The new levy would provide additional funding for children's services in the Washington County for the next five years. Those services include placement of children from troubled families in foster homes.
Last year, there were more than 1,000 cases of child abuse and neglect in Lucas County. While no child in the system is without a home, the demand for foster homes has been on a steady increase over the last few years.
A recent Raycom Media investigation into doctors who over-prescribe opioid pain medication and their so-called “pill mills” suggests that, for at least half of the nation’s heroin users, addiction started with a legal prescription for painkillers. Medicare provider data from 2015 shows 128 general practice health care providers wrote more prescriptions for opioids than all other drugs combined.
Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services agreed to a sit-down, round-table style interview regarding how CCCFS assesses and services child cases exclusively with Cleveland 19 News, Tuesday. This, after the death of a 4-year-old Euclid girl who previously had an open case with CCCFS but was closed due to lack of evidence during CCCFS's 2017 investigation.
Social workers dedicate their time and energy to helping make the country a better place to live, and in Ohio, more than 9,000 focus that time and energy on children and families.This is National Social Work Month, and agencies around the Buckeye State are highlighting the vital role of social workers in local communities.
The Ohio House of Representatives has taken up legislation that addresses extrajudicial adoptions, perhaps the most pernicious form of human trafficking. Called re-homing, the practice amounts to a transfer of a child's legitimate custody from either his birth parents or legal, adoptive parents to willing individuals who forgo the lawful adoption process, presumably for illicit reasons.
Jenny Conrad knows how to talk to parents addicted to heroin and other opioids because she has been there. Now recovered, Conrad and two other former drug addicts are teaming up with Fairfield County Child Protective Services workers to help currently addicted parents recover and hold on to their children.
The stories and images of the devastating effects of the drug and opioid crisis have taken hold across Butler County and the wider nation. The stories of sobriety and those getting clean are sometimes overlooked. But when heard, they shed light on what it takes to get clean and stay that way.
Traffickers prey on those without support structures or loved ones. Many victims did not attend school regularly or didn't have a peer group they fit in with. Most came from broken homes where drugs were prominent and they were bounced around the foster care system. That leaves victims vulnerable to manipulation and coercion with no one to trust. Many times traffickers also become drug suppliers, and from there it's not a far push into the sex trade.
A 5-year-old Native American boy at the center of controversy for more than a year will remain with his Coshocton County foster family, for now. Last week, the Ohio Court of Appeals reversed an earlier juvenile court ruling that would have sent the preschooler 2,000 miles from his home to a reservation in Arizona. The ruling stated the juvenile court should not have granted custody without first conducting a full evidentiary hearing taking into account the best interest of the child.
The number of cases filed last year in Hancock County Juvenile Court was the lowest since 1985, according to the 2017 annual report released by the court. Just 1,178 cases were filed in the court last year, compared with 1,287 cases in 2016, a previous low.
To mark Child Abuse Prevention Month, Allen County Children Services is holding a contest called Wear Blue. Wear blue to work April 11!
