CYAF 493/893 Guest Speakers: Dawn Rockey and Kim Bro

Keith McGuffey Author

02/19/2016 Added

195 Plays

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Guest speakers Dawn Rockey of Lancaster Casa and Kim Bro of DHHS

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[00:00:00.197](indistinct chatter)
[00:00:02.178]Good morning.
[00:00:03.390]Good morning.
[00:00:04.551]Hi, how are you?
[00:00:08.352]You don't sound excited.
[00:00:10.044]Good morning.
[00:00:11.529](all laugh)
[00:00:13.707]I'm here.
[00:00:14.941]You should be happy.
[00:00:16.009]We are here.
[00:00:16.938]Yay.
[00:00:18.041]I was just telling Tammy you have 51 days left
[00:00:19.800]in the semester, if you don't count weekends.
[00:00:22.447]Yay!
[00:00:23.619]Some excitement.
[00:00:25.054]Okay, so we have been talking about
[00:00:27.588]child maltreatment for this first unit.
[00:00:30.026]So, to wrap up this unit, we have some guest speakers
[00:00:32.394]here with us today that are gonna be able to
[00:00:34.785]answer some of those questions that you've had
[00:00:37.606]in terms of what does this look like,
[00:00:40.288]or if you have a question about a particular type of case,
[00:00:43.633]and then just give you some general information
[00:00:47.335]in terms of what they do, what their department does,
[00:00:50.018]and how they serve families.
[00:00:52.026]With us from Lancaster CASA is Dawn Rockey.
[00:00:55.845]She is the volunteer coordinator for
[00:00:58.676]Court-Appointed Special Advocates.
[00:01:00.708]And then we have Kim Bro from the
[00:01:02.299]Department of Health and Human Services.
[00:01:04.366]So, they'll talk to you a little bit about what you do,
[00:01:06.374]but this is really an opportunity for you
[00:01:08.453]to understand their department, but also ask
[00:01:10.890]some of those questions.
[00:01:12.272]You've asked me, and I've given you information
[00:01:14.373]based upon my research and my experiences,
[00:01:16.312]but now you have two experts from the field here.
[00:01:19.074]So, it's your opportunity to ask those questions
[00:01:21.235]and get more of that information, okay?
[00:01:24.519]Are there any questions, comments, concerns
[00:01:26.782]before we get started?
[00:01:30.437]What's due on Tuesday?
[00:01:32.318](indistinct responses)
[00:01:33.953]Annotated bibliographies, okay?
[00:01:36.402]Your first annotated bibliographies for your
[00:01:38.620]media reports if you're in 493 is due on Tuesday.
[00:01:43.378]Five sources are due.
[00:01:46.060]There's an example of an annotated bibliography online.
[00:01:48.870]If you're unfamiliar with this format
[00:01:50.610]or need extra help or information, come see myself
[00:01:53.327]or Miss Taylor and we'll assist you, okay?
[00:01:58.091]Questions or concerns?
[00:02:00.170]Okay, so laptops away.
[00:02:02.229]Yes, Greg?
[00:02:03.250]Do you have to address like
[00:02:04.712]some of us signed up for Spring Break...
[00:02:07.232]Yes, there are a few of you
[00:02:09.439]that did sign up for observation over Spring Break.
[00:02:11.701]You'll get an email from me to reschedule that,
[00:02:13.640]unless for some reason you're okay with
[00:02:15.301]doing classwork on your Spring Break time,
[00:02:17.634]which I'm absolutely okay with.
[00:02:19.375]But if you didn't recognize that you signed up
[00:02:20.939]for an observation over Spring Break,
[00:02:22.301]I will send you an email so that you can reschedule
[00:02:24.437](indistinct)
[00:02:26.249]Okay?
[00:02:28.036]Any other questions, concerns?
[00:02:31.975]Okay, laptops away.
[00:02:33.181]You are more than welcome to take notes,
[00:02:34.630]but if you're gonna take notes,
[00:02:35.763]do it the old fashioned way with paper and pencil
[00:02:37.427]so that we can give our full attention
[00:02:38.833]to our guest speakers.
[00:02:39.880]And let's turn our attention to Kim.
[00:02:42.035]Good morning, or if it's still morning, I need to check.
[00:02:45.579]My name is Kim.
[00:02:47.216]I work at Child Protective Services in the
[00:02:49.677]Department of Health and Human Services.
[00:02:52.602]So, I work in the Child Protection Division.
[00:02:55.713]There's a lot you hear in Health and Human Services
[00:02:57.423]all the time, there's a lot that goes with
[00:02:59.478]Health and Human Services, but I work with
[00:03:00.925]Child Protection Services.
[00:03:02.545]So, what I do is I work in the Initial Assessment.
[00:03:06.728]I'll probably say IA.
[00:03:08.410]That's Initial Assessment, that's what it is.
[00:03:10.581]I've been there for a little over eight years.
[00:03:13.440]What the initial Assessment teams do
[00:03:15.762]is investigate child abuse reports that come in
[00:03:19.198]through the hotline.
[00:03:20.521]Hotline's located in Omaha.
[00:03:22.484]It's for the entire state, so when those reports
[00:03:25.246]come in to the hotline, I have a team of 25 people,
[00:03:30.028]I supervise a team of 25, that go
[00:03:32.710]and investigate those reports.
[00:03:35.473]We also respond to law enforcement when
[00:03:38.132]they call from the field if they're
[00:03:39.687]taking children into custody.
[00:03:41.173]They call us, we come and pick the children up.
[00:03:43.705]So, we either do the investigations
[00:03:46.327]or we work on having children removed from their home
[00:03:49.834]and placing them wherever...
[00:03:51.691]We go for family first, but we also place them
[00:03:53.990]in foster homes.
[00:03:55.649]And then, when my department has concluded their case,
[00:04:00.281]if it is a court case or a non-court case,
[00:04:03.603]we transfer the case to an ongoing team,
[00:04:06.563]so that ongoing team works with the family,
[00:04:09.419]either through the court or through a non-court case
[00:04:13.899]until the family completes their case
[00:04:16.491]or until the case ends and the child is then going to look
[00:04:20.310]at a more permanent home with someone else,
[00:04:22.737]so we also do adoptions.
[00:04:26.135]So, we're from the beginning to the end.
[00:04:28.616]Usually, I just get a little overview and then I just ask
[00:04:32.156]if people have questions because I could talk
[00:04:33.859]a lot about a lot of stuff, but usually people have
[00:04:35.847]tons of questions for me.
[00:04:37.450]So, I'll maybe just open it up to you guys
[00:04:39.423]about what specific questions you have about
[00:04:42.511]what Child Protective Service does.
[00:04:44.567]I know there were some questions about
[00:04:46.081]what is child abuse, so just throw those questions at me.
[00:04:54.022]I know a common question that we've had,
[00:04:56.074]to help you all get started, is the appropriateness
[00:04:58.743]of leaving your child at home at varying ages.
[00:05:01.762]And so we've had some stories of children
[00:05:05.733]as young as eight or maybe six maybe like at home alone,
[00:05:08.913]and so when does it neglect?
[00:05:11.491]That's a great question and people do ask
[00:05:13.268]that all time, especially when we're at the house
[00:05:15.628]and the parents say, "Why are you here?"
[00:05:18.065]I'll talk about, first of all, law.
[00:05:21.245]There is no law stating an age of when
[00:05:24.776]you can leave a child at home.
[00:05:26.819]That is in the house, at home in the house.
[00:05:28.990]There is a law for children left in the car.
[00:05:31.647]They have to be over the age of six
[00:05:33.354]to be left in the car alone.
[00:05:35.096]If the child is at home alone,
[00:05:37.602]and an officer is called, they will go out and assess,
[00:05:41.340]does the child know what to do in the event
[00:05:43.221]of an emergency, does the child have a phone,
[00:05:45.172]is there a back-up plan, and also,
[00:05:47.448]is the parent gone for an hour at the grocery store,
[00:05:49.885]or is the parent gone for eight hours at work?
[00:05:52.846]That's what they kind of look at when
[00:05:54.192]an officer goes out to the house.
[00:05:55.853]Obviously, if it's a toddler, officers aren't
[00:05:58.639]gonna be okay with that.
[00:06:00.287]But there could be a very mature eight-year-old
[00:06:03.062]who has a plan, knows how to use a phone,
[00:06:06.649]the parent's gonna be gone for an hour.
[00:06:09.238]Officers might be called out to that
[00:06:11.618]and find that to be okay and not cite anybody.
[00:06:15.019]We may not even know about that.
[00:06:17.201]Or we may get a report.
[00:06:18.641]Neighbors call and report, "Hey, these kids
[00:06:20.140]"are left home a lot, overnight,
[00:06:22.439]"the parents are at work, and the kids are left home."
[00:06:26.173]And if they're little, 10 or under,
[00:06:28.603]and they're being left home all night,
[00:06:30.182]we're probably gonna help the parents
[00:06:31.601]try to find a different alternative
[00:06:33.698]than to leaving the kids home all night long.
[00:06:36.122]I still get scared at home sometimes,
[00:06:38.349]especially you watch something scary,
[00:06:39.733]so I can imagine little kids...
[00:06:42.943]We do get calls sometimes about teenagers
[00:06:45.549]being home alone, or teenagers caring for their siblings,
[00:06:48.649]and again, those are probably not gonna be
[00:06:51.272]a citable offense and he may say...
[00:06:54.105]I mean, if they're good, normal teenagers
[00:06:57.669]who can handle a situation, we're gonna say
[00:07:00.571]that's an okay thing.
[00:07:02.766]Just make sure that they have the resources to access
[00:07:07.320]911 if they have a phone, or even if you plug
[00:07:10.636]a phone into a jack, a landline.
[00:07:13.921]Does everyone know what a landline is?
[00:07:15.756](all laugh)
[00:07:16.881](indistinct)
[00:07:19.266]When was the last time anybody used a landline?
[00:07:21.610]It's actually been forever for me.
[00:07:23.328](indistinct responses)
[00:07:25.024]So, if you just plug a phone into a landline,
[00:07:26.834]you can call 911 from that phone.
[00:07:28.971]So, we look for things like that,
[00:07:30.862]and then of course, do they have food,
[00:07:32.802]are they going to school the next morning,
[00:07:34.740]do they have the availability to get to school?
[00:07:36.969]Those type of things, so children at home,
[00:07:39.628]it really depends on the situation.
[00:07:42.345]What we see most is toddlers outside at play
[00:07:47.104]by themselves for long periods of time.
[00:07:49.043]That's not okay.
[00:07:50.343]And then we may get there and find out
[00:07:51.804]that the parent wasn't at home and the toddler got out,
[00:07:54.487]or something else is going on, but that's pretty much
[00:07:57.528]what we're looking into when it's children home alone.
[00:08:01.205]But children in car, this is probably the most common
[00:08:06.132]child abuse ticket.
[00:08:07.511]We get all the child abuse tickets go through
[00:08:09.287]the hotline, and so we have to investigate all of those.
[00:08:12.689]Anytime anyone's given a child abuse ticket.
[00:08:14.535]Probably are most common is a child
[00:08:16.415]under the age of six left in a car.
