Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative

By Erin Grace WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER Her only child, a 17-year-old son, hadn't come home, and Patti Smith sat at the kitchen table at 6:30 in the morning, paralyzed by worry, fear and lack of direction. Then her eyes wandered to the Godfather's Pizza box from last night's dinner, and a 1-800-number printed on the cardboard jumped out at her. The Boys Town National Hotline. The Bellevue mother picked up the phone, dialed the number and spent the next 45 minutes sharing how she and husband Scott had clashed with their son, Philip, for what seemed like his whole adolescence. He balked at following house rules such as curfew. He smoked marijuana. And now he was missing. She didn't know what to do, she told the counselor. Omaha World-Herald [...]
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By ERIN ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star "Before, I didn't have a family," said 8-year-old Alleana. "Now I do!" Alleana and her three older sisters were among the 44 foster children formally adopted into forever families Saturday as part of the National Adoption Day ceremonies at the Lancaster County Courthouse. Lincoln Journal Star [...]
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Surveillance Video Shows Mother Remove Son's Feeding Tube The parents who disconnected their son's feeding tube while he lay hospitalized have lost their latest bid to regain parental rights. The ruling was handed down Friday by the Nebraska Supreme Court against Joanna and Ben Langston. The parents lost custody of all four of their children, who currently live in a foster home, after a 2007 arrest stemming from incidents at Children's Hospital. KETV [...]
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Filed on November 13, 2009
278 Neb. 869, 775 N.W.2d 384
SUMMARY: A parent’s past history of mental illness and ability to recover is relevant to the issues of whether the parent can be rehabilitated and whether termination is in the children’s best interests. As Neb. Rev. Stat. section 43-292(6) was not a ground alleged, the [...]

Filed on November 10, 2009
Not designated for permanent publication
A-09-505
SUMMARY: Termination was proper because the parents substantially and repeatedly neglected the children by failing to consistently visit for a substantial period of time and from refusing to comply with the case plan goals.  
The children, Yiech Y, DOB 10/94, Gach Y., DOB 6/96, Nyakueth Y., DOB [...]

By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star The little boy with the dark, almost black, eyes loves construction equipment. Diggers, backhoes, dump trucks, cranes and cement mixers. Quintin likes them all. "They build houses and things," the 3-year-old says. And he would like to drive them, the bigger the better. Quintin also likes to wrestle with his forever big brother Devan, who is 11 and in sixth grade at Schoo Middle School. And he has to be the first to hug his forever big sister Bri, when she comes home from college. Years ago, Wendy and David Steiner talked about having two kids and then adopting if they wanted a bigger family. It was a kind of young couple's fantasy. But that's what they have done. Quintin, almost 4 months old when he came to live with the Steiners, is the first of their six foster children to be adopted since they began as foster parents in 2005. He is also among the 570 state wards adopted in 2008. Lincoln Journal Star [...]
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BY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star Child welfare's view of the world is shifting. The providers of foster care - and other services for families and children who need help in so many areas of their lives - are undergoing a complete culture change. They are learning to think in new ways. The work has been hard, really hard, with plenty of challenges. Recently, one of the six private agencies with which the state contracted to provide foster care and family services, pulled out - deciding not to sign the contract. Lincoln Journal Star [...]
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Day 1

Day 2

Monday, Gov. Dave Heineman released a 93-page plan for dealing with the projected $334 million shortfall in the state's two-year budget. Besides a 2.5 percent across-the-board cut for most state agencies this year and another 5 percent next year, the governor proposes cutting a planed $47.4 million increase in state aid to education, freezing payment levels for health care providers, adjusting Medicaid payments and canceling a $20 million transfer to the public employees' retirement plan. He doesn't plan to use any of the state's $300 million "rainy day" cash reserve, preserving Nebraska's status as being more financially secure than many states. Whether Heineman's plan survives the Legislature remains to be seen. Regardless, it's likely kids -- in public schools, in foster care -- will feel the effects, directly or indirectly. McCook Daily Gazette [...]
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Nebraska Supreme Court
Issues: intent to abandon, presumption of paternity during marriage