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Bureaucracy Kills
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Los Angeles County's child services agency took a 2-year-old girl from her foster parents and returned her to her birth parents, despite warnings from the foster agency that there was evidence that the child would be irreparably harmed by it. The county and the courts ignored the warranty, because they alays assume that the kid's best off with the birth parents. And now that child is dead, bruised and battered, with a fractured rib and evidence of lack of food and water. The birth parents -- 35-year-old mom, 20-year-old dad, nine (!) children, allegations of domestic abuse, a restraining order request, residency in a homeless shelter with a new baby -- were seen, somehow, as fit parents. Unsuccessful reunifications are increasing, and it's because the agency likes to tout how it's cutting the foster parent rolls. Bureaucratic success sometimes equals tragedy for the people affected. (Los Angeles Times)
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