Archive for the 'Public Policy' Category

Abusing Children At Home & In School – The Life Of An Abused Child

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on March 7, 2010
in Crime and Courts, Health and Mental Health, Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Most House Republicans Vote To Allow Solitary Confinement & Restraint Devices in Schools.

The vast majority of the children we will be tying up & confining come from very troubled homes. Or, as former MN Supreme court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has stated, about 90% of the youth in juvenile justice have come through child protection services.

Before a child can become removed from a home through child protection services, they have lived for a long time in an abusive or neglectful home and have been tortured as defined by the World Health Organization.

It’s not the happy children that we will be restraining - it’s the three million children that are reported to child protection in America each year.

In my experience, the WHO’s definition of torture fits the life experience of a child that has been removed from an abusive home; “extended exposure to violence and deprivation” has been their life. The U.S. has no other child protection policy than the IMMINENT HARM DOCTRINE.

The link between an abused child’s past tortured life and future troubled life is clear to most of us that have lived with or worked with these damaged children long enough. It causes me great pain to see my guardian ad-Litem kids handled like mad animals (tasered, confined, beat up by under-trained staff in under-resourced detention centers) Continue reading ‘Abusing Children At Home & In School – The Life Of An Abused Child’

Ireland Implements guardian ad-Litem Program

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on March 5, 2010
in International Child Abuse, Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Monday’s Irish Times announced that Ireland would be

Implementing best practice on the right of children to be heard http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0301/1224265369793.html

A child’s right to be heard is the essence of the guardian ad-Litem program. Think about it. Voiceless, helpless children enduring unspeakable horrors, sometimes for many years with no one to turn to for help.

The World Health Organization defines Torture as extended exposure to violence and deprivation. That is how I see child abuse.

In my experience as a guardian ad-Litem, a child often doesn’t even know that these terrible adult behaviors are wrong or they they have not done something to cause them.

Unspeakable crimes are committed against children but its not a crime in most third world nations, and it is rarely discovered if child protection services are under-trained or under resourced in industrialized nations.


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Continue reading ‘Ireland Implements guardian ad-Litem Program’

Acting Like A Responsible Adult Part II

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on March 5, 2010
in Public Policy
. 0 Comments

In the 1950’s I remember the public outrage when TV and newspapers uncovered senior citizens eating dog food out of cans and living under bridges. It was a a warm hearted, hot blooded citizen outcry that supported more social security for the aged, more health care, and more safety. Because of that outcry, politicians saw to it that support at many levels was increased to seniors.

As a volunteer guardian ad-Litem working with abused and neglected children in my county, I have watched services for at risk children disappear and the horrible results that follow. It is becoming unbearable at this time of economic unrest.

Seniors of the 1950’s were well served by the public support they received when people stood up for them at the time.

Where is that support for the millions of children reported to child protection services in this nation each year and why is it that 90% of the youth in juvenile justice have passed through child protection systems and are headed for criminal justice & U.S. preteen pregnancy and STD rates are the highest in the world?

I remember a nation that stood by its weakest and most vulnerable citizens. Where did they go?

A Very Critical Look At Foster Care

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 28, 2010
in Invisible Children and Public Policy
. 5 Comments

The following synopsis of under-resourced foster care systems is taken from the superior reporting on the Grandparents Blog; SUNDAY,

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

A Critical Look At The Foster Care System:How Widespread a Problem?

A Critical Look At The Foster Care System:
How Widespread a Problem?
http://unhappygrammy-grandparentsblog.blogspot.com/

A New York University Survey determined that over 28% of the children in foster care had been abused while in the system. The cases noted were frightening. Louisiana a study indicated that 21% of abuse and neglect cases involved foster homes. Hundreds of Louisiana foster children were shipped to Texas.

Stephen Berzon of the Children’s Defense Fund explained the shocking findings of the court before a Congressional subcommitte, saying: “children were physically abused, handcuffed, beaten, chained, and tied up, kept in cages, and overdrugged with psychotropic medication for institutional convenience.”

The rest of this report is terrifying. Many states have decades long histories of ignoring the physical violence and overt sexual abuse of very young children. This report names names, dates, and places.

California paid $18 million to children that were abused while in its custody. This is a frightening story.

I agree with Children’s Rights Project attorney Marcia Robinson Lowry: “There are a lot of injuries, a lot of abuse. The most significant thing is the psychological death of so many of these kids. Kids are being destroyed every day, destroyed by a government-funded system set out to help them.”

Each state must look hard at the outcomes it wants to achieve. Recent studies show that 80% of children aging out of foster care are leading dysfunctional lives

There is an institutional violence done to children when the system is too busy, too under-trained, or under-resourced to include family members.
Continue reading ‘A Very Critical Look At Foster Care’

Acting Like A Responsible Adult

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 26, 2010
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 3 Comments

Every state has it’s loud and mean “I got mine” Tea Party contingency, but it is prudent to look deeper into who has voted us to where we are today.
America’s aging population is retreating into retirement with its pensions and savings and leaving young families with failing schools, health systems, and communities.

The lack of financial or public support for day care, early childhood programs, schools & health care is being compounded by the increased political footballing of five year olds.

At Risk Children have been sold out to the pharmaceutical firms of our very young children as guinea pigs for Prozac, Ritalin, and other psychotropic medications (Ritalin was banned in Sweden in 1968 due to the increase in suicides).

Educators are expected to deal with the mental health issues of thousands of abused and neglected children in their classrooms each year & then denigrated by political figures in election years.

At the same time, media & politicians are blaming the people working in the field instead of taking a constructive approach to understanding the issues and creating public policies that address the problems.

Building prisons has not worked (500M budget in MN this year), nor has under-serving abused and neglected children (double digit prison growth 4 of last 5 years).

There is nothing responsible or adult-like in accusing bad teachers for failed schools, or for blaming social workers when a baby is found in a dumpster. That is like blaming the police for the criminal in the squad car.

It is to our own best interest to approach these issues in a responsible fashion and make the investment in determining what needs to be done and then doing it.

We will continue to degrade our cities and spend far more money maintaining prisons, fighting crime, and paying for damage and insurance than we would if children received the attention they need to succeed in school and go on to lead productive lives.
The following are a few examples of the how various states are dealing with the current financial crisis and how it is impacting their public safety and children;
Continue reading ‘Acting Like A Responsible Adult’

Books Not Yet Written

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 23, 2010
in Guardian ad-Litem and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

A Few years ago Judge Heidi Schellhas gave me a printout of the psychotropic medications the very young children in her child protection courtroom were proscribed. The impact of seven year olds on Prozac, Ritalin and other powerful medications is still with me.

