In 2010, the Chicago Housing Authority tried to require residents to turn over their kids’ report cards as a condition of tenancy, sayingthey were doing it to assess for “potential need for services.” Then in 2011, the Chicago Housing Authority wanted to require that all residents, including thousands of seniors, undergo drug testing as a way to fight crime in public housing. If anyone in the household tested positive, the Housing Authority … Read More
News And Events
Kinship Care Helped Me Stay Connected to My Son
June 09, 2011 by
Last April, my son was placed in foster care from his mother’s custody. Knowing how some foster parents can be, I worried that my son might be mistreated in the system. My son had been staying with me onweekends, so I asked the judge if I could take my son, but the system did not approve of my apartment. They said I couldn’t bring him home.
But they allowed my mother to … Read More
No Safe Haven- Could we find treatment for my grandson without placing him in foster care?
May 09, 2011 by
On the morning of June 14, 2009, my daughter, grandson and I headed north from our small town in Nebraska on the 90 mile trip to theBehavioral Health Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. My grandson, Nathan, had been acting extremely aggressive for 36 hours. He threw chairs across the room, punched the computer screen, and kicked and hit family members.
Nathan, who has been diagnosed with Bipolar, ADD and ODD, and also has … Read More
Presumed Guilty- I was treated like a criminal when my son fell and broke his leg
May 09, 2011 by
The bleeps of the monitors seemed to blare against the glare of the gleaming ivory floor as my husband and I wheeled our six-month-old son down the hospital hallway. I felt my guilt open up like a gash and I hid my tears from my son.
Earlier that day I had pushed my son in his stroller to our Queensbridge apartment building and then tried to pull the stroller up the stairs. … Read More
Fighting Back When Hospitals Misdiagnose Child Abuse
May 09, 2011 by
In March, the Houston Chronicle published a story about a Texas judge who took the rare step of punishing a child welfare agency for rushing to remove children from home.
The case started in January when Darcy and Tye Miller brought one of their newborn twins to the Texas Children’s Hospital with bronchitis. The baby’s X-ray showed healing rib fractures that the parents could not explain. The hospital asked the parents … Read More