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South Carolina DSS - What SC DSS
does not want you to know
Note:
Nothing we say or post is intended to be legal advice and is distributed for the
informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, and does not constitute
the giving of legal advice. For more information about the laws and regulations
in this state please contact your own attorney. Every
one needs to read this site's page. It is pretty accurate!
DSS in the news: "Dee
Burdick of Lake Saint Louis is among those who has had to decide whether the
loss of the state payments will keep her and her husband from adopting a set of
three siblings. Burdick said she probably wouldn't have started the process of
adopting three children at once if she knew the subsidies were going to be
cut."
Parents -
If you are one of many families, which have had your child(ren) falsely
kidnapped by the State, you need to know the following: YOUR
CHILD IS PAYING SOMEONE ELSE'S BILLS! YOUR CHILD IS MONEY!
 | "REGULAR DSS BOARD PAYMENT to foster
and adoptive families for your kidnapped child(ren) is: $312.00
a month for each child age 0-5; and
$339.00 a month for each child age 6-12; and
$405.00 a month for each child age 13-21.
| This does not include the "Accelerated Board
Payments" they can obtain! $525.00, $820.00, and up to
$2,000.00.
The Adoptive parents have to "Barter or
Broker" the financial terms to adopt. DSS asks the Adoptive Families,
"How much money they need in order to take care of this child a
month. DSS tell this to the families prior to the Adoption worker
coming out to their homes, so they can keep their funding. All they
have to do is tell them, "The same amount of money we are receiving as
foster parents to said child"! However, families adopting "Special
Needs" children have up to $2,000.00 medical subsidies a year, and can
apply for more, but DSS doesn't like to pay it, and rarely approves them,
even though DSS receives "FEDERAL FUNDS" for this! The physical
year funding starts over every year on the Childs birthday. DSS tells
parents there are no respite monies available, even though there is up to
$500.00 available each year for medical subsidies for respite, per
child! Just who and what is DSS working for? What are they
doing with this money? Until the budget cuts, the respite money used
to be unlimited. Used to be the $2000.00 medical subsidies could be
used entirely used on respite. Now they say only $500.00, but say
there is none! Hmmmm. There are severely handicapped children that are
entitled to $2000.00 of medical subsidies for equipment, which is related to
their multiple diagnosis and handicaps, but DSS is holding their
prescriptions and medical subsidies on their desk to attemt to avoid paying
out the $2000.00 each year. They attempt to hold the funds past the
child's birthday, to only pay out $2000.00 every 2 years and not every
year. Adoption Subsidies Agreement, DSS Form 3052, Medical
Benefits. Eligibility is based on IVE Adoption Assistance.
Your child actually funds DSS with Federal money that they don't like to
spend where it is supposed to go. Why are they holding up all these
claims on their desk, when each equipment is less than $500.00 each?
We need to take a real hard look at what DSS is doing with our State and
Federal funds they are obtaining, but not paying out to the handicapped as
well!
| Most of us know families with 4 of these kidnapped
children in their homes!
| I know a family which receives $1,341.00 every
single month! Another family receives more than $1,527.00, which does
not include the accelerated board payments they also receive.
| GET AN ATTORNEY ASAP! No matter
what DSS tells you...
YOU NEED AN ATTORNEY TO KEEP DSS
OFFICIALS, WHICH ARE NOT ATTORNEYS, from abusing your legal rights! e.g.:
coercive statements and tactics used by a few unnamed DSS
officials. (I personally have another name in mind to call it!)
| If DSS
is able to keep you from getting your child (ren) back in a short period of
time - START PAYING CHILD SUPPORT INTO THE COUNTY, WHICH
HAS TAKEN YOUR CHILD (REN), even if the Judge has not ordered you to do so
yet. (AND IT WILL BE ORDERED) (If they won't accept your child support,
without a court order, get it in writing! The judge needs proof you care
about and want your child (ren). (I have placed this here, do to a "hear
say" incident of a judge ordering child support, then a DSS
official encouraging a parent not to pay anything until the next hearing,
which would allow for a amending to the current order. (If a judge had given
an order, I would do what the order mandates, not what the DSS worker tries
to get you to do. Why you ask? Because this is one
of the ways DSS gets
your parental rights taken from you, even if you are innocent of all false
allegations! It is called - Non-Support for 6 months or more!
| The biggest shocker of all and what
EVERY Parent needs to know is this: The number one tactic DSS
uses for terminating your parental rights is:
KEEP YOUR CHILD IN THE SYSTEM FOR 15 MONTHS!
