Fwd: FW: Foster Child Wins Case Against DSS - NEWS ARTICLE

["Michael Nunno" <man2@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>This may interest many of you with the discussion about families 
>paying for foster care.
>
>
>
>Below is an article on the court's decision about how Guilford County
>DSS could use a foster child's social security benefits. For more
>details the court decision is attached.
>
>
>Foster child wins case against DSS
>
>
>ERIC FRAZIER
>
>
>efrazier@charlotte observer.com
><mailto:efrazier@charlotte%20observer.com> 
>
>
>In a decision that could affect foster children across North Carolina,
>the state's second-highest court on Tuesday blocked Guilford County
>social workers from taking a child's Social Security benefits as
>reimbursement for caring for him.
>
>The 17-year-old boy, identified only as John G., has an $80,000 house
>his late adoptive father willed to him. The home was threatened with
>foreclosure because DSS officials wouldn't use his $538 per month Social
>Security payment to handle the monthly $221 mortgage.
>
>A judge in 2005 ordered the Guilford County Department of Social
>Services to apply the boy's Social Security benefits toward the
>mortgage. But Guilford DSS, like Mecklenburg's DSS and others across the
>state, routinely takes foster children's Social Security benefits as
>reimbursement for the cost of feeding, clothing and housing the youth.
>
>Mecklenburg officials have said they take as much as $437,000 a year in
>federal benefits to offset the cost of caring for children.
>
>The practice is so common nationally that John G.'s fight landed on the
>front page of the New York Times last year. Cash-strapped DSS officials
>say they need the money to care for the children, but child advocates
>equate it to stealing money from abused, neglected and disabled
>children.
>
>Tuesday's ruling affirms the right of judges across North Carolina to
>intervene in cases like John G.'s, said Lewis Pitts, a Raleigh lawyer
>who represented the teen.
>
>"It's useful for John, useful for the state and maybe can be leveraged
>nationally," Pitts said. "This opportunity should be seized to say to
>DSS and all child welfare agencies that we realize you have a budget
>nightmare, but don't take it out from the children."
>
>First Star, a national child welfare reform group in Washington, D.C.,
>filed a brief in the case supporting John G.
>
>"This is really the first step in the direction of nationally
>recognizing that a child has an interest in their own benefits," said
>Amy Harfeld, First Star's executive director.
>
>"It has major national implications for foster children. I think most
>people would agree it's unconscionable for states to dip into the
>pockets of these most vulnerable children just to balance their
>budgets."
>
>Guilford DSS officials didn't respond to calls and e-mails Tuesday
>seeking comment. Pitts said DSS has continued to pay the mortgage while
>it fights the case in court.
>
>The agency contends that, as the payee for John G.'s Social Security
>benefits, it had the right to use the money for the boy's care. It
>argued that federal law protects such benefits from being taken through
>garnishment, bankruptcy or any other "legal process."
>
>DSS argued that the state judge who ordered the mortgage paid had
>violated federal law by subjecting the boy's federal benefits to "legal
>process." The Court of Appeals, however, said that the federal law was
>designed to protect Social Security recipients' money from creditors,
>not to help local governments take it.
>
>DSS' interpretation of the law "is an improper attempt to fashion a
>shield into a sword to be used against the intended beneficiary of the
>law," the judges wrote.
>
>
>
>
>
>Karen McLeod, MSW
>
>President/CEO
>
>Children and Family Services Association, NC
>
>2609 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 105
>
>Raleigh, NC 27604
>
>p. 919-828-1864
>
>c. 919-244-8414
>
>f. 919-828-1884
>
>
>
>


-- 
Michael Nunno, D.S.W.   man2@xxxxxxxxxxx, Beebe Hall  - Family Life 
Development Center, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, 
Ithaca NY 14853-4401, Tele: 607 254-5127, 255-7794  FAX: 607 
255-4837, 255-8562
<http://rccp.cornell.edu>  http://www.human.cornell.edu/fldc/

The following attachment(s) could not be located:

c:\docume~1\aa17\applic~1\qualcomm\eudora\attach\JohnG.COA.decision.doc