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| Electrical outlet with no faceplate |
I am writing this letter due to several concerns I have
regarding the Professional Parent home that my daughter YaYa is in. In reading YaYa’s treatment and service
plan, it states “YaYa is in need of a stable, supportive and structured
family placement that provides a safe environment.” Number one under discharge planning in her
service plan states “YaYa requires the intensive support of the Professional
Parent Family in order to meet her needs for structure, stability, consistency
and nurturance. I have given all of this
great thought after we spoke on the phone on 2/17/11 . It is
obvious to me that the Professional Parent home that YaYa is in does not seem
to be providing these things. I am
listing below my concerns regarding YaYa’s Professional Parent home.
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| No light in my daughter's room |
1) I have called and left messages on several occasions and I never get a return phone call from YaYa’s Professional Parents.
2) I have e-mailed YaYa’s Professional Parents on several occasions and
I do not get a response either by
phone or e-mail.
3) On multiple visits I have had with YaYa she has had dirty, greasy
unkept hair. Since YaYa has been in
State custody, I have paid for four haircuts for her. I have been advised that I do not need to
provide haircuts for YaYa, but as her Mom I cannot ignore when she needs a
haircut. I recently waited an extra
three weeks before taking her for a haircut to see if her Professional Parents would
get her hair cut. I finally broke down
last week and took YaYa to get her hair cut.
Are the Professional Parents making sure that YaYa takes a shower
everyday? Shouldn’t the Professional
Parents be insuring that YaYa gets her basic hygiene needs met? The
Professional Parent’s failure to provide basic hair care and to
supervise daily hygiene demonstrates a lack of concern, supervision, nurturance,
structure and support.
4) I called Eusinia this morning to speak with her about several concerns
I had after not getting a response to an e-mail I sent on 2/15/11 . I spoke to her about YaYa’s homework from
last Tuesday and that YaYa had left her homework sheets in her advisor’s
car. Eusinia had not followed up on YaYa’s homework and even stated that she would have to check with the
school. I thought the Professional
Parents are suppose to make sure that YaYa is doing her homework. How could Eusinia not know if YaYa was
missing homework? Is she not suppose to
be insuring that YaYa does her homework?
Here it is two days later and Eusinia was clueless and had not followed
through on making sure that YaYa was not missing homework. The
Professional Parent’s are failing YaYa and this incident demonstrates a lack of concern, support, structure,
consistency and follow through.
5) While speaking with Eusinia this morning I asked if there was a reason
why YaYa was not using her back pack. I explained that I spoke to YaYa on day about using her backpack to help
her keep all of her school supplies and papers together in one place and that
using her backpack would help her not loose papers.
Eusinia agreed that using the backpack was a good idea. Eusinia stated “that she did not know where YaYa’s
backpack was and that she would check with the school to see if the backpack
was there.” I told Eusinia that I saw YaYa’s backpack in her room on Tuesday
when I dropped her off. It is very concerning that Eusinia did not know where YaYa’s
backpack was. How could Eusinia not know where YaYa’s backpack
was? Is Eusinia not observing what YaYa is taking to school and what she
is bringing home from school? This is another example of how the
Professional Parent’s are failing YaYa and this issue demonstrates the lack
of supervision, structure, support and consistency that YaYa needs to help
her be successful with school.
6) I spoke to Eusinia about the bedwetting that was mentioned in YaYa’s behavioral plan and your notes from the January
27th meeting that I received yesterday. Eusinia confirmed that there have been three
bedwetting issues at her home.
Eusinia stated “there were 2
bedwetting episodes last year and 1 bedwetting episode in January.” Eusinia said she asked YaYa about why she
wet the bed and YaYa stated that “she doesn’t
remember.” I explained that YaYa has
seizures and has had a history of nocturnal
seizures. Eusinia never informed me
that YaYa has had any bedwetting episodes in her
home. This is a safety issue and the fact that YaYa doesn’t remember is a red flag that she could be
having seizures in her sleep, loosing bladder
control and then doesn’t remember in the morning as she is post-ictal. The
Professional Parents’s lack of communication with me regarding YaYa’s
bed wetting is a huge safety concern and demonstrates a lack of nurturance,
support and concern about YaYa’s well being..
7) YaYa had a DSI handheld video game I purchased for her with money
that her grandmother sent her last
August. YaYa told me on our last visit
that the DSI was missing and she had no idea where it was. I spoke to Eusinia about the DSI this morning
and she confirmed that YaYa’s DSI has been missing or lost since
November. I asked Eusinia if the DSI had
been listed on the property inventory that she keeps for YaYa. Eusinia said she did not put the DSI on YaYa’s
property inventory list. Again, Eusinia
did not communicate with me that the DSI was missing. It seems as though YaYa’s property is not
a concern for Eusinia . The
Professional Parent’s failure to communicate with me regarding YaYa’s missing DSI demonstrates a lack
of care, concern, follow through, support, nurturance and respect for YaYa’s personal
belongings.
