County assistance plays an important role in opening doors for abused kids and teens By Maria Sprow
County assistance plays an important role in opening doors for abused kids and teens By Maria Sprow
Daniela Carrascarro was 13 years old when she was forced to leave her parent’s home and enter the state’s foster care system.
Her junior high school’s security guard and a group of investigators picked her up from school one day, walked her outside and took her and her 1-year-old sister to a foster home with four or five other children, who were also staying there temporarily.
Carrasco, a victim of child sexual abuse, never went back home. Instead, she and her sister stayed at that first home for two months before going into kinship care, where they stayed together for eight months. That didn’t work out either — Carrasco’s relative had kids of her own to support and too close a connection with Carrasco’s birth father, who would come by and make threats. Carrasco and her sister were again forced to move, this time to a different town, where they were together in a foster home for a year. Then 15, Carrasco was separated from her sister and moved permanently into Sky High Children’s Ranch, a residential suburb of sorts for foster care children.
Her sister stayed with the foster family.
“I wish I could have lived with a normal foster family,” Carrasco, now 22, said, adding that living at the children’s ranch meant that she never really got the “normal” teenage experience. There were too many rules and not enough family.
Still, having lived through and aged out of the foster care system — and now helping others as an employee of that same system — she knows the role counties play in helping kids who are like her, kids who are traumatized, without a stable home environment, and without a long-term support system. After Carrasco turned 18 and left the children’s ranch, she had difficulty earning enough money to pay for basic living expenses while attending school. Fortunately, there were places for her to turn to, like the county’s Child Welfare Board and the Preparation for Adult Living program.
“Sometimes I couldn’t pay the electricity or I couldn’t pay my car insurance,” Carrasco said. “Having that assistance helped me out a lot — a lot.” Though counties are not responsible for the foster care system in Texas, they do play a significant role in many areas when it comes to supporting Child Protective Services and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the state agencies that shoulder most of the burden. Child welfare boards, many of which are funded by commissioners courts, help give children like Daniela school supplies, clothes, drivers’ ed classes, graduation rings and assistance with monthly bills.
Texas has 212 child welfare boards working collaboratively with state Child Protective Services staff in their area. The boards’ overarching mission is to help fill in some of the gaps in state services, because state and federal funding do not provide for all the needs that children in CPS care have, said Carolyn Bivens, the executive director of the Texas Council of Child Welfare Boards (TCCWB).
“I have seen the needs that children who are in foster care have. They need to have the same opportunities that other children have, and I think the child welfare boards can provide a great community service in helping to see that that happens,” she said. “They also spend some time on public awareness. A lot of them set up booths at different kinds of community festivals on how to report child abuse, and information for those interested in foster parenting.”
According to TCCWB, the boards have several main goals:
Commissioners are responsible for appointing the most active community volunteers to the board — volunteers like DJ Tessier, who has served on child welfare boards in both Tom Green and Comal counties, and has been active on local, regional and state levels.
Currently a member of the Comal County board, Tessier said county commissioners are critical to the board’s impact. Though Comal County’s commissioners court does not fund its child welfare board, Tessier said commissioners are actively involved with the board’s activities, which is just as important to members as funding.
“If they don’t understand what the needs of these children are, then sometimes they don’t understand the importance of funding those needs,” Tessier said, adding that other county boards could not operate without commissioners courts’ financial backing simply because the competition for private dollars and donations is too intense in some areas.
Since child welfare boards are not mandated by the state and since some boards raise their own funds through community donations, it is unknown exactly how much support they contribute to the overall system. However, a survey conducted by the Texas Council of Child Welfare Boards showed that 63 of the 212 boards spent a combined $22.9 million in 2006, more than 60 percent of which came directly from commissioners courts. The Harris County Commissioners Court allocated $16.5 million;
Dallas allocated $2.2 million and Tarrant $1.5 million. Most of the funds went toward staff to help support Child Protective Services, but about $3.3 million went directly toward the needs of foster children and families.
According to the State Comptroller’s Office, Texas had about 21,000 children in the state’s foster care system in 2003. Most of the children have been neglected or abused. The state spent $315.4 million on the daily care of those children — or about $41 dollars a day per child — most of which went toward room and board, medical expenses and therapy for special-needs children.
