Inside SB 0091: Sibling Visitation

The Associated Press, via the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette carried this story yesterday about SB 0091.

From the Story:

The bill would allow children in foster care to request visits if it is in their best interests. It also would allow a special advocate to be appointed to represent the child. If the Department of Child Services denies a visit request, the child or advocate could petition a juvenile court to intervene.

…

The Indiana Department of Child Services encourages sibling visits when possible and is always looking for foster homes and adoptive parents willing to take in several children from the same family, spokeswoman Susan Tielking said.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Mike Delph (R-Carmel). 

Here is the official summary of the bill:

Foster care sibling visitation. Requires the department of child services (DCS) to promote sibling visitation for every child who receives foster care. Allows a sibling to request sibling visitation if one of the siblings is receiving foster care. Requires DCS to allow sibling visitation if it is in the best interests of the child receiving foster care. Provides that if DCS denies a request for sibling visitation, an individual may petition a juvenile court for sibling visitation. Requires a court to grant sibling visitation if the court determines sibling visitation is in the best interests of the child who receives foster care. Permits a court to appoint a guardian ad litem or a court appointed special advocate if a child requesting sibling visitation is receiving foster care. Provides that a guardian ad litem or court appointed special advocate appointed in a sibling visitation case is immune from civil liability, except for gross misconduct. (The introduced version of this bill was prepared by the interim study committee on missing children.)

CASA Rocks!

Yesterday’s South Bend Tribune carried this story about CASAs/GALs.  For those unaware, CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates and GAL means Guardian Ad Litem.  These are legal terms for volunteers (generally) appointed to represent the interests of children in abuse, neglect, and domestic relations cases.  Most recently a GAL was in the news when she attempted to have TaJanay Bailey removed from her mother’s home against the wishes of the Department of Child Services.  TaJanay was allegedly killed by her mother the day of the hearing.

The Blogmeister has had the pleasure of serving on the board of Northeastern Indiana CASA for the last few years.  It’s a good not for profit organization totally devoted to the needs and representation of children in the court system.  Aside from a few paid staff to run the organization, it is completely staffed by volunteers and funded by private and United Way donations, as well as some funding from county courts.  As such, they are always looking for volunteers and other forms of support.

Check out the story, and if so moved, contact your local CASA/GAL office and inquire how you can help!

School Discipline

Think kicking kids out of school so they can bone up on Flintstone’s reruns is a good idea?  Take a look at this article from WTHR:

Indiana’s schools should come up with new ways to solve discipline issues instead of relying on strict rules that punish all students the same way, an Indiana University report says.

The university’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy said recently that many schools use rules like zero tolerance policies or one-day suspensions that may not change student behavior.

“We’re all reinforced by different things, and we’re all punished by different things,” said Sandy Washburn, one of the authors of the CEEP report.

Disciplinary issues are statistically worse in Indiana than elsewhere, the report found. During the 2005-06 school year, there were 6,324 expulsions and 313,322 suspensions in Indiana, according to the Department of Education. More than 600 schools that year reported a rate of 10 or more suspensions per 100 students.

IU researchers suggested a three-tiered system called Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports. The system includes schoolwide initiatives, group interventions for those with common disciplinary problems and individual interventions.

Some Indiana schools are already using the model and have had good results so far, the researchers said.

Sam Elder, a member of the Vanderburgh County Taxpayers Association, said the rates of suspension and expulsion in the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corp. are too high.

“The last couple of years it has inched up, and the worst problems we have are at our high schools,” Elder said.

Big Insurance Chimes in on FW Smoking Ban

This opinion piece appeared in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette yesterday about the smoking ordinance (if you are for it), or ban (if you are against it), enacted last year in Fort Wayne.  There is some talk of repealing it, as the city council was shaken up during the last election cycle.  However, as of right now, no one is allowed to smoke in any public building and if one wants to smoke outside, they have to be eight (I think) feet away from the door.  This had some unintended consequences when some “exotic dancers” needed a break from work, but that’s another story.

