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General information about child protection Instructions and Information about CPS interventions Sample complaints and letters Legal documents Sample documents for advocacy groups, activism and education Articles & Editorials To see additional valuable information and documents exclusively for members - sign up for membership HERE GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT CHILD PROTECTION Beyond Contempt - Westword feature article about our director and Family Rights activism. What should you do if you see an abused or neglected child? View Purchase printable copy $2.95 NEW!! LEGALIZED KIDNAPPING: NAZIS AND CPS - An analysis of the highly secret Nazi Lebensborn program comparing it with contemporary Child Protective Services Agencies  Preview   Purchase printable article $4.50 A separate companion chart showing comparisons view     Purchase printable copy $1.25 Key provisions of the Adoption and Safe Families Act 1997 View The Effects of the Adoption and Safe Families Act on Families Involved in Dependency and Neglect Cases: A Report on the Performance of the Courts, GALs, CASAs and Attorneys ©2000 View Purchase printable copy $1.25 CASA and GAL - analysis of actual practice in child dependency cases View   Purchase printable copy National Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse Statistics 1998 and AFAC Analysis View Reasonable Efforts: A Check and Balance or Check the Box? Analysis of judicial determination of Reasonable Efforts Available on Membership pages only   Purchase printable copy $4.50      ALSO Get a copy of the book Making Reasonable Efforts: A Permanent Home for Every Child. Get two copies, one to keep and one for your lawyer. This book is written by the Youth Law Center. Reasonable efforts is a key component to a dependency case. With this book you can challenge CPS’s declaration that they made reasonable efforts by making them prove their declaration, and attack their Federal funding in the process for their failure to make reasonable efforts. This book can be used as an authority to support your motion contesting that Reasonable Efforts were made. NEW! Motion and memorandum of law supporting the motion for the court to make a ‘no reasonable efforts’ finding . . . on our membership pages only. Why is this so powerful? Attend a training to learn more! AFAC Report: The Dirty Secret of Child Welfare Fraud Available on membership pages only Purchase printable copy $4.50 CPS CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY MAR 13, 2004, San Bernardino, CA. AFAC comments View   Purchase printable copy $1.95 The Voice of the Children - the realities of foster care   View   Purchase printable copy $1.25 Center for Law and Social Policy - Financing Child Welfare: What policies best protect children? Transcript Is your child’s foster care giver a sex offender? Foster care is NOT superior care, and many states don’t check before certifying them as foster care givers. Check here to find out. INSTRUCTIONS & INFORMATION ABOUT CPS INTERVENTION ESTABLISHING A BASELINE OF YOUR CHILD’S CONDITION BEFORE HE IS SEIZED BY THE STATE   An accurate record of your child’s normal behaviors can become a baseline for assessment in the event CPS places your child in foster care. This baseline is important because they will report that the child is “doing well” in foster placement. Their definition of “doing well” means nothing without this baseline assessment because they don’t know how your child acted in your home. “Doing well” is actually a relative statement; doing well compared to what? Other children in foster care or how they did in their own home? It is in your favor to compare their behavior in foster care to their normal behavior and to have a record which documents it. Purchase printable copy $4.95 NEW! WHAT YOU MUST DO - printable instructions for clients of our trained advocates. Your advocate may require you to follow any or all of the instructions on this page as a condition of receiving her services.  View/Print General Guidelines to the CPS process in Dependency Court. From initial report to Termination of Parental Rights.  View   Purchase printable copy $1.95 Guidelines for Supervised Visitations. Instructions to follow to support positive visitation reports. Available on Membership pages only  Letter to visitation supervisor for clarification of requirements Available on Membership pages only What is a Family Advocate? Short Version.  View How do I choose a Family Advocate? View Purchase printable copy $1.50 State by state laws on tape recording. The ugly truth is that in a child welfare case, it all boils down to ‘he said, she said,’ and the judge is too frequently predisposed to believe the child savers. You must keep thorough records and documentation of all interactions with caseworkers, Guardians ad litem, service providers and visits with your children. The best way is to video record. Second best is to audio record. Open recording is permitted in all states. Covert video recording is largely permitted with a few exceptions. Covert audio recording and telephone recording is legal under Federal law and certain state laws. Record all interactions with caseworkers, guardians ad litem (GALs), lawyers. Label the tapes or digital files with the date, names of persons on the tape and context of contact. Use these recordings to compose your follow-up letters accurately. Transcribe these tapes. Keep them for use in your case as described by AFAC. Protecting your family privacy. If you don’t protect your privacy, particularly to prying questions about your family life, you open yourself up to state intervention and seizure of your children. This document explains why and how. View Purchase printable copy $2.50 SAMPLE COMPLAINTS & LETTERS Sample Bar Complaint against your attorney - you may also file complaints against other attorneys, including Guardians ad Litem (GAL)    Once the complaint is filed, file a motion with the court to have your court appointed counsel replaced and/or to vacate the previous adjudication of D&N (this is done if you paid for your attorney and he did not properly represent you). If the court releases the court appointed attorney and does not replace him, you must object and appeal.      