How profound the impact sexual abuse, violence, and neglect has on a child (and the community that he/she will live in)

Without the right kind of care, violence and neglect hurts a child forever. The hole in their life is gigantic and small efforts don’t mend this serious damage.

What does it say about a community that leaves children in toxic homes because it does not have the foresight, concern, or resources to protect its youngest and most vulnerable citizens?

Keep in mind that Hennepin County used to be one of the nations most progressive child protection counties.

As a guardian ad-Litem there were many children in my case load that had been through three, four, and five years of the worst kinds of tortured abuse. One boy had spent much of his life tied to a bed, starved, and sexually abused (from four to seven).

He has AIDS today (about 14 years later) and not had anything like a real life. I would call it a tortured life of awful choices and no real joy.

Continue reading ‘Books Not Yet Written’

Children’s Health Trends

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 22, 2010
in Health and Mental Health and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Dr. Bruce Perry gives credible argument that 25% of Americans will be special needs people in few generations if we do not act forcefully to mend our approach to the mental health needs of abused and neglected children http://www.childtrauma.org/CTAMATERIALS/vortex_interd.asp.

Add to that the serious growing issues of diabetes that conservatively predicts that fifty percent of American’s children will be obese within three years, & that three times as many American children are proscribed psychotropic medications as are European children, is a strong indication that our public policies are not child friendly.

We are all too familiar with the sad fact that the U.S. tries 150,000 juveniles as adults each year, and that most juvenile justice cases have been child protection cases, paints an even darker picture for poor inner city children.

New York Times article on Rising Rates of Chronic Health Problems for Children;
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/research/23child.html
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A Modest Proposal, or If Children Could Riot

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 21, 2010
in Guardian ad-Litem, Health and Mental Health, Politics and Funding, Public Policy and education
. 1 Comment

300 years ago an Irish Minister wrote a highly acclaimed critical satire (”A Modest Proposal” - in its entirety below) in protest of the cruel public policies imposed on poor families that were destroying the lives of Irish children.

Public policy at the time treated the Irish more like animals than people and their children were doomed to living lives of crime, prostitution, and destitution.

Jonathon Swift’s satirical theme was that Irish children would be better off dead than raised in such horrible and inescapable circumstances.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have come to understand Swift’s rage at the cruelties a community can pile on to poor children.

The idea that America’s poor working families don’t deserve education, health care, & safe homes for their children in the richest nation in the world is a cruel and unsupportable position.

The other industrialized nations have figured out that caring for their youngest citizens guarantees healthy adults and productive communities. We now don’t rank anywhere near the top in the majority of quality of life indices among the 24 industrialized nations.

America can’t quit building prisons and filling them with juveniles and preteen moms. We continue to quit subsidizing daycare, early childhood programs, healthcare for the poor, & education funding, while at the same time listening more and more to the mean spirited philosophies of radio and TV hosts that blame the nations ills on people that have (and always will have) the least.

The economic arguments of caring for children are all in favor of creating productive citizens by early intervention and early childhood development. It actually costs a great deal more to continue to punish the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Are we a community without compassion?

KARA is seeking a 21st Century Modest Proposal. If you are a writer and given to challenges, please read Swift’s “Proposal” below, and write your own as you see it applying to American children & include it as a comment, or send it to Info@invisiblechildren.org
Continue reading ‘A Modest Proposal, or If Children Could Riot’

Day Care In America, NY v MN

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 19, 2010
in Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

One of my last guardian ad-Litem acts was to be part of the court proceedings to remove children from the home of a man who could not afford daycare (his wife was a crack addict).

Minnesota’s Governor had killed programs that made day care affordable for low wage earners on the pretense that the state would be fiscally better off without them.

Without subsidized daycare, this hard working man’s children would have been taken from their family, placed in foster/adoptive homes, costing the state many times as much money as daycare would have.

Add to that the disruption in the lives of these already at risk children and their likely damaged performance in school plus the all too common behavioral problems that result from this kind of chaos all add up to what we are trying to distance ourselves as a nation; more juvenile prison fodder, more preteen moms, and more dysfunctional adults.

As our former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has stated, “the difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years”.

This Governor believes his decisions to be grounded in fiscally sound policy.

I argue that this policy is wasteful and immoral.

We are destroying families and costing the community both in the short term and in the long term, far more money than subsidizing of day care for low wage earners.

Presently, day care workers are paid at the same rate food service workers are in the U.S. (the lowest paid workers in the nation). This is an indication of how the nation values its young (and we still can’t afford daycare).

New York Times Article;

New York City Seeks to Close 15 Day Care Centers in Budget Cut

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Become part of KARA’s email network by sending a request to join to; amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

Continue reading ‘Day Care In America, NY v MN’

Someplace Where We Can Be A Family

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 19, 2010
in Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

The “burden of eviction is Heavier on Black Women, Research in Milwaukee Shows” reads the New York Times today, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/us/19evict.html

U of Wisconsin research shows that poor minority women are almost twice as likely to face eviction as minority men (1 of 14 vs. 1 of 25). Irresponsible behavior by live-in fathers and boyfriends and reporting domestic violence to the police often trigger evictions.

The disruption and trauma of eviction & broken homes, forces children out of schools, ruins credit ratings, creates homelessness, increased drug & alcohol abuse, violence and child abuse.

It also puts a burden on schools, increases crime, and preteen pregnancies. The cycle continues.

The costs to our community are made clear by the recent ACE study that proved that almost 70% of the serious and violent crime committed by juveniles in Ramsey County was committed by children living in 2 to 4% of Ramsey County families.

http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

Continue reading ‘Someplace Where We Can Be A Family’

Civil Justice, Mental Health, Children, Education, & Politics

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 17, 2010
in Health and Mental Health, Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Last night I attended the Patrick Henry High School Community Forum on the impact that children’s mental health has on the entire education and juvenile justice systems held by Representatives Mindy Greiling and the Civil Justice Committee Chair Joe Mullery.

Smart people from mental health and education spoke on stigma, truancy, intervention & juvenile justice. A very smart person from the community stepped forward and spoke about mental health as perceived from within the community.

By the end of the evening it was made clear that the 47,000 arrested juvenile arrests in MN last year were related to high school dropout rates and the safety of city streets. No reference was made to the A.C.E. study of two years ago indicating that over 70 percent of all violent and serious crime in Ramsey County was committed by youth from 3% of the families within the county.

Thank you to all of the committed individuals that work in education, social services, mental health and justice trying to make these institutions responsive to the massive needs within our communities.

Please appreciate the frustration from those of us who know that preteen moms and juvenile felons deserve better from our policy makers than the hard politics that have continued to underfund mental health and young families at the expense of prisons, punishment, and jails.