Anyway, a physician working for an insurance company based in Fort Wayne wrote the opinion piece.  The Blogmeister won’t name him or his company, so as to not give them any free advertising here.  In the spirit of full disclosure, the Blogmeister is not a provider for this company.  Mostly because they refuse to pay for Therapists, Social Workers, or Counselors unless there is a physician, on staff, in the building, at all times.  Thus, increasing costs for their members and allowing them to charge more for their insurance.

For those unaccustomed to Insurance speak, I’ll translate.  Here are the important parts of the story:

…It would also be unreasonable to hop back and forth on an important issue like this. Those it affects have for the most part made necessary adjustments to it, and businesses that were on viable footing before the ban are not threatened by it.

Translation:  If a business allowed smoking before and was doing fine, but now can’t make payroll it wasn’t a big chain restaurant to whom we were trying to sell insurance.  That’s okay though, because we will go across the line to all the mom and pop restaurants where all the smoking business has gone and sell them insurance because now they can afford it with all the increased revenue.

I have spoken to a number of our customers (employers in Fort Wayne who purchase insurance from ***) and have found that an overwhelming majority of them are happy to have the ban in place.

Translation:  I’m a doctor at an insurance company and people lie to me all the time because if they tell me how they really feel they are afraid my company will jump their rates. 

 Anything we can do to help make Fort Wayne a less expensive place to employ and provide health insurance for people makes Fort Wayne a more attractive city in which to locate businesses, do business and create jobs.

Translation:  The more people who don’t get sick, but who we can continue to charge outrageous rates is great for my company and me! 

We need to encourage smokers to quit in order to help get costs down, and most employers understand that.

Translation:  The insurance company’s costs will go down, but thats all, notice I didn’t say employers costs will go down.  Less people will go to the doctor and we will still charge more and more for insurance.  In addition, that pesky low cost insurance program started by Governor Mitch Daniels… you know the one, funded with cigarette taxes… won’t be “viable” and will go down in a blaze of glory.  Then all those people will have to come to my company for their insurance.  They will have to pay our exorbitant rates and I can make more money.  Dang,  all this sounds so good I can see that new BMW in my driveway now.  I just hope no one asks if we pay for smoking cessation or other preventative programs…   

…I urge the City Council to leave the smoking ban in place and not to move Fort Wayne backward along the road to making ours a better, healthier and more marketable city.

Translation:  Because I really, really want that beemer!

Now the Blogmeister realizes that translation was a little harsh.  However, if the City Council does decide to revisit the smoking issue, it is hoped the writer of the opinion piece will provide figures reflecting the dramatic decrease in insurance premiums (with the same level of benefits) his company is offering employers of Fort Wayne to back up his assertions. 

Goodbye Tony Soprano

Somethings ya just think are constants in life.  Then this appears in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette and it makes you doubt if anything is sacred.  Makes one wonder what’s next…  a populist uprising against taxes… people demanding something be done with healthcare…  Oh wait, those are happening too.   Wow, if the people in this story can stand up to La Cosa Nostra, it makes you wonder what else can be accomplished if your organized and fed up enough.

PALERMO, Sicily – When it came down to business, Cosa Nostra could always count on fear.

No more. In a rebellion shaking the Sicilian Mafia to its centuries-old roots, businesses are joining forces in refusing to submit to demands for protection money called “pizzo.”

And they’re getting away with it, threatening to sap an already-weakened crime syndicate of one of its steadiest sources of revenue.

The Mafia has a history of bouncing back, but this time it is up against something new: a Web site where businessmen are finding safety in numbers to say no to the mob.

“This rebellion goes to the heart of the Mafia,” said Palermo prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia, who has investigated extortion cases for years. “If it works, we will have a great advantage in the fight against the Mafia.”

The businesses are openly defying the Mafia by signing on to a Web site called “Addiopizzo” (Goodbye Pizzo), which brings together businesses in the Sicilian capital that are resisting extortion.

There’s more to the story if you click the link above.