NEWS
By The Washington Post | November 12, 2009
WASHINGTON - -The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it would be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District of Columbia if the city won't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care. Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings.
NEWS
By Peter Hermann | October 7, 2009
Ken Watts had a restless night and an eventful morning. He awoke about 4:30 a.m. to the sound of a motor running, looked out his window and saw a police vehicle outside his house on Wilke Avenue. "I knew something in my neighborhood was going on," he said. Watts returned to bed, got up at his usual time and walked to his car about 7:15 a.m. He saw yellow police tape draped around the front yard of a house three doors up the street in his Northeast Baltimore neighborhood. "I knew something really bad was going on," he said.
NEWS
By Laura Smitherman | August 23, 2009
As Gov. Martin O'Malley prepares to announce $470 million in budget cuts this week, he has rejected proposals to severely slash funding for the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and the Baltimore City Department of Social Services. The Democratic governor and former Baltimore mayor has been weighing recommendations for closing a projected shortfall in the fiscal year that began last month. In recent days, he and administration officials have been poring over options for line-item reductions to balance the $13 billion state operating budget.
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
By Julie Bykowicz | December 14, 2008
Molly McGrath had been chief operating officer of the Baltimore Department of Social Services for about nine months when she was promoted to the position of director in September. Since then, McGrath, 41, has been working to reform the huge agency. A career social worker, she says it takes simple things - like turning up the ringer volume on the phones - combined with the more ambitious statewide strategy of keeping children with their families, to make a difference. McGrath acknowledges that she has her work cut out for her. Earlier this year, the agency came under fire over the 2007 death of a 2-year-old who was found to have ingested methadone.
NEWS
By Annie Linskey | September 9, 2008
Citing her efficiency and management experience, Department of Human Resources Secretary Brenda Donald and Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday elevated Molly McGrath to be the director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services. "She's no nonsense," Dixon said at a City Council luncheon yesterday. "She's got a strong background in child advocacy. She understands what my mission is in strengthening the family and really working on creating an environment to put people back in society and become functional and responsible citizens."
NEWS
By Larry Carson | September 7, 2008
While adoptions increased across the state last year, placements dropped in Howard County, but not enough to trouble social services officials. The findings, as well as news of increases in delinquent child-support payments, come from state social service officials, who recently released data for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Across Maryland, 617 children were adopted during the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared with 563 the year before....
NEWS
By Lynn Anderson | May 9, 2008
The mother of Damaud Martin -- a 4-year-old boy who doctors say was severely shaken and is in a coma-like state -- was arrested on child abuse and other charges yesterday, Baltimore police reported. Tamekia A. Martin, 27, of Northeast Baltimore, was jailed and is expected to appear in court today, according to court documents. Attempts to reach Martin and her attorney were unsuccessful. Damaud's case was reported in The Sun last month as an example of the city Department of Social Services' inability to protect some of the most vulnerable children in Baltimore.
NEWS
By Lynn Anderson and Greg Garland | February 13, 2008
A city nurse kept tabs on Bryanna Harris for most of her short life, but during that time the nurse had little or no communication with the agency that protects vulnerable children, Baltimore's health commissioner disclosed yesterday. The nurse tried to keep contact with the family even after Bryanna's second birthday, at which time such visits are typically ended, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein. But on eight occasions in the spring of 2007, the nurse could not find anyone at the Harris house.
NEWS
February 3, 2008
Overburdened DSS can't stop tragedies It is the ultimate tragedy when a child dies at the hands of his or her mother. But it is disheartening that the immediate response is so often to blame the Department of Social Services for improper monitoring or for not providing an unfit mother with services ("Mother asked for help," Jan. 30). I don't think the public has a clue about how much responsibility and how many demands are placed on the caseworkers who make decisions about the welfare of abused and neglected children.