I am pleased that we are having public forums on the topic for more than a few reasons;

As a community, the topic has been uncomfortable and avoided for too long. Last nights discussion on “mental health” and how to be mentally “healthy” was positive and meaningful and a model for other forums and future discussions.

As a guardian ad-Litem, I came to know many traumatized children that had no access to adequate mental health services and watching them grow into dysfunctional adults has been painful. Continue reading ‘Civil Justice, Mental Health, Children, Education, & Politics’

Health & Human Services In Minnesota (Largest Share of Budget Cuts)

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 16, 2010
in Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 2 Comments

The largest share of the No Tax approach to balancing Minnesota’s budget will fall on the sick, mentally ill, and disabled in the Governor’s new proposal.

Mr Pawlenty has already slashed programs for healthcare and daycare for the poor and focused his his attention on building prisons and increasing incarceration to control the effects of poverty in Minnesota. The state has reached half a billion in prison expense for the last fiscal year and five years of double digit prison population growth.

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has stated that the “difference between that poor child, and a felon, is about eight years”.

Minneapolis arrested 44% of its adult Black Men in 2001 under the supervision of the Governor’s appointed Public Safety Director Rich Stanek, who was forced to resign after the racial slurs he commonly used were printed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“Children that are victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the state of Minnesota” was Tim Pawlenty’s statement to Andy Dawkins and David Strand when they asked if he would support programs for abused and neglected children.

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http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2468497&trk=anet_ug_hm

Become part of our email network by sending a request to join to; amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com
Continue reading ‘Health & Human Services In Minnesota (Largest Share of Budget Cuts)’

Kansas Losing Health Care For 40,000 Children

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 15, 2010
in Health and Mental Health, Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

Another state is putting the burden of health costs back onto families earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level.

Kansas budget cuts and layoffs have created a backlog that appears to be growing dramatically.

Budget cuts hurting state child health program

By Marshanna Hester http://www.ktka.com/news/2010/feb/01/budget-cuts-hurting-state-child-health-program/
Continue reading ‘Kansas Losing Health Care For 40,000 Children’

The Impact Of Tampering With Georgia’s Student’s Test Results

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 12, 2010
in Public Policy, The States and education
. 0 Comments

Georgia’s hiding of hard truths is a terrifying trend in our nation. Here’s why;

When the truth is not reported, the critical problem is not perceived and no steps are taken to correct the underlying core issues. Things can only get worse until the system is destroyed.

Operating on false information forces people to make choices based on lies, causing more terrible results and disruption and eventual failure in what was a functioning system (education, social work, courts, or any other institution).

What would have been accomplished had these people succeeded in hiding the failure rate of Georgia’s students?

The next generation of students would be lacking in knowledge and critical thinking skills (just like the adults responsible in the tampering, but a hair less intelligent). Would they continue the convention of hiding critical information from the community?

When would the system implode?

Let this be an example of why systems need to be transparent.

Bad results are good BECAUSE we see them and can do something about them.

Not teaching 21st century American children how to learn, read, and compete in school is a disaster at many levels. Not supporting educators, parents, children, and public policy in this endeavor has cost us greatly as a nation. http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/03/02/kara-action-group-manifesto-for-early-childhood-education/

Continue reading ‘The Impact Of Tampering With Georgia’s Student’s Test Results’

Juvenile Injustice – Mental Health

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 11, 2010
in Health and Mental Health, Public Policy and The States
. 5 Comments

Today’s NY Times article on the lack of oversight in New York’s mental health facilities for youth mirrors the rest of the nation.

2 Important truths; most of the youth in the juvenile justice system have come through child protection services, & a large percentage of these youth suffer from mental health issues.

Children don’t become involved in child protection systems unless they have suffered extended exposure to violence and deprivation in their birth homes.

The World Health Organizations definition of Torture is; Extended Exposure to Violence and Deprivation – Trauma.

New York is now spending about $250,000 per year / per youth in their juvenile justice system.

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/12/14/new-york-meet-missouri/

In my experience as a guardian ad-Litem in MN I have watched really terrible things happen to very troubled children under the direction of people and programs that were supposed to be “helping” the child.

One young boy walked home many miles without a coat, on a sub zero MN night (with no home to go to) from a juvenile facility after being severely abused.

While it would be easy to blame the people in the institutions, it is really the fault of poor public policy, resulting from lack of understanding of underlying issues.

Mental health is all about functioning within our communities. Bear that in mind as you read the New York Times article and the following KARA pieces.

My note on the following; The amount of psychotropic medications being proscribed to this population is enormous in relation to the the therapy that is needed but not available.

Continue reading ‘Juvenile Injustice – Mental Health’

Keeping At-Risk Students In High School

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 9, 2010
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and education
. 1 Comment

The good news; A recent report from the non profit Jobs For The Future found that high schools with early college programs that have been open for more than four years are graduating 92% of their students with 40% of students earning at least a full year of college credits.

The bad news; As a nation, we know that high school dropouts have a far greater chance of preteen pregnancy, years of costly incarceration and leading dysfunctional lives that they pass on to their children.

Today, many states are increasing their percentage of spending on juvenile justice and criminal justice while maintaining or reducing spending on education. New York and California have been spending about $250,000 per year per juvenile in their juvenile justice systems. MN has reached the half a billion dollar mark for maintaining its prison system this year after five years of double digit growth.

The potential for finding new money for progressive new programs (no matter how successful) in this climate is slim.

What can we do?

Does any one here have a story of a successful approach within their own community?

Please share.

Read NY Times article;http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html

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Continue reading ‘Keeping At-Risk Students In High School’

California’s Child Protection Problems Grow

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 6, 2010
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 1 Comment

According to the 2006 California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care, the state has more than 75,000 children in foster care, almost 80% removed for neglect, 45% have been in foster care for over two years, 17% for more than three years.

African American and American Indian children are disproportionately represented in the system as well as in their probability of leading dysfunctional lives as they age out of foster care.

These recent news posts will bring you up to date on the difficulties being faced by the people of California (and other states) in dealing with the policies and politics of abused and neglected children Continue reading ‘California’s Child Protection Problems Grow’

This May Not Be The Case

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on February 4, 2010
in Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

A new federal study will soon be getting rave reviews and making us feel like the nation has made great progress in ending child abuse.

From where I stand, the reported decrease in incidents of serious child abuse tells only part of the story, and is certainly not a cause for celebration.

If anything, this years financial chaos and increase to poverty is having a multiplier effect on families experiencing abuse and violence.

While strides were made during the years measured, there are serious problems in accepting the results as “mission accomplished”.

