Investigate Family Courts Nationwide and Return Willow to Approved Kinship Care
The Issue
Family courts decide who a child lives with, yet they often run with less process than a criminal court. Guardians ad litem and evaluators hold enormous power. Hearings are closed. Complaints against judges are dismissed more often than they are investigated. Title IV money can reward caseloads and placements over family. Children with disabilities are still steered toward group care while qualified kin wait. My granddaughter W.B. is one of those children. She has cerebral palsy, legal blindness, and Marfan syndrome. Arkansas already approved me under the AR/TN Border Agreement. Tennessee then demanded a psychological evaluation without a court order, a broad HIPAA release to two states, and payment I must make out of pocket. That is not a safety review. That is an extra-judicial barrier to kinship.
Investigate family courts nationwide. Return medically fragile W.B. to her approved grandmother in Arkansas. End demands made without a court order.
My name is D.D. I am a licensed Registered Nurse, NREMT, and CCHP in , Arkansas. I am the maternal grandmother of W.B., born and treated in AR. .
W. lives with cerebral palsy, legal blindness, Marfan syndrome, and other complex medical needs. She belongs in a stable family home with continuous specialty care—not in delayed, non-kin foster care after her grandmother has already passed every required interstate safety check.
Arkansas has already approved me. I completed the AR/TN ICPC Border Agreement home assessment: a walk-through of my home, a capacity review, and full background checks (NCIC, abuse registry, and sex offender registry). The Border Agreement does not require a psychological examination for an approved kinship caregiver. Tennessee DCS and/or the Guardian ad Litem then demanded that I submit to a psychological evaluation by Tennessee-chosen practitioners, in TN when I live 7 hrs away in AR. sign broad multi-state HIPAA releases, and pay the uninsured cost myself—without a court order.
That is not a W.-only problem.
It is how family and juvenile courts operate across the country.
Family courts decide who a child lives with and whether a parent or grandparent remains in that child’s life. They often do so with less procedural rigor than criminal courts. Closed hearings, weak judicial-conduct oversight, unaccountable guardians ad litem and evaluators, inconsistent “best interest” standards, and federal funding formulas (Title IV-D and Title IV-E) create incentives that can work against family placement. Because these cases are civil, families frequently have no guaranteed lawyer, limited discovery, and no real ability to cross-examine the people who control the outcome.
Tennessee is a documented example of the same pattern in child welfare. DCS operates on budgets exceeding $1.4 billion. Federal reviewers have already withheld funds after Tennessee failed Permanency Outcome 1 on placement stability (HHS Departmental Appeals Board Decision No. 3150, September 12, 2024). State audits have found weak contractor monitoring, delayed medical care, overuse of temporary and group settings, and inadequate support for children with disabilities. Federal law—the ADA, Olmstead, and the Family First Prevention Services Act—requires the most integrated, family-based setting appropriate for a child with disabilities. Expanding group-home capacity while blocking an approved grandmother is the opposite of that mandate.
I am not asking anyone to ignore safety. I am asking officials to honor the safety review already completed, to stop imposing extra-judicial conditions on out-of-state kin, and to investigate a court-and-agency system that can separate a medically fragile child from qualified family without the protections a criminal defendant would receive.
What we are asking Congress, the Department of Justice, Tennessee officials, and state legislatures to do:
1. Commission an independent nationwide investigation of family court and dependency-court practices, conflicts of interest, third-party specialist accountability, and disciplinary records, with standardized data from all 50 states.
2. Open a civil-rights review of Tennessee DCS practices affecting children with disabilities and the integrity of federal Title IV-E funds.
3. Enforce the ADA/Olmstead integration requirement and the Family First preference for family-based care over group and institutional placements.
4. Honor the AR/TN ICPC Border Agreement: no psychological examination is required for an already-approved kinship caregiver. Allow provisional placement with me while any remaining review is completed.
5. Require a written court order, specific findings, and a narrow purpose before any compelled psychological evaluation, multi-state HIPAA release, or uninsured private-pay condition is imposed on a kinship caregiver.
