Category: Parental Rights & CPS

  • CPS Mandatory Reporting HB455

    Tell Legislators to Vote YES ON HB455

    Our current statute regarding mandatory reporting has been quite problematic. I would like to share a few stories with you about how this actually plays out.

    ~Mom at Costco


    Do you all remember what it was like to have several young children at home? Do you remember what it was like to go to Costco with all of those children including a 3-year-old who can be prone to tantrums? I do.

    Not only is the parent overwhelmed and stressed they just want to get their groceries and get out of there as soon as possible. Now imagine that a nosy woman in the store places herself in the middle of your hectic moment and decides that your child is throwing a fit because the child has an ear infection that you must be ignoring and calls CPS. Honestly, I’m not making this up.

    ~Kids playing outside

    I know of a family who had an unsubstantiated claim against them. The neighbor called CPS because she felt the amount of time the children were spending outside was neglectful and felt compelled to call CPS. When the mother allowed the caseworker into the home she did so because she believed that she had nothing to hide. This mother did not understand her rights.

    The caseworker made a recommendation to the police officer and they went on to site dishes in the sink and laundry on the sofa as neglect.
    All 3 were taken that day.

    The children were returned to the family but the results of this intrusion were extremely traumatized children and a broken family. A young child was so burdened by the trauma he had endured that he threatened suicide. The marriage was unable to bear the weight of the financial and emotional burden and they divorced. This is the havoc that unsubstantiated claims by non-professionals are wreaking in ID.

    ~Ex husband or wife


    I’ve heard several stories where an ex has called CPS in retaliation. They are angry and want to make the ex-spouse pay so they find a reason to call CPS knowing they will have to investigate. Obviously, this is an example of bad faith reporting. But the person reporting will always be able to say that they chose to error on the side of caution and will have protection under this statute.

    We know that these unfounded reports are a financial strain on the department’s budget. As a taxpayer, I am concerned about the speed in which the H&W Dept budget is growing. It seems prudent to take a look at how the current laws are being implemented in order to see where the expense can be scaled back.
    Our Idaho families should be able to go to the store and let children play outside without fear of CPS intervention.


    ANALYSIS OF MANDATORY REPORTING

    Analysis by Scott Herdon of IdahoCPS.org and was presented to Legislators in regards to the proposed change in Mandatory Reporting HB 455

    MANDATORY REPORTING
    The primary reason we have mandatory reporting:

    42 US Code 5106a(b)(2)(B)(i)
    (2) Contents A State plan submitted under paragraph (1) shall contain a description of the activities that the State will carry out using amounts received under the grant to achieve the objectives of this subchapter, including— 

    (A) an assurance that the State plan, to the maximum extent practicable, is coordinated with the State plan under part B of title IV of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 620 et seq.] relating to child welfare services and family preservation and family support services;

    (B) an assurance in the form of a certification by the Governor of the State that the State has in effect and is enforcing a State law, or has in effect and is operating a statewide program, relating to child abuse and neglect that includes— 

    (i) provisions or procedures for an individual to report known and suspected instances of child abuse and neglect, including a State law for mandatory reporting by individuals required to report such instances;

    CAPTA does not state who or which classes of individuals must be in the state’s mandatory reporting program. Just that we must have a mandatory reporting law in order to receive federal funds.

    Why are we suggesting a change to the mandatory reporting law at this time?

    On April 25, 2019, Governor Little issued Executive Order 2019-03 creating the Regional Government Efficiency Working Group. The executive order lists the following as goals:
     WHEREAS, transparency, efficiency, and making decisions with a long-term perspective gives citizens of Idaho a reason to be confident in state government; and 

    WHEREAS, identifying inefficiencies without the loss of services within government are vital in state government; and 

    WHEREAS, the State of Idaho has the responsibility to taxpayers to govern responsibly and efficiently; and 

    WHEREAS, making decisions with a long-term perspective includes studying the effectiveness and productivity of government to ensure efficiency of taxpayer dollars.

    When HB 170 was presented last year, one of the discoveries was the cost of CPS, which cost is identified in this year’s legislative budget book as a 2020 appropriation of $48.7 million for Child Welfare or CPS work.

    In 2018, that work included fielding 23,599 calls for reports of possible child abuse, neglect or abandonment, and after 10,159 investigations of those calls in one year alone, 83% of the reports were found to be unsubstantiated.

    We considered that it is possible that a substantial portion of the 48.7 million being spent was being spent on investigating calls that did not have a high likelihood of turning up substantiated neglect or abuse.

    When we consider the expenditure of 49 million dollars and consider two goals of the governor’s executive order – to increase the confidence of citizens in their state government and the desire to use taxpayer resources efficiently, we questioned whether investigating 8432 cases of unsubstantiated child neglect or abuse increases the citizen confidence in state government and whether it is an efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

    By contrast, county prosecutors, once they choose to prosecute a case, have conviction rates throughout the state in the high 90 percentile, which seems to be an efficient use of government resources.

    That led to the question of how can we make CPS more efficient and less likely to be chasing after unsubstantiated reports?

    Mandatory reporting could have an impact.
    Idaho is only one of 18 states that make all adults mandated reporters. 
    The 2008 federal Department of Health and Human Services annual Child Maltreatment report compared mandated vs. nonmandated reporters and case investigative outcomes. It found that non-professional reporters (e.g., friends, neighbors, relatives, and anonymous reporters) are far more likely to report abuse or neglect that is found unsubstantiated versus reports made by professional reporters (those that come into contact with children based on their occupation – doctors, teachers, etc…). In fact, 84% of reports by non-professional reporters are found unsubstantiated, while nationally in the HHS report, CPS reports by professional reporters had an unsubstantiated rate of 69%.

