Inappropriate Adoption

Lexington, KY: (Oct-02-07) Pat Moore of Elsmere, a former social worker, brought charges against the state alleging that she was urged to arrange an inappropriate adoption so the state could get federal bonus money. In the lawsuit filed in 2005 against the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Moore claimed that her supervisors harassed and ultimately fired her because she would not ignore half-dozen allegations of abuse in a foster home. In addition, both foster parents had criminal records. A son living in the home had been convicted of multiple felonies, including drug convictions, and the foster mother's brother, described in court documents as a pedophile convicted of sex crimes, had been in the home around the foster children. Moore said in her suit that the cabinet was forcing an adoption to keep its numbers high. She alleged that was because the federal government gave the state federal money for each adoption from foster care that was approved.

In a settlement reached, the state agreed to pay Moore $380,000 to resolve the lawsuit. Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services has been under scrutiny for its handling of adoptions from state foster care since January 2006, when two child-advocacy groups issued a report. Accusations of inappropriate removals from biological families led to a cabinet inspector general's investigation, and more recently to the announcement that the state intends to fire six social workers based in Hardin County. [LEXINGTON HERALD LEADER: INAPPROPRIATE ADOPTION]

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Published on Oct-3-07