By Andrea Foreman-Brook
Special to Inside
Many parents and concerned citizens want to make a difference in a young person’s life and have contemplated bringing a foster child into their home. While most are very positive experiences, too many foster care situations have gone completely wrong. Attorney Jay Paul Deratany, a Lincoln Park resident, is currently working on such a case.
Certain companies contract with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to provide foster homes to kids who have become foster children because of abuse, neglect or death of their biological family. Unfortunately some of these private placement agencies have engaged in less than honest tactics in order to make a placement of a child.
In the case that Deratany is involved with, a foster placement agency withheld medical and psychological records from a foster family—they failed to tell the family that the young teenager they were considering bringing into the home had been sexually abused and was a possible sexual abuser. Once the teen was placed in the foster family's home, he raped and terrorized the younger children of the family. This was a horribly tragic situation which could have been avoided had the private foster placement agency been honest with the family and disclosed all of the information on the child being placed.
Unfortunately these situations are happening with increasing frequency because oftentimes these private placement agencies are compensated only when they place a child. Therefore, the bottom line profit becomes the motivation of the private agency, rather than the well-being of the child and the foster family.
This is not to say that people should stop seeking to become foster parents. Deratany says he just wants the public to be better informed. As a result, he’s formulated a list of things to ask and to look for when determining whether or not a foster child will be the right fit for the parents and the family.
Jay Paul Deratany is a partner in the Law Offices of Deratany & Carden. He has successfully prosecuted cases ranging from medical malpractice to nursing home abuse. He has also done extensive charitable and pro bono work, including involvement with the Perspectives Charter School for needy children and Community Support Services for individuals with developmental disabilities. A discrimination action he filed to gain permission for construction of a group home for mentally retarded women, which was affiliated with Community Support Services, earned him the organization's solo-recipient Ekroth Award for Community Service in 1998. He holds a JD from DePaul Law School. |
