Cabinet practice has huge unintended (or is it?) consequence

A routine practice by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services in Fayette County seems innocuous to the untrained eye, but it has a huge unintended consequence for certain parents. I wonder if this consequence is actually unintended, but absent confirmation, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Although the Cabinet developed a standard Consent to Adopt and Waiver of Appearance form, in Fayette County (and perhaps others) parents who have decided to voluntarily terminate their parental rights to a child removed for neglect or abuse sign a Petition for Voluntary Termination. The petition has standard language, but each is written for the particular parent. This petition shows parental consent to the termination, but it does not waive the right of the parent to appear at the termination hearing.

Instead of filing the Petition for Voluntary Termination, the Cabinet attaches the signed document to an Involuntary Petition to Termination Parental Rights. This allows them to proceed with the termination even if the parent does not show for the hearing or is not served with the Involuntary Petition. The Consent to Adoption and Waiver of Appearance form would be just fine and allow for the same action, only it would be a Voluntary Termination rather than Involuntary.

This may seem like a meaningless distinction to most people and I am confident few, if any, of the parents signing these Petitions know of the ramification. Only after looking at KRS 625.090(2)(h) is there any concern for this practice. A voluntary termination is not held against a parent regardless of the reason; an involuntary termination counts against them for the rest of their lives:

(2) No termination of parental rights shall be ordered unless the Circuit Court also finds by clear and convincing evidence the existence of one (1) or more of the following grounds:
(h) That:
1. The parent’s parental rights to another child have been involuntarily terminated;
2. The child named in the present termination action was born subsequent to or during the pendency of the previous termination; and
3. The conditions or factors which were the basis for the previous termination finding have not been corrected;

Let’s say birth mom is addicted to cocaine and realizes she is in no shape to parent Child A. She does the caring and courageous things and voluntarily terminates her parental rights. Unbeknownst to her, though, the Cabinet attaches that voluntary to an involuntary petition. A few years later, she has cleaned up and has another child. Subsequent to a painful birth, she develops an addiction to pain pills and her baby is removed due to the addiction and history, even though Child B is healthy and shows no overt adverse effects indicative of neglect. Mom freaks out and relapses and uses cocaine one time which is caught on a drug screen.

Even though mom was clean for a couple of years, the Cabinet believes the necessary bells have been rung to satisfy the statute, gets approval to dispense with “reasonable efforts” to reunify Child B, and moves to involuntarily terminate the parental rights of mom to Child B. Because the judge has considerable discretion, he or she finds that: 1) there was a prior involuntary termination of parental rights (even though it was based on a voluntary consent), 2) Child B was born after Child A, and 3) mom’s relapse shows the conditions or factors for the previous removal have not been corrected. Even if none of the other items in KRS 625.090(2) have been proven, the termination regarding Child B will occur.

Sure, mom can appeal and argue that the conditions and factors of the previous removal had been corrected and that this was a new episode of drug abuse only tenuously related to the first, but there are major problems with this. First, mom cannot afford a lawyer to file the appeal and Kentucky does not give her the right to court appointed counsel on appeal. Second, the judge’s discretion is broad and incredibly unlikely to be overturned on appeal. One would be hard pressed to say the judge’s findings were “clearly erroneous”.

I am confident that no one from the Cabinet would sit down and explain to the birth mom that she is not only signing away her parental rights to Child A, but is also signing away a safeguard for the parental rights of any future children. Since the Voluntary Petition also waives the parent’s right to appointed counsel, they have no real way to know about this unintended consequence. Now, whether the Cabinet worker and Cabinet lawyer think about how much easier it will be for them to terminate the rights of any future children if they convert a voluntary into an involuntary without anyone being the wiser is anyone’s guess. Regardless, the practice amounts to preventings the parent from truly making a knowing and voluntary consent.