According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, during August 2007, Texas had 28,541 children under the age of 17 in either foster care or placement care.
Much of the financial need lies with children who are placed in kinship care. Often the children stay with grandparents who are no longer working, or aunts and uncles who already have families of their own and may not be able to support another child. Other children may be placed in state-run residential childcare facilities.
Children age out of the foster care system when they turn 18, unless they are attending college or vocational school.
Unfortunately, the needs of foster care system youth and the needs of those who are aging out of the system are more complex than simply providing money for prom dresses, class rings, electricity bills and car payments.
According to the Center for Law and Social Policy and The Pew Charitable Trusts, adults who aged out of the foster care system face real problems and challenges. More than half leave the system with a mental-health problem; 25 percent have post-traumatic stress disorder.
Many do not recover from their mental-health problems because they do not receive proper treatment. Only 58 percent earn their high school diplomas by the time they turn 19. Only 3 percent of foster care children receive a bachelor’s degree; only 16.1 percent receive a vocational degree.
Adults who have aged out of foster care are also more likely to live below the poverty level. About 20 percent will become homeless, compared to just 1 percent of the general population. About 20 percent will be incarcerated within the first two years of leaving the system.
In addition, a study conducted in Detroit showed that women who had aged out of Michigan’s foster care system had four times the number of sexual partners as their male counterparts, and 12 percent were forced to do “something sexual” after leaving foster care. About half have children very soon after aging out.
The situation is perhaps not as bad in Texas as it is elsewhere. According to The Pew Charitable Trusts group, which has partnered with the National Association of Counties to raise awareness of the issues facing young adults when they leave the foster care system, only 3 percent of the foster care youth in Texas age out of the system without having a permanent placement family. In many other states, that figure is much higher.
In Texas, youth aging out of the system do have resources in which to turn. Many child welfare boards across the state are starting to allocate more resources to young adults aging out of the system. The boards help fund activities for the Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) Program, run by the Department of Family and Protective Services. The PAL program targets youth ages 16 and older and focuses on independent-living skill assessments and training.
PAL workshops and counselors teach teens everything from how to balance a checkbook to helping them develop job skills and find housing. It also helps teens fund GED classes, driver’s education, graduation expenses, counseling, vocational training and college entrance exams.
The program also provides youth with opportunities to go on wilderness trips, participate in leadership activities and join their county’s Youth Advisory Board, which gives foster kids a means of improving the system. Youth who participate in the program receive a cumulative “transitional living allowance” of up to $1,000, as well as total room and board assistance of up to $3,000. In addition, youth who participate in the program are eligible to have their state college tuition and fees waived. Youth who need more help can ask their PAL coordinators and child welfare board for additional assistance.
Most recently, Council of Child Welfare Boards earned grant funding to began hosting regional teen leadership conferences in collaboration with the PAL program. The PAL program also runs five-day camps for young adults, which include ropes courses, canoeing, arts, swimming and other activities aimed at increasing self-esteem and problem-solving skills.
In general, support for children aging out of the foster care system is a relatively new initiative for county welfare boards, Bevins said. Some child welfare boards are becoming more active in supporting other programs as well, such as the Circles of Support program that connects those aging out of the system with caring adults in their areas.
“It is still an issue of how we allocate limited funding and limited resources,” Bevins said. “I think they are just becoming more aware of the need. … It is a balancing act between the younger children who are in care and have needs as well.”
Not all youth who age out of foster care take advantage of the services or assistance. Some are so disenfranchised with the system that by the time they turn 18, they just disappear or decline any help.
“We have youth that don’t return phone calls, people who we are trying to locate,” said Carrasco, who works as a youth specialist for the PAL program. “They are so ready to be done with the system and the rules that they don’t want any help anymore.”
Many entering the system are understandably furious over being taken from their homes, according to the Texas Foster Care Handbook for Youth, written by the PAL Youth Leadership Committee. The handbook anonymously quotes youth’s experiences in the foster care system.