    In a report addressing mandatory reporting laws published in 2012 by the American Bar Association’s  Center on Children and the Law, it was noted that “CPS agencies are already overburdened responding to reports of recent child maltreatment, most of which are unsubstantiated after a time-consuming investigation”, and “It is well recognized that most CPS caseworkers need better training and lower caseloads”.

    Eliminating the mandatory reporting requirement of non-professional adults in Idaho will offer the opportunity of decreasing the time-consuming investigation of unsubstantiated reports of child abuse and neglect, allowing more resources to be devoted to professional reports that are more likely to be substantiated. 

     Also, the longtime director of the ABA’s Center on Children and Law, Howard Davidson, has suggested that if resources can be freed, then other efficiencies can be gained by training mandated professional reporters to be able to better identify possible child abuse and neglect and when to report and, if resources can be made available:
    mandate that professionals who make reports receive CPS agency feedback on the outcome of their reports; and

    To conclude the primary motivation for the mandatory reporter change is to provide the opportunity of saving Idaho taxpayer General Fund money and money spent on child welfare from other sources and improving somewhat the efficiency of resources available for CPS investigations.

    Also, if we lower the unsubstantiated investigations, reducing the number of contacts with law-abiding citizens, we increase the confidence of citizens in the state government.

    A third benefit to removing mandatory reporting by every citizen concerns section 16-1607, Idaho Code:

    16-1607.  REPORTING IN BAD FAITH — CIVIL DAMAGES. Any person who makes a report or allegation of child abuse, abandonment or neglect knowing the same to be false or who reports or alleges the same in bad faith or with malice shall be liable to the party or parties against whom the report was made for the amount of actual damages sustained or statutory damages of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees and costs of suit. If the court finds that the defendant acted with malice or oppression, the court may award treble actual damages or treble statutory damages, whichever is greater.

    Right now, any person, all being mandatory reporters, even if they reported in bad faith, could claim that because of the mandatory reporting requirement and the misdemeanor penalty, they errored on the side of caution and reported to protect themselves.
    Mandatory reporting becomes a defense in a charge of malicious or bad faith reporting.

    Removing mandatory reporting from “every person” will offer the opportunity for justice when a parent goes after a bad-faith reporter. 

    The federal CAPTA does not require that Idaho make every citizen a mandatory reporter.

    HOUSE CONTACT 2020

    GROUP 1
    CAbernathy@house.idaho.gov, JAddis@house.idaho.gov, PAmador@house.idaho.gov, NAnderson@house.idaho.gov, RAnderst@house.idaho.gov, KAndrus@house.idaho.gov, ARmstrong@house.idaho.gov, VBar@house.idaho.gov, SBedke@house.idaho.gov, SBerch@house.idaho.gov, MBlanksma@house.idaho.gov

    GROUP 2
    JBoyle@house.idaho.gov, GChaney@house.idaho.gov, SChew@house.idaho.gov, CChristensen@house.idaho.gov, LClow@house.idaho.gov, GCollins@house.idaho.gov, BCrane@house.idaho.gov, MDavis@house.idaho.gov,  GDemordaunt@house.idaho.gov, SDixon@house.idaho.gov, BEhardt@house.idaho.gov, JEllis@house.idaho.gov, RFurniss@house.idaho.gov

    GROUP 3
    JGannon@house.idaho.gov, TGestrin@house.idaho.gov, MGibbs@house.idaho.gov, PGiddings@house.idaho.gov, BGoesling@house.idaho.gov, BGreen@house.idaho.gov, sharris@house.idaho.gov, LHartgen@house.idaho.gov, JHoltzclaw@house.idaho.gov, WendyHorman@house.idaho.gov,WendyHorman@house.idaho.gov,  RKerby@house.idaho.gov, MKingsley@house.idaho.gov

    GROUP 4
    MKiska@house.idaho.gov, LLickley@house.idaho.gov, GMarshall@house.idaho.gov, RMason@house.idaho.gov, JMcCrostie@house.idaho.gov, RMendive@house.idaho.gov, JMonks@house.idaho.gov, DMoon@house.idaho.gov, MMoyle@house.idaho.gov, LNecochea@house.idaho.gov, TNichols@house.idaho.gov, JPalmer@house.idaho.gov, 

    GROUP 5
    BRaybould@house.idaho.gov, JRaymond@house.idaho.gov, TRemington@house.idaho.gov, DRicks@house.idaho.gov, IRubel@house.idaho.gov, HScott@house.idaho.gov, PShepherd@house.idaho.gov, ESmith@house.idaho.gov, TStevenson@house.idaho.gov, SSyme@house.idaho.gov, SToone@house.idaho.gov, 

    GROUP 6
    RYoungblood@house.idaho.gov, CZito@house.idaho.gov, BZollinger@house.idaho.gov, CNTroy@house.idaho.gov, JVanderWoude@house.idaho.gov, JWagoner@house.idaho.gov, MWintrow@house.idaho.gov, TWisniewski@house.idaho.gov, FWood@house.idaho.gov, JYoung@house.idaho.gov (edited) 

  • HB 438 no longer will declining newborn testing be a misdemeanor

     Priscilla Giddings ID Representative 7A  sponsored HB 438 that passed unanimously in the House. It’s not done yet. This bill must move onto the Senate to be voted upon before it will be written into the statute.

    It is mandatory in Idaho Code that certain newborn screening is performed, including a heel prick to draw blood and submit to a lab within 24 hours of birth. The person responsible for filing a birth certificate (usually a doctor or midwife) is responsible for the testing upon pain of a criminal misdemeanor for not performing the test.

