The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "child services" ...
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Unprotected: An Investigation o Sacramento County's Child Protective Services
A dozen years after the 1996 torture-death of one boy triggered major reforms within Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, -- and resulted in a quadrupling of the agency's budget and doubling of its staff -- many of the same problems persist in 2008. The Sacramento Bee found that, despite the massive increase in resources, numerous children continue to be injured or killed who had prior involvement with Sacramento's CPS. Among the problems detailed by The Bee: inadequate supervision and training, sloppy investigations, poor evaluation of children's risk, lack of accountability for serious mistakes. In its follow-up stories, which prompted a grand jury investigation, The Bee used a new state law related to child deaths to push CPS to release case files and found it had illegally altered the records of one boy who died in their care.
Tags: child protective services; county government; torture; child welfare; government agency; government accountablity; child services
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Air Marshals: Undercover and Under Arrest
The Federal Air Marshal Service presents the image of an elite undercover force charged with making life-and-death decisions that demand sound judgment. ProPublica found that dozens of air marshals have been charged with crimes, including 18 felonies, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct. Cases include smuggling drugs past airport security, aiding a human trafficking ring, child sex abuse, bribery, drunken driving, domestic violence, holding an escort against her will during an overnight layover, solicitation to commit murder and voyeurism after one air marshal was caught taking photos of women's genitals on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Tags: air marshals; Transportation Safety Agency; human trafficking; child sex abuse; drunken driving; domestic violence; criminal convictions
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A Question of Care
"The reporters found that in the most recent 18 months, at least five children died in child-care facilities and 13 children received injuries serious enough to prompt the closing of the facility. It also discovered homes cited for housing too many children, having unqualified providers and failed to meet other minimum standards of care."
Tags: open records; FOIA; Department of Human Services; children; nursery school; day care
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CPS Worker Safety
KVOA found that Tucson's Child Protection Services employees were being threatened by parents, guardians and family members.
Tags: child protection service; employee; safety; surveillances; security; state government; FOIA
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Potent Pills: Foster Children and Mood Altering drugs
"While Monroe Country NY has a foster care medical clinic that is considered a national model, our research showed an alarming increase in the prescription of psychotropic medications to foster children in the county."
Tags: foster care; medical; clinic; child protective services; psychotropic; modd-altering drugs
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What went wrong?
"Police say Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Quiroz murdered his infant son. But confidential records - obtained through a court order by The Fresno Bee - show that authorities might have saved the baby" had they followed procedures.
Tags: police; law enforcement; child abuse; child custody; homicide; Robert Quiroz; Child Protective Services
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Could You Have Saved Ricky?
The author used the death of 7-year old foster child Ricky Holland as an example to highlight problems of abuse and mistreatment in the foster care system. The extremely detailed stories go into great depth about Ricky's time in foster care, the abuse heaped on him, his death, the police hunt launched after he was reported missing and the detective work that finally led police to arrest his foster parents.
Tags: foster care; abuse; state government; child abuse; murder; family services
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No Place for a Child
Thanks to a ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court, MSNBC and Calamari Productions "gain legal access to go where cameras are forbidden to go and track five children through their painful ordeal" in America's child welfare system. The goal was to examine why some children are placed in relative care and others are sent to foster care, and continue to compile research as the Indiana Department of Child Services pushes for legislators to help these children.
Tags: Cild welfare; foster care; relative care; Indiana Supreme Court; Indiana Department of Child Services
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Bury Your Mistakes
In 2003, "a string of blunders by Philadelphia's child welfare system were blamed for failing to prevent the torture-murder of a toddler." In 2006, the Inquirer reported that "young children are still regularly abused to death under the supervision of the Department of Human Services." The department had failed to act on recommendations it had solicited after the 2003 incident, and "at least 25 children have died of abuse or neglect after their families had come to the attention of DHS, including 10 in 2005." Yet the reviews of these cases are secret, and as one expert said, this allows child welfare officials to "Bury Their Mistakes." Three cases were looked at for the Inquirer's investigation: two-year-old Alayiah Turmen, "pummled to death after she interrupted a video game," 11-week-old Marrieon Currie, "who was doused in hot water and thrown down stairs," and 2-year-old Bryanna Redmond, "who died froma punch that split her spine."
Tags: Department of Human Services; Alayiah Turman; Bryanna Redmond; Marrieon Currie; child abuse; child murder; child endangerment
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Daycare/Sex Offender Proximity
The state of Colorado is one of 29 states that does not have a law regarding how close a registered sex offender can live to potential victims, such as day care centers. This lack of a "proximity" law led KDVR to investigate just how many sex offenders - specifically pedophiles - were living near child care facilities. They discovered that of about 4,500 sex offenders in Colorado, 64 percent were within 1,500 feet of a day care facility, with many of that 64 percent being pedophiles. There was one situation where a sex offender was living in the same home as a day care owner, who had their license revoked as a result of the investigation.
Tags: Sex offenders; pedophilia; proximity law; Colorado; Department of Human Services; day care centers