Children growing up in foster care, and especially residential facilities, must follow stringent rules that may further disenfranchise some youth. While staying at the Sky High Children’s Ranch, Carrasco said her friends’ parents had to submit to background checks and home studies by caseworkers.
The ranch had swimming pools, but strictly enforced rules about lifeguards. Children who didn’t follow rules or who misbehaved weren’t allowed to go outside — probably normal disciplinary techniques and safety precautions in most households, but difficult to stomach when “you’re not my mother!” holds true.
“I know now that it was for our protection, but when you’re 16, it doesn’t matter,” Carrasco said. “I was embarrassed.”
In her job as a youth specialist, Carrasco regularly visits her local child welfare board for help with the little things, which can make a big difference, she said. For instance, her youth leadership council wants T-shirts of its own with logos. It’s a small thing, and not necessary, but perhaps the T-shirts can be a source of pride and a way to raise public awareness. The only way to get them is through the child-welfare board. “We do need a lot of help from everywhere we can get,” she said.
National County Government Week to Focus on Ways Counties Protect Children
Every year, county governments across the country take one week to focus on educating residents about the services and programs counties provide.
his year, National County Government Week is April 6-12, and counties around the country are preparing by focusing on services directed at helping children.
The “Protecting Our Children” theme was selected by the National Association of Counties based on its two current Presidential Initiatives: Campaign Against Child Sexual Exploitation (CASE) and Aging Out of Foster Care.
The Aging Out of Foster Care initiative hopes to encourage county leaders to raise awareness in their communities about the problems associated with the lack of support and services given to children who are aging out of the foster care system. According to NACo, about 20,000 children age of the foster care system each year.
Without support, many end up costing counties money regardless, either through indigent health care expenses or jail space. According to the Child Welfare League of America, 25 percent of those who age out of the foster care system become homeless, and 27 percent of males in foster care end up in jail.
“Since many do not have family or other dependable adults to provide assistance, these young adults are at high risk for homelessness, joblessness, illness, incarceration, welfare dependency, early pregnancy, and sexual and physical victimization,” NACo President Eric Coleman said in a statement about the initiative.
“While the responsibilities of counties differ among states, all counties in the U.S. are responsible for providing access to the social safety net that young adults aging out of foster care need to succeed in their lives and their communities,” Coleman said. “County governments are at the forefront of providing services to foster youth, including access to housing, education, training and job placement, and health care, including treatment for mental illness and substance abuse.”
The Campaign Against Child Sexual Exploitation is a partnership between NACo and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to raise awareness about the prevalence of child pornography, molestation, online solicitation, prostitution and sexual tourism. NACo hopes county officials take the lead in educating their communities on how to protect children from being targeted and from becoming victims.
“Child sexual exploitation is a scourge on our society and its effects can last a lifetime,” Coleman said. “Many victims battle depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome or become drug abusers; some may even become sexual offenders themselves.”
Counties that want to participate in National County Government Week can also create their own theme if they desire. NACo provides a general guideline on how to prepare for County Government Week on its Web site at www.naco.org/nationalcountygovernmentweek.
The guidebook includes ideas for getting media coverage and resident participation.
Child Abuse Task Force Protects Children in Harm’s Way
Collillillin County Sgt. Gerald Burk is not an art collector, but on the book shelf in his office inside the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center sits a 2-foot sculpture of a tree. It is a morbid, dark tree full of pain and suffering, trauma and fear, retribution and anger. A headless male doll hangs from one of the tree limbs. The doll’s head is nailed to the tree with a sharp object; blood drips from the head and the body.
But the sculpture isn’t a symbol of morbidity, entirely — not for Burk. The sculpture was created by a 16-year-old girl during an art therapy session. The girl had been sexually assaulted by a relative; Burk personally investigated the case.
“It’s a reminder of the trauma these kids go through, just the overall shock of what is dealt with here,” Burk said. “You’ve got these innocent children that have their whole lives ahead of them, and then someone comes and takes that away.”
Burk has been a member of the county’s Rural Child Abuse Task Force for seven years and has worked with children horribly traumatized by the effects of abuse.
“It can be a heartbreaking experience from some of the things you hear about, but it can also be a rewarding experience,” he said.