Yes, you heard me right! DSS
uses what they call the "TREATMENT PLAN". They get the
parents to sign forms, (COERCION IN ALL THE CASES I HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF) and
drag it out for 15 months. The parent usually fails to meet it and
then the Judge orders in favor of DSS,
based on the 15 months your child (ren) have been in the system. I call
it the poor family victimization of not being able to afford an attorney.
After 15 months of DSS
red tape, constant "Treatment plan" after "Treatment
Plan" barrage, the parent usually gives up or realizes they are not
going to get their child back without an attorney, which they could not
afford in the first place. You
only get an attorney appointed to you if you are facing criminal charges.
Non criminal child abductions by the STATE is the
issue at hand here.
| Adoptive Parents receive the same amount
of money for your kidnapped child(ren) that the Foster Parents received when
the child(ren) were just in foster care. YES, You are reading this
correctly! Your child is money! Foster parents and Adoptive parents
get paid no matter what! In South Carolina, the "REGULAR
DSS BOARD PAYMENT IS: $312.00 a month for each child age 0-5; and
$339.00 a month for each child age 6-12; and
$405.00 a month for each child age 13-21.
| This does not include the "Accelerated Board
Payments" they can obtain!
| Most of us know families with 4 of these kidnapped
children in their homes!
| | | | | | | | | |
The
Foster parent does not loose a dime when they adopt your child! It
only saves the State the additional money and costs incurred, while the
child is in foster care! This is the
reason why DSS works
so hard to terminate your parent rights! In short: A child in foster
care costs the STATE more money than a child that they can get adopted.
How you ask? Simple! As long as the child is in foster care, the
State has to pay the foster parent the basic "Board payment", all
medical expenses for the child(ren), travel expenses of Foster parents, case
workers, attorney fee's, mental health, Guardian Ad Litem, ect....
Once the child is adopted, DSS
no longer has to provide monthly child visits, supervise child-family
visitations, mental health, ect. Less resourses and money used.
The DSS funding just
saved a ton of money. (Opposed to keeping the child in foster care for
years.) Follow the money - I always say!
| In
1997, Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act a provision
intended to expedite the removal of endangered children from perilous living
conditions. Additionally, it provided financial incentives to states to
encourage them to find adoptive or other permanent homes for foster
children, especially those with special needs.
Under the "Adoption Incentive Payment" section of the act, a state
can receive as much as $4,000 for adopting out a child. Under a
subsequent provision, technical assistance is offered "through
grants or contracts…to assist states and local communities to reach their
targets for increased numbers of adoptions." This financial assistance
can be used to expedite the termination of parental rights and
"encourage the fast tracking of children who have not attained 1 year
of age into pre-adoptive placements." Technical assistance is also
appropriated to the courts to the tune of a whopping $5,000,000 for each
fiscal year.
Most applaud the spirit of the law, to move children from foster homes into
permanent adoptive placements thus establishing a greater level of
stability. But the obvious danger is that the very governing state
agency entrusted with protecting children from dangerous environments and
working with parents to reunite their families, is also given fat bonuses
by the federal government if they push to terminate parental rights and
increase their adoption numbers. The counter productive potential of the
kick-backs
| A recent DSS
training session enacted the training of an entry to a persons home
technique. It is as follows: A family takes their child to the
emergency room for a broken arm. The family leaves the hospital after
the child has received treatment. Within 24 hours, DSS
comes to the family door. DSS
is claiming they do not need a warrant to enter the home, based on the
suspected abuse report made by the hospital. The parents refuse entry.
DSS calls the police
for assistance. The police
claim they do not need a warrant because the hospital made the report.