6. Audit subcontractors and independent contractors, verify in-person visits with contemporaneous documentation, and close double-billing pathways between residential daily rates and Medicaid/IDEA therapies.
7. Publish TN Strong Families enrollment, spending, federal-versus-state split, and outcomes so the public can see whether disability funds actually support kinship and community placements.
8. Support federal rules that allow payment of qualified family caregivers under Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services.
I will cooperate with every lawful, written, court-supervised requirement. I will keep Willow’s care continuous at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and enroll her in local special education and Arkansas Medicaid without a gap. I will not sign away my medical privacy or pay an uninsured evaluation as the price of a placement Arkansas has already approved.
Children with disabilities are not “too hard” or “too expensive.” They are our children. Sign this petition. Share it. Tell Congress and Tennessee that approved kinship care comes first, that family court must answer to the Constitution, and that W.B. should come home.
Respectfully,
D.D.
Licensed Registered Nurse, NREMT, CCHP
Maternal grandmother of W.B.
|
September 19, 2026
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18bU9e3vep/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Documented convictions or guilty pleas unless marked as charges only. Examples, not a claim that most professionals commit crimes.
Judges
• Ciavarella and Conahan (PA): “Kids for Cash” kickbacks for juvenile placements; 28 years and 17.5 years; thousands of adjudications vacated.
• Garson (Brooklyn): Convicted of bribery in custody/divorce assignments; prison 2007–2009.
• Bass-LeSure (OK): Judge and husband pleaded guilty to claiming foster/adoption pay for children not in their home.
Social workers / CPS-DCS staff
• King and Gunn-Davis (TN DCS): Convicted of leaking a child’s confidential file.
• Baker (TN DCS): Pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor; 2 years plus registry.
• Fryson (CA CPS): Convicted of extortion/bribery in a $10,000 sting; 9+ years.
• Spraker (CO) and Mundala (IN DCS): Pleaded guilty to falsifying visits that never happened.
• Mensah (NY) and McCoy (TN): Convicted/pleaded to billing therapy that was not provided.
• Four NYC ACS staff: Pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband into juvenile facilities.
•P.(IL DCFS) and Marcell (TN DCS): Charged with kickbacks or falsified reports; convictions not confirmed.
• M. (TN): Solicitation conviction later vacated.
Attorneys, GALs, CASA
• E.(IL GAL): Charged with stealing $400,000+ from minors’ settlements via fake court orders. Not yet tried.
• Pietralczyk (PA GAL): Pleaded guilty to tax fraud on private GAL fees.
• Detroit guardianship ring: Judge and others charged with embezzling adult-ward funds. Charges only.
• O’Neal (GA CASA staff), Creps (NE CASA director), Naukams and Owens (OK CASA): Pleaded guilty to embezzling CASA/program funds.
• S.(CO CASA director): Civil settlement over ~$99,000 in diverted donor funds; not a reported criminal conviction.
Contractors and group homes
• Smith / Saint Francis (KS): Former CEO pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a multimillion-dollar invoice scheme.
• Corbett (CA group homes): Pleaded guilty to diverting foster funds and unpaid payroll taxes; ~1 year.
• Ayala / Give Us This Day (OR): Convicted of stealing $1 million+ from a foster agency; 33 months.
• Kamara / Life Deeds (DC): Pleaded guilty to bribing a CFSA contract specialist for $2 million+ in contracts.
Foster/adoptive caregivers
• Leekin: Collected $1.68 million in subsidies under false identities; federal and Florida prison terms; children later won a $9.7 million city settlement.
• Grays (TN): Collected adoption subsidies while starving children; two children died.
• Related patterns: subsidy claims for children not in the home; sexual offenses by people in DCS/foster roles; international adoption bribery of foreign officials.
Usual methods charged Steering placements or contracts; billing for care not given; diverting Title IV-E/Medicaid/charity money; paying to drop or falsify a case; stealing settlements or program funds; leaking files; fabricating visits; sexual exploitation of access. Typical charges: wire fraud, theft of federal-program funds, bribery, tax crimes.