Burk is one of three Collin County Sheriff’s
Office investigators who make up part of the countywide child-abuse task force, an initiative that started 10 years ago with the support and leadership of Sheriff Terry Box. The task force works collaboratively with Collin County Child Protective Services, as well as other partners. Together, the different groups comprise the county’s Children’s Advocacy Center.
According to Children’s Advocacy
Centers of Texas, Inc., there are 61 children’s advocacy centers either operating or being developed across the state. All the centers share the goal of ensuring that children’s needs are met as a case is investigated and prosecuted. Centers offer child-friendly environments and work to coordinate multidisciplinary teams of professionals involved in child abuse cases, including law enforcement investigators, prosecutors, CPS workers, mental health professionals and victims’ advocates.
Collin County’s advocacy center, which started in 1992 as a small group of professionals and volunteers, is now a “strategic alliance” that houses all the professional groups together under one roof in a former grocery store in Plano. The Collin County Advocacy Center is funded mostly through public private partnerships and the local community. About 7 percent of its $3 million annual budget comes from state and county dollars. However, the county sheriff’s office supports a specialized team of child abuse investigators known as the Rural Child Abuse Task Force, which rents office space from the center and works with the center to investigate child abuse cases in the county’s rural areas — including Anna, Celina, Fairview, Farmersville, Josephine, Lavon, Melissa, Murphy, Parker, Princeton, Prosper, Wylie and Royse City, which just signed on last year.
One sheriff’s initiative
The Rural Child Abuse Task Force started back in 1997, when Sheriff Box saw the need for smaller jurisdictions to have specialized personnel investigating child abuse cases. That kind of specialization is costly since investigators must be trained to work within the scope of family dynamics and with children who cannot yet communicate clearly. The county’s smaller jurisdictions couldn’t justify the expense of training their investigators to handle child abuse cases, so Sheriff Box offered to share his investigators.
He established memorandums of understanding with the smaller agencies in which all the agencies chipped in to fund a specialized team of investigators. The investigators are technically employees of the sheriff’s office, but each time a smaller agency examines a possible child abuse case, the sheriff’s investigators act as though they are on loan for that agency.
“The task force acts as a representative for each of the cities involved,” said Lt. Mark Sanderson, who supervises the task force. “We become an extension of their department.
If Princeton has a child abuse case, we are working it as part of the Princeton Police Department, even though the investigators are sheriff’s office employees.”
Originally, the task force was made up of just one full-time investigator and a part-time supervisor. In 1997, the Task Force investigated 407 cases. Ten years later, the staff has more than doubled in size — it’s now comprised of three full-time investigators from the sheriff’s office and Sanderson.
While the staff has doubled, the task force’s caseload has quintupled; in 2007, the investigators worked 2,184 different cases, each taking about 67.5 hours of the investigators’ time. The caseload continues to increase; in January, the Task Force investigated 182 allegations of child abuse, ranging from aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment to online solicitation of a child, a crime the task force just started expending resources on.
In the same 10 years, the county’s population has only increased by 77 percent, so the increased caseload isn’t a result of growth. It’s the result of increased efficiency made possible by the task force and its close ties to Child Protective Services and the Children’s Advocacy Center, Sanderson said.
“We are capturing more cases now that we are in the same building, and there is more uniformity in reporting,” he said. Another reason the caseload has soared is that any time the task force receives an allegation that one child is being abused or neglected, it has the resources and expertise to automatically investigate the well-being of other children in the home or family.
“The number of reported cases always seems to be larger than what people realize,” Sanderson said. Janetta Michaels, the center’s senior director of operations, said there are several misconceptions about child abuse cases, both institutionally and publicly. “Institutionally, there is the misconception that [child abuse] cases are like other cases, but these are exceptional cases, with a lot of other things involved, where family dynamics come into play,” she said. “There are the non-offending parents and how they feel or what they are doing about a situation, there is often domestic violence or drug usage, lack of witnesses, and there is rarely physical evidence.” Although a large number of allegations turn out to be unfounded, they must be investigated anyway.
