When the
bough breaks |
Leanore Weigner says goodbye to her daughter, Mary, in
July. (Annie Oneill, Post-Gazette)
|
Introduction to the series
Sunday, December 12, 1999
When parents can't care for their children because of drug abuse, or violent behavior,
or just lack of skill, it is the job of county child welfare agencies to step in and
protect the youngsters.
Except in cases where parents have murdered or raped a child, these agencies are
expected to help parents overcome the problems that cost them custody, and reunite them
with their children, if at all possible.
In pursuing that goal, some agencies and court systems do better than others. In Beaver
County, the Children and Youth Services agency and the courts are not role models for
reunification.
After examining the county's practices for nearly a year, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
has found numerous problems:
 Beaver County terminates the rights of
parents to their children twice as fast as the national average -- and even more quickly
when the children are infants.
Beaver County frequently makes it difficult
for parents to meet the goals it establishes for them to get their children back. One
example: CYS routinely schedules parental visits with children during working hours, and
then criticizes parents if they miss the visits -- or miss work.
Beaver County's court fails to provide poor
children and parents with lawyers for some hearings.
Beaver County often resists giving children
to relatives of the parents, even though federal and state regulations say that should be
done whenever possible.
When Beaver County does allow relatives to
become foster parents, it generally refuses to pay them foster care subsidies, and instead
makes them seek much lower welfare payments for the children.
Beaver County has placed some children for
potential adoption with people who either work with CYS and the courts or serve on their
advisory boards. In one high-profile case, a judge terminated the rights of a mother after
a friend of hers gave the baby away for adoption without her permission to a professional
colleague of the judge.
Until recently, Beaver County terminated
the parental rights of some jailed mothers without transporting them to the termination
hearings, even when they had asked to attend. It took a lawsuit by the
American Civil Liberties Union to change that practice.
The series:
Part
One: Mother
finally gives up long battle to adopt her 'heart's daughter'
Part
Two: Beaver County
moves faster than average to sever parents' legal rights to their children
Part
Three: Mother asks
CYS for help; it takes her children
Part
Four: CYS fights
family's adoption, then opposes benefits
Photo
journal
About
the authors
The reaction:
Beaver County plans inquiry into Children and Youth Services
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