    Current law requires questions on the birth certificate to uncover violations, and then the director of IDHW is to report violations to local prosecutors for prosecution.

    This seemed heavy-handed, especially for home birthing parents especially those who don’t use a midwife. In the case where a father delivers the child, he would have been guilty of the misdemeanor.

    HB 438 removes the misdemeanor penalty from code and removes the IDHW director’s violation reports to prosecutors.

    Dozens of volunteers poured over the 8000 pages of rules this summer to find what they could to clear out and clean up the overstep of power the administrative departments. The issue covered by this bill was discovered in the administrative rules review last summer. This is why it is important the citizens watch all aspects of the government process Without your support, Health Freedom Idaho can’t continue its mission to preserve liberty in this state.

  • Faith Healing in Idaho

    Faith-healing is a topic that seems to come up regularly in Idaho. Why? Is this really about saving children or removing parental authority in the name of a child’s rights?

    A French reporter was here in ID digging around about faith healing and I had to find out why.  France is one of 194 United Nation member states that have ratified the 1989 treaty UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

    Faith-healing as a major cause of child fatalities comes up annually in Idaho. Is this really about saving children’s lives or removing parental authority in the name of children’s rights?

    A French reporter came to Idaho to do a documentary on faith healing, we had to find out why. France is one of 194 UN member states ratifying the 1989 treaty of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.

    For countries ratifying the Rights of the Child treaty, there are several mechanisms in place to monitor its implementation. This includes children’s health being monitored by the school, mandatory physicals, psychological exams, and medical treatments. School is mandatory and requires children with special education needs to be educated in mainstream classes. It appears the goal of this treaty is to eliminate parental rights with the state claiming complete ownership of children. 

    We can see clearly that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child means zero parental rights and complete ownership of children by the government. 

    Miste Karlfeldt, Executive Director of Health Freedom Idaho

    Could UN influences be targeting Idaho? Absolutely.

    Protect Idaho Kids (PIK) director Bruce Wingate has been working closely with Children’s Health Care is a Legal Duty (CHILD) and supported the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. CHILD Co-founder Rita Swan was given a lifetime achievement award from the Freedom FROM Religion Foundation. The name of the group has since changed to CHILD USA and its mission has expanded. (More about the History of CHILD)

    CHILD ceremoniously awarded California’s Senator Pan Legislator of the Year for the passage of SB 277 – the 2017 bill that removed non-medical vaccine exemptions for children attending California’s schools, as revealed in a videotape of the AAP event. CHILD was also involved in California’s SB 18 that would have further eroded parental rights. CHILD is, by all appearances, a well-financed front group for the AAP, Pharma and UN/state interests and agendas.

    One member of CHILD’s BOD, Paul Offit, is a well-known vaccine and medical industry insider whose income depends on the legislation CHILD works to legally mandate. Although not a resident of Idaho, he actively participated in the “Let Them Live” campaign set up by PIK that targets the current Faith Healing Exemption law in our state.

    Their political campaign “Let Them Live” is supported by Merck-funded vaccine advocate Paul Offit. Their intent is to change public opinion using nuggets of truth surrounded by a web of half-truths and lies, innuendos and assumptions. (see Debunked the Documented Statistic)

    Many citizens fear the removal of this exemption to be a slippery slope to further erode parental rights concerning medical treatment of our children. This concern is justified when Offit stated that parents who choose not to vaccinate their children in accordance with the CDC recommended vaccine schedule should be forced to relinquish their children to the State. 

    This underscores what some Health Freedom Idaho members have thought all along: This annual effort against the Followers, who avoid using allopathic medicine, certainly includes the intention of passing laws to mandate vaccination and other toxic medical procedures on our youngest and most vulnerable. 

    RELATED: Third leading cause of death: Faith in Modern Medicine

  • When Cancer Strikes

    April 3rd, 2016, our world was turned upside down with the word –
    CANCER. Our precious 4 1/2 yr old had entered the fight of his life.
    Coral, a Certified Holistic Nutritionist from Reimagine Healing shares briefly about her family’s journey through the pediatric cancer diagnosis of her young son and the steps she took to support her son’s healing.

    You have just had the rug yanked out from beneath your feet. What you thought you knew has been thrown into a pile out behind the barn of your mind as the manure one chucks from a barn floor. The hopes and dreams you had for your precious child become expectation fodder as you grasp for your next breath.

    The Diagnosis

    Your child has just been diagnosed with cancer. Now what?

    Very quickly your world fills up with “white coats”, as I call them. Roadmaps of treatment are thrust at your chest like arrows, piercing your heart and shaking you to the core. There is much mentioned about what has to be done… what is going to happen… and for most of it, you have little to no input. Those white coats visit you frequently yet you constantly feel like you have no new information.

    The Dangerous Question

    When you finally catch your breath, regain strength in your knees, and have the first clear thought… you start to ask yourself

    “Is this how I want to treat my child?”
    This is a dangerous question. Why?

    • A) you are on shaky ground when you question the standard of care
    • B) if you find you don’t want to do it their way you have little to no resources to pull from.

    That was my experience.

    I quickly realized how ill-equipped the medical system is for actually healing human bodies.

    Nutrition Ignored

    As a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, I was shocked when the white coats, right out of the gate, told me “Let him eat whatever he wants.” Say what?! That is never good advice for anyone… ever, let alone a small child who has entered the fight of his life. Having this huge chasm between them and myself led me to remain cautious throughout the journey.