[00:08:18.901]And so, most of the time, it is brand new moms
[00:08:23.545]leave their infant in the car while they run
[00:08:25.866]into pay for something like gas,
[00:08:28.084]or maybe they run into the store to get a gallon of milk.
[00:08:30.859]I would say 50 percent of the people
[00:08:32.205]don't know it's against the law,
[00:08:34.028]but it's an automatic citation.
[00:08:36.048]And officers don't even have the option
[00:08:37.685]to not cite when the child is under six.
[00:08:43.443]Don't leave them in the car in the summertime.
[00:08:46.599]It can be really bad.
[00:08:48.584]There have been several instances.
[00:08:50.396]I mean, even last summer, there were several.
[00:08:53.769](indistinct) death actually.
[00:08:56.531]Yes, even, people think for five minutes, it's okay,
[00:09:01.201]but when it's 100 degrees outside, five minutes is not okay.
[00:09:06.604]And you guys are probably, if you're on Facebook,
[00:09:08.612]last summer, I've seen about three or four times,
[00:09:11.445]vets were doing these 30 minutes in the car
[00:09:14.196]with the windows rolled up trying to get people
[00:09:16.996]to stop leaving their pets in the car,
[00:09:19.212]and it's the same for a child.
[00:09:21.675]Especially an infant.
[00:09:22.812]They seem to be always buckled into something
[00:09:24.557]in the car seat, and they're kinda all cushioned in,
[00:09:27.098]and that just makes everything warmer,
[00:09:29.421]so that's taken pretty seriously.
[00:09:34.013]Okay.
[00:09:35.795]Did I answer everything about that?
[00:09:38.534]Okay, yes.
[00:09:39.856]Once you receive a citation,
[00:09:41.404](audio obscured) is it like a fine, or you gotta like go to
[00:09:44.285]family court, or how does that kind of work?
[00:09:46.956]That's a great question.
[00:09:48.222]I'll talk about how you get to family court, too.
[00:09:50.357]If an officer gives you a citation,
[00:09:52.647]that is criminal court.
[00:09:57.214]I'm actually sad to say...
[00:09:59.772]I guess I talk out of both sides of my mouth,
[00:10:02.152]but most of the time a child abuse ticket,
[00:10:03.580]if it's your first one, is about $100 fine,
[00:10:06.946]and sometimes that's really disappointing
[00:10:09.152]'cause I would like it to be a little bit more than that.
[00:10:11.532]And, of course, there can be other things that happen
[00:10:14.178]and there's other penalties that apply, but what we see
[00:10:16.365]most of the time, first offense, it's about
[00:10:18.177]$100, $150 fine.
[00:10:20.162]So, people do have to go to court.
[00:10:22.146]They do have to go in front of the judge,
[00:10:23.610]but that's a criminal court judge.
[00:10:25.490]That judge makes a decision what's gonna happen
[00:10:27.348]with that citation based off the officer's report.
[00:10:31.272]A citation does not get you into family court,
[00:10:34.093]we call it juvenile court.
[00:10:35.950]But, if when you're cited, we get an intake,
[00:10:39.410]and so we go out and investigate that intake,
[00:10:41.557]and if we found it...
[00:10:43.275]a good example would be a toddler has gotten
[00:10:46.212]out of the house and officers found the toddler
[00:10:48.372]standing in the middle of the street.
[00:10:50.067]Once a week, we get that report.
[00:10:51.808]A lot of toddlers running around Lincoln.
[00:10:54.374]And so, we would go out and...
[00:10:56.637]I mean, the mom might be like, "Oh, my gosh.
[00:10:58.112]"I fell asleep.
[00:10:58.855]"I was taking a nap.
[00:10:59.841]"This was horrible.
[00:11:00.708]"This will never happen again.
[00:11:01.832]"I put 17 locks on the door and laser beams
[00:11:04.938]"and all these things," and we say that's great.
[00:11:07.770]Sometimes we go out, and we find out
[00:11:10.185]maybe mom is passed out, she's coming down
[00:11:12.913]off of something, the officers couldn't wake her up.
[00:11:16.768]We might look at now do we need to get court involved.
[00:11:19.671]And so, if officers haven't already initiated that
[00:11:22.665]by removing the child from their home,
[00:11:24.732]we can initiate that by talking with
[00:11:27.448]the juvenile county attorney and saying,
[00:11:30.709]"Hey, we think we need to get in the court
[00:11:32.870]"so that we can manage this case,"
[00:11:34.494]and then the juvenile court attorney
[00:11:36.771]files a petition which gets us into juvenile court.
[00:11:40.137]So, they're very different, but yet connected sometimes.
[00:11:44.188]But a citation does not automatically mean
[00:11:46.242]you and your family are in court,
[00:11:48.204]it means you are in trouble in criminal court.
[00:11:50.992]Occasionally, they'll have a case in juvenile court
[00:11:55.032]and have a pending citation, and there can sometimes
[00:11:58.178]be an agreement to dismiss the criminal piece
[00:12:00.685]if they successfully complete
[00:12:04.845]the juvenile court case, so...
[00:12:10.120]Alright.
[00:12:11.257]I have two questions,
[00:12:13.079]but just that one (indistinct) what happens if they pass it,
[00:12:16.529]but then right after they fail, does that send you
[00:12:19.141]to come back or they get cited again?
[00:12:24.105]Once it's dismissed,
[00:12:25.348]It's dismissed. It's dismissed.
[00:12:27.066]Generally, they'll hold off dismissing it
[00:12:28.866]until it looks like you're gonna successfully complete it.
[00:12:32.394]And if you are working a juvenile court case
[00:12:36.156]and you're not succeeding, we don't automatically
[00:12:38.698]considered it you failed.
[00:12:40.637]We try for 18 to 22 months...
[00:12:45.864]Two years.
[00:12:46.754]Two years.
[00:12:50.537]15 to 22 months.
[00:12:51.695]I'm sorry, I knew I was not saying it right.
[00:12:53.496]But we will try for about two years.
[00:12:55.597]I mean, we're not talking like you have 30 days
[00:12:58.568]to get something completed and then you failed
[00:13:00.265]and your children are going somewhere else,
[00:13:02.155]so it's a pretty lengthy process.
[00:13:04.571]But if you're doing good in the juvenile court...
[00:13:06.687]And those are usually in the pretty severe
[00:13:11.348]child abuse cases or if somebody has some really severe
[00:13:15.894]drug issues, I mean, that takes a long time,
[00:13:19.215]getting someone sober and maintaining sobriety
[00:13:21.548]takes a long time.
[00:13:23.046]So, I have not ever heard of somebody getting recharged.
[00:13:29.001]And my other question is that toddlers,
[00:13:31.488]say six-year-olds that maybe their parents
[00:13:34.204]allow them to go to a park by themselves
[00:13:35.924]or like with their other sibling that are like
[00:13:37.700]maybe eight or something like that.
[00:13:39.207]I mean, a lot of like free parenting, (audio obscured)
[00:13:42.594]What happens like with that?
[00:13:44.499]Is there any laws against that?
[00:13:46.584]Free range parenting?
[00:13:47.907]Like free range chickens...
[00:13:50.763]We do get those reports every once in a while,
[00:13:53.698]and again, it's just really assessing,
[00:13:56.786]a six-year-old at the park by themselves,
[00:13:59.607]I think we would say, "Let's think of some alternatives."
[00:14:02.984]Could someone go to the park with the child?
[00:14:05.945]Is there a neighbor child who's older
[00:14:08.476]that could go with the child?
[00:14:10.623]But there are no...
[00:14:12.401]I shouldn't say laws.
[00:14:14.141]If the child is...
[00:14:17.986]I don't know if I necessarily want to say in danger,
[00:14:20.087]but if the child is being neglected
[00:14:21.739]because they're being sent to the park by themselves
[00:14:24.606]because the parents are at home doing something
[00:14:27.519]they don't want the child to be around,
[00:14:30.015]that might be considered neglect.
[00:14:33.131]I mean, there's actually...
[00:14:36.352]There are some parents that we
[00:14:38.142]get calls every couple months.
[00:14:40.022]Dies down near the wintertime,
[00:14:41.857]but we get calls every couple of months
[00:14:43.504]because they really, truly believe
[00:14:45.107]in this free parenting and let their children
[00:14:48.857]go about town as much as they want
[00:14:52.559]for hours at a time.
[00:14:54.093]Our concerns about that are how are they checking in?
[00:14:57.495]What are they doing in the event of an emergency?
[00:14:59.920]How are they eating?
[00:15:01.754]How does the parent know that they're okay?
[00:15:04.135]So, we would go and ask those questions
[00:15:06.538]and really try to assess is this a safe thing
[00:15:09.857]for your children to be doing?
[00:15:12.726]Six and eight I think is a little young,
[00:15:14.572]but eight and ten?
[00:15:15.954]If they're good kids, responsible kids,
[00:15:19.089]that might be okay to go to the park
[00:15:20.736]for an hour, maybe two hours by themselves
[00:15:23.140]and hang out if things aren't happening.
[00:15:26.112]Six is a little young.
[00:15:28.476]I mean, about six and seven, and especially
[00:15:30.628]if they're by themselves, we would worry about that.
[00:15:32.949]I don't know if an officer would cite them, though.
[00:15:35.921]That would depend.
[00:15:37.697]Are there any laws against that right now in the books
[00:15:40.716]or is it just mostly like (indistinct)?
[00:15:45.259]I mean, there's not a law that says
[00:15:46.909]a child has to be this age to go to a park.
[00:15:49.939]What officers are gonna look at is
[00:15:51.959]why is the child at the park,
[00:15:53.492]and if the parents said, "Well, the child wanted
[00:15:55.217]"to go to the park.
[00:15:56.117]"I told them 30 minutes and they go to the park,"
[00:15:57.844]The officer's gonna go, "Okay, well maybe
[00:15:59.316]next time go with them."
[00:16:00.496]But if the officer goes to the house
[00:16:01.773]and the parents are intoxicated, or under
[00:16:04.349]the influence of something, or having a party,
[00:16:07.158]or something like that and it's obvious
[00:16:09.794]the kid's gone to the park because they want
[00:16:12.104]some adult time, then an officer might say,
[00:16:14.868]"No, no, you're not gonna do this,"
[00:16:16.109]and you could get a neglect ticket.
[00:16:18.013]It really just depends on the situation.
[00:16:19.744]But I'm not aware of specific...
[00:16:22.680]Not that I'm aware of.
[00:16:24.504]your child has to be a certain age to go to a park.
[00:16:27.617]And it's be reasonable, too.
[00:16:29.519]I mean, you have to expect people to be reasonable.
[00:16:32.374]I did have a case where they allowed a three-year-old
[00:16:35.265]go to the park, and she of course saw something
[00:16:38.364]pretty, or sparkly, or whatever,
[00:16:40.315]and walked across Mine Street actually,
[00:16:43.124]and ended up somewhere else.
[00:16:45.493]And the parents had no idea where she was,
[00:16:47.037]but they're like, "She went to the park."
[00:16:49.637]That's probably not okay.
[00:16:51.146]That's not an okay thing.
[00:16:52.864]They were actively engaged in video games,
[00:16:55.558]so that's what...
[00:16:57.507]She wanted to go to the park, and they
[00:16:58.930]didn't have time to go, so they sent her there.
[00:17:02.325]So, yes, they were cited for that.