(Now you need to call your attorney on this one, but I have to ask, "If
the hospital believed there is abuse, a broken limb at that-bodily injury-a.k.a.
excessive force argument -criminal assault- why did they allow the child to
leave in the first place?; and Why didn't the ER call the police and DSS
to come to the hospital? (We all know the police can get a hold of a DSS
worker 24/7); and "If the hospital felt it was not urgent enough to
call the police and DSS
while the family is in the emergency room, then why is it now an probable
cause emergency, that does not require any warrant to enter the private
home?" Children break their bones every day. Is DSS
now saying, "If your child breaks a bone, without any information to
support abuse outside a broke bone, and you take your child to the emergency
room, the hospital is not to call an official to the ER to investigate, but
send the child home and ask questions later?" Now seems to me, if
the hospital believed this to be an abuse case and they sent the child home
anyway, wouldn't the hospital be liable and chargeable (Reckless
endangerment of a minor to say the least) for knowingly placing the so called,
suspected "probable cause "EMERGENCY" investigation
entry" child back into life, health and limb, danger?" I
have heard of some wacky DSS
training techniques to teach officials how to obtain entry into the homes of
citizens without first obtaining an warrant, but this one tops the charts!
I'm not positive, but I know a good attorney can help provide the legal
answer to this one. I would be curious to learn if any official would
be held to (Calabretta v. Floyd 189 F.3d (808 (9th Cir. 1999.) Title
18, U.S.C., Section 242
Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law)
using this one. Please note: I fully believe in
protecting a child. However, I firmly believe in
"A parent's right to the custody of his/her children
is an element of "liberty" guaranteed by the 5th amendment and the
14th Amendment of the United States Constitution." Metter of Gentery
369 NW 2d 889, MI App Div (1983).
"The parent child relationship is a liberty interest
protected by the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment." Bell V City
of Milwaukee, 746 f2d 1205, 1242-45; US Ct Ap 7th Cir WI (1985)
"The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held
that the parent-child relationship is a constitutionally protected liberty
interest. (See -Declaration of Independence - life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness and the 14th Amendment of the United States
Constitution - No state can deprive any person of life, liberty or property
without due process of law nor deny any person the equal protection of the
laws)" Kelson v Springfield, 767 F2d651;US Ct App 9th Cir, (1985)
"State Judges, as well as federal, have the
responsibility to respect and protect persons from violations of federal
constitutional rights." Gross V State of Illinois, 312 F 2d 257, (1963)
The Constitution also protects "the individual interest in avoiding
disclosure of personal matters." Federal Courts (and State Courts)
under Griswold can protect, under the "life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness" phrase of the Declaration of Independence, the right of a
man to enjoy the mutual care, company, love and affection of his children,
and this cannot be taken away from him without due process of law. There is
a family right to privacy which the state cannot invade or it becomes
actionable for civil rights damages. Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479,
(l965)
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And of course: Calabretta v. Floyd 189 F.3d (808 (9th Cir.
1999.) Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242
Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law)
Note:
Nothing we say or post is intended to be legal advice and is distributed for the
informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, and does not constitute
the giving of legal advice. For more information about the laws and regulations
in this state please contact your own attorney.
Foster Parents -
| DSS
likes to get you to supervise and transport family visitations of the foster
child. I am informed of the following: The foster parent only
has to transport the child to medical appointments and to DSS
personally. DSS
is required to transport and oversee all parental visitations.
You do not have to have any foster child's family in your
home. You do not have to come into any contact with the foster
child's family! Further, you do not have to change your weekend or
Holliday plans without a court order! ("A Judge as a curtsey will
ask a foster parent if they mind first - before issuing such an order"
Further, if DSS say
they have such an order, you have the right to see and review such order!) DSS
can not call you up and tell you, "DSS
has scheduled a "NON-COURT ORDERED" visitation on
Christmas Eve - (spur of the moment) - with your foster child and the
foster child's grand parents and you have to
oblige the transsition without any DSS
official present. Further, you have to meet the grandmother
at Oak Brook Wal-Mart at 6:00pm." NOTE: If DSS
wants to make arrangements such as this, I suggest you call your local
police department. Ask the officer to contact your case worker and the
"after hours worker-police can always contact DSS
24/7", which will be forced to come and supervise the "Non-Court
Ordered visitation switch. Anyone can call you
up on the phone and claim they are DSS.