    Standard of Care Inconsistent

    The standard of care made NO SENSE to me. Why are they treating cancer with known carcinogens (cancer-causing agents)? Why are they using steroids if I can’t get the same answer from three different MDs? Why would my son endure an extra year of treatment compared to his female counterparts when the study that decision was based on hasn’t been challenged in over 40 years?
    (*Since my son started treatment the COG – Children’s Oncology Group – has since looked into and decided to change this protocol.)

    Many Protocols “Just-in-Case”

    I would ask a ton of questions. Most of the answers were never sufficient for me. Mainly because I didn’t think this was the best way to treat my son. I mean, let’s be real, he didn’t have a chemotherapy deficiency (he was given 10 different chemotherapy drugs). Nor a steroid deficiency. He was never constipated yet they gave him Miralax and Senna daily (until I woke up!). Miralax is not intended for use in children and is not intended for extended use but they would give it to my son DAILY as a prophylactic – a just-in-case medication. Once I realized certain things were not required, I had them change the instructions for all of those items to “as needed” because I got tired of refusing them.

    The Talk and Threat of CPS

    Then came The Talk… you’ve heard about it, but until you have been in the room having it you just don’t get it. It’s the conversation where they gently threaten you with CPS should you decide to not comply with the required treatment. People still think this doesn’t happen. I’m telling you IT DOES. When you are new to the ways of the medical system it is scary, overwhelming, and you feel your power lessen.

    My husband and I certainly didn’t have the finances to lawyer up and fight and there are no organizations providing pro bono lawyers either – at least not in our area. So, I bolstered what courage I could, wrapped it in anger, hit my knees in prayer, and suited up to fight for my son the best I could. Since I couldn’t protect him from the drugs themselves I opted to prime and protect his body from the side effects.

    Power of Knowledge

    With each new phase of treatment, we were given cheat sheets about the drugs that would be included in that phase. I’m sure you’ve received a cheat sheet before. It’s the single 8.5×11 sheet of paper with the drug name, its intended use, and a few side effects listed to help you feel informed. What a load of crap. When you hop on your computer, open your search engine of choice, and type in the name of the drug on the page, you quickly realize the side effects are a mile long and some of the intended uses would simply blow your mind. Yet, I found each of these cheat sheets to be a road map to hope and empowerment.

    I took those sheets, inputted the information in a search engine, and when that mile-long list of side effects was spit out I categorized them according to the body system. Once categorized I would open my holistic bag of tricks and find what was necessary to both prime and protect my son’s organs and systems.

    Restricting Natural Supplements

    Remember, their nutritional advice was “let him eat whatever he wants” and that was followed up shortly with “no supplementation” along with the fact that “we don’t believe essential oils work”. So, you could see what I was up against. *insert eye roll here* Knowing their stance on supplements, and this not being my first rodeo, I asked this question: What are his whole food restrictions? I was told not to supplement him so I figured there would be some restrictions when it came to whole food. Nope. Not a single restriction regarding whole food. Not one? Not one. He could eat as much fish as he wanted. He could eat as many grapefruits as he wanted. He could eat as much spinach, chard, kale, lettuce, butter, chicken, eggs, milk, etc as he wanted.

    Sweet! That means he can have the supplements we use since they are whole foods from the human food chain that have been juice extracted and dehydrated with no fillers and tested for over 200 toxins to an acceptable limit of zero.

    Food the Ultimate Support and Defense

    I had already made up my mind that they could not control what I fed my son and that meant I would supplement him. Why? Because there is no way his little body could physically consume, process, and absorb all the nutrients he would need to kick cancer’s butt. He would HAVE to have supplemental concentrates to help his body fight and win against leukemia. So, that is what we did. I made a supplemental regimen for him and he soared through treatment. No negative side effects to the myriad drugs he was given – each with their mile-long side effect list. Yes, he lost his hair, but I don’t count that as a negative since it grew back as quickly as it left.

    With that fact in the books, NO DOCTOR ASKED WHAT WE WERE DOING. The closest we got to doctor’s inquiring was when an incredible palliative care oncologist looked at my son’s numbers, pointed to his liver enzymes, and remarked, “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” That was all the validation I needed to keep doing what we were doing.

    Essential Oils

    Then came the use of essential oils. Once again it was me versus them. I know essential oils work – my whole family has benefitted from them for years. So, while we were in-patient, I brought a diffuser to the hospital room. I also had roller bottles of specific oils to apply topically. We used oils that would support his body as it made new marrow, encouraged apoptosis of sick cells, worked to keep any digestive issues at bay, helped him manage his emotions, and much more. We would even detox bathe him while being infused (Epsom salt, baking soda, issue-specific oils). I began to notice that nurses lingered in our room. The CNAs would comment on how wonderful the room smelled. More employees seemed surprised at how joyful my family was despite living on the oncology floor for a month.

    More than Food and Oils. The Power of Faith!

    It wasn’t just the oils and whole foods. Our faith played a huge role in our journey. I believed in my heart that the Lord is good. I know in my head that he never changes his character. I had to reconcile the fact that my son’s cancer was part of a perfect plan. A perfect plan, yes, but not perfect by my standards. When the shock wore off (it took a few weeks) I was able to switch from the question of “Why my son?” to one of “Why not my son?” Why not my family to shed light on the goodness of God and the benefits of holistic modalities? That children’s hospital quickly became a mission field and we planted not only seeds of spiritual value but also of health, wellness, alternative thinking, and hope.

