Thursday, March 4, 2010

Alexis Stuth Bill Progress

First...part of my original bill was taken and amended into another bill that will be passed into law. So, the work we have done will not all be left behind. It will not have Alexis's name on it. This happened because some of my bill was "easy" and some not. The chair, Rep. Ruth Kagi, did not want to lose the good language that was less controversial in my bill...and that leaves the tough part to still negotiate.

The bill is currently in the House and it has been amended to place foster parents on equal footing with biological relatives. The federal government and existing state law says: Families First. In reality...that isn't what always happens. And, in some cases it shouldn't happen. Foster parents already have standing in court. So, the bill does not now possess the original intent.

Rep. Ruth Kagi and I talked yesterday about the bill. She came to me which I appreciated. There are some well meaning Republicans in the House who have an amendment favoring foster parents over biological relative waiting for the bill should it be brought up for a vote.

The amendment is being sponsored by Rep. (******) who is himself a foster parent. He sees the kids who come from bad families. He does not seem to acknowledge the fact that not all family members are bad. Again....some are bad, but some are not. Legislators need to look outside their own experiences to see the larger picture. And, legislators need to have a commitment to our family structure as does the federal and state law. Right now, according to Rep. Kagi, foster parents have standing and bio family does not. So where is the fairness in this? Seems to me that our existing law operates outside of the law. Hopefully, we can get this straightened out. As I have been saying...we need to get cases to the State Supreme Court.

This blog has taken the correct position. There are abuses on both sides of the CPS system. CPS does not do enough to help some kids (1 death a month in CPS cases) nor are they placing with relatives when they should. CPS does steal kids from good families. They were almost successful in the Stuth Case.

The bill in the House has not been voted on by the body. Do not worry about the current form of the bill. I haven't posted about it because there are too many moving pieces right now.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Foster parents only have standing in court when the child has been placed with them for more than 10 months.. and that assumes the foster parent is informed of the hearing, which court clerks and social workers have been instructed to actively discourage happening.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much Senator Roach for answering my question. You are a very dependable person and one that I have come to trust unlike some. Please keep up the good work. As I happen to think that you are the best person to speak for these children and if we can do anything at all please do not hesitate to let us know. We love you Senator Roach, I only wish that we were in your area. You stand up for what you believe is right and we like that in a Senator or any legislative official. I have something written by someone else that I want to post on you sight so I will try to copy and paste. You sau that we need to get some cases in the supreme court and I want to know how that can be done, what is the process to make that happen. Our case Senator Roach is to be a full day hearing in court in two months, but my only concern or question for you is that it was to be orginally heard in front of the Commissioner in Family Court and the Commissioner said that it had to be heard in front of the Judge that reliquished the parents rights and so they moved it to this Judge and scheduled a hearing and then it was changed to another Judge and this Judge is not even a Family Court Judge she usually hears murder trials. To us this seems kind of strange and even our attorney is puzzeled as to why that they are doing this. To me I do not put anything past the department and maybe they got it changed. We are all puzzeled.
Thank you again for answering about the Alexis Stuth bill. So this bill really does not give family rights or Grandparents rights either. My, my it almost seems that the department designed this bill instead of the ones that did.
Thank you,
Grandma in Vancouver

Anonymous said...

80 failure remains the status quo !
Will the fraud ever stop???

Lovingfitfather said...

You mean Rep. (******) sees children who come from families facing the largely spurious allegations of CPS and demonized so that Child Welfare is kept in inventory!!!
Most often the truth or actualities of child dependency's are declared not credible or relevant to the STATES definition of "best interest of child."
Senator Roach do you believe that if this mandate were to be legally changed to "BEST INTEREST TO CHILD" that it may become harder to INTENTIONALLY FAIL INNOCENT CHILDREN and their biological families could get the traction they deserve in "Family Court!"

Anonymous said...

Anonymous above is obfuscating the true intentions of CPS's maleficent agenda to give innocent children to complete strangers thereby insuring that Social Intuitions will retain their intentionally failed clients from "Cradle to Grave."