Note the case incident as of December 24, 2004! http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2730001
It is DSS, which made
the arrangement and DSS's
responsibility to be present for all visitation transfers and the like of
the children they have mandated by the courts with the custody and care of.
Police officers do not give out their home address to
the criminals they arrest for the criminal to find them or come and
retaliate. A foster parents home should not be known to the
foster child(ren) family for possible abduction or harassment!
Further, if the foster parent supervises a child visitation switch without
a DSS worker present
and the child is not returned or returned safely, it falls on the foster
parent(s) head! I am leaving out the DSS
protection excuses they could use to cover their tails as well.
| Foster parents are not
required to give out their address, telephone or other personal information
to the foster child(ren) family. Shame on any DSS
employee that leads foster parents to believe they must give up their vital
and confidential information.
| Shame on any DSS
employee that leads foster parents into believing that foster parents must
supervise visitations, that foster parents must provide transport to family
visitations, hold visitations in their homes, or must meet, see or have
anything to do with the families at all. Foster parent families have
confidentiality rights! The foster family did not have their children
removed from their home. They committed no abuse. They are not
required to give up their rights and privacy to put a roof over the foster
children's head! They do not have to disrupt their entire life to
pacify the family, which has had their child removed, nor can DSS
make them without a court order from the Family Court Judge! No
wonder good foster homes are turning in their foster licenses.
SHAME on DSS!
(This is just a small piece of the information known at this time.)
| Guardian Ad Litem's can not transport a foster child
either. (I am putting this here, due to another incident of a Guardian Ad
Litem calling a foster parent and stating, "I am coming to take the
foster child to stay in my home this weekend!") It is also shocking to
note on another incident: Is it common practice for a Guardian Ad Litem to
meet with a foster child and state the following to said foster child (In
this order), "I am scared for your safety in your current foster home.
I'm afraid for your safety in the foster home. I am worried about your
safety in your foster home." Then ask the foster child,
"Do you feel safe in your foster home?" Now shouldn't the
foster child have been questioned in a manner such as this: "Do
you feel safe in your foster home?" Then allow the child to
respond with his or her answer, which might lead the Guardian Ad Litem to
believe the child is unsafe, prior to making the Guardian Ad Litem
statements, "I am scared for your safety in your current foster home.
I'm afraid for your safety in the foster home. I am worried about your
safety in your foster home."? (The foster
child responded, "I feel safe", even after the Guardian Ad Litem's
questionable investigation method.)
| Be very cautious of DSS
workers telling you to place your foster child with a specific Respite Care
provider. Any foster care family knows of one or two such DSS
Respite care provider(s) which has a high rate of non returned foster
children or false reports being made on the foster family, once the child or
children have been in such RESPITE CARE providers home. (It is
privately called and joked about among many foster and former foster
families as the "Respite foster/adoption child mafia ring or Respite
foster/adoption child brokerage firm.") I know of
one very publicized (It was in the press)
instance of a HEAD County DSS
official taking an over seas trip with a foster parent.)
| And another "no big shocker" -
Certain implications and beliefs of political racism placement issues, when
dealing with foster child placements. (I can not publicize the
implicating information without all you know what breaking loose! None
the less, very factual and well known to many current and former foster
homes. |
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There is a long list list of documentation not listed on
this page. I am looking forward to seeing if DSS
gets their act together anytime soon, now that I have placed this little bit of
information here. If not, maybe this will put everyone on an even playing
field!
There will be a very comprehensive informational website
coming soon-Thanks to former foster parent association leaders, current and
former foster parents, former foster children, and many others not listed.
We are doing this in the hopes of limiting the number of false abductions of DSS
children, false DSS
information to both biological and foster parents, to force DSS
to only abduct actual abused children, limit DSS's
abuse of the system, reduce the number of "Good" foster homes from
turning in their licenses, and stop the brokerage of innocent children -Many
foster families know exactly what this section is talking about (see above)!