    Not Going Back

    My family was so different than the majority of patient families that we made nurses cry. We weren’t mean, let me explain. When we were being discharged at the end of Induction we were told that we would be back at the hospital for a whole host of issues – flu, fever, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, neuropathy, fatigue, mucositis, and more. These, of course, are all normal and to be expected on a cancer journey. When the nurse finished listing what was expected and telling us we would be back… I thought to myself, “The hell we will!” I meant it.

    I wasn’t about to come back to this place that had flipped my world upside down, threatened me with CPS, and completely ignored thousands of years of wisdom for healing the body. I was gonna show them! And I did. It was six months before my son was required to go back to the hospital for Interim Maintenance (four 4-day stays with ten days in between each stay). When we were finally back at the hospital several nurses saw him and cried happy tears.

    Why is this such a big deal? Well, you see, they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him in MONTHS. They assumed the worst had happened. They were elated that he was alive, happy, “healthy”, and full of energy. It was the first chance we’d had to water the seeds we planted months prior.

    Key things we did throughout his treatment: Prayer, Organic food, cooked and prepared at home. Whole food supplementation. Essential oils. Acupuncture. Exercise: running, trampoline, bike riding, Detoxing (mainly baths)

    Fast forward 864 days.

    By this point, we opted to move our family on faith, without jobs lined up, out of one state and into Idaho. We found a wonderful oncologist at St. Luke’s! From the moment we met him I was talking about ending my son’s treatment early. My husband wasn’t 100% ready to commit to that when we moved but a mere five months later he was and we ended our son’s treatment 1,026 days after it began. That was still 193 days ahead of schedule according to the “plan”. HALLELUJAH!!

    Fear and Regrets?

    Do we have any regrets? Absolutely not! Do we have any fear? A little. Cancer brings so many emotions to the forefront. Remember, everything we knew, or thought we knew, had been yanked from beneath us. That messes with you, to say the least.

    Forever Changed

    People think that just because our son’s treatment is finished that our lives magically return to the normal we knew prior to diagnosis. IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. We are forever changed. We are now in our third “new normal”, at least. Every little ache, every little mysterious symptom sends us hurtling back to that night in the ER when our lives took a dark turn. The PTSD is real and sadly it seeps into almost every day.

    Triggers need to be addressed, avoided, and dealt with regularly. We can no longer carefreely enjoy birthday parties or restaurants as we have to remain diligent with our food quality. Our bank account is still being squeezed because of the whole food supplementation we provide our son because we are still in another year of firsts post-treatment. We plan to give his body the best possible chance at healing, detoxing, and repairing whatever cancer or treatment did to it. Suffice it to say we now live in a state of “new”.

    Mentor Business Born.

    Your Guide through the Cancer Journey.

    My goal through my business (which came out of the journey with my son) is to bridge the gap between what white coats tell you and what your intuition tells you. As a Momma Mentor with an incredible non-profit, I seek to encourage moms (dad’s too) who are on this journey and wish to incorporate more holistic/ natural elements into their child’s treatment.

    I am now in the business of showing people how to do just that – a sort of one-stop-shop or cancer tour guide walking alongside you as YOU craft your own healing journey by discovering a broader view of healing and the myriad of options available to you.

    Coral Kenagy, CEO of ReimagineHealing

    I utilize the non-profit’s 7-point action plan that focuses on food, exercise, rest, community, meditation, positive thoughts, and lessening toxin exposure. In short, I have become the guide that I needed when my son started his cancer journey. Why? Because there is a need and I plan to fill it in order to give these families THE BEST chance for healing, hope, and THRIVERSHIP. Through education, encouragement, and empowerment I know that the stigma and hopelessness surrounding cancer can change.


  • CPS Medical Kidnap Protest Idaho’s Kootenai Health

    Public protest regarding CPS and Kootenai Health drew 85 concerned citizens and the attention of local media. Health Freedom Idaho has received many reports of Kootenai Health coercing parents into keeping their children in the hospital longer and agreeing to treatments or testing for their children that they would otherwise have declined. Some parents have reported being treated differently if their child is not vaccinated according to the CDC schedule. They strong-arm parents into complying by threatening to call Child Protective Services (CPS) if the parents don’t agree with the suggestions of the medical staff in relation to the medical care of their child. Even when the parents comply, CPS is still frequently called, and the parents are often visited by CPS social workers and police at their homes within days of discharge. #parentsrights #KootenaiHealth

     

    families protest coercion of Kootenai Health CPS Medical Kidnap

    Concerned citizens came to Kootenai Health to publicly protest the policies and practices of Kootenai Health. This hospital has frequently been coercing parents into accepting their advised medical treatment of their children under the threat that if they do not, Child Protective Services will be called. When the parents, out of fear, accept the treatments, Kootenai Health still frequently has called CPS.

    Kootenai Health calls CPS on parents
    closed as unsubstantiated case
    families protest coercion of Kootenai Health CPS Medical Kidnap

    The families return home to face visits from a CPS social worker, and usually, uniformed police officers. The social workers and police officers who demand a home inspection and observation of the family, and interview all of the children in the home. This is always done without a warrant. The consent parents give to allow these government officials to enter the home and interview children is frequently obtained under duress.


