along. I don't know why they wait until something tragic happens.
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Lau2046 said:
I was wondering who the "partner" was as well. Bottom line though, whatever the circumstances, you don't leave an animal or your child in a hot car. It's been said over and over again...what does it take for some people to "get" that? The more children you have, the greater the responsibility. I think it should be required of all parents (and animal owners) to take, and pass, a safety class. I have to wonder if Social Services was somehow complicit in this as well.....

Laura
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I don't know about that location but in our area potential foster parents have to go thru home inspections, background checks, interviews, and lots of training, including first aid and CPR. They are under lots of rules too, like where they can take the children, who they can use for baby sitters (essentially, only other foster approved people), how they can discipline (no corporal punishment), and what the living arrangements are.
 
Reba said:
They should have been inspected all along. I don't know why they wait until something tragic happens.
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You don't get my point. When a real parent left a child dying in a hot car, the state doesn't inspect homes of real families.

When a foster parent left a child dying in a hot car, the state inspects foster homes. WHY? Foster parents are not bad people.

I grew up in a foster home so I know what I am talking about.
 
diehardbiker said:
Since society demand less spending on welfare caseworkers, meaning much more cases that each caseworkers have to overseen, image yourself as a caseworker dealing with 5,000 welfare cases, can you inspect every of them within limited time frame? I don't think you can.

It is kinda of unrealistic to inspect everyone, and that would violate privacy rights.
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No, it doesn't violate privacy rights. No one has the "right" to become a foster parent. When a potential foster parent signs on to the program they know that there are certain requirements, which include scheduled and unscheduled visits by caseworkers. It's a voluntary program. If a couple doesn't get inspected, they don't get children. Yes, caseworkers are overbooked but the state can't just send children into homes that haven't been checked out.

Are you sure each caseworker has 5,000 current active cases? Where did you get that number?
 
At any given time if you go over to welfare office, check their lines, ain't it long? How many people are working in the office? It is fairly easy to get estimate number.

When one needs welfare assistance, expect waiting time before seeing caseworker could be as long as 4 hours.

Reba said:
Are you sure each caseworker has 5,000 current active cases? Where did you get that number?
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BTW, there are too many children waiting for available foster homes, aren't you aware of this? If we tighten the regulations, then the less foster homes becomes available, cause the more regulation the more scarier to adopt kids, ended up who cares for them?
 
CrazyPaul said:
You don't get my point. When a real parent left a child dying in a hot car, the state doesn't inspect homes of real families.
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Yes, they do if there are other children still in the home.

When a foster parent left a child dying in a hot car, the state inspects foster homes. WHY? Foster parents are not bad people.
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Just because they are inspected doesn't mean anyone is calling them "bad" people. I have friends who are foster and/or adoptive parents and they are wonderful people. Inspections have nothing to do with being "bad." It's about maintaining standards of safety.
 
diehardbiker said:
If you go over to welfare office, check their lines, ain't it long? How many people are in the office? It is fairly easy to get estimate number.

When one needs welfare assistance, expect waiting time before seeing caseworker could be as long as 4 hours.
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That doesn't equate to 5,000 cases per worker.
 
Reba said:
Yes, they do if there are other children still in the home.


Just because they are inspected doesn't mean anyone is calling them "bad" people. I have friends who are foster and/or adoptive parents and they are wonderful people. Inspections have nothing to do with being "bad." It's about maintaining standards of safety.
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Read the quote in post #3. Explain what it means.
 
Our state, which doesn't have a good reputation for social services, has these numbers:

"The social workers association recommends the average number of cases per worker should be 12 to 15. Lexington County had six workers with 40 cases or more, including one staffer with 47 cases that totaled 96 children, during the week of May 18."
DSS Deputy: Agency needs 202 additional workers to reach ideal caseload numbers - Post and Courier

That's too many but it certainly isn't anywhere near 5,000.
 
Does not matter the number, point is I ask if you had 5K cases to deal with each month, would you be able to check every damn of your cases on monthly basis? I don't think so.

Secondly, I forgot to mention this. I had to see VR counselor, she gave me a number of cases that she had to handle each month, it was around 1K... Mind you, this is for Deaf clients only, they have separate office for the rest of hearing people and it was rather larger in scale.

It is all about workers being overwhelmed after years of budget cuts and at the same time during great recession, the number of welfare clients grew to the point where they can't check every one of them cause time already ran out.

Reba said:
That doesn't equate to 5,000 cases per worker.
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Inspecting all foster families just because of this incident seems like a knee-jerk reaction. However, I do support foster families being inspected in general to ensure that the children are well-cared for, the foster parents are doing well and need any support, and to ensure other standards of safety and well-being.

I imagine foster parents have to go through a lot of hoops to have a foster home and make sure they are psychologically sound. We've heard enough stories of abuse and neglect in foster homes that could be prevented. Then again, we hear about those stories of abuse and neglect in regular homes, as well. It's just that foster homes are inspected and monitored and can prevent abuse/neglect, whereas regular homes aren't.
 
Number is not the issue, the point is they are overwhelmed, and add new regulation only gets caseworker even more overwhelmed than it was.

and 12 to 15? I don't believe that, because with lines to apply for welfare assistance was rather very long. 15 each month, then the lines shouldn't be that long.

Reba said:
Our state, which doesn't have a good reputation for social services, has these numbers:

"The social workers association recommends the average number of cases per worker should be 12 to 15. Lexington County had six workers with 40 cases or more, including one staffer with 47 cases that totaled 96 children, during the week of May 18."
DSS Deputy: Agency needs 202 additional workers to reach ideal caseload numbers - Post and Courier

That's too many but it certainly isn't anywhere near 5,000.
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CrazyPaul said:
Read the quote in post #3. Explain what it means.
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Don't you know? The agency wants to protect themselves, and ensure that the children are in safe environments. So?
 
diehardbiker said:
At any given time if you go over to welfare office, check their lines, ain't it long? How many people are working in the office? It is fairly easy to get estimate number.

When one needs welfare assistance, expect waiting time before seeing caseworker could be as long as 4 hours.



BTW, there are too many children waiting for available foster homes, aren't you aware of this? If we tighten the regulations, then the less foster homes becomes available, cause the more regulation the more scarier to adopt kids, ended up who cares for them?
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In DC, the line at SS office is 7-8 hours. :ugh:
 
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