[00:17:07.652]Yes.
[00:17:08.266]You also said you have a team of 25
[00:17:10.113]and that covers the whole state.
[00:17:12.010]No, that is for Lancaster County,
[00:17:15.257]and we have...
[00:17:17.711]Southeast Service Area is technically where I work,
[00:17:21.835]and so that covers Lancaster, and then...
[00:17:25.901]I think it is 13 other counties...
[00:17:30.628]Some number of counties.
[00:17:32.451]So, we also have an office in Nebraska City.
[00:17:35.352]They have IA workers, Initial Assessment workers,
[00:17:38.011]and ongoing workers, and then we have an office in Beatrice,
[00:17:40.994]so they cover Gage County and those surrounding areas,
[00:17:43.955]and then each service area has their own,
[00:17:46.091]so like Douglas and Sarpy County,
[00:17:48.993]they have, gosh, I think they have a team of 40,
[00:17:52.476]38 I think, that do investigations in Douglas and Sarpy,
[00:17:57.294]and then, of course, throughout the state
[00:17:59.116]we have Grand Island office, Scottsbluff has an office.
[00:18:05.923]The more west you go in Nebraska,
[00:18:07.741]the tinier the offices are because they just need
[00:18:10.179]a couple people there and then they're
[00:18:11.561]a little bit more spread out.
[00:18:16.602]Yes.
[00:18:17.520]If a child's taken away from their family,
[00:18:20.224]and then the parent
[00:18:23.527]wants to know who called in.
[00:18:25.813]Is that completely confidential?
[00:18:28.797]That is a great question, because we deal
[00:18:30.677]with this so much.
[00:18:32.988]Anyone who makes a report to the hotline,
[00:18:35.031]and I'm gonna talk a little bit about reporting, too,
[00:18:37.166]since that has been brought up, thank you.
[00:18:40.557]Anyone who makes a report to the hotline
[00:18:42.924]will remain anonymous.
[00:18:46.602]You can remain anonymous and not give your name at all.
[00:18:51.132]Usually the hotline worker's gonna ask for your name,
[00:18:54.349]but you remain anonymous to the family.
[00:18:57.912]If you've given your name, the worker will be
[00:19:00.652]able to find out who made the report, and a lot of times,
[00:19:04.192]the reason that's important, is because we like
[00:19:06.467]to call the reporter to get more information.
[00:19:09.823]You all know how the telephone game goes, too.
[00:19:12.539]You know, one person says one thing,
[00:19:13.979]and you know, on down, so we're usually
[00:19:15.371]getting third and fourth-hand information,
[00:19:17.170]so sometimes we like to call the reporter
[00:19:19.015]to get that first-hand information again,
[00:19:21.129]and really find out did we miss anything,
[00:19:23.742]you know, what else is going on?
[00:19:25.019]And sometimes, there's updated information.
[00:19:27.961]So, but that information cannot be given to the family.
[00:19:31.580]There is a law against that.
[00:19:32.983]That you cannot divulge who the reporter is to the family.
[00:19:35.984]Now, course with everything else,
[00:19:38.491]there's always things that happen.
[00:19:40.790]A judge can subpoena the name of the reporter.
[00:19:44.575]I have yet to ever see that happen.
[00:19:46.293]I haven't.
[00:19:47.103]I don't know if you have.
[00:19:49.521]Sometimes people threaten us.
[00:19:51.627]"Oh, I'm gonna have to make sure
[00:19:52.983]"the judge tells me who the reporter is."
[00:19:55.110]Never seen a judge do that.
[00:19:56.700]Never heard of a judge doing that.
[00:19:58.465]But if the reporter does have really relevant
[00:20:01.460]information for a juvenile court case,
[00:20:04.362]that person may be called to testify,
[00:20:06.359]and you're told that when you call
[00:20:07.903]and make the hotline report,
[00:20:09.297]that you could be called to testify
[00:20:10.922]based on the report that you made.
[00:20:15.718]And I actually have never seen that happen.
[00:20:17.395]I'm looking at Dawn, too, but I've never heard of that
[00:20:20.391]happening, that's anybody's been called in
[00:20:21.877]to testify unwillingly.
[00:20:23.107]You know, subpoenaed in.
[00:20:24.474]A lot of times if it's a family member,
[00:20:28.052]they may already be involved in the case,
[00:20:30.131]and then said, "Yes, it was me who made the report."
[00:20:33.812]Now, what happens with that,
[00:20:36.889]people a lot of the time know who made the report,
[00:20:40.510]and we always caution people about that.
[00:20:43.795]Especially if they were the only one there for the incident.
[00:20:46.930]Then it's pretty easy to figure out who made that report.
[00:20:51.333]If it is something specifically regarding
[00:20:53.979]something that happened at school,
[00:20:55.791]a lot of the times it's pretty easy to figure out
[00:20:57.856]that the school made the report.
[00:20:59.228]We never confirm that with people.
[00:21:01.863]In fact, I will say the majority of my workers
[00:21:03.849]won't even look to see who the reporter is
[00:21:05.706]so they can honestly say, "I have no idea.
[00:21:08.329]I don't know.
[00:21:09.373]I didn't see it, I don't know."
[00:21:11.116]So that they don't accidentally make a face
[00:21:13.752]or do something that may alert someone
[00:21:15.933]to who the reporter could be.
[00:21:18.127]And just while we're kinda talking about reporting,
[00:21:20.499]in the state of Nebraska, every person
[00:21:22.356]is a mandatory reporter.
[00:21:23.737]So, that means any person who believes
[00:21:26.397]they've observed, or seen, or witnessed
[00:21:29.519]any child abuse or neglect should make a report
[00:21:31.772]to the hotline.
[00:21:33.280]And then the hotline decides are we gonna
[00:21:35.417]investigate that report, or are we just gonna
[00:21:38.237]put it in, we call it information only,
[00:21:40.351]because that's what it is.
[00:21:41.497]It's just information that we're keeping
[00:21:42.850]on-hand in case something else were to come up.
[00:21:48.275]Does that answer your question?
[00:21:49.899]Okay, and then you.
[00:21:50.957]So, as a mandatory reporter,
[00:21:52.572]should we call the police and call the
[00:21:54.473]Human Services hotline, too?
[00:21:57.260]If it's not an emergency and you don't feel
[00:21:59.703]like the child is in danger at the moment,
[00:22:02.211]you don't have to call the police.
[00:22:03.534]You certainly always can.
[00:22:04.848]I mean you can call the non-emergency dispatch
[00:22:07.274]and they will tell you if...
[00:22:12.166]They'll ask you if you think you need an officer out,
[00:22:15.361]but always call the hotline and make that report to them.
[00:22:19.692]But you certainly can call officers.
[00:22:21.816]I think people hesitate so much to contact officers.
[00:22:25.646]They may not appreciate me saying that,
[00:22:27.308]but we don't hesitate.
[00:22:28.282]We call them for help all the time,
[00:22:30.523]so don't hesitate because in dispatch,
[00:22:33.344]they're nice people.
[00:22:34.808]You may say, "I'm not sure what to do,"
[00:22:36.363]and then they might kind of help guide you
[00:22:38.185]on what you're supposed to do.
[00:22:39.869]So, if ever in doubt, call them.
[00:22:43.026]And I would always say if a child is in immediate danger,
[00:22:46.149]call them first.
[00:22:47.810]They have these fancy cars with lights and sirens,
[00:22:50.850]we do not.
[00:22:52.349]So, if you think a child is in danger,
[00:22:54.252]they can quickly get to you.
[00:23:01.391]I don't know who was first,
[00:23:03.469]I wasn't looking this way.
[00:23:04.398]You guys can arm wrestle.
[00:23:05.756](all laugh)
[00:23:07.358]So, if a person were to witness a stranger
[00:23:09.854]or hear her or someone spank their child,
[00:23:12.199]how do you to determine when to call
[00:23:14.300]or whatever because spanking is legal here,
[00:23:18.804]but how do you know when it's too severe,
[00:23:20.801]when it's inappropriate?
[00:23:22.324]Also a great question.
[00:23:23.345]This is one that we get quite a bit.
[00:23:27.819]It's hard.
[00:23:29.167]If a child is getting spanked with a hand on their butt,
[00:23:32.476]you have to make a decision that is the child fearful,
[00:23:35.376]is the parent angry?
[00:23:36.956]Is this a...
[00:23:39.068]You know, the parent is angry at the child
[00:23:40.477]and taking it out on them?
[00:23:42.660]I would really say, if ever in doubt, just call someone.
[00:23:46.457]Call the police, call the hotline, call both
[00:23:48.918]and talk to dispatch or the hotline worker
[00:23:52.459]and ask, and you can always make that report.
[00:23:55.244]But it is true, spanking is not illegal.
[00:23:58.844]What is illegal is leaving bruises.
[00:24:01.026]That's when it becomes child abuse, and so officers will...
[00:24:06.848]So, you witnessed a spanking.
[00:24:08.150]It's happened right in front of you.
[00:24:09.694]You call officers, they'll come out,
[00:24:11.610]they'll observe the area where the child was spanked.
[00:24:14.675]if it's a red...
[00:24:16.776]You know, the child's been spanked,
[00:24:18.111]their bums are a little red, they're probably
[00:24:19.945]not gonna do anything.
[00:24:21.408]But if there's welts or any type of...
[00:24:24.852]we refer to it as weapon, but maybe not as dramatic,
[00:24:27.848]but if anything was used, wooden spoon,
[00:24:30.912]that's pretty common.
[00:24:32.990]Phone cords, which surprise me,
[00:24:35.288]but that's very common.
[00:24:36.670]A lot of people spank their children with phone cords.
[00:24:39.165]That's very painful if you've ever been
[00:24:41.592]hit with a phone cord.
[00:24:43.288]And it leaves pretty good welts, and so
[00:24:45.771]if an officer observes welts or even immediate bruising...
[00:24:49.056]Like I take three days to bruise,
[00:24:50.623]but some people will bruise instantly,
[00:24:52.842]they're gonna receive a citation for that.
[00:24:55.767]If it is a spanking and the child was naughty
[00:24:59.887]and the parent got carried away with the spanking,
[00:25:02.209]we're probably not gonna get called out onto the scene,
[00:25:04.728]but we will get a report.
[00:25:06.470]But, of course, if it's something that has gotten
[00:25:08.170]out of control, the child has an injury,
[00:25:10.556]we're gonna get called out on the scene by the officers,
[00:25:13.023]and then we'll decide what's gonna happen at that point.
[00:25:16.405]Maybe it's we're doing a safety plan.
[00:25:18.344]Maybe things'll calm down at that point,
[00:25:20.876]and then we look in the history.
[00:25:22.420]Is this a pretty common thing?
[00:25:23.603]Is this how a parent reacts when a child
[00:25:25.821]does something naughty?
[00:25:28.096]And that's what the officer's gonna ask, too.
[00:25:29.907]What was the child doing that led up to
[00:25:32.113]the child getting a spanking?
[00:25:34.192]And also, how old is the child?
[00:25:36.919]Toddlers: it's an okay thing to spank.
[00:25:39.856]Your 13-year-old: it's probably not as appropriate.
[00:25:43.119]It gets a little awkward when you're older
[00:25:46.161]to start getting turned over somebody's knee
[00:25:47.983]and spanked, and is that really the most appropriate?