Ann Ashley - Adult Survivor and Child Victim of the foster and adoptive
system from age 6-17. (To the person that laughed at the DSS foster child,
when said child mentioned my name, do you still believe I do not know
what I am talking about, understand how the
DSS system works or know
what exactly is going on in DSS?"
p.s., I am still waiting for the local DSS
office to return my calls. Columbia DSS
called me back 3 months ago! Everything on this page is compiled from "MULTIPLE"
"CURRENT and FORMER DSS
foster homes, which I know personally or do not know personally, but have
contacted me at "MY HOME" for support"
WILL EVERYONE GET DSS'S
ATTENTION
with SUPPORT to the ACTUAL
and VERIFIABLE ISSUES AT HAND
NOW?!
p.s. "Ask DSS to
tell you exactly how much money they are awarded by "ALL"
"paying entities/organizations!
The
More They Take, the More They Make
A
recent federal law actually establishes adoption quotas for each state, with
bonuses for each child adopted out, and even more money for every child
adopted exceeding the quota. ‘Special needs' children earn even more, both
during the ‘lease' period and at the final ‘sale'. A researcher in one
state found that a severely needy child can earn its masters up to $250,000
a year in government money. We are still awaiting the figures for the
Commonwealth, but the state budget for the DSS alone is over half a billion
dollars, not including the money for lots of outside contractors and medical
care.
DSS in
the news
Baby died under DSS WATCH! http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch04/0504/arc05041713444.shtml
A social worker
in Delaware is accused of striking a deal with her boyfriend in which she
agreed not to reveal that he allegedly raped her 15-year-old daughter.
Authorities say the two agreed she wouldn't turn him in as long he paid her $1000
a-month for ten years. http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=3422103&nav=3w6oaZbA
Unlike North
Carolina, South Carolina keeps case reviews secret when children die after
contact with the Social Services Department, making it nearly impossible to
know whether the agency is making mistakes. 12-year-old
Amanda Cope was dead by November, her father accused of raping and strangling
her in the middle of the night. http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/6505768.htm
"A sworn
affidavit by witness Gaston County Patrol Officer Jeannette Seagle states that
"there was no need for the removal of the children."
South Carolina
apparently got gold fever and joined the rush as well. The Charlotte World
also reported in a feature, Christian Family Ripped Apart that "with
virtually no warning, the Greenville Department of Social
Services came into
Bill and Debbie Rettew's home, removed 15 of their 18 children and placed them
in foster homes." The family, which was so talented and exemplary that
Bill Rettew was named Father of the Year, (an honor reportedly bestowed by the
South Carolina
Attorney General), and invited to appear on Focus on the Family to meet
Founder and president Dr. James Dobson and sing on his weekly radio broadcast.
And while such an excessive seizure begs countless questions, in light of the
federal incentives the internal dynamics of the Rettew family shed no small
light on the subject. As the Charlotte World explains: "Having given
birth to Will and Autumn, now 32 and 24, the Rettews felt strongly that it was
their Christian mission to care for children others might not want. So they
became foster parents and eventually adopted multi-racial kids and children
with medical problems. Every one of their adopted 18 have physical, emotional
or mental disabilities. The reasons the children were taken into DSS custody
remain unclear since Family Court Judge Amy Sutherland placed a gag order on
the Rettews and DSS officials, prohibiting them from discussing the
case." http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:Mj6B5UnUUtAJ:www.wordmagazine.net/pages/Articles/freedom_village.htm+South+Carolina+Social+Services+complaint+news&hl=en
Krystal was one
of five foster children
killed in South Carolina
foster homes
between February 1991 and January 1992. The deaths
were first reported in a series of stories in The Charlotte Observer in early
1993. http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:fb_ACQ7OF10J:www.liftingtheveil.org/krystal.htm+South+Carolina+foster+care+deaths+Social+Services+&hl=en
Note:
Nothing we say or post is intended to be legal advice and is distributed for the
informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, and does not constitute
the giving of legal advice. For more information about the laws and regulations
in this state please contact your own attorney.
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