Continue reading ‘This May Not Be The Case’

Bringing Attention to Child Abuse Deaths

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 31, 2010
in Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

EveryChild Matters is campaigning to bring attention to lack of attention and public policy for abused and neglected children.

http://www.everychildmatters.org/National/News/Do-10440-child-abuse-deaths-deserve-a-Congressional-hearing.html

As part of a campaign to stop child abuse and neglect deaths, The Every Child Matters Education Fund and its partners—the National Association of Social Workers, the National Children’s Alliance, and the National District Attorneys Association—are running ads that urge Congress to address the fatalities that claim the lives of innocent children every day. Specifically, the ads ask Congress to hold hearings and provide emergency funds to stop state cuts in child protective services. Continue reading ‘Bringing Attention to Child Abuse Deaths’

Voices For Children Foundation Announces Their 2010 Be A Voice Feel the Magic Gala with Special Cirque Du Soleil Performers

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 29, 2010
in Guardian ad-Litem, Invisible Children, Links To Helpful Orgs and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

This very determined organization ensures that every abused, abandoned, and neglected child in their county has a court appointed guardian Ad Litem to represent their best interests.

Every county in every state needs to know about the guardian Ad Litem program and how it helps at risk children through the difficult system of child protection services.

It is to all our benefit when children thrive in our communities. Children can only thrive if they are given a fair chance to thrive.

Without court appointed guardians, abused and neglected children are voiceless in our communities. For the CASA guardian ad litem program in your state, http://www.nationalcasa.org/, for Florida; www.casa-stpete.org/, for CASA Minnesota http://www.casamn.org/

Continue reading ‘Voices For Children Foundation Announces Their 2010 Be A Voice Feel the Magic Gala with Special Cirque Du Soleil Performers’

How Americans Respond To Child Abuse

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 28, 2010
in Invisible Children, Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

This organization Childabuse.com goes a long way in measuring the attitudes and understanding this nation has towards child abuse and why public policy has lagged so far behind the reality. The more we know, the better our policies and programs;

Fifty percent of Americans do nothing when they witness abuse

New Study by Prevent Child Abuse America Reveals Alarming Trends in How Americans Respond to Child Abuse

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Three in ten Americans have witnessed an adult physically abuse a child and two in three Americans have seen an adult emotionally abuse a child (see table 1). Yet nearly half of these Americans failed to respond to the incident, according to a study released today by Prevent Child Abuse America, formerly the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse. Continue reading ‘How Americans Respond To Child Abuse’

Georgia Child Protection: Too Many Children Too Few Resources

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 27, 2010
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 1 Comment

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New York-based Children’s Rights claims that Georgia is failing abused and neglected children. The Department of Human Services has been under a consent decree since 2005 that came out of a class action lawsuit in 2002 claiming the division was mismanaged and overburdened.

I find it hard to accept that abused and neglected children in our advanced nation, find it so hard to receive adequate help to get a fair start in life.

With budget cuts throughout the nation, states that were already underfunding, under-supporting & doing poorly for children in child protection service before this economic collapse are beginning to see these unhappy results. Growing caseloads in juvenile and criminal courts, more preteen pregnancies, and unhappier communities. Continue reading ‘Georgia Child Protection: Too Many Children Too Few Resources’

Spending On Children

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 26, 2010
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

This Jan 18 NY Times article points out just how much more we spend on the elderly than on children (2.2% vs 5.3% of GDP) & how important early childhood education is for developing children. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/remembering-the-little-people-accounting-for-kids/

The author, Nancy Folbre points out that , full-time, year-round child care for young children costs more than public university tuition in 44 states.

As a guardian ad-Litem, I’ve been chartered to removed children from a home where the father could not afford day care and the waiting list for subsidized day care was so long he could not hope to be awarded a subsidy.

Continue reading ‘Spending On Children’

Friends of Texas vs Friends of Children

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 25, 2010
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

These Friends of Texas Linked In discussions explain how children have become America’s new political football. If states can refuse government help failing schools with no political backlash, the dream for educated youth and an informed democratic society dies with the schools. This discussion needs more attention. Pass it onto your friends and coworkers. http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2010/01/25/friends-of-texas-vs-friends-of-children/

“What we do to our children, they will do to our society” Pliny the Elder 2500 years ago.

Continue reading ‘Friends of Texas vs Friends of Children’

National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 22, 2010
in Crime and Courts, Links To Helpful Orgs and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

In my own experience as a guardian ad-Litem, it is better to heal the family when possible, but I have seen cases where adults have had license to abuse children year after year without penalty. This organization provides training for the investigation and prosecution of crimes against children; http://www.ndaa.org/

In 1985, the National District Attorneys Association established the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse as a program of the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI). Aimed at responding to an increasing volume of reported child abuse, the National Center provides training, technical assistance and publications to prosecutors, investigators and allied criminal justice professionals on all aspects of criminal child abuse and exploitation. Continue reading ‘National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse’

Texas Blog Sequel

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 20, 2010
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 4 Comments

Because last weeks Texas/Alaska Politics Trash Children blog generated so much controversy on the social networking sites that hosted it, providing more information about Texas and its ranking among the states in how it treats children is in order. Factually, Texans can’t make the argument that they spend too much money on children by these numbers.

April 2008, Every Child Matters, Geography Matters

Child Well-Being Indicators

Infant Mortality 20th
Child Death (1-14) 29th
Teen Deaths (15-19) 14th
Births to Teen Moms 50th
Late/No Prenatal Care 33rd
Child Poverty 44th
Uninsured Children 50th
Juvenile Incarceration 34th
Child Abuse Deaths 45th
Child Welfare Expenditures 42nd
Total Tax burden* 41st
Overall Rank** 46th

Continue reading ‘Texas Blog Sequel’

Michigan: 16% Confirmed Increase in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 19, 2010
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

Few would argue that helping at risk children saves communities, taxpayers, and the child. Reading this article from the Detroit news indicates that some policy makers still don’t understand the relationship between healthy children and productive adults (or unhealthy children, preteen mothers and adolescent felons).

Last Updated: January 12. 2010 12:47PM
Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan
Catherine Jun / The Detroit News

Childhood poverty, neglect and abuse continue to rise in Michigan, troubling signs that children continue to bear the brunt of the state’s economic woes, according to a report released today.

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100112/METRO/1120362/1409/METRO/Child-poverty–neglect-on-rise-in-Michigan#ixzz0d4mLZOj4 Continue reading ‘Michigan: 16% Confirmed Increase in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases’

Texas & Alaska Politics Trash Children Openly

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 14, 2010
in Public Policy and The States
. 3 Comments

Today’s newspapers have printed the story of how Alaska and Texas are refusing federal funding for schools (up to seven hundred million dollars for Texas) because governors want to make a political statement against the Obama administration.

Texas has suffered the lowest graduation rates in the nation with the worst racial disparities.