[00:25:53.529]And well, I'll use my opinion.
[00:25:55.563]I won't say this is the state's opinion,
[00:25:57.177]but I mean spanking should be used if
[00:25:58.999]a child's doing something dangerous
[00:26:00.254]and you want them to not do that behavior again.
[00:26:02.702]Your 13-year-old smarting off to you
[00:26:04.419]is probably not a reason to get a spanking.
[00:26:08.436]Most 13-year-olds smart.
[00:26:09.795]I never did.
[00:26:10.514]I was a really great child.
[00:26:11.953](all laugh)
[00:26:14.252]So, write that, too?
[00:26:15.494]Yeah, don't tell my mother.
[00:26:17.086]She will not agree.
[00:26:18.549]When you ask your questions,
[00:26:20.221]if you could speak very loudly
[00:26:21.568]so both sides of the room can hear you,
[00:26:23.250]that would be very helpful, thank you.
[00:26:28.801]Aside from being a child left in the car,
[00:26:30.690]what's the most common call you get
[00:26:33.503]that parents are like not really aware
[00:26:35.105]that that's actually a crime or something like that?
[00:26:38.221]Something that they wouldn't be--
[00:26:40.253]We get a lot of reports of domestic violence
[00:26:47.467]and, in fact, every time a child is in the home,
[00:26:51.823]the vicinity, outside, in the car,
[00:26:55.806]and they're in a domestic violence altercation happens,
[00:26:59.930]we get that report.
[00:27:02.124]And usually their first response is,
[00:27:04.960]"The kids were in the basement.
[00:27:06.481]"They weren't even involved,"
[00:27:08.408]and so that's a confusing one for parents to get
[00:27:13.395]because they're thinking we got into the fight,
[00:27:16.313]we had the kids go in the basement,
[00:27:18.414]or we had the kids go next door,
[00:27:19.866]or whatever it was because this altercation
[00:27:21.549]was gonna happen, so why does it matter?
[00:27:24.648]Why do you need to talk to the kids?
[00:27:26.715]So, that one's usually pretty surprising to parents
[00:27:29.431]when we're out on that.
[00:27:31.178]I'm sorry?
[00:27:32.096]Even if they don't actually (indistinct)?
[00:27:33.932]Well, it depends when did the go next door?
[00:27:36.065]Officers are making that decision because
[00:27:38.005]they're citing them for child abuse,
[00:27:39.886]so if the children are present during
[00:27:41.963]a domestic violence altercation.
[00:27:43.763]So, if it was the two people start hitting each other
[00:27:47.722]and then yell at the kids, "Go to the neighbor's,"
[00:27:49.845]it's probably too late.
[00:27:53.064]But if they're in a heated verbal argument,
[00:27:56.336]and they say, "Okay, kids, we don't want you
[00:27:59.933]"to hear this verbal argument,"
[00:28:02.476]and have them go to the neighbor's,
[00:28:04.694]the officers might consider that.
[00:28:06.690]What we get a little worried about is if
[00:28:09.384]the plan is before we starting hitting each other,
[00:28:12.728]we're gonna have the kids go to the neighbor's,
[00:28:14.503]how often is the hitting going on,
[00:28:16.883]and how much are the kids seeing,
[00:28:18.068]and do they know this, and how is that affecting them?
[00:28:20.400]'Cause that's what people...
[00:28:22.363]When we show up, they're like,
[00:28:23.501]"Well, the kids weren't in it.
[00:28:24.660]"They didn't get hurt.
[00:28:26.124]"No one hit them,"
[00:28:27.783]but really what we're worried about is what
[00:28:30.384]the effects of the violence in the home
[00:28:32.405]is having on the children,
[00:28:34.227]and are the children feeling safe?
[00:28:35.806]Parents sometimes don't know that,
[00:28:37.466]that their children are terrified
[00:28:40.161]even when there's no fighting going on
[00:28:42.087]because of the threat of violence
[00:28:44.281]that could happen in the home.
[00:28:49.914]Unless you're not on any kind of media,
[00:28:54.465]it's talked about quite often that children
[00:28:56.983]who grow up witnessing violence,
[00:28:59.342]when they are grown, they become violent,
[00:29:02.684]and then there's this cycle.
[00:29:04.623]And you guys probably talk about that
[00:29:06.817]in these classes that you're in all the time,
[00:29:08.837]this vicious cycle that people get into.
[00:29:10.741]And so, one of the reasons that we're
[00:29:12.738]responding to these cases is to really intervene
[00:29:16.557]so that we don't have young people
[00:29:19.321]growing up thinking that violence in the home
[00:29:21.712]is how you resolve conflict, and also...
[00:29:27.203]Parents are very shocked when they're like,
[00:29:29.025]"My kid is like 15.
[00:29:30.720]"They're fine, they can leave."
[00:29:32.880]Especially if it's a young male and it's the mother
[00:29:35.898]who is getting assaulted, what do you think
[00:29:38.197]is gonna happen?
[00:29:39.961]He is gonna protect his mother,
[00:29:41.412]and he's gonna jump in the middle of that fight,
[00:29:43.085]and so that's what we're there saying
[00:29:44.825]we want to make sure that this 15-year-old's
[00:29:47.263]not getting into the middle of the fight, or however.
[00:29:49.864]And girls will do the same, but it's usually
[00:29:52.429]the males want to protect their mother,
[00:29:55.054]and they want to make sure she's okay,
[00:29:56.482]and so that's what we see when kids get older,
[00:29:58.885]they start intervening and they protect the victim.
[00:30:06.494]Besides the specific laws about
[00:30:08.049]leaving a child in the car, basically is it
[00:30:10.603](indistinct) officer discretion on site more?
[00:30:17.383]Like specific laws?
[00:30:19.159]Well, I would say yes to that.
[00:30:24.849]I mean the child under six,
[00:30:26.321]and then children in a domestic...
[00:30:28.355]I guess, I don't want to misspeak.
[00:30:30.468]I believe if children are present for a domestic,
[00:30:33.486]that's an automatic citation.
[00:30:35.668]It seems almost automatic.
[00:30:37.526]And some of the stuff that was in the news
[00:30:39.976]earlier this week with people getting pulled over
[00:30:42.739]with controlled substances in the car
[00:30:44.862]and there's kids in the car,
[00:30:46.279]they were also cited for child neglect,
[00:30:48.961]so I mean if the kid is there, that subsequent charge
[00:30:53.802]is pretty much automatic.
[00:30:55.323]And to add onto that, even like shoplifting,
[00:30:58.700]if a parent's shoplifting and their child's there,
[00:31:00.627]they're gonna get a child abuse ticket,
[00:31:02.670]but sometimes they don't.
[00:31:04.933]So, that one would be a little bit more situational.
[00:31:07.128]But if it's pretty clear that there is
[00:31:09.705]a pretty serious criminal activity occurring,
[00:31:13.211]and that person's either arrested and lodged
[00:31:15.765]or arrested and incited, most likely,
[00:31:18.992]because just the fact that there are police presence
[00:31:21.674]intervening on their activity,
[00:31:23.798]it's considered child neglect.
[00:31:25.749]But I've see some of those,
[00:31:27.711]I guess I've never seen someone pulled over
[00:31:29.313]with narcotics in the car not cited,
[00:31:31.952]but I've seen some, like with the shoplifting,
[00:31:34.529]I've seen some people just not get cited
[00:31:37.810]because maybe the officer felt like they weren't
[00:31:40.866]actively engaging in child neglect
[00:31:44.245]when committing that crime.
[00:31:45.626]So, I guess the answer to that is there can be
[00:31:47.804]some discretion.
[00:31:49.429]But I don't want to speak this to...
[00:31:50.950]I just know for sure, children under six in the car.
[00:31:53.921]That's the one I can guarantee.
[00:31:56.081]Yes?
[00:31:56.998]If a child's taken away from a family,
[00:31:59.621]and they're like taken by the state,
[00:32:01.781]and then they're in the state's custody,
[00:32:03.499]what does a parent have to do in order
[00:32:05.716]to get the child back?
[00:32:07.701]It really depends on what the child's in custody for.
[00:32:13.812]I will say it has to be pretty severe to have a child
[00:32:16.250]come into custody.
[00:32:17.794]Of course, people usually think, "Oh, CPS,
[00:32:19.431]"they're reaching their quota of kids," and heard that one,
[00:32:22.376]and "Oh, they just take kids for no reason."
[00:32:25.280]I can guarantee you that that does not happen.
[00:32:27.730]And I'm on the front lines and I know it doesn't happen.
[00:32:31.119]It has to be, 'cause when CPS asks to remove children
[00:32:35.542]from home, we go through a county attorney and a judge.
[00:32:38.004]We're not the final say; we're actually the first.
[00:32:40.336]We're like, "Hey, this is a problem.
[00:32:42.121]"What do you guys think?"
[00:32:43.201]and a judge actually has to give us permission
[00:32:44.942]to remove a child, and so it has to be pretty severe.
[00:32:47.497]I mean we have to be able to say
[00:32:49.644]to the judge, we cannot control the safety of this child.
[00:32:55.470]Their parents cannot keep them safe,
[00:32:56.761]and we have no other way to keep them safe
[00:32:59.083]because we try other options sometimes.
[00:33:02.625]So, it really depends on what they're getting involved for.
[00:33:05.985]And then, it is ultimately up to the judge
[00:33:09.188]once we get into court.
[00:33:11.684]And so, we can make recommendations,
[00:33:13.867]this lovely lady makes recommendations,
[00:33:16.037]the child has a guardian ad litem
[00:33:18.244]who makes recommendations, and then the judge
[00:33:20.403]has the overall say of what the person has to do
[00:33:23.480]in order to get their child back.
[00:33:25.940]Just in real general terms, if it is a drug case,
[00:33:30.363]that maybe the parents are using meth,
[00:33:32.720]that's usually why we see kids in custody,
[00:33:36.447]the parent...
[00:33:37.688]Getting clean, that's the first thing.
[00:33:40.068]Participating in some kind of treatment,
[00:33:42.588]working on their sobriety, maintaining sobriety,
[00:33:46.633]and kind of moving forward with that.
[00:33:48.601]Usually with that comes getting a job,
[00:33:51.005]having those strong supports,
[00:33:53.326]those type of activities.
[00:33:55.184]But it's so individualized that there's just no way
[00:33:58.951]to answer that question 'cause it really
[00:34:00.773]just depends on what's going on with that family
[00:34:04.967]that brought the child into care.
[00:34:08.121]And that's where some of your observations
[00:34:09.882]at the Foster Care Review Boards can be helpful
[00:34:12.034]where you can see what the individual situation was
[00:34:14.971]and the steps that the family is going through
[00:34:17.618]and the services that they're being provided
[00:34:19.312]in order to be reunified with their kid.
[00:34:25.796]Yes.
[00:34:26.538]So, at what point...
[00:34:28.698]Like, for instance, I know someone that
[00:34:31.519]I hear about their fights a lot
[00:34:33.738]and they have a four-year-old,
[00:34:35.791]so at what point do I, as a mandated reporter,
[00:34:41.769]like report something?