2
The Issue
Family courts decide who a child lives with, yet they often run with less process than a criminal court. Guardians ad litem and evaluators hold enormous power. Hearings are closed. Complaints against judges are dismissed more often than they are investigated. Title IV money can reward caseloads and placements over family. Children with disabilities are still steered toward group care while qualified kin wait. My granddaughter W.B. is one of those children. She has cerebral palsy, legal blindness, and Marfan syndrome. Arkansas already approved me under the AR/TN Border Agreement. Tennessee then demanded a psychological evaluation without a court order, a broad HIPAA release to two states, and payment I must make out of pocket. That is not a safety review. That is an extra-judicial barrier to kinship.
Investigate family courts nationwide. Return medically fragile W.B. to her approved grandmother in Arkansas. End demands made without a court order.
My name is D.D. I am a licensed Registered Nurse, NREMT, and CCHP in , Arkansas. I am the maternal grandmother of W.B., born and treated in AR. .
W. lives with cerebral palsy, legal blindness, Marfan syndrome, and other complex medical needs. She belongs in a stable family home with continuous specialty care—not in delayed, non-kin foster care after her grandmother has already passed every required interstate safety check.
Arkansas has already approved me. I completed the AR/TN ICPC Border Agreement home assessment: a walk-through of my home, a capacity review, and full background checks (NCIC, abuse registry, and sex offender registry). The Border Agreement does not require a psychological examination for an approved kinship caregiver. Tennessee DCS and/or the Guardian ad Litem then demanded that I submit to a psychological evaluation by Tennessee-chosen practitioners, in TN when I live 7 hrs away in AR. sign broad multi-state HIPAA releases, and pay the uninsured cost myself—without a court order.
That is not a W.-only problem.
It is how family and juvenile courts operate across the country.
Family courts decide who a child lives with and whether a parent or grandparent remains in that child’s life. They often do so with less procedural rigor than criminal courts. Closed hearings, weak judicial-conduct oversight, unaccountable guardians ad litem and evaluators, inconsistent “best interest” standards, and federal funding formulas (Title IV-D and Title IV-E) create incentives that can work against family placement. Because these cases are civil, families frequently have no guaranteed lawyer, limited discovery, and no real ability to cross-examine the people who control the outcome.
Tennessee is a documented example of the same pattern in child welfare. DCS operates on budgets exceeding $1.4 billion. Federal reviewers have already withheld funds after Tennessee failed Permanency Outcome 1 on placement stability (HHS Departmental Appeals Board Decision No. 3150, September 12, 2024). State audits have found weak contractor monitoring, delayed medical care, overuse of temporary and group settings, and inadequate support for children with disabilities. Federal law—the ADA, Olmstead, and the Family First Prevention Services Act—requires the most integrated, family-based setting appropriate for a child with disabilities. Expanding group-home capacity while blocking an approved grandmother is the opposite of that mandate.
I am not asking anyone to ignore safety. I am asking officials to honor the safety review already completed, to stop imposing extra-judicial conditions on out-of-state kin, and to investigate a court-and-agency system that can separate a medically fragile child from qualified family without the protections a criminal defendant would receive.
What we are asking Congress, the Department of Justice, Tennessee officials, and state legislatures to do:
1. Commission an independent nationwide investigation of family court and dependency-court practices, conflicts of interest, third-party specialist accountability, and disciplinary records, with standardized data from all 50 states.
2. Open a civil-rights review of Tennessee DCS practices affecting children with disabilities and the integrity of federal Title IV-E funds.
3. Enforce the ADA/Olmstead integration requirement and the Family First preference for family-based care over group and institutional placements.
4. Honor the AR/TN ICPC Border Agreement: no psychological examination is required for an already-approved kinship caregiver. Allow provisional placement with me while any remaining review is completed.
5. Require a written court order, specific findings, and a narrow purpose before any compelled psychological evaluation, multi-state HIPAA release, or uninsured private-pay condition is imposed on a kinship caregiver.
