Finding adoptive parents for a child can break family ties
State policy is to prefer relatives in adoption proceedings, but other factors can trump that.
By Corrie MacLaggan
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, November 27, 2009
The boy was living in a windowless shack in an encampment known as a meth users' haunt when Cedar Park police found the 7-year-old, hungry and neglected by his mother. More than a year later, family members are fighting to keep him from being adopted by strangers.
An aunt and uncle in Dallas want to adopt the boy, who they say has grown up spending many Thanksgivings, Christmases and parts of summers with them.
 PHOTO COURTESY OF KIMBERLI GREER A state district judge in Williamson County has sided with Child Protective Services in not letting Kimberli and Dale Greer, who have three sons – Preston, Hayden and Garrett – adopt their nephew.  Mike Fuentes/ASSOCIATED PRESS Dale and Kimberli Greer of Dallas, with sons Hayden and Preston, have so far been rebuffed in their efforts to adopt a nephew who is in foster care in Williamson County. |
But in a case that even Child Protective Services officials say is unusual, the state agency is actively working to prevent Kimberli and Dale Greer from adopting their nephew, despite its policy of placing children with family whenever possible.
Both CPS and the Greers say they want what's best for the boy, who is in foster care in Williamson County — but they strongly disagree about what that is.
The Greers say CPS has no way of knowing whether they'd be the best parents for the boy because the agency never conducted a home study. CPS officials say they have concerns about the family's interactions with the boy and he'd be better off with another family.
"We want to give him a home and security and parents, and they won't even look at us," said Kimberli Greer, a mother of three sons who manages her husband's dental practice. "I feel like I have no power. They're just this huge government agency, and they're the god."
CPS spokesman Chris Van Deusen said that the Greers have "said hurtful things" to the boy about his mother, whose parental rights have been terminated, and that when he started to open up about domestic violence he'd witnessed, they "shut him down." The Greers fiercely deny all of that.
"I have no doubt that they love him very much, but when it comes down to it, it's not about them — it's about the child and what's best for him," Van Deusen said. "Some actions the family has taken have raised serious questions about how supportive they can be."
A judge sided with CPS, signing a court order that says placing the boy, now 9, at the Greers' home "is not in the child's best interest."
The Greers, who came forward after a placement with another aunt and uncle didn't work, say they were discouraged from attending a hearing, have been banned from talking to their nephew and have been shut out of the system that is making decisions.
"We're talking about a little boy's life here," said Greer, a sister of the child's mother. "I can't imagine what he's being told. I'm sure he feels abandoned by us."
The Greers have no criminal history, according to a search of open records by the American-Statesman.
And Van Deusen said he has no reason to believe they're bad people. But he said one factor is timing: Placing the boy elsewhere would get him into a permanent home more quickly because the Greers might be required to get counseling before adopting.
Jane Burstain, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for low- and middle-income Texans, said relatives often don't have legal recourse because they aren't a party to the case. And she pointed out that there are two checks on CPS: the child's attorney and the judge.
"You can't have anyone who's interested have a say," she said. "Whether or not the relatives feel slighted is not relevant. This isn't their case."
But Burstain added that just because checks are in place "doesn't mean the right decision is made in every case."
Every day, CPS workers across the state must make difficult decisions that have enormous implications for children and families. As of August, CPS had legal responsibility for 26,463 Texas children.
The percentage of children in state custody who are placed with relatives has grown significantly, from 18 percent in 2004 to 30 percent in 2008, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities. A 2008 CPS study said children placed with kin are less likely to run away and safer than those placed in foster care with someone they don't know.
Though the study and statistics focus on temporary care rather than adoption, they show the state's commitment to turning to relatives when CPS becomes involved in a child's life. A 2008 federal law also supports relative placements by requiring CPS to alert family members when a child is removed.
Looking at an individual case from the outside, it is impossible to know what is right, said Scott McCown, a former state district judge who handled CPS cases.
"Generally speaking, kids are going to be better off with family," said McCown, now executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities. "But that isn't always the case. You've got to make a case-by-case decision."
Stefenie White, a state adoption preparation supervisor, has 20 years' experience helping CPS make such decisions.