[00:34:43.140]You know, 'cause like I don't know
[00:34:44.649]when they're having their fight until after
[00:34:46.100]my friend tells me about it, so like,
[00:34:50.450]that's what I'm wondering.
[00:34:52.663]I always answer that question with whenever
[00:34:55.159]your gut tells you that you should.
[00:34:57.295]If you even think that maybe you should,
[00:34:59.617]I would recommend that you do.
[00:35:01.617]The hotline will decide.
[00:35:03.033]They're gonna ask you, I think it's 25 questions,
[00:35:05.961]it's quite a bit of questions.
[00:35:07.279]They're gonna hear what you have to say
[00:35:08.939]and then ask you these questions,
[00:35:10.064]and then they make a decision if they're gonna
[00:35:11.803]accept that report.
[00:35:13.640]So, I just always tell people if you're questioning
[00:35:16.229]if you should, to me that means you should.
[00:35:20.362]But definitely, if you're hearing about the fight,
[00:35:23.808]and there's been a physical assault,
[00:35:28.558]or if somebody says, "I turned around
[00:35:32.064]"and Johnny was looking at me the whole time
[00:35:34.781]"and observed all of this," that might be your cue
[00:35:38.194]to make a report.
[00:35:40.469]But if you're already thinking about it,
[00:35:42.558]your gut's telling you that you should.
[00:35:46.424]Is anybody in here familiar with Emergenetics?
[00:35:48.965]Do you guys do that at all?
[00:35:50.743]It's just you learn how you as a person think,
[00:35:55.073]and I'm very, my top is I go by my gut.
[00:35:58.974]And so, but if you're in field where you want to help people
[00:36:02.083]and work with children and families,
[00:36:04.423]you probably already have that kind of gut feeling
[00:36:06.623]going on for you, that's why it kind of brings you here.
[00:36:09.106]So, if you're feeling it, then make a report.
[00:36:15.992]You asked me, but this guy behind you was way first.
[00:36:18.917](all laugh)
[00:36:20.392]If there is a child who is
[00:36:22.254]taken away from their parents for whatever reason
[00:36:24.622]and they are sent to another family member,
[00:36:27.955]what keeps the parents from seeing the child?
[00:36:31.390]Or is sending them to a family member
[00:36:33.945]the point to keep them away from their child?
[00:36:37.950]You know, sometimes it gets tricky.
[00:36:42.336]Whenever a child is taken from their parents,
[00:36:44.512]the very first thing we do...
[00:36:45.905]Well, let me start with if a child is removed
[00:36:48.412]from one parent, the very first thing we do
[00:36:50.072]is find the other parent and can the other parent
[00:36:53.032]take care of the child?
[00:36:54.831]If both parents are unavailable,
[00:36:56.515]then we start looking at family members,
[00:36:58.662]usually grandparents are the very first people
[00:37:01.297]that usually know what's going on.
[00:37:05.720]Usually the parents are calling their parents.
[00:37:07.961]But we look into family members,
[00:37:09.692]and that can be anyone, anyone related to the child,
[00:37:12.942]anyone the child knows.
[00:37:14.904]We also look at a kin placement,
[00:37:16.761]we call it Kinship Placement, but that's really,
[00:37:18.561]anybody who's familiar to the child,
[00:37:20.698]so that could be a daycare provider,
[00:37:22.403]that can be a teacher, that could be a really good
[00:37:25.956]family friend, so...
[00:37:32.713]When we're looking into these people
[00:37:34.927]who are not in agency foster homes,
[00:37:36.452]so a relative or a kinship,
[00:37:38.750]we do background checks.
[00:37:40.236]That's the very first thing we do,
[00:37:41.462]so they do have to pass a background check,
[00:37:43.314]which is we look to see if they have any
[00:37:45.170]substantiated reports of child abuse or neglect,
[00:37:47.719]they're on the sex offender registry,
[00:37:49.622]what their criminal history looks like,
[00:37:51.282]if they have felonies, drug-related charge,
[00:37:53.285]violent charges, and so then if they pass those
[00:37:57.139]background checks, and the next thing we do is
[00:37:58.904]a suitability with the family.
[00:38:01.865]And in that suitability, we talk about
[00:38:04.665]are you able to maintain a boundary with the parent
[00:38:09.657]so that they don't come over?
[00:38:11.699]So that they don't come in the middle of the night
[00:38:13.981]and try to see their child.
[00:38:15.816]And you would think that it would happen
[00:38:17.476]a lot more than it does, but it really doesn't.
[00:38:19.635]Especially when are court involved
[00:38:21.015]because the parent's attorney will tell them
[00:38:24.456]don't go and do these things.
[00:38:26.650]Don't go and try to see the child
[00:38:28.834]or your child's gonna end up in a stranger's home,
[00:38:31.736]so don't do that.
[00:38:32.966]And parents are usually...
[00:38:34.545]in fact, I would say the majority of the time,
[00:38:37.924]very thankful when their children can go
[00:38:39.979]to a family member, and so...
[00:38:43.930]you know, sometimes parents...
[00:38:45.365]I mean, we're removing because maybe we can't
[00:38:47.013]maintain safety, but it doesn't mean that
[00:38:48.604]parents are just completely off the charts
[00:38:50.249]and horribly inappropriate.
[00:38:51.642]They just have things going on in their life
[00:38:53.209]that they need help with and their kids need
[00:38:55.604]a safe place to go.
[00:38:57.229]So, every once in a while, we have a case...
[00:39:01.774]I know just about a year ago, we had a dad who did,
[00:39:04.479]three different times, went in the middle of the night
[00:39:06.894]and tried to see his child.
[00:39:09.076]First time he had a key and so he let himself in,
[00:39:13.162]and his mom called the police and then changed the locks,
[00:39:15.484]and then the next two times, he crawled in through a window.
[00:39:19.036]The child opened the window,
[00:39:20.138]it was a 10-year-old child opened the window
[00:39:21.751]to let his dad in, and grandma continued
[00:39:24.783]to call the police, did a restraining order.
[00:39:27.082]So, it's...
[00:39:29.721]we talk to people about can you handle this
[00:39:32.044]if this were to arise?
[00:39:33.390]Are you willing to do that?
[00:39:36.911]One of the questions we talk about
[00:39:38.264]is do you understand why we're here
[00:39:40.261]and why we removed these children,
[00:39:42.386]and if they say, "Oh no, you guys are full of crap.
[00:39:44.487]"I hate all of you," we might not be placing there.
[00:39:47.541]I mean, we might say, "Well, let's move on
[00:39:48.911]"to the next family member," until maybe emotions calm down.
[00:39:52.508]People are not happy when you remove their children.
[00:39:55.028]I mean, it's the worst thing that ever happens
[00:39:57.256]in a parent's life, besides a death of a child.
[00:39:59.712]So, this is horrible, and so we take that
[00:40:02.114]into consideration that people are gonna be angry.
[00:40:05.039]Grandmas are always angry, they're always a little crazy,
[00:40:09.300]and it worries me.
[00:40:10.938]I don't ever want to be a grandma because
[00:40:12.441]I think you go a little nuts when that happens,
[00:40:14.246]but we give them a minute to calm down.
[00:40:17.079]We try to deescalate people, we try to get them
[00:40:19.518]to engage with us, that's part of the training
[00:40:21.746]that workers go through, but it's something
[00:40:24.358]that we talk about.
[00:40:26.158]And we set up visitation with parents
[00:40:30.188]and their children, and if we have a lot of family members,
[00:40:33.972]which a lot of times we do, we have family members
[00:40:36.213]who really want to help out, who want to participate.
[00:40:38.059]We may have family members supervise
[00:40:40.067]those visitations so it's a little bit normal.
[00:40:42.309]And then when parents have a little bit
[00:40:43.802]of control over that,
[00:40:45.115]that seems to help with the out of control feeling
[00:40:47.576]that they have now that they're not being allowed
[00:40:49.678]to parent their child, which is really what it is.
[00:40:52.117]I mean, think about how scary it is.
[00:40:54.402]I don't know if anybody here is a parent,
[00:40:57.119]but even taking your child to daycare,
[00:40:58.896]that's scary.
[00:40:59.740]You're leaving someone else in charge of your child
[00:41:01.557]and that was your choice, and so parents we're working with,
[00:41:05.740]they don't have a choice, and so,
[00:41:07.620]we try to give them a lot of say in what's
[00:41:09.945]going to happen next with their child,
[00:41:12.059]and then they get the visitation.
[00:41:14.705]We have federal guidelines that I can tell you that
[00:41:17.033]if it's an infant, we do everyday visitations,
[00:41:19.007]especially with the mom, especially with a nursing mom,
[00:41:21.851]so that there's that contact and that bonding
[00:41:24.328]that's happening, and then we rarely do..
[00:41:28.509]I guess I'll speak for the Initial Assessment part,
[00:41:30.760]we rarely do less than five days a week
[00:41:33.174]that parents are seeing their children.
[00:41:35.090]So, we're hoping for every day, especially we have family,
[00:41:38.779]and Aunt Susie can do one day and Uncle John
[00:41:42.508]can do another day, so we'll try to arrange it that way.
[00:41:45.667]We'll have providers do the visits, too.
[00:41:48.208]And that is a benefit for everyone.
[00:41:50.669]There's documentation and any observations
[00:41:52.701]and we use that in court so that...
[00:41:57.144]Well, I guess I've rarely had an attorney say,
[00:41:59.375]"No, we're not gonna participate
[00:42:00.693]in a supervised visitation,"
[00:42:01.936]but attorneys will really encourage their clients
[00:42:04.001]to participate so that that documentation
[00:42:06.021]gets back to the judge.
[00:42:08.495]So, that the judge can see what those interactions are,
[00:42:11.037]especially if people are making really good progress,
[00:42:12.962]so that's important for everyone to see that
[00:42:15.469]and not just the caseworker saying that
[00:42:17.710]or the parent saying that.
[00:42:18.883]It's kind of visitation's a neutral party that's observing
[00:42:22.819]and can let the judge know what's going on.
[00:42:26.581]Did you have a second part to that...
[00:42:28.196]I feel like I'm missing something.
[00:42:29.832]I was just gonna ask when the kid
[00:42:33.511]is taken away and you're doing the background checks,
[00:42:36.460]while you're doing them, where does the kid go?
[00:42:38.877]Well, it's different.
[00:42:42.197]It's always different.
[00:42:45.650]We have a Foster Care Closet, I'll start with that.
[00:42:48.553]It is located in Lincoln.
[00:42:50.841]There's one in Omaha now,
[00:42:52.814]and it's a great place where we can take kids.
[00:42:55.959]There's a TV, there's...
[00:42:57.179]Somebody's over there.
[00:42:58.293]She's nodding her head; she's been there.
[00:42:59.686]Yes, I have.
[00:43:01.125]There's TV, there's PlayStation,
[00:43:03.308]they'll feed everyone, there's clothes for the child.
[00:43:05.851]Sometimes we get children...
[00:43:07.719]Middle of the night.
[00:43:09.171]The rash of people from out of state
[00:43:11.322]just driving through Lincoln,
[00:43:12.888]that has happened in the last of couple of weeks.
[00:43:15.060]We get children that don't have any clothes.
[00:43:17.393]You know, things like that, so we can get the child
[00:43:19.679]hooked up there.
[00:43:20.465]It's a fun place for a kid to hang out.