Publicly, there’s an idea that child abuse is connected to poverty, but that’s not true. Collin County is known as one of the state’s wealthiest counties. But wealth doesn’t stop child abuse. It is a problem across all socioeconomic levels, Sanderson said, adding that he sees it “spread out across the board.”
The task force utilizes all the resources available inside the Children’s Advocacy Center walls when conducting its investigations.
For instance, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) work within the center to perform rape-kit evidence collection. The examiner’s room isn’t in a scary hospital or doctor’s office, but next door to two playrooms within the advocacy center and just down the hall from investigators’ offices.
“Things are done at a much faster pace because of how we work so efficiently together,” Sanderson said. “We do not go off and duplicate work because we are all together.
Everything is done in concert with each other. The investigation is seamless.”
Employees believe the advocacy center wouldn’t be as successful if it weren’t for the support of the sheriff’s office and the district attorney’s office. That support has worked to increase the prosecution rate for child-abuse cases, and offenders are being handed stiffer sentences. One child rapist received five life sentences for sexually assaulting his niece, due to the collaborative effort of everyone involved in the investigation, including the task force.
“It was a complex case, and we ended up with the sentencing being the best you could ever hope for,” Sanderson said. Studies have shown that areas using a multidisciplinary-team approach to child-abuse investigations also have faster prosecutions, which helps speed up a victim’s recovery process.
“We build a relationship with our prosecutors,” Michaels said. “After working with them on case after case after case, there is a lot more trust that gets developed. If you were to spread that out across 19 different law-enforcement agencies, that’s a lot more relationships that have to be built.”
But having a children’s advocacy center where everyone is placed under one roof may not be feasible in some larger counties, where the sheer number of bodies and cases may be more suitable for local centers. Smaller counties may benefit from regional collaborations with adjoining counties.
According to the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Texas Inc., counties need several figures to gain support for creating a successful center, including:
In some areas, counties may find that the number of cases being investigated by CPS differs widely with the cases being investigated by law enforcement because of a disconnect between the two agencies, Michaels said. Bridging that gap is one of the most important roles a children’s advocacy center and specialized law enforcement task force can have, she added.
Children’s safe haven
Walking into the Children’s Advocacy Center may feel like walking into an elementary school or after-school program — activity rooms greet visitors with video games and toys, and art projects hang on the walls. But all the children who come to the center come because an allegation of abuse or neglect has been made. Some arrive with their family members but may be removed from their family before the end of the day; others have already been removed from their homes and arrive without any family support.
Either way, it’s a difficult situation. The first place children go are the activity rooms in the center, designed to make kids feel comfortable even though they’re in a strange environment. The rooms are brightly painted and filled with toys for various age groups.
From July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007, the center’s staff investigated 5,593 allegations of child abuse, ranging from abandonment and manslaughter to domestic violence and sexual assault. About half the allegations fell under the task force’s jurisdiction; the biggest chunk of allegations were for neglectful supervision and physical abuse, but 1,135 were allegations of sexual abuse.
“When they get here, obviously they have their own trauma, so we don’t want to throw them right into another traumatic situation,” said Caralee Gurney, the center’s community educator.
Down the hall from the activity rooms, the task force works with forensic investigators specifically trained on how to question children about traumatic events. The forensic interviewer sits with children one-on-one in small, personal interview rooms, which are equipped with video cameras.
“To be this person these children divulge all this information to, it’s really an emotional thing,” said Michelle Schuback, a forensic investigator who also serves as the center’s community resource director.
One wall in Schuback’s office is covered with drawings children created during their interviews with her. Most of the drawings are of houses and stick-figure families; a few are thank-you letters. “Kids are so resilient. They’ve had so much done to them but there’s still such hope in them,” Schuback said, nodding toward the wall. “This is a place where healing gets to start. For a lot of the kids, it’s a sigh of relief to finally get this information off their chest.”
The forensic interviews are fact-finding and non-leading. Investigators with the task force and Child Protective Services sit in a room next door and watch the interview as it unfolds, thinking of unanswered questions and leads to follow and communicate with the interviewer during breaks.
