SEVEN DAYS
12.05.12-12.12.12
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
WAITING TO LAND
The abrupt shutdown of CFS has roiled the social-service and philanthropic communities. Nita Lescher, director of CFS’ Vermont office, says she was surprised and saddened by the announcement, which blindsided state agencies and Vermont’s child-welfare advocates. Michael Brennan, the mayor of Portland, Maine, and the chair of the CFS board of advisers, says of the closure, “I think it’s a terrible decision, the wrong decision and it’s based on wrong information.” Brennan notes that he was not consulted about the nonprofit’s termination and that it was not done for financial reasons. He says new AECF CEO Patrick McCarthy is determined to change the direction of the foundation. “I think it’s a huge step in the wrong direction in New England and across the country in terms of direct services in child welfare,” Brennan asserts. The closure on December 31 will result in a total of 280 CFS employees losing their jobs and will affect 400 children around the region. In Vermont, 28 employees will lose their jobs and 100 Casey kids, including Tanya and 28 other foster children, adoptees and other kids with special needs, will find themselves with new social workers. Most of Casey’s existing cases have already been transferred to DCF, which has scrambled to find service providers for the most challenging individuals. One thing is almost certain: The high level of support and services provided to Casey kids — which can include intensive psychological counseling for children and families, financial support for college, and highly responsive case management — will likely be reduced. “The state cannot [provide] and has not provided the level of support that Casey did,” concedes Yacavone. “We are going to have to adjust gradually and carefully to maintain the level of care.” He adds quickly, “As commissioner, I want to do more than that.” Yacavone says he is determined to break the cycle of poverty, violence and failure in which many foster children are trapped. He notes that under the Shumlin administration, DCF added 18 social workers in 2011 and another nine in 2012 in an effort to reduce the size of caseloads and improve services to foster children. But Yacovone notes that the problems of foster children run deep: of children served from 2006 to 2008, 30 percent of boys and 10 percent of girls ended up in prison within three years of leaving foster care. “We’ve got to do better than that. I want to make sure these kids succeed,” says Yacavone. “I gotta fight for those resources.”
Tanya’s journey 32 FEATURE
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On the last day of elementary school, in 2006, a couple from Eden picked up Tanya and Liza. “At first it was very exciting because everything was new — new beds, everything new. They were kind to us,” Tanya recalls.
AMONG VERMONT’S FOSTER CHILDREN,
SOME 30 PERCENT OF BOYS AND 10 PERCENT OF GIRLS END UP IN PRISON WITHIN THREE YEARS OF LEAVING FOSTER CARE.
That fall, she entered Lamoille Union Middle School, relieved to be in a better place. Meanwhile, Tanya’s stepfather was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct and domestic assault. The brave 12-year-old testified for six hours against her stepfather and was grilled by attorneys. The legal drama was surreal and disturbing for her. “I thought they didn’t believe me,” Tanya says. She didn’t know the outcome of that case until told by a journalist for this article. According to Lamoille County Deputy State’s Attorney Todd Shove, who prosecuted the case, the stepfather pled guilty in 2007 to a misdemeanor charge of domestic assault and was given a suspended sentence of six to 12 months. He did not serve jail time, but he and Tanya’s mother were subsequently divorced. DCF’s effort to terminate the parental rights of Tanya’s mother and birth father was appealed by the parents and ultimately went before the Vermont Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the terminations had
been improperly conducted. The parental-rights issue became moot for Tanya when she turned 18 this year, but Liza remains in legal limbo. After a year in DCF-licensed foster care, the situation with Tanya’s new foster mother “started getting a little more complicated. I think she was having issues with herself, and she couldn’t take care of us any longer. It was frustrating,” Tanya recounts, “because she told us we were going to be there forever and she was going to adopt us.” Tanya was “very depressed and very emotional,” she says, when the foster mother’s condition meant that she and Liza unexpectedly had to leave their foster home. Over the next year, the girls moved in and out of two more foster homes. They were then returned to their birth mother, who was separated from her abusive husband but was now pregnant. DCF had been working with their mother; the agency almost always prefers to keep children with biological parents when a situation is safe and stable. “I was very excited,” Tanya says of returning to her mother. “I liked the foster home I was in, but I didn’t feel like I belonged in the family. The kids treated us like foster kids,” she says of the last home she was in before returning to her mother, and the parents would always side with their biological child “even if they were lying.” But old problems quickly resurfaced with Tanya’s birth mother. “My mom was yelling 24/7,” says Tanya. The conflict peaked when her mother threw a glass vase at Tanya that cut her face. She and Liza escaped to a neighbor’s house. A week later, DCF returned them to foster care. For the first time, the sisters were separated and moved into different homes. Tanya moved in with foster parents in Hardwick. “I loved them,” she says. “They had the whole white picket fence, three kids, and I felt very supported and felt they really cared about me.” The couple promised to adopt her, and Tanya took her foster parents’ last name and enrolled in Hazen Union High School. She had a group of friends and the stable family and home she had always wanted. “I just put [my foster mother] on Cloud 9,” Tanya recounts. “She said I reminded her of herself. She saw herself in me. I felt like she had a connection with me.” Tanya’s rough life finally hit a smooth patch. It lasted for a little more than two years. A week before her senior year was to begin, in August 2011, Tanya’s foster parents called her into the kitchen. Her DCF social worker was there. Tanya’s foster mother, who had promised to adopt her, abruptly announced that the girl had 20 minutes to gather her things and leave. She accused Tanya of flirting with her husband. Tanya was stunned, bewildered and hurt. Her dream had once again turned into a nightmare.