[00:43:23.267]A worker will hang out there with them,
[00:43:25.634]especially if we're doing a lot of background checks.
[00:43:28.653]Sometimes that can take a couple hours.
[00:43:30.394]Part of that background check is a call to the State Patrol,
[00:43:33.180]so we have to wait for them to give us an okay.
[00:43:36.792]Sometimes we'll bring them back to the office.
[00:43:39.195]If they are infants, they go directly to my office
[00:43:42.514]and I hold them while background checks are happening.
[00:43:45.451]My youngest one is almost 17, so I need to hold babies.
[00:43:49.255]People just walk directly into my office with an infant.
[00:43:52.957]Or we could already be at grandma's house.
[00:43:58.437]We have access to all the same systems as the background
[00:44:00.976]check people do, and maybe we've looked
[00:44:02.763]and we found nothing, so we're just going
[00:44:04.198]over to grandma's and just kind of waiting
[00:44:05.949]for that to happen.
[00:44:08.109]It just really depends on what's going on
[00:44:11.729]and how many kids there are, what the situation is.
[00:44:16.237]Sometimes we stay in the parent's home.
[00:44:19.255]Sometimes parents are, although angry and upset,
[00:44:22.681]they're willing to do whatever it takes
[00:44:24.444]to get that child to their mom's, or their sister's,
[00:44:27.659]or whoever.
[00:44:29.285]So, they may let us stay there.
[00:44:30.828]Sometimes that's best for the child.
[00:44:32.216]If everyone's calm, tears are okay,
[00:44:35.128]but not screaming, and yelling, and cussing,
[00:44:37.310]and threatening.
[00:44:38.667]So, if things can stay calm, we might stay there
[00:44:41.711]with the officers, run the background checks
[00:44:43.648]so we don't have to take the child somewhere else.
[00:44:46.050]You know, they don't need to go to the Foster Care Closet.
[00:44:48.442]It's a fun place to be.
[00:44:49.456]It's not required.
[00:44:50.734]So, if we can go from mom's house
[00:44:51.894]to grandma's house, that would be great.
[00:44:54.320]So, sometimes we try that.
[00:44:55.957]Before we get to other questions,
[00:44:58.009]can you talk about substantiating emotional abuse,
[00:45:01.457]and then let's transition to Dawn.
[00:45:05.319]That's very hard.
[00:45:06.340]Right, and that's just really
[00:45:08.117]what I want you to insight, but I wanted to give you
[00:45:09.895]an opportunity to talk a little bit about CASA
[00:45:11.552]and answer some additional questions.
[00:45:14.856]Emotional abuse is very hard to substantiate
[00:45:18.130]and, in fact, in order to uphold a substantiation...
[00:45:22.100]I could substantiate anything I wanted to,
[00:45:24.712]that doesn't mean that somebody's not gonna overturn it.
[00:45:27.998]So, to uphold an emotional abuse substantiation,
[00:45:31.283]we would have to have some medical,
[00:45:35.021]usually a psychiatrist, who would put in writing
[00:45:39.502]and testify to this child's suffered severe effects
[00:45:43.635]due to this emotional abuse.
[00:45:45.945]We get a lot of reports, it's always mom and daughter,
[00:45:49.463]looking at the women in the room,
[00:45:51.819]it's always mom and daughter, she's about 14,
[00:45:54.025]and the mom's like, "I hate you,"
[00:45:55.894]and she hates, and everyone's a bitch,
[00:45:57.554]and you know all this happens and we got those reports
[00:46:00.816]because people are really concerned,
[00:46:02.023]and it's concerning, but it might be normal,
[00:46:05.646]you know, to a point.
[00:46:08.632]It's when parents start saying things like,
[00:46:11.174]"I wish you would just take a knife
[00:46:13.020]"to your wrist and kill yourself,"
[00:46:15.086]or "Can I get you a gun to shoot yourself?"
[00:46:17.339]and that happens.
[00:46:18.917]We get those reports.
[00:46:20.647]And so that's when we're getting a psychiatrist involved,
[00:46:24.884]obviously, because we're trying to get some
[00:46:26.858]help for the child who's being told these horrible things,
[00:46:29.980]and if a psychiatrist will say that.
[00:46:32.407]I will tell you I have substantiated one
[00:46:36.065]for emotional abuse, and it was...
[00:46:39.569]I mean, I observed it.
[00:46:41.274]This mom was horrible, she wanted the daughter to die,
[00:46:44.212]she was gonna help her learn how to die,
[00:46:46.114]and all these things, so,
[00:46:47.927]and once in eight and a half years
[00:46:50.050]that I have or that I've been part of
[00:46:52.673]'cause it is very hard to substantiate.
[00:46:55.286]We might not focus on that, and we might
[00:46:59.454]look toward do we need to intervene
[00:47:02.595]because the parent is unable to care for this child
[00:47:05.010]because there's something else that's going on,
[00:47:06.844]so we might try to find another way in
[00:47:09.654]we think the family needs intervention.
[00:47:12.590]Is that kind of a hot topic you guys have about the...
[00:47:15.447]It's just where a lot of the questions are
[00:47:17.489]because it's so vague, and really,
[00:47:20.090]a lot of the law's interpretative,
[00:47:22.712]you know, subjective in terms of police officers
[00:47:25.210]cite for everything, et cetera, but with emotional abuse,
[00:47:27.485]there's just a lot of questions around--
[00:47:29.389]A lot of times you see it come up
[00:47:31.049]further along in the case.
[00:47:34.398]I can hand those out for you.
[00:47:36.116]I'm Dawn Rockey.
[00:47:37.196]Well, I'll just send stacks around.
[00:47:39.350]I'm the director of the CASA program,
[00:47:41.815]so CASA stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocates.
[00:47:45.089]It has nothing to do with housing.
[00:47:46.383]Every now and then we get calls
[00:47:48.265]asking us about our housing program.
[00:47:50.632]We don't have one.
[00:47:53.984]We are part of a national organization
[00:47:56.590]that started in 1977
[00:48:00.174]with a juvenile court judge in Seattle, Washington.
[00:48:03.587]And that judge was new to the bench
[00:48:05.491]and felt like he didn't know enough
[00:48:10.552]and have enough information coming from
[00:48:13.373]the caseworkers about kids and the families
[00:48:16.659]that came in front of his bench.
[00:48:19.875]And he also felt like the community
[00:48:21.964]didn't have any idea of the extent
[00:48:25.702]of child abuse in the community.
[00:48:27.755]So, he came up with this idea to train
[00:48:29.971]community volunteers to advocate on behalf
[00:48:33.918]of abused and neglected kids in juvenile court.
[00:48:36.557]So, having a community volunteer that's had training,
[00:48:40.001]they're appointed by the judge to a case,
[00:48:43.833]so it can be one kid, it could be to a sibling group.
[00:48:47.372]They have a court order, and I don't have
[00:48:49.868]enough copies, but I'll pass these around
[00:48:52.087]if you can pass them on to give you
[00:48:54.849]an idea of what our court order looks like.
[00:48:56.939]But basically gives the volunteer access
[00:49:00.584]to everything and anything about
[00:49:04.824]the children, allows them to do their own investigation,
[00:49:08.991]and then write reports that go directly to the judge
[00:49:11.627]that says here's what I see going on
[00:49:13.669]and here's what I recommend.
[00:49:17.948]CASA started in Nebraska in 1986,
[00:49:20.931]and Sargent County had the first program.
[00:49:23.403]Here in Lancaster County, we started in 1999.
[00:49:27.154]The first volunteers were trained in December of that year.
[00:49:31.263]I joined CASA in 2006,
[00:49:34.767]so I'm in my 10th year there.
[00:49:37.250]I do not have a social worker background.
[00:49:39.503]I actually was a corporate banker
[00:49:41.766]before I took this job.
[00:49:43.462]It's a really long story, we don't have time for it.
[00:49:46.144]Fascinating, but way too long.
[00:49:48.987]But what our volunteers do, they have the ability
[00:49:53.527]to work on one case, one family, one set of kids
[00:49:58.080]and really hone in on their observations,
[00:50:02.921]what's going on with the kid at home,
[00:50:05.255]in the foster home, at school.
[00:50:07.809]Are they benefiting from therapy,
[00:50:11.431]do they need therapy, what other services could they have?
[00:50:15.876]So, our volunteers in their reports will say
[00:50:19.429]here's an area of concern with me,
[00:50:21.494]they've been with this therapist for two years,
[00:50:23.632]there's really no improvement.
[00:50:29.286]He never dealt with the trauma that this
[00:50:30.907]child experienced, the child should be seen
[00:50:34.572]by a trauma-informed therapist,
[00:50:36.846]or something to that effect.
[00:50:39.075]We might recommend after-school programs
[00:50:42.430]or activities to get the kids involved.
[00:50:45.217]We may be recommending that they
[00:50:47.562]not return home, or that they do return home,
[00:50:50.197]or that the permanency plan maybe be changed
[00:50:53.576]to a guardianship because the kids are older.
[00:50:56.896]So, there's all aspects to it, but we do not
[00:50:59.415]get involved until the case is filed in juvenile court
[00:51:03.361]'cause we are appointed by the judges.
[00:51:05.939]So, once Kim's folks have done all of their work
[00:51:09.259]and a petition has been filed, then about 95 percent
[00:51:13.137]of the cases that we have, the judge will take a look at
[00:51:17.490]and decide they want another set of eyes on it,
[00:51:20.543]and will send it over to our office and then we
[00:51:24.607]find a volunteer to assign to it.
[00:51:27.648]In 2015, we advocated for 210 kids.
[00:51:33.703]100 advocates were assigned at any one time
[00:51:38.694]during the year.
[00:51:40.226]Of those kids, only 38 reached permanency,
[00:51:42.966]which is way lower, it's about half,
[00:51:46.016]of what we normally see, so I've kind of
[00:51:48.469]gone back to look at what maybe happened in 2015.
[00:51:53.309]There are a couple of things.
[00:51:55.676]We had fewer cases at the beginning of the year
[00:51:58.638]that were close to closure.
[00:52:00.577]To give you an example, I think it was
[00:52:03.605]April of 2015 before we had our first case
[00:52:07.489]closed in 2015.
[00:52:09.336]We've already had, it's the middle of February,
[00:52:11.611]and we've already had 10 kids
[00:52:13.353]have their cases closed this year.
[00:52:16.452]So, there were cases weren't as far in the progression
[00:52:21.212]and ready for closure.
[00:52:22.999]The other thing, and Kim'll probably agree with me,
[00:52:26.471]but we had a boatload of turnover in caseworkers,
[00:52:30.868]and any time you get a new caseworker
[00:52:34.443]assigned to a case, the case slows down,
[00:52:38.169]and it takes some time to get that worker up to speed.
[00:52:42.209]It takes some time to regain that momentum.
[00:52:45.111]And so we really had, at least on the cases
[00:52:48.182]that we were assigned to, very high turnover
[00:52:51.862]in caseworkers.
[00:52:53.580]So, I think we're off to a better start this year.
[00:52:57.422]We trained 30 new volunteers last year.
[00:53:00.417]We're in the middle of our first training class
[00:53:02.460]for this year, and we'll have five trainings
[00:53:04.839]by the end of the year, and we generally have
[00:53:07.792]around seven to 10 people per training.
