Foster Care Contracts Canceled After City Finds Files Doctored

[Desperadoe]

City officials announced yesterday that they were canceling all contracts with a long-established foster care agency after investigators found it had systematically falsified case records for scores of children in its care.

The agency, St. Christopher's Inc., founded in 1881, doctored records to hide the failure of its employees to visit foster children in their assigned homes and the failure to ensure that the children received basic medical care, officials of the city's Administration for Children's Services said.

The city said it was immediately canceling eight contracts, worth $89 million, with the nonprofit private agency. Only $56 million of the contracts were for foster care, but the agency had also provided services for youths serving detention. St. Christopher's cared for 690 children from New York City, who will be moved to other agencies.

The agency's executive director, Luis Medina, submitted his resignation after the city's announcement yesterday. Rose Gill Hearn, the commissioner of investigations, said she gave the results of the investigation to the Westchester County district attorney's office, which is evaluating whether to bring criminal charges.<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/nyregion/15foster.html?hp&ex=1105851600&en=078b639689898193&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[UL_Approved]

1. Good article

You know, the protest of Bush is coming in other-than-direct approaches. This has been a system of abuse and neglect in the article for a very long time, but they chose now to end the contracts.

Its just like that quote out of Star Wars:

"The tighter your grip on the galaxy becomes, the more of it will slip through your fingers."