The Irony of No Child Left Behind (and Untested)

The Herald Leader ran this story about one ex-Principal, Peggy Petilli, allegedly (and believably) being driven to do questionable to downright crappy things to bring up her school’s test scores. The schools my own children go to focus so much on testing really high and the teaching is incredibly focused on “teaching to the test”. I have yet to hear a teacher say this is a good thing when they are in private and being more candid. Is it any surprise that kids are being MOVED BEHIND so the school can meet No Child LEFT BEHIND?

We have got to get off of this vicious circle of accountability gone awry. Let teachers teach the information and skills children need, give them the resources, and you will see them and the schools succeed. All we are teaching our children now is how to fake it and make it.

You can fight City (or State) Hall, Ms Hall:

I’ve been wanting to comment on the antics of Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ Service Region Coordinator, Grace Akers, for some time. You can find out more about the events here and here from the Herald-Leader. Basically, Jami Hall, a social services worker from Jessamine Count cooperated with an investigation into Cabinet wrongdoing. She believes she was retaliated against and so she filed a whistleblower lawsuit. While on leave, Grace Akers, the highest level administrator for Fayette and some of the surrounding counties, obtained police cooperation to go out and deliver a written reprimand to Jami and allegedly try to obtain some missing case records. She got the police to cooperate by making Jami sound like a violent person.

I have met and worked on a case with Jami Hall. She is a character, but nothing about her bespeaks violence potentiality. I know Cabinet protocol because I used to supervise a protection team. While with the Cabinet I saw some really crappy, unbusiness-like, and downright unprofessional behavior – Grace Akers’ performance in this absolutely takes the cake! She made the police think she needed protection in making a home visit – OH PLEASE! The police routinely assist social services workers on home visit to client homes who are being investigated for abuse and neglect. When risk factors make the situation appear extra dangerous or when the children are being removed, police presence is essential. Grace Akers absolutely abused this relationship by calling on them to help with a personnel matter. I find this unbelievably irresponsible and downright foolish behavior and I hope the police are offended by this misuse of their resources.

Furthermore, Grace Akers had no business taking a work issue into Jami’s home. The procedure would be to offer Jami a chance to sign the written reprimand to preserve her right to appeal the action. If she refuses that option, the reprimand can be entered unchallenged into her personnel record. There was no call to deliver the reprimand in person. This was incredibly unprofessional by Grace Akers.

Worse yet, Grace Akers attempted to coerce an illegal search of Jami Hall’s residence because of the authority of having a police escort. Frankly, I think this was an imbecilic ploy to make it appear that Grace Akers really believed Jami Hall had the records and have a witness to verify the sincerity of her belief. I have no information to bolster this next statement and I base it only on my personal opinion: the behavior of Grace Akers makes me think she was motivated by fear and guilt. If Grace Akers’ knows what became of those records, perhaps took part in their disappearance, this dramatic antic would be designed to misdirect suspicion back onto Jami Hall. In my mind, it makes Grace Akers look desperate.

Now for the reprimand. The Cabinet overlooks sins and poor performance as a routine matter. The only reason they begin issuing written reprimands is when they have already decided to fire someone. As a supervisor myself, I was trained by the personnel cabinet to begin building a paper trail and scrutinize errors I would otherwise have dealt with informally if I wanted to fire someone. ABSOLUTELY NO WORKER can do the job duties placed on them perfectly and I never saw anyone adhere to the convoluted and heavy policies to the letter. Therefore, as a supervisor, I could always find just cause to build a case for firing if I so desired. This undermines the spirit of the merit system. Jami Hall probably did commit some minor violation or omit some policy requirment, but I suspect it was an error overlooked in her co-workers.

Now, the smart thing here would be for the Cabinet and Grace Akers to back off, admit their wrongs (which I never saw out of administration folks at the Cabinet) and quit giving Jami Hall and her co-workers a hard time for bringing problems to light. Rather, I am confident they will continue to hold tight to the traditional line of the Cabinet and deny, blame, deny, blame. In the meantime, the children are the losers. I do not know Jami well enough to say she was a great worker, but I did sense she had true care and compassion for her clients. I agree with Judge Goodwine, Cabinet officials are hypocrits.