To so pointlessly and blatantly refuse money for strapped schools when the Houston superintendent writes “I have 100,000 kids in Houston who don’t read at grade level” is putting another generation of Texas children at risk.

Texas had taken $250,000 from the Gates Foundation to complete the grant application and had a good chance of at being awarded funding.

The risk of youth not being able to read by the third grade going on to lead dysfunctional lives is well documented. .

Children depend on the government for their education. This government is investing its capital in politics rather than children.

Texas is laying off teachers, cutting useful programs and closing schools.

Texas has also suffered from one of the highest rates of crime and incarceration in the nation. It is well established that educated children have a far better chance of becoming productive citizens and the people of Texas would all benefit from that.

Governor Perry, these are your state’s children.

Please reconsider this counterproductive and political decision.

Continue reading ‘Texas & Alaska Politics Trash Children Openly’

Child Well Being Network (a model)

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 13, 2010
in Public Policy
. 0 Comments

I’m hoping that the Child Well Being Network gets great support and becomes a big deal in the state of MN.

More than 5,000 Minnesota children were abused and neglected in 2008. Over a thousand are currently under state guardianship, living in foster care permanently or awaiting adoptive homes (DHS 2008). Up to 600 youth age out of foster care every year.

Nationally, recent studies have shown that up to 80% of youth aging out of foster care are leading dysfunctional lives.

The Child Wellbeing Network has come together to declare that Minnesota needs a refreshed vision of child welfare. Policies and practices should reflect our values and highest hopes for children throughout our state.

Every state needs a Child Wellbeing Network, every person needs to understand that healthy children become healthy citizens & healthy citizens build healthy communities that are safe and pleasant to live in.

It is better for the child, it is better for the state, it is better for the community to take care of children.

Growing Up In America

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 8, 2010
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

One of my guardian ad-Litem youth walked home for many hours on a below zero Minnesota night without a coat because of the abuse he received at a juvenile detention center. He had had enough troubles for a lifetime before this happened.

A Pennsylvania judge was just sent to prison for receiving commissions for each youth he sent to a privately run juvenile detention center run by his friends.

Thousands of innocent youth paid for this crime. Illinois has recently stun gunned, choked, and brutalized young girls in its juvenile justice system.

A MN judge has sent me the Ritalin, Prozac, and other psychotropic medications proscribed to five, six, and seven year olds that passed through her courtroom (seldom receiving adequate mental health therapy to accompany these not yet recommended for children medications).

Missouri had suffered a 90% recidivism rate in its juvenile justice system, New York & California are close (and topping the expense charts at almost $250,000/per child per year) & all states seem to be moving toward trying more and more children as adults

Today’s NYTimes Report: Sex Abuse High at 13 Juvenile Centers

establishes that almost a third of juvenile justice detainees are victimized. About 12% are sexually abused & six of the sites had abuse rates of over 30%. Continue reading ‘Growing Up In America’

Invisible Children Around the World; Japan

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on January 7, 2010
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Occasional Authors and Public Policy
. 2 Comments

Our dedicated Macalaster College Volunteer Lelde has delivered another extensive report on child abuse in other developed nations. (Entire report follows with “continue reading”). England , Canada, Sweden.

Thank you Lelde.

With almost half the population of the U.S. (138M v 307M) Japan reported 33,308 cases of child abuse in 2005 compared to about 3 million cases in the U.S. In 2007, 37 Japanese children were killed by their parents compared to 1400 in the U.S.

The very first Japanese child abuse survey was conducted in 1999, along with specialized training for social workers. In 2006, the government introduced a national 10-year plan to improve child-rearing nationwide that included new 1700 community daytime childcare centers by March of 2010.

Japan is only now beginning to identify and respond to child abuse and neglect, after hundreds of years of three generations living in the same home, and the supreme authority of the oldest male, family intervention by the community is a difficult issue. Continue reading ‘Invisible Children Around the World; Japan’

A More Responsive New Year For Abused Children

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on December 31, 2009
in Health and Mental Health, Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

As a guardian ad-Litem, I have seen government agencies more responsive to abused animals than abused children.

Among the 24 industrialized nations, the U.S. stands out with no positive public federal policy for children.

The only Child Protection policy in America is its Imminent Harm Doctrine, allowing courts to remove children whose lives are endangered by their parents. CP systems in the U.S. are under resourced, poorly coordinated, with no meaningful studies or outcome based measurements to track success or failure.

Absent coordinated positive public policy for the care of children, America is now at the confluence of misaligned and mistaken public policies that are overwhelming its schools, health and mental health services, child protection services, juvenile justice services, and criminal justice systems.

Failing schools, unsafe communities, and absurdly high rates of incarceration are just the tip of the iceberg.

Many Americans see the tip of this iceberg and assume that they understand the deeper problem, which they will fix by lowering taxes, criticizing civil servants, harsher sentencing, limiting juvenile or criminal justice rehabilitation, and move towards privatizing prisons.

What people are not seeing, and what undermines our civil society, is the correlation between healthy children and healthy citizens. We are ignoring an explosion of traumatized children with serious mental health issues, unable to cope with school & work, or get by without intervention or services

Dr. Bruce Perry gives credible argument with his research that within the next few generations, 25% of Americans will be special needs people.

America’s Science Phobia Ravages Children

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on December 29, 2009
in David Strand, Invisible Children and Public Policy
. 3 Comments

David Strand, Columnist

Human development labored for centuries in a struggle between early science and ancient superstition. Superstition won many battles, typified by religious leaders who forced Galileo to recant his belief that the earth revolved the sun instead of the opposite. Eventually his beliefs were vindicated and one noted contemporary scientist Stephen Hawking says, “Galileo was responsible for the birth of modern science.” That doesn’t mean that superstition no longer affects human attitudes about science. It does.

No nation is equal to the United States in scientific achievement. Its universities are prodigious engines of research, its scientists unmatched in capturing Nobel prizes, and its corporations are leaders in communications, biology, computer and medical advances. The bad news for American kids is that they live in a nation that neglects to apply many basic social science truths for its most vulnerable citizens. The child and family principles that have been discovered to work by American researchers find their routine implementation in other countries, but tragically, not here. It’s a reality that is devastating for America’s future, its children.

It starts with the unborn. Every other developed country provides universal pre-natal care for expecting moms. This is an essential human decency practice in order to prevent unnecessary infant mortality. As a result, the United States is a shameful 36th in the world, with death rates for its tiniest citizens double what is achieved in northern Europe, where along with Japan, infant mortality is the lowest.

If we just had only the average rate of Europe, more than 10,000 kids would be saved each year. This isn’t rocket science. It is simply implementing what is fundamental and right; provide moms and the babies they carry with preventative health proven essential for successful births.

