wilkes

What I dont understand is when someone makes a report when children really are in danger DSS calls them ahead of time to let them know they're coming. Doesnt make sense to me. I know of one case like that and they gave the parents a chance to get the house presentable and the kids cleaned and food in the cabinets and have time to get sober before a case worker actually came out to the home.

I have seen DSS take kids from the ones that needed it and the ones that didn't. I have also seen them return them to the ones who did and didn't deserve them. DSS makes you jump through their hoops and if they feel like helping you, they will. But you have to be willing to help yourself first. No one is perfect. We all make our mistakes and have to deal with the consequences. DSS gets lots of reports a day and can't go out on all of them. But from what I hear, they tend to go out on the most ridiculous ones and the kids get taken for no reason at all.

Here's hoping that a new year and a new director will change things around there. (But that will only happen once employees in CPS change as well.)

Again Laurie....u still are not answering the ????s....u keep posting crap but will not give us the WHOLE story....take a look in the mirror. U are the reason U don't have your kids back

All that blah blah has nothing to do with you losing your kids. Prey they are happy and move on

I cannot reveal everything about myself to protect my real identity because they will make it even harder for me. Everyone needs to read what I found. This is from last year but it's all I could find. Are Paul & Tonya Freeman related? Anyone know?

COMMUNITY CHILD PROTECTION TEAM ANNUAL REPORT - Social Services Director Donnie Bumgarner presented the Community Child Protection Team Annual Report as required: �Community Child Protection Teams were originally established in 1991 by Governor Martin. The purpose and composition of the team was further formalized and expanded by North Carolina General Statutes. The Community Child Protection Team is a team that meets regularly to promote a community-wide approach to the problem of child abuse and neglect. The team basically consists of representatives of public and nonpublic agencies in the community that provide services to children and their families. Membership on the Team is mandated by law and includes the following: the County Director of Social Services and a member of the Director�s staff; a local law enforcement officer; an attorney from the District Attorney�s office; a representative from the local community action agency; a representative of the local School Administrative unit; a member of the County Social Services Board; a local mental health professional; the local Guardian Ad Litem Coordinator; the Director of the Department of Public Health; a local health care provider, appointed by the local Board of Public Health; and up to five additional members appointed by the Board Commissioners that can represent various county agencies or the community at large. Some of the participating individuals on the Wilkes Community Child Protection Team are he; William Sebastian, Department of Social Services; Lieutenant Mike Farrington, representing Sheriff Dane Mastin; Tom Horner, District Attorney; Judi Mitchell, BROC-Head Start; Sharon Guenther, Wilkes County Schools; Lynn Day, member of the Wilkes Social Services Board; Christy Pruess, Mental Health professional; Deborah Teeters, Guardian Ad Litem Coordinator; Beth Lovette, Health Director; Dr. Ila Baugham, health care provider; Tim Murphy, Our House, appointed by the Board of County Commissioners; and Tom Kilby, Department of Juvenile Justice. In addition to that, members of the Social Services Department include Paul W. Freeman, Jr., Attorney; Sonya Freeman, Lead Supervisor, Child Protective Services Investigations and Case Management; Hal Wilson, Lead Supervisor; Denise Greene; Mary Henderson; and Cindy Coffey. The Team meets on the fourth Friday of each month at the Department of Social Services at 1:30 P. M. in the upstairs conference room. During the period January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2008, the Team reviewed eighteen child protective services cases. The Team is required to submit an annual report to the Board of County Commissioners, making recommendations, if any, and to advocate for system improvements and needed resources where gaps and deficiencies may exist in the area of Child Protection Services. Statistics released locally indicate Child Protective Services staff at the Department of Social Services continues to see a significant number of serious cases of Child Protective Services often involving young children. The Department currently has eighty-eight open Child Protective Services Investigations, thirty-two open Family Assessment Cases, and sixty open Case Management Cases. The Department also currently has approximately one hundred eighty-eight children in Foster Care who were placed in the legal custody of the Department of Social Services by one of our four District Court Judges. One hundred three children are in licensed placements and sixty-four are in relative/kinship placements. Of the one hundred three children in licensed placements, sixty-seven are placed in the County and thirty-six are placed outside of the County. The Department has completed thirty-one agency adoptions and sixteen step-parent/relative/independent adoptions thus far this fiscal year. Because of that the State has what is called Special Children Adoption Funds. The Department of Social Services for next fiscal year has received $108,117 that is the result of the adoptions that have been completed. The purpose of these funds is to enhance and expand adoption programs to secure permanent homes for hard to place children and to promote public/private partnerships. The payment level for the distribution of these funds include $9,000 per child for children from birth to age twelve, $15,000 per child for the adoption of children from age thirteen to eighteen who are included in the agency�s baseline, and a payment of $15,000 per child for sibling groups of three or more who are placed together with their adoptive family. The total amount is paid to an agency when the agency recruits, prepares, and supervises the placement. The amount is shared when agencies work together on a 50/50 basis. Denise Greene, Stephanie Holbrook, and Alisha Horne have worked hard on completing these adoptions and they have