8) On Tuesday, February 15th, YaYa wanted me to come and see
her room. YaYa’s closet in her room
did not have doors and I noticed that none of her clothes were hanging in her
closet except for one pair of pants and the Halloween outfit I bought her in
October. I looked up and there were her
clothes all thrown on the shelf in her closet.
The clothes were not folded, they were just thrown up there in
disarray. I then noticed that there was
a small vanity for her lamp and it had a three small drawers but one of the
drawers did not even have a handle. When YaYa first went into her Professional Parent home I purchased $440.89 in
clothes for her as she needed school clothes and had outgrown most of her
school clothes. Another issue is that YaYa has been wearing the same pair of jeans that now have huge holes in both
knees. After seeing her closet it made
more sense to me that it would be difficult for YaYa to find another pair of
pants in the pile of clothes in her closet.
Even when YaYa was at the Utah
Youth Village
9) On Saturday, February 19th, I helped YaYa into her room
after our visit. YaYa went into her
dark bedroom and I flipped the light switch on the wall to turn on her bedroom
light. YaYa said “Mom that light
doesn’t work.” YaYa then asked me to
turn on the hall light so that she could see to plug in her lamp. Once YaYa got her lamp turned on, I saw
that there were wires and a light socket hanging from the ceiling but no light
bulb in the light socket. There was no
light fixture over the wires in the ceiling.
Then I noticed that the outlet that YaYa plugged her lamp into did not
have a face plate on it and it was not secure in the wall. At one point the plug fell out of the outlet
and YaYa told me that the top outlet doesn’t work and that plug falls out a
lot. This seems like a BIG safety issue to me. If YaYa were to put a pen or scissors in
the outlet socket, she cod get shocked.
Is it acceptable to have these type of electrical issues in a foster
child’s room. The Professional Parents failure to provide safe lighting and
electricity in YaYa’s room demonstrates
that they have NOT provided a safe, supportive and nurturing room for YaYa.
10) Again on Saturday, February 19th, when I helped YaYa into
her room I noticed that her clothes were still thrown on the top of her closet
and on her closet floor. (see attached pictures) I purchased 30 white plastic hangers for YaYa as her closet did not have enough hangers for her to be able to hang up
her clothes. Do you know if YaYa’s
clothes were hanging in her closet at one time?
Is there some reason that there were not enough hangers for her
clothes? YaYa and I spent about 30
minutes getting all of her clothes hung up and organized. Since YaYa does not have a dresser in her
room, we folded her shorts and T-shirts and had to place them on the shelf in
her closet. (see attached pictures) Do you know why YaYa does not have a
dresser? Do the Professional Parents not
have to provide a dresser for YaYa? The Professional Parents failure to provide
a dresser and hangers for YaYa so that she can organize her personal clothing
shows a lack of concern, support, respect and nurturance.
11) Finally, on Saturday, February 19th, I arrived at the
Professional Parent’s home at 6:50pm
as I was suppose to have YaYa there by 7:00pm . There was no one home when we got there but the front door was
unlocked. YaYa and I started working on her closet and Eusinia
arrived at the house around 7:20pm . This is not the first time that I have dropped YaYa off to find that the Professional Parents are not there. The Professional Parents not being at home
when YaYa is there shows
that there is a lack of proper supervision.
The Professional Parents failure to supervise YaYa apropriately demonstrates
that they are not providing a stable, supportive,
structured and safe environment for YaYa.
When I spoke to you on 2/17/11 , you stated that the
Professional Parents culture was laid back and that there was a cultural
difference in expectations. YaYa has
not been raised in their culture. Could
such a difference in cultures be even more confusing to YaYa? All of the above issues show that YaYa’s
needs are being neglected. YaYa has
not made progess in her current Professioal Parent home and it seems her
behavior has reverted. Why are the
Professional Parents not held accountable?
You stated that you felt the Professional Parent’s were picking their
battles. What battles are they
picking? After what I have seen and now
know, I feel like my daughter is falling
through the cracks. This is not
acceptable and I am requesting a
different Professional Parent home for YaYa. It would be an egregious error and
neglectful of YaYa’s needs, well being and growth to not have her in a
Professional Parent home that did not fulfill their job as Professional Parents. YaYa’s best interest, well being and future
are at stake if she in not placed in a home that meets her needs for physical
and emotional support, structure, stability, consistency and nurturance.
In reading this letter again, I still feel the anger, pain and sadness that all of this had happened. I never got an answer to my letter and in fact DCFS was angry that I had written the letter. I was at a loss. I did not know what to do and felt that if I shared my concerns then maybe someone would listen. The plan was reunification and for my daughter to come back home. How was my daughter to come back home if the goals in her care plan were not being followed? This only added to my frustration and seemed to be hindering any progress my daughter could make to come back home. I did not know then, but 14 months later I would dissolve my daughter's adoption to stop the trauma and the abuse I was feeling from trying to work with a child welfare system that hostile and adversarial..... |
| My daughter's closet |
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| My daughter's closet |
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| My daughter's closet after we organized it. |
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| Vanity with no knobs on some of the drawers that was provided for my daughter |
