11/11/07 State to parents: We know best for kids
Appropriated Press
TALLAHASSEE — The story is all too familiar. A visiting aunt brings a pet
dog and leaves it unattended for a few minutes. The dog bites her infant
niece as she naps. The infant’s mother calls 911 and the child is
hospitalized.
The next day, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) takes the
infant’s siblings from their home and from their mother and father. Then,
upon release from the hospital, DCF takes the infant. To ensure that her
brothers and sisters, present and future, are protected from their parents,
DCF has the court issue a pick up warrant for her unborn brother. The
infant’s mother goes into hiding to keep the state from taking the family’s
last child. Since their mother is not present after DCF took her children,
the court declares she has abandoned them and strips her of her parental
rights. In effect, the state tells her, “We can’t stop you from having
children, but if you birth another we will take it from you for the child’s
safety. We are professionals. We know best.”
The source of this recurring unpleasantness is a DCF caseworker who
concludes that the family home is an unsafe environment—a home with a
sleeping infant and a pet dog. However, the question remains: Why must DCF
wait until there is an injured child before it can step in to do what it knows
is best?
In October 2007, Florida lawmakers passed a bill, recently signed by the
governor, which provides the answer: the Children’s Review and Professional
Protection Office (CRAPPO). CRAPPO reviews the living conditions of all
children under the age of 18 before a child is injured. The mission of
CRAPPO is to identify trouble before it happens then rescue and protect youth from their impending physical or emotional injury.
CRAPPO has three classifications of “parent:” a child’s birth mother and
father are its “familiar” parents; professionals brought in by DCF to care
for children are “stranger” parents and, should a child be adopted, there
are “adopter” parents.
CRAPPO’s movements are house-by-house, wherever children live. Government
records and intelligence reports provided anonymously by relatives,
neighbors, teachers, medical professionals, clergy and US mail carriers
target homes with children.
Once a home is located, CRAPPO, in the interest of time and safety, has
full authority to enter the premises, unannounced, and examine the children,
their “familiar” parents and their surroundings. If, in the sole opinion of
CRAPPO, they foresee that a child could, in any circumstance, somehow, one
day, become injured while living at home, they call DCF to confiscate the
children. One example, sited by CRAPPO, of an unfit or otherwise dangerous
environment is a tree in the yard that a child, if left unattended, might
climb and be injured in a fall. Another example is a tub in which a child
could slip if left unattended while bathing. Still another instance is a
game of catch where the child could be hit in the eye by a ball thrown by
someone whom the parents failed to check for a valid Department of Health (DOH)
license to throw balls. These threats and more constantly plague children at
home. It is the duty of DCF to remove children from suspect environments and
from their negligent “familiar” parents. CRAPPO is the agency that gives DCF
the leverage it needs to accomplish its mission. To keep CRAPPO free of
political and other influences, it operates with full legal immunity and
without oversight.
CRAPPO investigates. DCF confiscates. Courts terminate parental rights
and law enforcement officers guarantee compliance. Finally, the state brings
tax resources to bear and puts those confiscated youth in the care of
strangers (“stranger” parents) at night and deposits them in day-care
services during business hours—“stranger” parents and facilities are
screened by DCF, DOH and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
Court-ordered day-care allows the “stranger” parents to maintain their busy
schedules. The “familiar” parents are required to pay for state-ordered
day-care.
DCF studies show that it is in the best interest of children that they
are adopted quickly once removed from their “familiar” parents. Federal
grant money assists in the effort. As a further incentive, Florida offers
state employees a $5,000 bonus to become an “adopter” parent. Always with
the child’s best interest at heart, the state, at the expense of taxpayers
eager to do the right thing, sees to it that a psychologist interviews each
child. More than likely, the child has contracted one or more mental health
disorders. To ease the burden on “adopter” parents, Florida pays them
additional tax money, each month, for each diagnosed disorder.
Florida now has what it needs to make sure children are safe. CRAPPO to
identify approaching perils, DCF to remove and relocate, courts to terminate
“familiar” parental rights, law enforcement to make it stick, and a $226.7
million tax-based budget to fund it.
Florida’s CRAPPO initiative is currently under study in Missouri, Idaho
and California as a model for their children.
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