[00:53:11.509]CASA volunteers go through a 30-hour
[00:53:13.471]pre-service curriculum, and it includes
[00:53:16.059]everything about how
[00:53:19.325]CPS system works,
[00:53:21.898]to what the court system is like,
[00:53:26.085]to the issues that bring families in,
[00:53:30.082]and the majority of the families
[00:53:33.136]probably fall into, or at least have one
[00:53:35.759]of what I call the big four: mental illness,
[00:53:39.718]substance abuse, domestic violence, and poverty.
[00:53:43.003]Poverty is pervasive in CPS cases,
[00:53:46.196]and if you think about it, if you're beating on your kids
[00:53:49.504]and you are poor, you're likely to live in
[00:53:52.500]closer proximity to other people.
[00:53:55.367]You're likely to live in an apartment
[00:53:56.969]rather than your own home.
[00:53:58.943]There's likely to be more people to see that
[00:54:01.682]and report it.
[00:54:03.991]So, we spend a lot time on
[00:54:07.393]not only what the causes are,
[00:54:09.331]but then what programs and services exist
[00:54:11.515]in Lancaster County to assist those families.
[00:54:14.636]So, where can you recommend that they go for treatment,
[00:54:17.667]and who does domestic violence courses?
[00:54:21.405]if you're the perpetrator of the domestic violence,
[00:54:23.729]what organizations do those classes?
[00:54:26.875]So, we do spend a lot of time and what are the
[00:54:28.813]resources in the community, and how do we
[00:54:31.309]get families connected with them?
[00:54:34.838]The CASA volunteers, that outside person
[00:54:38.496]that can take a look at things, and has the judge's ear.
[00:54:42.872]You'll be glad to know that we don't just
[00:54:45.078]train people and turn 'em loose
[00:54:46.523]and say go forth and advocate.
[00:54:48.276]We don't do that.
[00:54:49.843]Every CASA volunteer is assigned to a staff person
[00:54:52.281]who is their volunteer coordinator,
[00:54:54.579]their supervisor who works with them on the case.
[00:54:57.621]The reporting comes back through our office
[00:54:59.815]before it goes to the court.
[00:55:03.629]You know, we make sure that it's
[00:55:05.545]all appropriate and everything,
[00:55:07.192]but we're then become part of the team
[00:55:09.933]that is around this family that includes
[00:55:12.929]the guardian ad litem, that's the attorney
[00:55:14.901]that's assigned to the children, parent attorneys,
[00:55:17.606]therapists, foster parents, bio parents,
[00:55:20.961]caseworkers, everybody who's working to get
[00:55:25.570]the issues resolved and get these kids home.
[00:55:30.063]Reunification is always the initial goal.
[00:55:34.104]It's down the road that that might change
[00:55:37.150]if parents are not working their case.
[00:55:40.272]Kim mentioned the 15 to 22 months.
[00:55:44.996]In law, there is a requirement
[00:55:49.391]for an exception hearing.
[00:55:51.677]After children have been out of the home
[00:55:54.093]15 of the most recent 22 months.
[00:55:57.378]Once they hit that 15, then the court generally
[00:56:01.441]has an exception hearing.
[00:56:03.043]And the exception hearing is is there any reason
[00:56:06.247]that exists to not file for termination of parental rights?
[00:56:11.983]So, basically, you've got 15 months to get
[00:56:13.422]your crap together and address this,
[00:56:16.348]or we're gonna start asking is there a reason?
[00:56:19.147]There's three statutory reasons.
[00:56:21.665]One is that they are placed with a relative.
[00:56:25.230]If they're placed with a relative,
[00:56:26.633]it is not mandated that you have to file for termination.
[00:56:34.821]Another one is that it's not in the child's best interest.
[00:56:39.647]So, maybe there has been progress made on the case
[00:56:43.431]and things are going along, they just need some more time.
[00:56:48.366]So, the judge can find it under that.
[00:56:50.130]That's kind of a nice little catch-all.
[00:56:52.139]The other one is if the department
[00:56:54.392]has not provided reasonable efforts,
[00:56:56.631]and reasonable efforts are if they have not
[00:57:00.861]made those services available to the family
[00:57:03.933]that would help them correct the issue.
[00:57:07.236]They need to just make them available
[00:57:10.387]to provide reasonable efforts.
[00:57:12.362]If you, as the parent, elect not to go to treatment,
[00:57:15.346]elect not to go to therapy, that's on you.
[00:57:19.118]But the department has to have made that available to you.
[00:57:23.006]So, if they didn't, then the judge can find
[00:57:25.282]that there is no exception and termination
[00:57:28.265]does not have to be filed.
[00:57:30.797]If they find that there is no exception,
[00:57:32.944]that there hasn't been good progress on the case,
[00:57:35.464]their kids are out of the home,
[00:57:37.797]they are not with a relative,
[00:57:40.374]then after that exception hearing
[00:57:42.732]and the finding of no exception,
[00:57:44.646]the county attorney can file for termination
[00:57:46.735]of parental rights, which is the death penalty
[00:57:50.474]in juvenile court.
[00:57:51.878]I mean, that is it.
[00:57:53.539]When your rights are terminated by the court,
[00:57:56.394]you're done being a parent.
[00:58:00.904]If your rights are terminated
[00:58:02.615]and then you have another child, are your rights
[00:58:04.538]automatically terminated for that child?
[00:58:06.522]You get to answer that one, Kim.
[00:58:07.815]I was actually just gonna kinda chime into that.
[00:58:12.451]It definitely haunts you.
[00:58:15.555]There is, on occasion, that we will take custody
[00:58:18.561]of an infant from a hospital,
[00:58:22.549]and we are told no reasonable efforts are needed,
[00:58:25.206]and we immediately file for termination of parental rights.
[00:58:29.188]I can tell you the situations that I have observed.
[00:58:33.462]It's usually a parent who was terminated on
[00:58:37.803]for a death of a previous child.
[00:58:41.379]Usually the judge is gonna say the department
[00:58:44.263]does not have to do anything to try
[00:58:45.998]to reunify this family.
[00:58:47.530]We're gonna immediately terminate the rights of this parent.
[00:58:52.584]It happens.
[00:58:54.309]They still generally a lot...
[00:58:56.260]They may remove the child, especially if
[00:58:59.886]at the hospital, you've got a mom
[00:59:02.134]that has had previous children,
[00:59:04.433]had her rights terminated, and she has another child.
[00:59:06.835]Probably be removed, but they may still
[00:59:09.562]allow her to work a case.
[00:59:11.874]That happens depending on what progress
[00:59:15.357]has been made since that parent's rights
[00:59:18.294]were terminated.
[00:59:19.815]And we speak in mom because most of the time, it's mom.
[00:59:22.582]Most of the time, it's mom.
[00:59:24.035]And usually, well it's always the mother
[00:59:26.856]in the hospital delivering the child.
[00:59:29.132]And we're getting involved right away.
[00:59:31.186]I mean, the hospital is calling us.
[00:59:32.869]We have alerts out to hospitals,
[00:59:35.272]and so if that person comes up on the alert,
[00:59:38.546]they're calling us right away, so we're,
[00:59:41.053]unfortunately there within hours sometimes.
[00:59:43.445]It seems very invasive, but if we have immediate concerns
[00:59:46.927]that this parent can't provide care for the child.
[00:59:50.888]If it's really recent, if maybe their rights
[00:59:53.535]were terminated six months ago,
[00:59:56.540]it's almost automatic that we're going
[00:59:58.654]to take custody of the child and then go from there.
[01:00:02.137]And maybe the reason that the case
[01:00:05.062]couldn't progress is because the parent
[01:00:06.479]was actively using and was unable to maintain sobriety,
[01:00:10.553]but then having your rights terminated
[01:00:13.722]does something to people sometimes,
[01:00:16.242]and it really kind of kicks you into gear.
[01:00:17.972]Maybe they've had two years of sobriety.
[01:00:19.921]We might not move forward with automatic
[01:00:22.730]terminating of parental rights, so it depends,
[01:00:25.471]but it certainly haunts you.
[01:00:26.990]And anyone who's had their rights terminated
[01:00:29.661]in the state of Nebraska is going to see us
[01:00:32.203]after they have a new child.
[01:00:34.817]It's very surprising to me people stick around.
[01:00:39.761]I would leave the state.
[01:00:41.758]But people do, they stick around.
[01:00:43.488]Sometimes people are really honest, too.
[01:00:45.253]When they're in the hospital, they'll tell
[01:00:46.854]the social worker at the hospital what's going on.
[01:00:49.374]You might want to call CPS now and have them come meet me.
[01:00:53.088]Because those are the people who "I've done
[01:00:55.631]"all these really great things in my life
[01:00:57.430]"and I really want to try to parent this time,
[01:00:59.349]"and I want to try to work with everyone
[01:01:00.890]"in order to do that."
[01:01:02.550]So, I would say the majority of the time
[01:01:04.558]when we're aware that someone has a new child
[01:01:07.877]and they've been terminated in the past,
[01:01:09.735]we're gonna be involved one way or another.
[01:01:12.174]I do have a current case right now
[01:01:14.112]where the mom sexually abused
[01:01:18.610]an older child and her rights were terminated
[01:01:21.488]in another state.
[01:01:23.276]And she moved to Nebraska,
[01:01:27.611]had another baby, and that baby
[01:01:30.734]was removed from her custody,
[01:01:33.090]and the judge ruled that the department
[01:01:34.656]did not have to provide reasonable efforts
[01:01:36.746]because she'd already had another child terminated
[01:01:39.485]and there was physical harm and all of this,
[01:01:42.505]and that was just recently upheld by
[01:01:45.307]the Court of Appeals, so...
[01:01:50.247]You don't see it all that often, but...
[01:01:52.384]There is a difference, though,
[01:01:54.117]between a volunteer relinquishment and--
[01:01:56.145]Yeah, we're just talking termination.
[01:01:59.177]Relinquishment is the carrot on a stick, okay?
[01:02:02.536]I'm gonna have to file for termination
[01:02:04.533]of your parental rights, but we won't terminate
[01:02:06.959]if you relinquish your rights or you voluntarily
[01:02:09.351]sign away your rights.
[01:02:12.497]Then HHS doesn't necessarily
[01:02:16.377]have to step in, or will not automatically step in,
[01:02:20.928]if you have another child down the road.
[01:02:24.375]And so you will see parents relinquish their rights,
[01:02:27.929]rather than take the risk of going through
[01:02:30.830]a termination trial, having their rights terminated,
[01:02:33.210]and then having that affect subsequent children.
[01:02:36.054]Is that because they see that as like
[01:02:38.122]good faith, or like they're choosing to do something
[01:02:41.164]in the best interest of the child?
[01:02:43.427]Yeah, and maybe the first thing they've ever done
[01:02:45.807]that's in the best interest of the child.
[01:02:47.490]Not that I'm jaded and cynical.
[01:02:49.628](all laugh)
[01:02:51.549]That's just happening.
[01:02:52.970]And I don't work that end of cases
[01:02:55.879]so I don't see it nearly as much,
[01:02:58.085]but I think it's a lot of people who can't
[01:03:01.325]maintain sobriety and they know that,
[01:03:04.041]but they wanna work toward that.