    Kootenai Health has claimed that their hands are tied by Idaho Code. They believe that they must contact CPS every single time there is the possibility of medical neglect. But, medical neglect is not clearly defined in the statute. Having questions about treatment, wanting a second, independent opinion, wanting to wait for test results, and wanting to explore alternatives does not constitute neglect.
    There are many hospitals in Idaho working with the same statutes that are not frequently threatening the parents of their patients with CPS, so the laws are hardly the problem. The problem appears to be a disregard for building trust in the doctor/patient/parent relationship. The hospital frequently resorts to coercion, extortion, and bullying, which destroys, rather than builds trust.

    families protest coercion of Kootenai Health CPS Medical Kidnap


    Also, there is the totality of Idaho Code, which includes the following statutes passed in 2015: What the laws ALSO say:
    32-1010. INTENT OF THE LEGISLATURE — PARENTAL RIGHTS. (1) The interests and role of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children are both implicit in the concept of ordered liberty and deeply rooted in our nation’s history and tradition. They are also among the unalienable rights retained by the people under the ninth amendment to the constitution of the United States.
    32-1011. PARENTAL RIGHT TO THE CARE, CUSTODY, AND CONTROL OF CHILDREN. Parents who have legal custody of any minor child or children have the fundamental right to make decisions concerning their care, custody, and control.

    CASE AFTER CASE OF UNSUBSTAINATED CASES OF CPS
    CALLED IN BY KOOTENAI HEALTH

    Another case of an unsubstantiated claim made by Kootenai Health 
    mother of a child with significant disabilities 
    Kootenai Health using CPS to enforce compliance midwife/parent advocate discusses
    Kootenai Health ‘policy’
    Attempted Medical Kidnap after parent refuses unnecessary spinal tap on infant
    @ Idaho Kootenai Health


    Parents and children from the Coeur d’Alene area took time out of their busy schedule to send a message to Kootenai Health on September 11th, 2019.

    These are the demands of these concerned parents:

    • Kootenai Health IS using coercion of parents, threatening to call CPS, to get parents to keep their children in the hospital longer and accept treatments that may not be necessary for the health and welfare of the child.
    • Kootenai Health is using a limited view of Idaho Code to justify their threats and their calls to Child Protective Services even for parents that completely comply with the treatment recommendations.
    • Kootenai Health is not fostering a relationship of trust with the parents in the community. They should be operating from a position that trust must be earned and not extorted.

    The limited resources of Child Protective Services should only be necessary for criminal abuse and neglect and not to build business revenue for the hospital.

    letter to Kootenai Health CPS Medical Kidnap
    letter to Kootenai Health CPS Medical Kidnap pg 2
    Letter sent to the Kootenai Board of Health

    Kootenai Health preempted the protest with an email to their employees in which they claimed that the “protesters” have a history of “videotaping interactions and misrepresenting them to advance their opinions.”

    See the Kootenai Health email to their employees at IDAHOCPS.org
    Decide for yourself if they seem interested in healing the relationship of trust with these concerned parents, many of whom have had a personal and terrifying experience at Kootenai Health on the very subject of the protest.

  • Kootenai Hospital Staff Use CPS Threat to Force Family Compliance

    Parents of an unvaccinated toddler felt pressured to stay at the hospital 24 hours AFTER their daughter recovered under the force of the threat of CPS. It was only after the doctor stopped the fever-reducing intervention does the child make a rapid recovery. These are loving parents, gainfully employed, a healthy home, respected members in their community. They wound up following the coercive and unnecessary advice of the hospital. Even after the child’s health improved (the 24-hour stomach bug passed) and all tests for bacterial infection came back negative, the hospital forced an extended stay by 24 hours.

    Kootenai Hospital staff tells parents of a dehydrated toddler with the stomach flu “This is not a prison.”  When parents decide to take the recovering toddler home they are told, “You are free to leave, if you do, we will call CPS.”

    Later that week, the parents are visited by CPS AND Law Enforcement AFTER they were discharged and left the hospital a scathing review on facebook. Your tax dollars were spent on a hospital carrying out retaliation over valid and negative criticism. To unnecessarily and further traumatize the child and family.

    Clearly, this hospital is attempting coercion, abusing the brute force of CPS and wasting first responder’s resources in retaliation.

    “When Max Lathrop left a scathing review on the Kootenai Health page friends brought it to my attention. I reached out to Max and he agreed to an interview. Max is a dad who wants his family’s story to be told in hopes that it will prompt change and spare other families from the undo stress of needless threats that CPS will be called if you don’t comply with the hospital’s recommendations.  Why is Kootenai Health against parents making medical decisions? My takeaway from his story is that Kootenai Health must stop using the threat of CPS to force tests, treatments, or extra nights stay at the hospital. It may appear that Kootenai Health is using CPS to increase funding.” – Miste Karlfeldt, Health Freedom Idaho Executive Director

    This is the review father Max left on Kooneia’s facebook page July 20, that prompted a call to the family from the patient advocate of the hospital trying to mitigate a pr nightmare perhaps?  

    The following is not a criticism of the nurses and doctors. They were great! This is a top-down policy failure that begins with the administration. I do not blame the staff for following the rules.

    My wife and I follow a lot of medical freedom groups online. We’ve read countless horror stories about medical fascism. When you read enough of these stories and time passes by you start to think that as terrifying as these stories are that it probably will never happen to you.

    Well that all changed on July 17, 2019, when our 2-year-old daughter suddenly came down with a nasty gastric intestinal virus (there are no vaccinations against these viruses). You know the ones. The nasty little bugs that level you out for a solid 24 hours with projectile vomiting and fever.

    There was blood visible in her vomit, so we rushed her to urgent care where we were then told to take her to the ER at the hospital across the street. She had lost all color and was extremely lethargic. She had spent the day with my cousin, her babysitter, so we had no idea what was going on. We weren’t taking any chances.

    Our daughter is petite for her age but very healthy. She’s in the 30 percentile for her height and weight. My wife and I both have small women in our family, so this is no surprise to us. We also chose not to vaccinate her after hours and hours of research and consult with multiple family medical professionals who read medical journals for fun. The bottom line is that we chose not to vaccinate her because we spent the time to inform ourselves, not because we’re ignorant.