Between the interviewer and the investigators, most initial questions have been asked and answered; a decision is made then and there whether the child should return to his or her parents — who, if they are at the center, have been sequestered in a secure waiting station nearby — or taken to a safe home. “Law enforcement is making a decision about whether a crime is being committed, and CPS is deciding whether the child is safe in the home,” Schuback said, adding that the first interview is normally the only time she speaks with a child before handing the case over to the task force and CPS, who conduct concurrent investigations.
If an agency isn’t investigating child abuse cases through a coordinated multi-disciplinary approach, children may be asked to recount their stories to different people five, six or even 12 times. There’s law enforcement, CPS, nurses, medical examiners, therapists and prosecutors, among others “It’s often a frustrating experience being bounced around,” Schuback said. “The idea here is that they can get all the services they need in one location.”
The task force plays a bigger initial role in cases involving children who are too young to speak. In those cases, there is no forensic interview; investigators must interview family members and neighbors and look for injuries and wounds. It’s a completely different kind of case because those victims cannot tell their story.
After the forensic interviews, children may be released to their families and asked to sign up for free sessions with child therapists. Or they may be assigned a social worker to help the family if they need assistance in getting food, clothes or other needs met. “There are a lot of ways to end a case other than making an arrest,” Sanderson said.
But if investigators think a crime has been committed, or if children are in danger, they do not return home. Instead, they meet with a caseworker from CPS who assesses the child’s immediate needs and tries to get them met. The center has two rooms filled with new clothes, coats, dolls, toys, books, baby-care accessories, blankets and other items. Private and corporate sponsors donate the items and other accessories, like duffle bags, so the kids don’t have to leave carrying their new things out in trash bags.
“CPS’s main goal is to reunite the family back together. … But if they are going to someplace other than home, these kids have been through a lot, so we don’t want to give them something old and worn, we want to give them something new,” Gurney said. “They have different needs. Some of them may need a coat, or new clothes, some of them may need diapers or baby food, and others may need a book or a toy.” Leaving a lasting impact The center’s work does not stop when a case is closed, and the impacts the sheriff’s task force has on children it helps is lasting.
Many of the children referred to the center receive free music-, play- and art-therapy sessions at the center long after the original meeting has taken place, whether the initial interview was able to identify a specific abuse problem in the child’s life or not. It’s during those sessions — as well as in trial — that the sergeants and other personnel begin to see the healing process take place.
The music therapy includes a piano, four guitars, a drum set and other instruments that allow the kids to express their feelings or stories through song and sound. During play therapy, kids can play with model houses, dolls and toys, which may reflect their home situation.
“This helps them express what happened with them,” Gurney said. “They may be more comfortable playing with two animals, saying, ‘This is what Dad was doing to me at this spot’… more comfortably than they could be pointing them out on themselves.”
One of the art therapy projects includes creating three-dimensional sculptures of tree houses, similar to the one Sgt. Burk keeps in his office. Through the tree houses, the children can express everything from where they feel their place in the home is and their relationships with family members to their fury and fear over the abuse they have suffered.
One child created a tree house in which a young girl doll was separated from the other dolls, but the creation included a bridge to climb that would bring the dolls together. “You may think it’s kind of graphic or things are sad, but the person, she’s trying to help bridge the gap with her dad,” Gurney says, pointing to the different dolls in the tree house.
Gurney recalled one story that illustrates the lasting impact the center has had on the children it serves. She remembered a child who was going through art therapy and was asked to build something that made him feel safe. The child built a cage, but told his therapist he didn’t feel safe yet, so he added a lock to the cage. He still didn’t feel safe yet, so he put a man on top of the cage. The therapist asked him who the man was, and the child responded that it was the detective who had investigated his case. “He saved my life,” the child told the therapist.
“We want to identify what is going on with the child, we want to protect the child, and we want to improve their lives,” Gurney said. “We hope that the therapy can help them do that,” she said, pointing to other art projects. One huge canvas shows the silhouette of a man caught in a spider web. The canvas is sliced down the middle going both ways, cutting the man into pieces. The child who painted it was a recovering cutter – a person who compulsively harms him or herself physically “It’s really a way for them to be expressive without having to use their words, because their words can be so hard,” Gurney said