6. Audit subcontractors and independent contractors, verify in-person visits with contemporaneous documentation, and close double-billing pathways between residential daily rates and Medicaid/IDEA therapies.
7. Publish TN Strong Families enrollment, spending, federal-versus-state split, and outcomes so the public can see whether disability funds actually support kinship and community placements.
8. Support federal rules that allow payment of qualified family caregivers under Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services.
I will cooperate with every lawful, written, court-supervised requirement. I will keep Willow’s care continuous at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and enroll her in local special education and Arkansas Medicaid without a gap. I will not sign away my medical privacy or pay an uninsured evaluation as the price of a placement Arkansas has already approved.
Children with disabilities are not “too hard” or “too expensive.” They are our children. Sign this petition. Share it. Tell Congress and Tennessee that approved kinship care comes first, that family court must answer to the Constitution, and that W.B. should come home.
Respectfully,
D.D.
Licensed Registered Nurse, NREMT, CCHP
Maternal grandmother of W.B.
|
September 19, 2026
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18bU9e3vep/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Documented convictions or guilty pleas unless marked as charges only. Examples, not a claim that most professionals commit crimes.
Judges
• Ciavarella and Conahan (PA): “Kids for Cash” kickbacks for juvenile placements; 28 years and 17.5 years; thousands of adjudications vacated.
• Garson (Brooklyn): Convicted of bribery in custody/divorce assignments; prison 2007–2009.
• Bass-LeSure (OK): Judge and husband pleaded guilty to claiming foster/adoption pay for children not in their home.
Social workers / CPS-DCS staff
• King and Gunn-Davis (TN DCS): Convicted of leaking a child’s confidential file.
• Baker (TN DCS): Pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor; 2 years plus registry.
• Fryson (CA CPS): Convicted of extortion/bribery in a $10,000 sting; 9+ years.
• Spraker (CO) and Mundala (IN DCS): Pleaded guilty to falsifying visits that never happened.
• Mensah (NY) and McCoy (TN): Convicted/pleaded to billing therapy that was not provided.
• Four NYC ACS staff: Pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband into juvenile facilities.
•P.(IL DCFS) and Marcell (TN DCS): Charged with kickbacks or falsified reports; convictions not confirmed.
• M. (TN): Solicitation conviction later vacated.
Attorneys, GALs, CASA
• E.(IL GAL): Charged with stealing $400,000+ from minors’ settlements via fake court orders. Not yet tried.
• Pietralczyk (PA GAL): Pleaded guilty to tax fraud on private GAL fees.
• Detroit guardianship ring: Judge and others charged with embezzling adult-ward funds. Charges only.
• O’Neal (GA CASA staff), Creps (NE CASA director), Naukams and Owens (OK CASA): Pleaded guilty to embezzling CASA/program funds.
• S.(CO CASA director): Civil settlement over ~$99,000 in diverted donor funds; not a reported criminal conviction.
Contractors and group homes
• Smith / Saint Francis (KS): Former CEO pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a multimillion-dollar invoice scheme.
• Corbett (CA group homes): Pleaded guilty to diverting foster funds and unpaid payroll taxes; ~1 year.
• Ayala / Give Us This Day (OR): Convicted of stealing $1 million+ from a foster agency; 33 months.
• Kamara / Life Deeds (DC): Pleaded guilty to bribing a CFSA contract specialist for $2 million+ in contracts.
Foster/adoptive caregivers
• Leekin: Collected $1.68 million in subsidies under false identities; federal and Florida prison terms; children later won a $9.7 million city settlement.
• Grays (TN): Collected adoption subsidies while starving children; two children died.
• Related patterns: subsidy claims for children not in the home; sexual offenses by people in DCS/foster roles; international adoption bribery of foreign officials.
Usual methods charged Steering placements or contracts; billing for care not given; diverting Title IV-E/Medicaid/charity money; paying to drop or falsify a case; stealing settlements or program funds; leaking files; fabricating visits; sexual exploitation of access. Typical charges: wire fraud, theft of federal-program funds, bribery, tax crimes.
Petition Updates
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Petition created on September 19, 2026