    Once we got into the ER, our daughter was treated with blood draws, a catheter urine draw, and an IV. At this point, everything seemed reasonable, and we appreciated the help. Our daughter was clearly massively dehydrated, which is expected, and we feel the IV was necessary. After the initial blood work came back, they found things that normally come with a viral infection; elevated white blood cell count and elevated liver enzymes as well as a low-grade fever. We were later admitted to the pediatric hospital for what we thought would be one night of IV hydration. All seemingly normal at this point.

    We met with the pediatrician on staff, Dr. Parker, and she was nice. But of course, it was brought up that she was unvaccinated. Also, they wanted to know who our pediatrician was. We told them that our daughter had only been to a pediatrician once when she was 9 weeks old to establish care. This was only the second time in her life she had gotten sick. She is ridiculously healthy. They clearly took note of this.

    Nurses came in all through the night checking her vitals every four hours and to give her Tylenol suppositories to fight the fever even though it never topped 102. Usually, you’d let the fever go so the body could burn off the virus. 

    Needless to say, nobody got any sleep that first night. Our daughter was even woken up out of a dead sleep at 6 a.m. with no warning to have blood drawn. Can you say “traumatizing”? A little more bedside manner would’ve been nice. Here comes day two.

    Day two was a blur. We had sleep deprivation.

    During this day, they decided to keep her hooked up on the IV, which made her not want to drink orally. They also kept her loaded up on Tylenol. Again, not allowing her body to fight the virus off with a fever. Dr. Parker told us that they had sent some of our daughter’s urine to be tested for culture in case her infection was bacterial and not viral as well as a new blood test to see what the trend was with her white blood cells and liver enzymes. She also told us that because of our daughter’s size, she was going to send a dietician up to talk to us.

    All the dietitian did was ask some questions and take a look at our daughter. She said everything looked good and we were relieved. By the end of the day, she wasn’t eating or drinking, so we were told she needed to stay another night. We didn’t put up much of a fight because she wasn’t self hydrating and were of course, worried. She slept a lot better the second night, and we all got some rest.

    The next morning we were visited by a new doctor, this time the medical director for the pediatric department, Dr. Carol. She seemed nice and genuine. She told us she wanted to unhook the IV and stop the Tylenol to give our daughter a chance to fight the virus as well as see if she would try self hydrate. Why did it take this long to do the obvious? This was day 3!

    Dr. Carol also implied that she may want to keep our daughter there for the third night! 

    She even went out of her way to tell us that we weren’t in prison and that we could leave freely at any time (this will be important in a minute). Anyway, during the morning all my daughter wanted to do was sleep, so we let her sleep. She slept for 3 hours before waking up clearly more refreshed and looking better. She had obviously burned off the bug quite a bit. She wanted to drink and chugged an entire bottle as well as took in a little water. This was the sign my wife and I were looking for to take her home. We knew that as long as she would self hydrate, we could safely take her home and finish this thing out there where she’d be happy. By now, she was miserable in the hospital and was not very cooperative. This is where things got bad.

    We decided that we were ready to go home and comfortable in doing so. 

    We could handle a low-grade fever and pushing fluids at home. But when we told the nurse, we’d like the leave the first thing out of her mouth is that she would have to contact child protective services because that’s their policy when a parent wants to take their children home “against medical advice.” We were blown away and horrified. So this wasn’t a prison, and we are free to leave at any time. But if we do try to leave they will contact CPS and try to get our child taken away! Threatening our most precious thing?! Sounds more like a gun to the head to me!

    The nurse told us it was because our daughter wasn’t vaccinated that they were taking extra precautions and wanted to wait until the urine culture came back. This made no sense. I asked what the possibility of a bacterial infection had to do with my daughter not being vaccinated against viruses. She didn’t answer and just reverted back to, “this is just our policy. It’s not my call.”

    The anxiety set in big time, and we asked to talk to Dr. Carol. They said it would be a while, so we waited for almost 2 hours. When the doctor finally came, we were scared and had called everyone we knew who we thought could help us; my sister, who’s a nurse and our midwife. They did their best to coach us. The doctor explained her concerns. She wanted us to stay there until the urine culture was done the next morning. Why? Because we didn’t vaccinate our daughter and she was worried it could be something really bad like Hepatitis A. I guess there was also a second blood lab they were waiting on too. This made no sense why they would keep us there when they could just send us home, and if the results came back positive for a bacterial infection, they could just call in a prescription to a pharmacy, and we would pick it up. Why did they want to keep her there another night? The doctor then left and let us discuss what we wanted to do.

    After talking about it and seeing just how miserable our daughter was there, we decided we wanted to leave and just let them call CPS then. We had nothing to hide and know we’re good parents. It would be a waste of CPS resources, and we knew they’d see that. At this point, our daughter was begging to go home and swing in her backyard and was done. We were all done. At this point, it was 5 p.m. on the third day. We were exhausted and felt like prisoners.

    I then approached Dr. Carol and told her my wife, and I decided it would be best just to go home. She was surprised. She started a whole sales pitch to convince me to stay. She used the threat of CPS again in a backward way, saying, “I just want to send you home clean. There’s no reason to get CPS involved. Nobody wants that.” Sounded more like a mafia-style threat, “That’s a nice family you have there. It’d be a shame if something…happened to it.” She even went on to say that if we had vaccinated our daughter, we would have been in-and-out of thereafter that first night.