You may also use the same format to file a judicial complaint by looking up the rules for judicial conduct. Once you file a complaint against a judge/magistrate, you then file a motion for him to recuse himself based on personal bias due to the complaint you filed. Where to file complaints and more info on filing. View   Purchase printable copy What is a Good Lawyer? Link to Stephen W. Comiskey’s JUST THE COUNTRY'S LAWYERSM A Good Lawyer: Chapter I, The Players The art of lawyering is not a science, it's not limited to licensed attorneys, nor is it subject to universal agreement. I began lawyering as a boot Marine Corps Second Lieutenant just graduated from The Basic School and the U.S. Naval Academy. It wasn't until a few years later that I actually graduated from The American University Washington College of Law, passed the bar and was licensed to practice law in Virginia and Maryland and waived into the bar of the District of Columbia. . . Legal Ethics Links - Introduction - Courts in every state have adopted rules governing the conduct of lawyers and have established disciplinary agencies to enforce those rules. The text of the rules is found along with other rules of court. Court rules can be found on the Web. Letters to School - two letters to school instructing the school not to allow your children to be interviewed or taught offensive curriculum. One is the Hatch Amendment Letter based on a law passed by congress. You do have the right under law to protect your children from what is taught to them in school.  Hatch Amendment Letter Download ALSO - another Letter to school or CPS agency notifying them of your refusal to consent to interview or search of children - compiled from elements of letters written by several attorneys. 4th Amendment Letter Download copyright 2000-2007 Suzanne Shell Letter to your attorney. This document contains information from an actual letter that was prepared for a parent in Colorado. This case has gotten as far as termination of parental rights, therefore it has references to past hearings and actions. If you can prepare a letter for your lawyer as early in the process as possible, you may be able to resolve the issue before it gets out of control. Beware of attorneys who are merely stringing you along until it’s too late for them to do what you want. It is best to notify your attorney in writing of what your objectives in your case or what any other instructions are. Then he will have no reason to misrepresent you in your defense. If he doesn’t follow your instructions, you will have established grounds to file a complaint against him and/or negotiate a refund of his fees and/or establish proof of his incompetence as an appealable issue or for a malpractice lawsuit. Send this letter certified mail so you have proof that he received it. You can also fax it and keep the fax transmission document to prove he received it. View   Purchase printable copy $1.50 Complaint against a caseworker - instructions and sample complaint. View   Printable copy on membership pages Sample letter to insure you understand visitation rules and requirements - based on El Paso County, Colorado information but can be modified for your case. View   Purchase printable copy $1.25 Letter to hostile psychological evaluator. Are you being forced to go to a “whore of the court” or CPS approved therapist? How can you develop a trusting therapeutic relationship with a provider who is against you? You have the right to choose your OWN provide. It is unethical for a provider to treat you unless he can establish a trust with you, and you have no reason to trust who CPS trusts. Use this document to set the CPS psychological evaluator or therapist up for a professional grievance and/or a malpractice lawsuit. His refusal to complete this form is a strong indication of where his ‘loyalties’ lie, and that would clearly not be with professional ethics. His refusal to complete this form indicates a provider that you should not trust, and you should make that clear to him and then file a grievance if he continues to force treatment on you. Tape record your therapeutic sessions and demand the raw data for evaluations. How to do this is included in Profane Justice. View   Purchase printable copy $1.25 Petition to County Commissioners for an investigation into CPS abuses. NOTE: In Colorado, the County Commissioners are the political body that has oversight over the county CPS agency. They hire the director and approve the budget. As such, they are responsible for abuses and violations of law and policy by the agency. This is strictly for administrative issues such as the conduct of a caseworker (i.e. falsifying reports, facilitating your failure in the treatment plan, etc.) They have the authority to conduct an investigation and correct or prevent the violations. In your state, you find out who has the same authority over your CPS agency in order to demand that they bring your CPS agency into compliance with published law and policy. They will probably refuse, but if you are building a lawsuit, they can be included as defendants if they knew of the violations and did nothing to correct or prevent them.      