[01:03:05.817]Maybe that's a goal.
[01:03:07.221]Sometimes it's a year's long struggle
[01:03:10.379]of getting sober, and so they may say,
[01:03:12.562]at this point, I can't parent and I don't want
[01:03:14.906]to keep my child in limbo...
[01:03:17.240]And sometimes it's I'm gonna pick the
[01:03:19.295]bad boyfriend or girlfriend to stay with,
[01:03:21.883]rather than picking my children.
[01:03:24.623]I'm kinda cynical.
[01:03:26.004]No, I am, though, today especially.
[01:03:29.022]In order to make it through my day,
[01:03:31.380]I have to believe that parents are always trying
[01:03:33.678]to do what's best or I might go a little crazy.
[01:03:35.729]And you do, and you do.
[01:03:37.993]We tell our volunteers in training
[01:03:39.851]that you can't make this stuff up.
[01:03:41.974]I have a really good imagination,
[01:03:43.670]but even that, there is this actual
[01:03:46.154]circumstances of cases are so out there,
[01:03:49.877]that you do think that somebody's making it up,
[01:03:52.802]but it isn't.
[01:03:53.881]It is reality.
[01:03:55.078]So, you can't make it up.
[01:03:56.680]Yes.
[01:03:57.539]If a pregnant mother
[01:03:58.920]is using while pregnant and they find out,
[01:04:00.824]is that automatic termination of rights, or is that--
[01:04:03.518]Automatic removal.
[01:04:05.213]Well, I guess, well, it depends.
[01:04:08.486]If the baby is testing positive for anything
[01:04:13.281]other than marijuana, we would remove that child.
[01:04:18.238]But if the child's not testing positive...
[01:04:22.265]I guess, if mom's using her first seven months,
[01:04:26.584]and then she doesn't use for the next couple months,
[01:04:28.779]it doesn't mean automatic any...
[01:04:30.660]I mean, the baby's gonna have to show signs
[01:04:33.480]of drug exposure, as well as
[01:04:38.486]withdrawal symptoms, because that child was
[01:04:41.220]exposed to drugs, they're now having medical withdrawal
[01:04:44.203]that's causing them issue.
[01:04:47.118]If it's very clear that the mother is under
[01:04:50.762]the influence of meth and she's testing positive
[01:04:52.736]for meth, that is probably automatic.
[01:04:55.000]We're going to remove that child and then do testing.
[01:04:59.723]The problem we have right now is
[01:05:02.242]there's no automatic test for infants.
[01:05:04.902]They are testing core blood and meconium,
[01:05:07.654]and that takes seven to 10 days if it's a fast test.
[01:05:12.019]So, that's sometimes frustrating for us
[01:05:14.258]to intervene right at birth, but when the mother
[01:05:20.533]delivers in the ambulance on the way to the hospital,
[01:05:23.663]and then gets off of the ambulance
[01:05:26.138]and walks away from the hospital because she's tweaking,
[01:05:29.177]then we're probably gonna intervene.
[01:05:31.617]That just happened to us.
[01:05:33.263]The mom had no idea she just had a baby.
[01:05:35.679]To clarify, I'm sorry, Greg.
[01:05:37.722]Did you say that there's not automatic testing
[01:05:40.300]of the baby, but there's automatic testing
[01:05:42.319]of the meconium and core blood?
[01:05:44.537]They will taste at birth, but that takes
[01:05:46.477]seven to 10 days to get the results back.
[01:05:48.159]But is it automatic for everyone,
[01:05:49.859]for every birth, or is it just for those
[01:05:51.638]who you have suspicion?
[01:05:53.275]Just suspicion.
[01:05:54.691]And that is up to the hospital.
[01:05:56.753]We can request it, and I will say
[01:05:58.761]Lincoln hospitals are very cooperative.
[01:06:01.849]If we request it, they will do the testing.
[01:06:04.728]And if maybe this is first time mom,
[01:06:08.524]and no one knows her, if she appears to be
[01:06:11.890]under the influence or discloses that she
[01:06:14.061]has used at all during her pregnancy,
[01:06:15.988]they will test her at the time she's in labor,
[01:06:20.343]and then they will do a test on the child.
[01:06:23.325]They also do not need to tell the parent
[01:06:25.322]that they're doing that.
[01:06:27.098]I had my son at the Med Center in Omaha,
[01:06:29.861]and they tested everybody, and some hospitals do that.
[01:06:36.358]Yeah?
[01:06:37.334]Why not marijuana?
[01:06:39.689]'Cause then they're mellow babies.
[01:06:41.176](all laugh)
[01:06:43.150](indistinct)
[01:06:45.576]That is such a hard one.
[01:06:46.830]I will say the state of Nebraska considers
[01:06:48.618]marijuana a controlled substance.
[01:06:50.971]But we use a little bit more discretion on marijuana
[01:06:55.892]because it does stay so long in the system.
[01:06:59.851]I guess I have to be really careful.
[01:07:02.429]We would be involved.
[01:07:03.462]I don't know if I want to say it's an automatic removal,
[01:07:05.446]but we would be involved because we certainly don't
[01:07:07.373]want children exposed to any kind of illegal drug,
[01:07:14.760]but it's not as concerning to us as meth use...
[01:07:18.373]Or heroin. Or heroin.
[01:07:20.713]Heroin's starting to show up more.
[01:07:23.603]What's the other one?
[01:07:25.031]Cocaine. Cocaine.
[01:07:26.192]Oh, gosh.
[01:07:27.296]Cocaine is the worst to newborns.
[01:07:29.152]I'm a little traumatized.
[01:07:30.604]I watched a newborn detox from cocaine.
[01:07:33.367]It's horrible.
[01:07:34.806]She couldn't even have the lights on in the room
[01:07:37.162]because the vibration from the lights
[01:07:38.764]hurt her so bad.
[01:07:40.157]She just laid there screaming.
[01:07:41.343]It's horrible.
[01:07:42.290]Just please never do cocaine if you're pregnant.
[01:07:44.812]If you get nothing else from today, that is it.
[01:07:47.412]Write that down.
[01:07:48.631]Or any drugs while you're pregnant.
[01:07:50.432]Like no alcohol, no drugs, no Advil, no nothing.
[01:07:54.389]Yes.
[01:07:55.423]And to kind of talk about that a little bit, though,
[01:07:58.118]I mean, yes, we're concerned about the child
[01:08:00.067]being exposed, having drug exposure,
[01:08:02.007]and having withdrawal.
[01:08:03.097]But to be clear, it's not against the law
[01:08:05.582]to use drugs while you're pregnant in Nebraska.
[01:08:08.066]So, you can, there's nothing...
[01:08:10.806]We get calls.
[01:08:12.152]You know, "My daughter's six months pregnant
[01:08:14.195]"and she's using meth," and we're like,
[01:08:16.354]"We're sorry about that.
[01:08:17.817]"Please try to get her into some treatment," but...
[01:08:20.093]If it's in her pockets and you're out on the street,
[01:08:21.938]call the cops, no.
[01:08:23.459](all laugh)
[01:08:26.409]I didn't know she was this (indistinct)
[01:08:28.128](all laugh)
[01:08:29.916]It's just a thought.
[01:08:33.184]Question: I've always kind of
[01:08:35.006]wondered this.
[01:08:35.923]I know that if a parent fails a drug test
[01:08:38.757]because they test positive for meth,
[01:08:42.076]that it's an automatic removal of their children
[01:08:44.978]when they're already in the system,
[01:08:47.183]and I know that that's because (indistinct).
[01:08:54.196]I was wanting to know why is it specifically stated
[01:08:56.953]that meth is an automatic removal,
[01:08:59.635]but it's not specifically stated for
[01:09:01.713]any other drug, specifically?
[01:09:03.884]I know that they can, but it's specifically
[01:09:07.506]in writing for meth.
[01:09:09.201]To be clear, it's not an automatic removal.
[01:09:11.499]It will depend on the situation.
[01:09:14.147]If one parent is testing, the other parent...
[01:09:16.247]The child could always go to another parent
[01:09:18.661]if they're not a meth user.
[01:09:20.880]So, just to clarify, it's not always an automatic removal.
[01:09:24.826]It is an automatic request to the county attorney
[01:09:28.844]for a court case, and then the court county attorney
[01:09:31.142]will decide if we're gonna go into court.
[01:09:33.278]We call it an RTF, Request to File.
[01:09:36.041]Meth, because of the severe effects that meth has
[01:09:40.963]versus other drugs.
[01:09:43.185]I mean, the federal guidelines say is that meth
[01:09:45.931]has the most severe effects, not just physically,
[01:09:49.091]but mentally, how it alters your mental state,
[01:09:51.832]not only when you're using, but when you're not using,
[01:09:54.815]and the effects that it has on the children
[01:09:57.299]exposed to the meth, it's...
[01:10:00.225]When you're smoking it in house around the children,
[01:10:02.196]they're smoking it with you, and so it's really about
[01:10:05.286]the immediate and long-term effects that meth has
[01:10:08.386]that they find it more severe than other drugs.
[01:10:13.286]And Nebraska has a really bad meth problem,
[01:10:15.552]and so the legislature really wants meth
[01:10:19.905]to be up there on everyone's radar.
[01:10:23.294]But apparently, Dawn says heroin's coming back at it.
[01:10:25.511]She's in the know. Heroin's coming back.
[01:10:27.323]Heroin's coming back.
[01:10:28.983]Actually moving this way.
[01:10:30.771]Indiana has a really bad problem with it,
[01:10:33.220]and it's kinda coming from the East Coast,
[01:10:35.717]but it's people who were abusing prescription drugs
[01:10:38.653]like oxycodin, then move on to heroin
[01:10:41.730]because the effects are similar and it's cheaper.
[01:10:45.700]That's what I know about the drug trade.
[01:10:48.425]There you go.
[01:10:49.659](all laugh)
[01:10:51.180]I know.
[01:10:53.357]So, we have time for maybe one burning question
[01:10:56.584]like you did not get answered by myself
[01:10:58.662]or something we can't talk about at another time.
[01:11:01.471]Jessie?
[01:11:02.493]Or Jess, sorry.
[01:11:03.468]It's more for you, but I can ask you after class.
[01:11:05.512]Are you sure?
[01:11:06.568]Yeah, I'm actually (indistinct).
[01:11:10.101]You have to be 21.
[01:11:12.383]You have to pass criminal background check,
[01:11:14.834]can't be on the Child Abuse Registry,
[01:11:17.294]can't be a sex offender.
[01:11:19.199]Have to go through the training,
[01:11:20.976]but I'd love to talk to you.
[01:11:23.379]And our contact information, it's on the back of those.
[01:11:27.860]And our website, there's more information, too.
[01:11:31.342]And I have contact information for both
[01:11:32.875]of our guest speakers, so if there's burning questions
[01:11:34.929]or something we didn't cover today,
[01:11:37.182]I can put you in touch with them,
[01:11:38.504]but before we go, let's thank our guest speakers.
[01:11:40.235](applause)
[01:11:44.019](drowned by applause) valuable information.
[01:11:46.122]And you all are free to go.
[01:11:47.734]See you on Tuesday.

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CYAF 493/893 Guest Speakers: Dawn Rockey and Kim Bro

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