"I never have to say that my job doesn't make an impact," said White, who is not working on the Greers' nephew's case. "We can pretty confidently, based on experience and research and what we know, make a decision. The hard part, of course, is when we were wrong, and it doesn't work out, and that is positively heartbreaking."
There's no doubt that this particular boy – whose name is not in this report because identifying him could cause him embarrassment or anguish — has been through a lot.
On June 23, 2008, police found the boy when they responded to a domestic disturbance he witnessed at the encampment. He was living in a shack with a dirty mattress on the floor and no electricity, no food and no toilet. Police believe the property was used for "assorted criminal activities, including the stripping of stolen cars," court documents stated.
The boy told police he was hungry, the documents say, but his mother refused to let the officers get him food. Eventually, CPS took him from his mother, who already had a history with the agency, records show.
At one point, CPS's goal was to reunite him with his mother (the father's parental rights were terminated shortly after the boy's birth). But the documents say she never submitted to drug testing and hasn't been allowed to see him since June.
CPS's alternate goal was to place the boy with family, and he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in South Carolina, Greer's sister and brother-in-law. But because of what court documents say were "financial and emotional strains" — Greer said her brother-in-law lost his job and her sister had health problems — the boy returned to Central Texas, to the same foster home where he'd lived before.
Van Deusen says the Greers did not express interest in adopting their nephew until after he returned from South Carolina; Greer says that's because her sister there planned to adopt him.
Not coming forward earlier means that the Greers were not legally involved in the case.
State law says that once parental rights are terminated, a child's family may not file suit to adopt, except for biological grandparents, aunts, uncles and adult siblings, who must do so within 90 days of the termination. Generally speaking, Van Deusen said, "the earlier family members get involved, the more influence they can have on a case."
Greer said that once she and her husband decided they wanted to adopt their nephew, they weren't able to get the attention of the adults making decisions about the boy's life.
She said she asked her nephew's caseworker if she could travel to Central Texas to attend a September hearing on his future and was told no.
CPS's account is a bit different. Officials say the caseworker told Greer she could attend but probably wouldn't be allowed to participate. The hearing, it turns out, was open to the public. The Greers did not attend; they wrote a letter to the judge instead.
"We are (the boy's) only family and his relationship with us has been close his entire life," they wrote. They added that they "feel God has placed this situation before us for a reason. ... We see this as an opportunity to give this child a new life."
They also wrote that they have the support of her parents, the boy's grandparents, who also live in Dallas.
But the judge didn't get the letter because the boy's court-appointed lawyer objected, Van Deusen said. She also objected to a home study of the Greers, as did CPS, he said. The attorney, Brandy Byrd Hallford, declined to comment.
State District Judge Mark Silverstone extended the foster care placement in Williamson County, though Van Deusen said that is not intended to be permanent and that CPS is looking for adoptive parents for the boy.
Though the Greers weren't present for the hearing, they were discussed, and Silverstone ordered that the boy not be placed with them and that CPS not authorize any contact with relatives unless recommended by the boy's therapist. A spokeswoman for Silverstone said the judge is unable to comment on pending cases.
Burstain said it makes sense that relatives cannot order CPS's parent agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services, to do a home study.
"They're time consuming; they're costly," Burstain said. "What about the hundreds and hundreds of inappropriate relatives (the agency) screens out without being forced to do a home study?"
The boy's grandfather says he's sick with worry about what the child must think not to have heard from his family on his birthday in October — not to mention Thanksgiving. "This child is the youngest member of our family, and we're not going to lose him," said the grandfather, Jim, whose surname is not being printed because it is the same as the boy's.
Van Deusen said the case is "pretty atypical" because CPS usually tries to place children with relatives.
"The child is really torn right now with regard to his family," Van Deusen said. "His mother lost custody because of her actions, a relative adoption out of state fell through, and he feels badly about all of that. To have that reinforced by other members of the family could cause him further trouble."
Van Deusen said the boy has not expressed a preference on where to live. "He wants to have a family ... somebody who's going to love him," he said.
Greer says he already does.
cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548