This document provides a guideline for preparing a petition in your county, obtaining signatures, and presenting your demands at a public meeting.      This is useful for creating public awareness and getting the attention of the media pertaining to this issue. View   Purchase printable copy $2.50 See also - exhausting remedies Reverse Miranda card for children. View See also Knowing My Rules a book that teaches children how to recognize who they can and can’t trust when being questioned.  Purchase Knowing My Rules online $7.50 Petition to Congress - written for Parentsmarch 98 as the defining platform of the event. Many groups are using this as the blueprint to present their demands for reform of the child protection system in their state. View Purchase printable copy $3.50 Listing of CRIMES committed by DHS and cohorts, including elected officials, in Colorado during child protection interventions. (includes Federal crimes) View/print LEGAL DOCUMENTS POWER OF ATTORNEY in some cases, your advocate may  require a signed, notarized power of attorney before we will offer services. This is a limited Power of Attorney and allows your advocate to speak with caseworkers, service providers, your attorney and obtain access to your records.  View/print Memorandum of Law and Objection to Closed Hearing Court watchers, friends and family of parents and children involved in a child protection case have routinely been excluded from child protection hearings. If, as a court watcher or family supporter you want to make your stand against star chamber proceedings under the guise of confidentiality, you can use this document to enter your argument into the record against closing the hearing. When ordered to leave, you stand and object. Have copies of this memorandum of law for all parties and ask to provide them to the court and parties. Then you have a choice. . .to leave if still ordered to leave, or to refuse to leave and possibly be arrested for contempt of court -OR-  you may be permitted to stay. BUT, you can take this single issue to a higher court if you have been denied in the lower court. We want these courts opened. . .this is one way to do that. This is a document relevant to Colorado Courts but you can use it as a model for your state. Available on Membership pages only Purchase printable copy $15.00 Memorandum of Law - Documenting (recording) Government Officials. Do public officials have any expectation of privacy? The courts have consistently ruled they do not! They can make no objection to being recorded, and this document explains why. Now you have proof of your right to record, record, record and they can’t do anything about it. Use this with the Memorandum of Law on Closed Hearings for a one-two punch against any confidentiality claims which close courts to public scrutiny. Available on Membership pages only   Purchase printable copy $15.00 Sample Affidavit in response to CPS report, treatment plan, etc. to file with the court . You can use this if your lawyer has not rebutted CPS lies during court hearings. If these lies are not rebutted, they stand as fact under law and are used against you. This can possibly be the basis for a contested hearing. You can rebut them by affidavit without your attorney’s help. You should then be available to testify at the hearing as to the facts contained in the affidavit. Your attorney can use it to expose the lies when the case worker/GAL/CASA are testifying against you.   An affidavit is sworn to under the penalty of perjury (it must be notarized), made by a person who has first hand knowledge, and who is competent to testify. Available on Membership pages only Rescind authorizations/releases of information. The information sharing that occurs between the CPS agency and service providers is often misrepresented and used against you during hearings and evaluations. Any releases you sign should be restricted; included restricting as to length of time they are valid, restricting content to be released (e.g. - release only treatment recommendations and whether or not parent is capable of providing safe and appropriate home for child and nothing else). At the very least, any authorization you sign should release it only to your attorney and he can decide what information to pass on to the CPS agency. Parents who have cooperated fully, thinking they have nothing to hide, have been burned very badly by signing releases. View Purchase printable copy How to limit authorizations/releases of information   View   Purchase printable copy Effective Assistance of Counsel - arguments to notice the court on the record to create an appealable issue of ineffective assistance of counsel    view points of law   Purchase printable copy   view sample motion   Purchase printable copy Do you have a court appointed attorney? Is he really a ‘court appointed facilitator?’ Do you feel he is representing the child savers instead of you? Sample objection to Court appointed attorney for conflict of interest to establish an appealable issue for lack of due process.  View Parental Kidnaping and Prevention Act - this argument caused a Colorado Judge to reverse himself and return the children to the father. It is worthy to note that this very judge was sitting on the case that established the published appellate case law allowing Colorado courts to circumvent the PKPA. View Filing something in the court file. First, request your attorney to file the motion for you. If he won’t. . . Take your document to the court clerk, ask them to file it in the court file. Take your copy along and have the clerk stamp it with their ‘filed/date’ stamp so you can prove you filed it. Send copies to your attorney, opposing attorney, GAL, CASA, and any other parties via certified mail or process server. The rules of court procedure require you to include a certificate of service with each document you file. Warning: We have reports of instances where case workers and others have removed documents filed by parents in the court file in these cases. This is a crime. Your stamped copy will prove that you have actually filed something and that the court file has been tampered with.      