another group they anticipate completing in the near future. They are hoping to move approximately seventy-five children into permanent placement and their staff needs to be commended for that so children do not remain in Foster Care for an extended period of time. Due to the number and seriousness of Child Protective Services cases and Foster Care cases, the Department of Social Services employs thirty staff in Children�s Services during the week along with two additional On-Call Investigative/Assessment & Treatment Social Workers who work after normal business hours. These two Social Workers work a five day on five day off rotation schedule and are responsible for emergencies that may occur in the evenings after 5:00 P. M. until 8:30 A. M. the next morning. Through this arrangement Child Protective Services Social Work staff is available seven days a week twenty-four hours a day to respond to reports of Child Protective Services in our County. In addition to the Community Child Protection Team meetings, the Community Child Protection Team is also responsible for providing leadership for scheduling and conducting Child Fatality Reviews. Fortunately, there were no Child Fatality Reviews scheduled in Wilkes County during 2008. There are a number of factors contributing to the number of child abuse and neglect reports in Wilkes County including stress due to the downturn in the economy, domestic violence, mental health issues, substance abuse including both prescription and non-prescription drugs, and poverty. The public is also more informed today about Child Protective Services and the reporting procedures. Today child abuse and neglect is seen as not just a Social Services issue, but a societal issue. During the past year, the Community Child Protection Team supported and participated in the Vigil for Children and the Spring and Fall Child Abuse Prevention Team Conferences sponsored by Our House. The Vigil for Children enabled the community to gather and stand up for children recognizing that in North Carolina twenty-five children died due to child abuse during the previous year. The Spring Conference in April and Fall Conference in November provided two excellent conferences to promote the protection of children. Recently the Department of Social Services planned and put together a wonderful forum entitled Building Bridges to Enhance the Relationship and Partnership in Our Community stressing the importance of working together. Commissioner Luther Parks attended along with some two hundred, twenty-three individuals. The forum was held at the Stone Center. There was an excellent panel of experts including Chief District Court Judge for the Twenty Third District, Mitchell McLean; Rebecca Bray, CIP Project Coordinator for the Twenty-Third Judicial District; Carp Randleman, an Assistant Attorney General who serves some thirty counties in western North Carolina; Rosalind Thompson, the Children�s Program Representative with the North Carolina Department of Social Services; Cindy Stewart, a certified Forensic Interviewer with the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center; Nancy Joyce a Certified Mental Evaluator; Paul Freeman, Social Services Attorney; Sharon Guenther with the School System; and Linda Poindexter, an Engagement Trainer for Child and Family Team meetings with the North Carolina State University Center for Family and Community. This forum was held at the Stone Center and there was an excellent response. It helped bring all of the partners together in the community who are working toward protecting children. This will help to lay the foundation for future training opportunities here in our County. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services, has continued to promote the Community Child Protection Team Regional Plan. Tim Murphy, Executive Director, Our House, serves as the representative from the Wilkes Community Child Protection Team on the Regional Community Child Protection Team. The Community Child Protection Team has continued to emphasize the Safe Surrender and Relinquishment Program to educate the public on this law. The purpose of the Safe Surrender Program is to allow a parent the ability to voluntarily give their infant under the age of seven days to an adult, as provided in North Carolina General Statute 7B-500, while expressing no intent to return for the infant. Under this North Carolina General Statute, the parent shall not be prosecuted for the abandonment of the infant and the parent is not required to provide their identity. Wilkes County is very fortunate to have community resources to assist with Child Protective Services. Along with the staff at the Department of Social Services, Wilkes County has an excellent Foster Care Program, private child placement services, an emergency shelter for abused and battered women, medical services for child medical evaluations, mental health services, child care, as well as an active Child Abuse Prevention Team and the services of the staff of Our House. These agencies along with local law enforcement, the Guardian Ad-Litem Program, the Wilkes County Schools, the District Attorney�s office, and the District Court Judges provide an excellent safety net for children at risk in Wilkes County. In closing, the Community Child Protection Team would like to thank the Board of County Commissioners for the support this Board has provided to the Department of Social Services in having an adequate staff to be available to protect children and would recommend that the County continue to support annual training conference for professionals such as social workers, school personnel, law enforcement officers, lawyers, and judges. The Community Child Protection Team would encourage even greater public awareness and parental education throughout the community to help train individuals on how to identify child neglect and abuse and the procedure for making a report to Child Protective Services. Through education and collaboration, the Community Child Protection Team feels the community can work even better together to help protect all of our children. The agencies in Wilkes County involved with the protection of children are highly conscientious and deserve credit for doing an outstanding job in the area of Child Protective Services.� Mr. Bumgarner stated Social Services is very proud of the resources they have. He stated our children are important to all of us and he hopes they are doing a good job to protect them.