Next comes the adjustment to life for the healthy newborns. Mountains of brain development research, much of it generated by U.S. scientists, prove that the most important year is the baby’s first. Every modern nation in the world except one, provides universal maternity leave for working parents so that their babies get the best possible start in life. In northern Europe this means both moms and dads can stay home from work for a year or more, and have incomes supplemented and their jobs held for their return.
Continue reading ‘America’s Science Phobia Ravages Children’

150,000 Children Tried As Adults Each Year

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on December 17, 2009
in Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Todays New York Times; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/opinion/17thu3.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=as%20many%20as%20150,000%20children&st=cse

“The difference between that poor child and felon is about eight years”, & “90% of the youth in juvenile justice have passed through child protection systems” MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz

“America has created a Pipeline to Prison for its poor children”, Marion Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund

“If you define institutions by what they create, instead of what they were designed to create,” (Kathleen Long, Author, Angels & Demons) then, “Child protection services creates preteen moms and adolescent felons”, Mike Tikkanen

New York, Meet Missouri

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on December 14, 2009
in Crime and Courts, Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

Todays NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/nyregion/14juvenile.html article on the mental illness, violence, recidivism, and dangerous conditions within New York’s juvenile justice system make me wonder if this nation cares enough about youth to read the newspaper. Missouri went from 90% recidivism in its juvenile justice system to one of the most successful programs for juvenile justice in the nation.

Today over 75% of children entering New York’s JJS have drug and alcohol issues over half have mental health problems, and one third have developmental disabilities. The state spends about $210,000 per child annually and 75% of the children are re-arrested within three years.

Other states look this bad too (California, Florida, Texas)

A few years ago Missouri had the same problem and solved it by concentrating on reducing confinement, a humane approach to youth combined with the mental health needs of children, and restorative justice.

Continue reading ‘New York, Meet Missouri’

Invisible Children Around the World; United Kingdom

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on December 1, 2009
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

“Children grow to fill the space we create for them, and if it’s big, they grow tall.”
Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan

The following is my synopsis of the report written by KARA’s Macalaster Student Volunteer (Thank You Lelde) on abused and neglected children in the UK. The entire report can be read by clicking the “read more” button at the end.

In 1889, the first act of parliament for the prevention of cruelty to children (the Children’s Charter) was passed. In 1932 all existing child protection laws were united under a single piece of legislation. In 1968 the Social Work Act gave authority to local authorities for investigating child abuse.

Of 11 million children in England, 235,000 receive support from a local authority; 60,000 are looked after by a local authority, 37,000 are the subject of a care order; 29,000 are the subject of a Child Protection Plan, 1300 are privately fostered & 300 are in secure children’s homes.

Of America’s 73 million children, about 750,000 are in county adoption, foster care and child protection and another 1.8 million living with relatives. This would indicate an American rate of child abuse (children that are out of the home or in child protection) approximately three times that found in England.

Reading this study closely, it appears that many UK children fail to receive the help they need (which may account for some of the big disparity in rates of child abuse between our nations).

The NSPCC child Maltreatment study found that one in six children experienced serious maltreatment; it appears that only one in one hundred children received services.

16% of UK children under 16 experienced sexual abuse during childhood by people known but unrelated to them, with the majority reporting more than one incident. 72% of those children told no one at the time, 31% told no one by early adulthood.

25% of UK children experienced physical violence during childhood; 78% happened at home, 15% at school, & 13% in public places.

Of the 189 children reported murdered or injured by their caregivers, only 33 had child protection cases open.

Does anyone know of the approximately (my estimate) 10,000 U.S. children that are murdered or injured annually by their caregivers, how many of them were open child protection cases? Please comment here or contact KARA directly; info@invisiblechildren.org

Continue reading ‘Invisible Children Around the World; United Kingdom’

Canada Child Protection & U.S.

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on November 27, 2009
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Key facts from the Child Abuse and Protection report on Canada written by KARA’s volunteer Macalaster College student (Lelde);

* Close to one third of Canadian teen agers reported some kind of abuse or neglect,

* Children know their abusers in eight out of ten cases,

* Canada experiences 2200/100,000 investigations of child abuse (about half the U.S. statistic 4500/100,000),

* it is estimated that only one in ten abused children is ever reported in Canada.

Most Canadian jurisdictions now categorize exposure to family violence as a distinct type of maltreatment in their child welfare legislation.

I would agree with this entirely. A child watching mom beaten or raped is traumatized.

Trauma is real and results in severe and lasting mental health development problems. The world health organization defines torture as extended exposure to violence and deprivation. Children watching their mothers beaten or raped, it may be argued, are being tortured.

In my experience as a guardian ad-Litem, our county was just too overwhelmed to adequately address this type of abuse. The desire is there, but there was no way the case loads and court loads could accommodate these children.

Without significant signs of bodily harm, I never saw a confirmed case of child abuse where a child was removed from the home because of what had happened to the mother (or father).

Another significant piece of verbage;

“Makes child abuse an aggravating factor for the purpose of sentencing”,

as a guardian ad-Litem, I was repeatedly forced to choose between criminal court with a seven year old defendant and questionable removal of the child from the home (and prosecution of the perpetrator), or child protection court with automatic removal (either/or).

The people (multiple cases over twelve years) I witnessed molesting and torturing children were never charged. Most of them did terrific damage to a number of children over many years.Day care workers are paid about the same as food service workers in America (the lowest paid employees in the U.S.). This is how we value children in America.

Buy, or listen to our book (for free)

Join our online group on children’s issues by sending an email to;

amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

As Pliny the Elder said 2500 years ago, “what you do to your children, they will do to your society”

Continue reading ‘Canada Child Protection & U.S.’

What We Do To Our Children They Will Do To Our Society

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on November 1, 2009
in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

PLINY said that 2500 years ago.

Another state (Hawaii) has slashed education rather than think through measures that would be less damaging to children.

Saving money by denying health or mental health services, foster care*, education, or other critical developmental assets, to children is way more expensive than making children whole and insuring that they become contributing members of the community.

Minnesota will soon be facing huge cuts to children’s services due to the cuts made by our governor Tim Pawlenty. As the bridge fell into the river because it was not maintained, these children will fall into the category of troubled, dysfunctional, and nonproductive, costing the community for many years to come.

Visit a prison and consider the correlation between failed students and prisoners, and the cost of thirty years of institutionalizing a child. Add the cost and human suffering of crime, disruption in the schools from under treated at risk children and growing fear in our communities

Remember MN Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Blatz statement, “the difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years”.

If we aren’t willing to provide education for children today, we ought not expect much governance from them when their turn comes as legislators and managers tomorrow.