If you believe your case file has been tampered with, send a letter to the court clerk asking if she is aware that the file has been tampered with (state exactly how) and if this was done with her knowledge and consent (she cannot admit it was with her knowledge and consent - it would cost her her job and maybe some jail time.) Then state that if it was not with her knowledge and consent that you demand an investigation to find out who did it. CC the letter to the court administrator, your  judge, the head judge for the county/district, and the prosecutor’s office. Response to Social Services initial request for protective order - the parents won their case at the FIRST HEARING with this document. The judge said that parents are not obligated to allow CPS into their home based on an unverifiable or suspicious report. Additionally, he ordered the department to leave this family alone. The department was furious and began examining the document carefully as they left the courtroom. Meanwhile, the child is safely home, and the Department of Social Services cannot bother them lest they face contempt of court charges. A BIG VICTORY! View   Purchase printable copy On a Tragic note: The mother in this case moved out of Colorado and lived quietly for several years. Unbeknownst to her, Teller County issued a false warrant for her arrest and she was eventually arrested. The little girl (now 6) was given to the abusive former boyfriend by the state of Florida (regardless of the legal custody order mom had from Colorado) whom the child had never met. Mother was not allowed to see the child. Teller County dropped the warrant (too bad so sad, we made a ‘mistake’). Several months of not being able to see the child, the mother committed suicide. The child remains in the custody of the abusive former boyfriend who may not even be the father of the child. The former employer who helped get the child away from her, ultimately triggering her suicide is PATRIOT FOR PROFIT BRENT JOHNSON. Response to Treatment Plan (Case Plan) - Federal law and all states require that you be allowed to participate in the formation of the case plan, but it rarely happens. They will say you can object to it in court - but this is not the intent of the law. You can require that the caseworker and service providers act to facilitate your success. This response adds requirements to caseworkers and service providers and basically sets them up to fail just like they set you up to fail. In view of the nature of these cases, and the high percentage that end in termination of parental rights without any proof of abuse or neglect, these demands are reasonable. File this with the CPS agency, the GAL and the court. INCLUDED: demand for discovery pertaining to fee assessment (foster care fees). Before they can assess these fees, you are entitled, by law, to this discovery. They don’t like to give you discovery, and the courts will often deny it, because it often exposes fraud.  Membership pages only  Purchase printable copy First Amendment and some Fifth Amendment arguments that stopped the petition for Termination of Parental rights dead in its tracks. The judge read this document and told the mother ‘you choose between your husband and your son. Because if you choose your husband, you’ll never seen your son again.’ Four weeks later the boy was back home and the case was closed - no comments given by DHHS or the court. Strange? Not really, the judge absolutely could not rule on the questions in the motion, so he capitulated and ordered the department (behind closed doors) to make sure he didn’t have to respond to the motion. No official ruling, but if you have your child, you win.  Membership pages only   Purchase printable copy Withdrawal of coerced stipulation  (admission that child was abused/neglected) - If you feel that you have been coerced into making a false admission to the petition and it is early enough in the game, you may be able to pull off withdrawing your stipulation and starting from scratch. Here is an example. View   Purchase printable copy Child Support - Every child taken and placed in foster care will incur a child support obligation against the parents. Do you know how to fight this? This document is an example of Colorado laws regarding DISCOVERY related to child support. Most states have similar provisions. Denial of discovery can result in an appeal based on denial of due process. View   Purchase printable copy SAMPLE DOCUMENTS Sample timeline and sample affidavit regarding compliance with treatment plan taken from actual Arizona case. This case is a classic example of how CPS can terminate your parental rights no matter how much you cooperate. In this case, this mother lost her children because she didn’t allow them to die in the desert when she got stranded there. View case history   View affidavit   Purchase printable copy $15.00 Are you trying to change child protection legislation? Here is a sample of Colorado Children’s Code with recommended changes to protect the rights of children, parents and families. This is a large document and will serve as a good model for changes in your state View   