In a juvenile courtroom, the judge reprimanded the caseworkers, the
attorneys, and CASA for responding to a no-fault dependency case as an
abuse case, "There is nobody bad here!"
There were no criminals. There was no crime.
Then why were we sitting in the accused chairs?
As an infant, Daniel entered the foster care system as a result of
severe neglect, which manifested in violence and aggression later in his
childhood.
Desperate to get their adoptive son, Daniel, into a residential
treatment center and keep their other children safe, the state of
Illinois left Jim and Toni Hoy with two options. If they brought their
son home from the psychiatric hospital for the 11th time in 2 years, the
Department of Children and Family Services threatened to charge them
with child endangerment for failure to protect their other children.
Mental health professionals recommended abandoning him at the hospital
after the state denied all viable sources of funding for his treatment.
Making that choice would trigger a child abuse investigation and
subsequent neglect charges.
Daniel re-entered the foster care system for no other reason than he was
mentally ill.
A year later, Daniel's mother discovered that his treatment was covered
by a funding source that he was awarded as part of his special needs
adoption. The EPSDT provision of Medicaid. How could they get the state
government to understand the federal law and re-gain custody of their
son?
"Second Time Foster Child" is the story of parents who never gave up on
their son, despite being prosecuted and persecuted in exchange for his
medically necessary treatment.
