Ideas/advice for DYFS please

[Cunningham-Wong]

Quick outline:

Full-time college student (20) with also a full-time job at a non-profit agency has been caring for two younger (16 and 11) half-siblings without a finalized custodial arrangement (the mother is in treatment) for over a year. All live with the college student's (not the minor children's) paternal grandparents, who are also involved in the care of the minors beyond their obvious material support.
The arrangement has been successful, the minors are both honors students and the grandparents are willing to continue to provide housing until the minors leave high school. DYFS also supplies monetary support which the family relies on.

DYFS has pressured the grandparents to assume kinship guardianship, which because of their age (and relationship) they have refused. DYFS now wants the student to assume same, and has threatened to remove the children unless she agrees. They have also stated that she will have to leave the grandparent's home and house herself and the children separately (applying under the housing support program) which would put them in an entirely different (and much less favorable) neighborhood and school system. She would have to leave school herself to be able to adequately supervise and provide for the minors under this scenario.

Obviously this is DYFS's penny-wise and pound foolishness, but where can she go to get legal counsel, and quickly?

Any thoughts or recommendations? Thanks for any help with this.

[stan03]

It is the policy of DYFS to place a child with people who will take full responsibility for raising the child and be a committed parent. So even though in your situation the kids are being well taken care of, DYFS still has to follow its own written policies. If the grandparents do not assume kinship guardianship then they could, in the future, call DYFS and say something like "take the kids back because I can't handle them anymore". DYFS does not want to be in that position.

If you still want to fight DYFS then you should try contacting Lagal Services of NJ. Here is a linkto their website: http://www.lsnj.org/

[RedheadExoticBMWAuthor]

dyfs are corrupt.........these are the same people who illegally fraudulently withheld multiple photo :mad:(s)of two little girls only 10 and 7 saying metal hanger bruises on girls yet nothing was there such as bruises consistent with metal hanger at all. light scratch mark NO HANGER INJURIES,the pix shall attest to this as we are all heading back to court.(we JUST LEARNED OF PIX recently confirm by NEW FAM ATTORNEY GREAT MAN NAME OF JOHNATHAN GORDON,former D.A.G. so if ANYONE see the fraud it is him and he is located in BERGEN county if you need a reputable attorney against dyfs.

dfys place child with woman who threaten me recently and we just learning of her threats this winter and have pressed criminal charges against this "woman"who conceding online she is a alkie who rely on being drunk to tend to kid in the home and is"glad"she remain(s)DRUNK all of her life,and or her 30's also gave my girls "once sane"to ex heroine crack addict who was in jail/prison several months on drug charges paraphernalia and more crime robbery conviction.

but yet DYFS SAYING this is FIT household so if i was you?

i definitely would consort with a "caring aggressive and most importanly qualified"
attorney and or reach our advocacy site after viewing our informative forum,as yes it is true that:

dyfs suppose to follow yes their OWN policies for decades,but sadly as in my own familia case currently and yearly they do not follow "any policy"as to the inference you are making about they
threaten you that proving it right there......


(email me for more info OR our forum/website has more info about this as dyfs is not suppose to use THREATENING tactics as i am reading here has occurred in your life they can be sued and or write up criminal complaint against them,see more at www.goodmomsfightdyfs.com

and good luck.:)

[tss]

I am going through a DYFS case myself and I am the primary caretaker, a father. The thinking there is obsolete and targeted toward a particular group of customers. It all originated with a bite mark my kid had from roughing it with her mother in play. Once they had their foot in the door, all hell is loose. You should not forget, in addition, that having more than 3 to 4 drinks a week is considered alcoholism, so don't tell them any number more than 4 a week. Everything you tell them will be used against you, you can just sit there watching them think how to put you down. They ask all sort of questions, even how well you sleep at night and what you eat. All this said, do not fight with them, do be courteous but firm. I am looking for a lawyer. Also, if there is a separation between spouses coming up, do not forget that the opposing party may use that as leverage documentation against you, wether you did something or not. People are interviewed separately, so the he-said-she-said thing goes a long way.

[Kelly S.]

They said 4 drinks a week huh? I was told that 2-4 drinks a MONTH is too much and that I needed counseling. I took it upon myself to go to a reputable drug treatment facility (NOT connected to DYFS,) and they said they would never admit me for treatment because after a thorough evaluation they said I did not have a problem.I was also told by the DYFS shrink that i had emotional issues and should be monitored with my kids. I again went to an outside person....a neuro-forensic psychologist, who told me, after a 10 hour exam(DYFS only took 1 hour) that there was NOTHING wrong with me and that the DYFS DR. did not even give me the appropriate exam for fit parenting!!!!! Long story short, DYFS is incompetent, undereducated,undertrained, uninterested and generally full of s**t.

[Kelly S.]

Ummmmmm....what policies? They change them at will. Its their policy to place them where they will be cared for? Funny. They placed my kids with a crack addict with a history of domestic violence.Bottom line...DYFS doesnt care one way or the other where the kids end up....as long as the file gets off their desk. Revolving door dear...revolving door.