Christian Message Boards: background checks/parents

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Posted by borntwice (Member # 2761) on :

March 23, 2001
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.freep.com/news/childrenf...23_20010323.htm

LANSING -- A new state program intended to protect newborn babies runs background checks on their parents to determine whether they have a history of child abuse that resulted in termination of their parental rights.

"The whole idea here is prevention," said Mark Jasonowicz, deputy director of the state Family Independence Agency. "We want to identify those parents who have been abusive in the past and try to head off any possible incidents of future abuse."

The program, which has been in place since March 7, is designed to fill gaps in the state's child protection system.

"Say a parent has his or her rights terminated and then moves to another county and has another child. There's no way for the local authorities to know the history," said Michael Foley, executive director of the Children's Charter of the Courts of Michigan, a child and family advocacy group.

The FIA will gather information on about 144,000 newborns per year from the Department of Community Health and search for matches weekly against its own database of 34,000 parents whose rights have been terminated.

From there, the information will be forwarded to local FIA offices, which will make sure that the matches are legitimate. If they are, case workers will go out to investigate; in extreme cases, the newborn baby will be removed.

But some critics worry about the ability of large state agencies to keep their information up-to-date. Others say the entire idea sounds as if Big Brother is now looking into homes and hospitals.
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