Family Rights and Child Abuse News

Texas House votes to largely prohibit mandatory vaccines for children put in temporary Child Protective Services care

by Emily Donaldson

In what was expected to be a discussion of a largely bipartisan-supported bill that proposes improvements for the state's Child Protective Services agency, the merits of vaccines were hotly debated Wednesday afternoon.

One of the solutions proposed in the bill, authored by state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, would require the Department of Family and Protective Services to administer a medical and mental examination for children in CPS custody for more than three days. These children would have likely been taken out of the custody of parents for safety concerns. The guidelines for these examinations would be set by the Health and Human Services Commission and medical practitioners, should the bill be passed.

communityimpact.com

May 22, 2017

Senate passes religious protections for child welfare agencies

by Marissa Evans

Texas senators voted 21-10 on Sunday to give child welfare providers protection from legal retaliation if they assert their "sincerely held religious beliefs" while caring for abused and neglected children in foster or Child Protective Services custody.

House Bill 3859 would allow faith-based organizations to place a child in a religion-based school; deny referrals for abortion-related contraceptives, drugs or devices; and refuse to contract with other organizations that don't share their religious beliefs. If a faith-based group refuses services to children or prospective homes on religious grounds, they would be required to refer the child or parent to a different organization that can help them.

texastribune.org

May 21, 2017

Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated: Guess who is Sicker?

by Celeste McGovern

It's never been done before. The first-of-its-kind study of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated American homeschooled children shows who is really ailing... and parents should be worried.

Something is wrong with America's children. They are sick - allergic, asthmatic, anxious, autoimmune, autistic, hyperactive, distracted and learning disabled. Thirty-two million American children - a full 43% of them - suffer from at least one of 20 chronic illnesses not including obesity. Across the board, once rare pediatric disorders from autism and ADD to Type 1 diabetes and Tourette's syndrome are soaring, though few studies pool the data. Compared to their parents, children today are four times more likely to have a chronic illness.

info.cmsri.org

May 4, 2017

'Grandma Underground' still fighting for Kentucky kinship care payments

by Deborah Yetter

Sent from the "Grandma Underground," the personal stories included pleas for help from grandparents and other relatives struggling to raise children removed from homes because of abuse, often from parents caught up in the state's drug epidemic.

"She was born a drug baby and has a lot of medical problems and suffers many withdrawal attacks," wrote Teresa Grider, a grandmother from Elizabethtown, describing the youngest of five grandchildren she's raising. "If you was ever to see one, it would make tears come to your eyes as it does me."

courier-journal.com

April 28, 2017

Child Services responds to criticism after recent deaths

by Kyle Lawson

A spokesman for the Administration for Child Services responded Wednesday to criticism of the agency, after the deaths of multiple children at homes that were at one time probed by the agency.

He said it's important to understand that it takes multiple government factions -- and ultimately a judge -- to determine custody of a child in New York City, amid an average of 55,000 reports of child abuse per year. The most recent death was that of 1-year-old Bianca Abdul, who, according to police, was found unconscious inside a home in Midland Beach by her mother. Family told police there hadn't been heat in the home since November, and at one point a 12-year-old girl had been temporarily removed from the home, according to a NYPD spokeswoman.

silive.com

March 24, 2017