makk09 your are so right.. kids don't asks to be here...

"Were yours pretty white kids?" You are kidding right?

UMMMM...Wonder why no responce??

Laurie I would like for u to answer some of the ????s that u have been asked! How long have your kids been in care? How many times did DSS warn u that if u didn't get it together that they would take the kids???? What kind of drugs where u doing and where the kids present when u where doing them???? U want us to feel for u but u are not giving us the WHOLE story!!!

Wow..that's terrable empowers

I am shocked to hear that 6-10 babies are born each month in Wilkes County addicted to drugs!

NOW YOU DRUG DEALERS AND PUSHERS....BEHOLD SOME OF THE DAMAGE YOU ARE DOING.!!!

if dss wuold intervien before it was too late that might help get some of these people to open their eyes.... I know personally of a case that was going on in two counties with the same man molesting little girls that were in his family another county substainciated their case and wilkes dss has not even spoken to the girl in wilkes county so now he is on the run again but still allowed around the child in wilkes the other child will never see him again he was on drugs and still on drugs so he will never change

You should petition the government to provide more funding to rehab hospitals and so many people in Wilkes County wont be losing thier children

Thanx for all the pms, good to know I'm not the only one in this predicament.

This counties dss needs a good investigation, like you say, some of those that work with children really do care and do their jobs with a heart and some are just lazy and stupid. Keep sending them, you don't have to use your real name but I will see they get sent to someone in a higher authority. They are being paid with our tax money and I think they want to keep the number of children in their custody high so they can keep their pie jobs and free cars.

You know the whole situation is terriable...It upset's me evertime I hear about children and bad sisuations...I do know for a fact that DSS could use some better case workers.. I know a child was in a abusive home and they did nothing because the case worker was to dang sorry to do her job..Children are a blessing and don't ask to be here...

It was really late when I was reading that story...it didn't even cross my mind that she killed the baby on purpose. Actually, after reading it again, I think it's possible that this woman is just stupid enough to pass out on the floor with the baby under her leg. Either way, the infant is dead after the "parents" spent the night drinkin' and druggin', and that's a shame.

She got drunk and stoned and pass out on top of her baby. Not even in a bed, they were on the floor. How can you be so messed up that you can't tell that your infant in underneath you??

She killed the baby on purpose and this was her cover story. Happens all the time.

I know for the most part when children are in the custody of DSS they are taken very good care of, but sadly I know of a situation where a child was abused in a foster home and when it was reported to DSS and the foster parents admitted to beating the child, the child was taken from the foster home and returned to the parents. I dont know about you guys, but something just isnt right about that. They child obviously would have been taken from the parents for a reason.

I am a daycare teacher and out of the 10 children in my class 4 of them are in the care of DSS. They are all because of drug abuse and neglect. Family members have three of them and foster parents have the other one. One child has had 3 foster families within the last month. It is horrible to see them going though this. The daycare has been the only constant thing in his life. I pray for all of them nightly. I wish all parents would stop the drug abuse and take care of their children.

Here's yet another reason that alcoholics and drug abusers are not fit to raise children and shouldn't have them...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRI...l?iref=NS1

She got drunk and stoned and pass out on top of her baby. Not even in a bed, they were on the floor. How can you be so messed up that you can't tell that your infant in underneath you??