Purchase printable copy Sample Flyer for National Adoption Awareness Month - Simple, easy to read, attention grabbing  View/print ARTICLES AND EDITORIALS Editorial Philosophy - A Matter of Perspective - the title of Ms. Shell’s editorial column which she wrote and was published locally for several years. Do you believe everything you read? It may not be what the writer wrote. View NEW! ANTI-FAMILY ADVOCATE INTIMIDATION BY CPS, ATTORNEYS AND COURTS What will it take to stop the war against America’s families? Members link to FAC Sheet 4-26-2004 purchase printable copy $2.50 FAMILY ADVOCACY AND FAMILY RIGHTS ACTIVISM The Grassroots Movement of the New Millennium My Fellow Americans - Support your Family Advocate or you may not find an advocate when you need one. View Purchase printable copy The War Against Family Advocacy View   Purchase printable copy Lend a hand to help a family stay intact instead of calling CPS - view   Purchase printable copy We the People and our COURTS Laura Kriho has stood trial and awaits a verdict for her holdout “not guilty” vote as a juror in a drug case. This case will set a national precedent for prosecuting nonconformist jurors. If you plan on serving jury duty, you had better read this article by Suzanne Shell, published in the December 1996 issue of Media Bypass. View   Purchase printable copy Laura Kriho - The Verdict   Purchase printable copyView Truth, Justice and the American Way  view   Purchase printable copy The Accuracy of the Judicial Process Exposed as a Dismal Failure   View   Purchase printable copy Our director walks the walk - we preach don’t take a plea bargain and she didn’t take a plea bargain and she was acquitted  View   Purchase printable copy Stealth Disarming of our Citizenry   View   Purchase printable copy Courts - Securing the safety of those who harm us the most View   Purchase printable copy ANTI-FAMILY CULTURE AND POLICY Children First - is it really what it seems?  View   Purchase printable copy A CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY’S VIEW OF THE FAMILY VIOLENCE INDUSTRY © 2004 Paul G. Stuckle View A CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY’S VIEW OF FALSE CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS Copyright 2004 Paul G. Stuckle, Attorney at Law View Rosie O’Donnell - Comes out as Homosexual Foster/Adopt Mom - BUT THEY AREN’T YOUR KIDS, ROSIE! View   Purchase printable copy CASA - a Band aid on a Broken Leg View   Purchase printable copy Focus on the Family Endorses Anti-Woman, Anti Christian author - view   Purchase printable copy Undermining Parents and the Family -view   Purchase printable copy CPS Wants Parents to Raise a ‘Peter Pan’ Generation - view   Purchase printable copy Forced Adoptions, Artificial Families - view   Purchase printable copy An Agenda Realized - Communist Goals from 1963 - view   Purchase printable copy Licensing parents? - View   Purchase printable copy Experts vs. Parents - Don’t put that band aid on your child’s knee, Mom, unless you are a licensed nurse. View   Purchase printable copy Don’t you DARE! The D.A.R.E. Program Exposed - View   Purchase printable copy Christmas Without our Children - a National Shame View   Purchase printable copy Child Sex Offenders - Sex abuse hysteria run amok  View   Purchase printable copy UN Convention on the Rights of the Child   view   Purchase printable copy Atlanta House of Prayer - assault on spanking and religion View   Purchase printable copy Pat Robertson on Slapping a Child - YOU BLEW IT PAT! View   Purchase printable copy DISCIPLINE AND CHILD-REARING I Remember When . . . View   Purchase printable copy Too Bratty to Bear - Discipline and the lack thereof View   Purchase printable copy It IS Legal to Spank - View   Purchase printable copy More on Spanking - Religious Persecution - View   Purchase printable copy If you want to raise your own children to adulthood, you had better be the Perfect Parent - View   Purchase printable copy He’s a brat? Put him on Ritalin! - View   Purchase printable copy Kids and Guns View   Purchase printable copy SCHOOLING Court Rules Against Home schooling Mother. . .and Child View   Purchase printable copy Gestapo Tactics in Michigan School - View   Purchase printable copy Grading Teachers - View   Purchase printable copy FOSTER CARE A ‘Protected’ child speaks out on child protection - View   Purchase printable copy Foster Care - More Harm than Good? View   Purchase printable copy THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BAR The Brotherhood of the Bar - View   Purchase printable copy KENTUCKY Kentucky Failures - Child Protection Reform View   Purchase printable copy COLORADO Colorado Task Force - Foster Care Deaths  View   Purchase printable copy Colorado Task Force - Exposed View   Purchase printable copy Colorado Task Force - I told you so. . .View   Purchase printable copy 2005 - Nothing came out of the task force. Foster care abuse continues to escalate in Colorado, protected by the system El Paso County and AFAC - David Berns saga and more  Page 1 More to be added to bring current Fremont County - Corruption and Intrigue 1998 - the start of the systematic harassment against our Director. View   Purchase printable copy More on Fremont County - Sued by our director in U.S. District Court. View   Purchase printable copy* Corruption in Fremont County escalates innocent child used as hostage! HAWAII Hawaii becomes first state to pass legislation recognizing and protecting the right to utilize the services of trained independent Family Advocates in child protection cases. View   Purchase printable copy Elections 1998 - what are the non-voters really saying? View   Purchase printable copy