God help us

*As a guardian ad-Litem, it was my job to support the county in its efforts to remove children from a very stable and fit father who could not afford daycare (and the list for subsidized day care had 4000 names in front of his). Putting four children into foster care could not have been less expensive than subsidizing day care for this man (think of the unnecessary pain caused the children – have we no soul?)

I do not cast stones at the workers. They are hard working people implementing policies drafted by elected officials. It is up to us (in a representative democracy) to see that we elect officials that create policies that have more soul and make more sense.

Do you know your state representative?

Find out and call her/him with the important message that you know that short term savings DO NOT APPLY to the politics of children.

Ruben Rosario: Rising Toll of Child Abuse Deaths Reaquires Attention & Action

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on October 27, 2009
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

Ruben Rosario: Rising toll of child abuse deaths requires attention – and action
By Rubén Rosario
Updated: 10/25/2009 01:26:43 PM CDT

As painful as this story is, I am happy to see a major newspaper printing the stories and data that shine a light into the frightening world of abused and neglected children.

The question we should all be asking ourselves is what life was like for these children before they were suffocated, burned, starved, and beaten to death.

Children forced to live in cages

Seven year old hangs himself

Murdered metro baby

It has been my experience as a guardian ad-Litem, that children spend many years being abused and neglected, often under the eye of an under – resourced social service provider. The worst abuse is invisible. The impact of abuse lasts forever. Early and extensive intervention can help an abused child lead a normal life.

I agree with Ruben Rosario, that the public has no clue about the depth and scope of child abuse. I would add that three million cases of abuse and neglect are reported each year, and only a small percentage of child sex abuse is ever dealt with openly or adequately.

This years death toll of murdered, hanged, and otherwise suicidal very young children is a powerful indicator that we as a community are failing the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Without intervention, at risk children become adolescent felons and preteen moms, perpetuating the kinds of dysfunctional families that they were born into. The cycle can only end with our help. Our schools, city streets, and newspaper headlines will be much happier if we should make that choice.

Sweden – Positive Role Models

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on October 13, 2009
in Health and Mental Health, Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Our terrific volunteer researcher from Macalaster College (Lelde) has been uncovering hard facts about
abused and neglected children in Sweden.

The following are some of the more striking differences between our nations.

“converting the American figures for direct comparison with Sweden (2001), a comparative picture of the reported incidence of child abuse in Sweden and America is as follows:

Sweden – 57/l00,000
America – 4,500/100,000. ”

My note on the above; because America’s child protection systems is so overwhelmed, only the more severe cases of abuse are reported. I would estimate that the reported number of abused children could easily double if we were to honestly report just the most severe instances of abuse ( = 9000/100,000).

It has been my experience as a Hennepin County guardian ad-Litem that child protection services will not take the call unless multiple criteria are met. I have many stories from people that have told me how their report of abuse was not considered serious enough, or they were not deemed a credible source (in one case they were a family member reporting the abuse).

In 1998 comparative study of child abuse 9 years after the prohibition of corporal punishment in Sweden, 10.7% of American men and 8.2% of American women sampled stated that they had been victims of child abuse as children, compared to 3.9% of Swedish men and 0% of Swedish women in the sample. Finally, according to Joan Durrant, professor of family studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada, “Sweden went from a family violence- child death rate of 18% in 1970 to 0 percent in recent years”- a significant and congratulatory fact.

My note on the above; I have written about this at length this summer and give concrete proof that American parents are murdering hundreds if not thousands of very young children. One must include the seven year old Florida foster child that hung himself and the two year old foster child that was disappeared in Nevada.

We are better than this and children deserve more.

This is one more example of the great need for KARA’s grassroots effort to raise awareness to the needs of America’s at risk children.

Until that happens, children, schools, families and communities, will contintue to suffer.

It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.

Support at risk children! Become a CASA volunteer or start a KARA group in your community.

Have something to add? Attach a comment to this blog post or

Contact Us to tell us your point of view or story.

If you think someone might appreciate this information, click the ShareThis button below

Buy our book or listen to it (for free)

Join the public debate for children (they have no senator, lobby, or voice)
Continue reading ‘Sweden – Positive Role Models’

Epidemic

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on September 20, 2009
in Guardian ad-Litem, Invisible Children, Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 1 Comment

MN Child protection services are failing to protect the weakest and most vulnerable among us. It is epidemic. Other states have even bigger problems.

This morning’s news http://www.startribune.com/local/59883387.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU (Star Tribune 9.19.09 Mom charged in death of the murdered 15 month-month old baby girl) brings home the need for a robust social service agency and a more compassionate community.

It hurts me to see that my neighbors no longer react to the next murdered baby in their city.

Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro is approaching twenty murdered and brutalized very young children & babies for the year.

A major newspaper really needs to put a reporter on this, as I suspect that next year, due to cuts in funding, social service agencies will report a decline in reports of child abuse (and then we could refer them to the data and ask them to start investigating more of the calls that they should be following up on).

Just a month ago I wrote about my conversation with reporters from the Star Tribune about the 14 calls to child protection before the baby drowned in the bathtub.

These reporters were surprised that a baby could be left in dangerous circumstances after 14 social service calls to the home.

As a guardian ad-Litem, I worked on a case with 45 police and social service calls to a home where the children lived with drugs, gunfire, and prostitution & were only removed on the 45th call because the seven-year-old tried to kill the five-year-old in front of the officers.

There was evidence that the seven-year-old had been prostituted (she had certainly been sexually abused).

The impact on a child of extended exposure to violence, drug use, and sex abuse is lifelong and traumatic. The cost to society is compromised schools, failing communities, and monstrously high crime and criminal justice costs.

“What you do to your children, they will do to your society” Pliny, 2500 years ago.

Abused and neglected children have no voice.

If you and I don’t speak up for them who will?

Postscript 1; We must accept that it is because we have not fully supported child protection services that they do not have the resources to respond to the soaring numbers of serious cases, and babies are being murdered. Blaming social workers for dead babies is like blaming teachers for failing schools, doctors for a troubled health care system, or the police for crime ridden cities. Pogo said it best, “We have met the enemy, and it is us”.

Postscript 2; Blaming and hating terribly damaged parents is a reptilian response to the problem but it solves nothing. Many of these people have severe and chronic mental health issues and have grown up in homes as crazy and dysfunctional as the one they are now giving to their own children. As a guardian ad-litem removing children from birth homes I have empathy for the sadness that these people must live with every day of their lives.

Postscript 3; It is public policy that social workers are trained to not speak of their work publicly. It insures that the public will not know of the conditions that led to the seven-year-old foster child hanging himself, the two-year-old “disappeared” foster child in Nevada, or any of the other tragic conditions that result in the sorrowful tales that finally do make it into the newspaper.

