NEWS
By Shelley L. Tinney | October 19, 2009
In recent days, a misguided and unfocused debate related to the closing of group homes serving foster children would have us believe providers' only interest is self preservation. This has obscured issues of far greater importance to the safety and well-being of abused and neglected children. For more than a decade, the state allowed unprecedented, unplanned and unguided growth in the number of group homes, concentrated in a handful of least resistant communities. This development did not result in the most beneficial array of services, nor did it ensure the development of services where they are needed.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | October 2, 2009
Two days after a state senator said Maryland Human Resources Secretary Brenda Donald's signature child welfare program was "not working," Donald received a warm reception - even applause - when she appeared before another group of lawmakers Thursday. At a briefing for the Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families, Donald summarized how she believes "Place Matters," which she launched two years ago, is working to improve outcomes for vulnerable children. Under this new approach, the department focuses on reuniting foster children with their own families or keeping them in family settings, which has reduced the state's reliance on group home beds by nearly half.
NEWS
June 25, 2009
The stories were horrifying and heart-wrenching: a boy beaten bloody while in foster care; a 15-year-old girl tortured and starved to death by a mentally ill guardian; a 5-year-old fatally scalded by his mother after state officials removed him from a safe foster home. It's no wonder such egregious cases of abuse and neglect have helped drive a 25-year-old lawsuit over how the Maryland Department of Human Resources and the Baltimore Department of Social Services care for the state's most vulnerable children and adolescents.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | June 24, 2009
For a quarter-century, lawyers for Baltimore foster children have been telling a judge horrific stories of abuse and neglect and indifference. The child welfare system itself, the attorneys said, failed these children time and again by shrugging off reforms it was ordered to make as a result of a federal lawsuit. That has changed, the lawyers said Tuesday. Convinced that the state Department of Human Resources, which oversees child welfare and the city's more than 5,000 foster children, has finally made enough progress on changes first ordered by a judge in 1988, the lawyers on Monday filed a motion that could eventually end federal court oversight.
NEWS
September 2, 2008
Statistically, the most likely profile of a neglectful or abusive parent is a 30-year-old, college-educated white woman who has a job. Yet in Maryland, African-American children are far more likely than their white counterparts to be removed from their homes by child welfare officials because of maltreatment. A recent study by Advocates for Children and Youth, a group that lobbies for children's issues in Maryland, found that while African-Americans make up only a third of the state's children, they constitute nearly three-quarters of the children removed from their homes, and are five times more likely than white children to be placed in group or foster home care.
NEWS
By Nancy Jones Bonbrest | August 3, 2008
Connie Tolbert Public information officer Maryland Department of Human Resources, Baltimore Salary $48,000 Age 47 Years on the job 15 How she got started As a former welfare recipient, Tolbert was asked to serve on a welfare reform commission during the early 1990s put together by then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer. Tolbert was working then as an administrative assistant for a nonprofit organization, but she had been on and off welfare for a number of years. After her work on the volunteer commission, she got a job with the Department of Human Resources certifying nursing homes.
NEWS
May 4, 2008
When it comes to releasing information about life-threatening child abuse and neglect cases, Maryland gets a failing grade in a national study by child advocates. Regrettably, it's well-deserved, since repeated efforts to shine more light on these cases have been rebuffed in the General Assembly. The advocates' sensible push for more public disclosure is meant to expose - and correct - child-welfare system failures that may contribute to whatever harm a child may suffer at home. Maryland's abysmal showing should finally spur the legislature to make changes, but state and local child welfare officials should voluntarily be more forthcoming whenever possible.
NEWS
April 29, 2008
Baltimore's Department of Social Services continues to lurch from one crisis case to the next with caseworkers and supervisors who are undertrained and overworked. State and city officials are taking some sensible steps to attract more - and more-qualified - workers. But conditions also have to improve to make these jobs more desirable, and the state and city need to consider these improvements a more urgent financial priority. DSS is responsible for 60 percent of Maryland's 10,000 children in foster care, and some of the more sensational and tragic cases of abuse and neglect have occurred under its watch.
NEWS
By Greg Garland | April 29, 2008
Reform of child welfare systems in Maryland and several other states is hampered by "misguided and secretive policies" that restrict disclosure of information about deaths and serious injuries resulting from abuse or neglect, according to a report to be released today by two national child advocacy groups. Maryland was among 10 states that received an "F" grade because they "place confidentiality above the welfare" of children. The report by the University of San Diego School of Law's Children's Advocacy Institute and Washington- based First Star argues for greater transparency so child welfare systems can be held accountable and future tragedies can be averted.
NEWS
By Greg Garland and Lynn Anderson | April 27, 2008
Four-year-old Damaud Martin rests in a coma-like state in a Baltimore hospital, his once-bright smile gone. Relatives who visit him at the Kennedy Krieger Institute say doctors have told them it's likely he will never run, jump or play again. He was a victim of shaken baby syndrome, the Baltimore City Department of Social Services said in a court filing. Police are still investigating what happened to Damaud, who has been hospitalized since Jan. 19, but one thing is clear. The injury occurred two months after the social services agency, with court approval, sent him home.