Anonymity is important, but the thought that the problems of abused and neglected children do not deserve to be spoken of, is adding to the impossibility of finding support for them while they are still young enough to receive the guidance and resources that can help them to lead normal lives.

This is one more example of the great need for KARA’s grassroots effort to raise awareness to the needs of America’s at risk children.

Until that happens, children, schools, families and communities, will contintue to suffer.

It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.

Support at risk children! Become a CASA volunteer or start a KARA group in your community.

Have something to add? Attach a comment to this blog post or

Contact Us to tell us your point of view or story.

If you think someone might appreciate this information, click the ShareThis button below

Buy our book or listen to it (for free)

Join the public debate for children (they have no senator, lobby, or voice)

An Uplifting Day

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on September 16, 2009
in Health and Mental Health, Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Today board member Bob Olson and I interviewed a very bright and internationally well travelled student from a progressive local college. She is hoping to make a difference in the lives of America’s at risk youth.

We agreed that there needs to be a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers type grassroots movement to turn around the cradle to prison pipeline that continues to fill our communities with troubled youth and the problems that stem from growing up without the basic building blocks of life.

Our plan is to work together to gather information about how the other industrialized nations treat very young children and families and make comparisons that will help us better understand what sensible programs could make more kids finish school and go on to lead more productive lives.

Most of America’s public policies have been based on saving money in the short term.  Many of those policies have cost exponentially more money than if we had taken the long term view and made better choices.

As an example, U.S. high school graduation rates are dismal and the 25% illiteracy rate upon graduation rate is unheard of in other industrialized nations.  Blaming teachers for this result of bad public policy is like blaming doctors and nurses for the hospital population.

It is public policy (not teachers) that allows children to pass out of the third grade without reading skills.

Children that begin school without the tools to learn will not graduate, or if they do manage to make it through the process, it will be with minimal skills.

I still point at the money Minnesota did not save by failing to maintain the 35w bridge when it fell in the river two years ago.

The request for maintainance money  was denied repeatedly and when it collapsed its impact on the lives of the 113 dead and injured people and their families was far in excess of the almost one billion dollars in total costs of the bridge failure and reconstruction.

Likewise, taking care of children when they are young and able to change and grow is a easier and less expensive than working with mentally unstable youth in juvenile justice (over fifty percent of youth in juvenile justice have diagnosible mental health problems, about half of that population have multiple, serious mental health diagnosis).

Minnesota Governor Pawlenty’s plan insures that poor children and their families will be far less able to receive the basic building blocks of life.  

These children will fail more often in school and not thrive as citizens when they enter society.

At Pliny the Elder said 2500 years ago, “what you do to your children, they will do to your society”

Watch your prisons grow.

It is an effort to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is worth doing.

Support at risk children! Become a CASA volunteer or start a KARA group in your community.

Have something to add? Attach a comment to this blog post or Contact Us to tell us your point of view or story.

If you think someone might appreciate this information, click the ShareThis button below

Buy our book or listen to it (for free)

Join the public debate for children (they have no senator, lobby, or voice)

Another Concerned Grandmother

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on September 12, 2009
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States
. 1 Comment

In my morning email was  a sad plea for help from a  grandmother with granddaughters taken from her home where they were in school and well cared for.

These two young girls are now living with non family, in another state, not attending school, and living in less than ideal conditions.

The children have demonstrated hunger when grandma visits.  Grandma’s state social service agency simply told her that she had no legal authority to care for the children and sent the girls to another state (like MN does with its homeless people).

If the county allowed grandma to keep the children until mom returns  (if possible), there would be continuity, education, and the building blocks of healthy child development for these two girls.

The disruption in this case  is total.  In my experience as a guardian ad-Litem, these types of decisions are motivated by lack of funding at a state and county level.  The county saves money by moving the children away.

In the end, it costs the other state more money both in foster care and the long term costs to society of youth failing in society.  A recent study determined that 80% of youth aging out of foster care were leading dysfunctional lives.  Many of my guardian ad-Litem cases showed this to be true.

America’s only national policy for children is the “Imminent Harm Doctrine”.

If you have read this blog or the national news this summer you know that this policy did not save hundreds of very young children from death this summer.

This grandmother has an uphill battle finding help for her grandchildren to insure that they are enrolled and attending school, being fed, and that they are not being abused or neglected.

This is one more example of the great need for KARA’s grassroots effort to raise awareness to the needs of America’s at risk children.

Until that happens, children, schools, families and communities, will contintue to suffer.

It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.  Help For Grandparents

Summer Is No Vacation For Abused Kids

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on August 31, 2009
in Mike Tikkanen, Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

This article in the Washington Post, Summer Is No Vacation for Abused Kids reminded me of an inner city church that worked hard to save children from the nightmare choices facing their poor working parents when they are unable to afford daycare for their children over summer vacation.

This church often had many times the children they were able to care for…but they would not turn their communities children into the mean streets to be left on their own.  It was messy, it was stinky, and it was crowded, but it was safe.

Poor working families have no choices.

Thousands of names ahead of them on a list for subsidized day care that won’t provide help for years to come, means that any available family member, friend, or neighbor is considered a better option than leaving a three, five, or seven year old unattended (or is it?)

Leaving your child with that drunken or meth using uncle or aunt, the friend with the mental health issues, the dangerous or abusive teenager.  Children need and deserve better choices.

Choices that our communities are making it it harder and harder for poor people to make.   One of my guardian ad-Litem duties was to take children away from a father that could not afford daycare

It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.

Setting the Wrong Kind of Record

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on August 30, 2009
in Invisible Children, Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Politics and Funding and Public Policy
. 2 Comments

For those of us in child protection services this has been a horrific summer for babies in need of child protection services.

I was interviewed by the Star Tribune after the baby died in July in the bathtub after 14 calls to child protection.  Alex Ebert & Anthony Lonetree spoke with me about my experience as a guardian ad-litem and seemed quite surprised that multiple calls to a home with no official response were commonplace.

I worked on a case with 45 calls to a home before the child was removed (and only then because she tried to kill her five year old sister in the presence of the officers).  The officers were not at all surprised or defensive about this.  A prostitute lived in the home and it was highly probable that the seven year old had been prostituted.

Children deserve better.  Here are a few recent cases:

8 month old 8.24 in bloomington

Developmentally disabled child starved 8.04

8 month old homicide in Golden Valley 8.29

Anger at the parents serves no purpose.  Usually, their lot in life is as troubled as their child’s.  Helping them would help their child.

The best hope for these babies would have been a more responsive community with more compassion, more daycare, more crisis nursuries, and more child protection services.

MN day care

It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.

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