    So she basically admitted they were keeping us there longer just because we didn’t vaccinate! We were clearly targeted. 

    Then she said vaccinations would be a different conversation between the pediatrician and us that they had already set up an appointment for us to follow up with. She went on to say that the reason they call CPS is to protect the children because they cannot speak for themselves. In other words, they’re saying that they know more about what’s best for a child than their parent, the only ones who have the legal authority to “speak for them.”

    At this point, I was too tired to fight anymore. I decided as long as there were no more tests or invasive procedures or shooting up my daughter this wouldn’t be my hill to die on. I told my wife that it was already evening, so let’s just stay and leave first thing in the morning. We felt threatened into staying. No doubt about it. This was medical kidnapping.

    The next morning our daughter’s blood and urine came back clean as a whistle just like we knew it would. This was a joke. They didn’t even do anything that entire third day. We watched her the entire time. All they did was check her vitals every four hours. 

    What a waste of time and money!

    So this is our story of medical tyranny. It’s real. It does happen. So be aware! My wife is a full time middle school teacher and I am a full time professional videographer. We own our home and are loving parents. This can happen to ANYONE!

    Several days later, as they returned to ‘normal’ life the family had a shock two police cars and CPS showed up at the door. 

    This terrifying experience happened because the family chose not to follow up with the hospital assigned pediatrician. The child, in full health, had returned to daycare and their life had returned to normal. Or so they thought. Hospital records reveal that the staff made notes to call CPS to disrupt their family even after “discharge with a clean bill of health” should they seek a care provider other than that assigned by hospital staff. 

    The family was not aware that their visit to this specific practitioner was contingent on avoiding CPS and had canceled their appointment.

    No this isn’t the first time for Kootenai Health, and yes this is becoming a “thing.” 

    You might remember Baby Elijah two years ago. If you dare to have an opinion that isn’t 100% in line with the doctor providing your care, you get CPS called. Loving parents, gainfully employed, a normal home, members in the community. They wound up following the coercive and unnecessary advice of the hospital, but CPS was called ANYWAY, only AFTER they were discharged and left them a scathing review. Your tax dollars were spent on a hospital carrying out retaliation over a true and scathing review meant to unnecessarily and further traumatize the child and her family. That alone should be investigated and should wake you up to the tyranny if you haven’t started to see it yet.

    UPDATED! 

    Health and Welfare sent a letter to the parents: the case UNFOUNDED

  • Homeschool Teen Medically Kidnapped in Idaho

    Idaho resident Kristine, a homeschooling mother, brought her very sick child Brandon to the ER numerous times, and they keep sending him home. Tired of repeated trips to the ER and extremely worried about her son, Kristine says she urgently insisted that they provide other treatment for him. She knew something else was going on other than just the flu. Little did she know that urging for her son to be treated for more than the flu would involve CPS, accusations of medical neglect, educational neglect, and criminal charges against her. Its been six months, only limited weekly visits this single mom and her son want to be reunited.

    UPDATE July 16 Hearing

    Brandon still doesn’t get to go home. In fact, the court case has been continued until OCTOBER 2019. Mom was grateful that 


    Brandon, aged 15, was admitted to St. Alphonsus in Nampa and then transferred to St. Alphonsus Pediatric Center in nearby Boise, Idaho. Medical records show that he was admitted with Influenza A, a positive result for Mono, abdominal pain, recent weight loss, as well as thrombocytopenia (low blood platelet count), and leukopenia (low white blood cell count).  

    Over the next two days, Kristine watched her son suffer. It was often necessary for her to help him out of bed and walk to the bathroom. Brandon was given a walker so that he could navigate the hallways and receive some exercise.

    Brandon was then transferred to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Boise. Mom was told that it was because there was nothing else St. Al’s could do for him, and he needed testing for cystic fibrosis, a respiratory disorder that can result in extreme malnutrition due to digestion issues.

    However, according to medical records of Dr. Amy Barton, a child abuse specialist that works for St. Luke’s through their Children At Risk Evaluation Services (CARES), the actual purpose for the transfer was to put Brandon into her care of Dr. Barton to determine whether or not his condition was medical abuse vs. medical neglect.

    Read full details at Medical Kidnap

    dZBRGXMBSyX5xSh6pcUg_trauma%20cps.png

    Educational Neglect Alleged Due to Homeschooling

    Another allegation that CPS suddenly decided to throw at Kristine is that Brandon has been homeschooled for his entire life. The Department now alleges that Brandon’s education was neglected, because he was homeschooled, and has requested an educational evaluation, despite that he has a history of being in the gifted and talented programs through his online homeschool in Oregon.

    The Department is also requesting that Brandon begin high school again as a freshman at Homedale High School this September, despite that he has graduated through homeschool with the appropriate amount of credits at the end of this last school year.

    Read the full history with doctors and staff names at Medical Kidnap Homeschooled Teenager with Celiac & Scoliosis Medically Kidnapped at Idaho Children’s Hospital – Mother Wrongfully Accused of Medical Abuse & Educational Neglect.

    Mom is fighting for her son and NEEDS YOUR HELP

    Kristine has filed for a new evidentiary hearing and a new adjudication, asserting that misinformation and hearsay is perverting the court record. Kristine hopes that maybe her voice will finally be heard by Judge Tucker this time around. If not by the judge, then at least by someone with the power to do something about what is happening with her son.

    Kristine appears in court next on July 16th, for the 6-month review hearing, and to hear the motions she has recently filed. She expects that this will be a battle, but isn’t afraid. She says,

    “I will not quit fighting until my son is home again, where he belongs.”

    His own words! This boy wants to go home! 

    Listening to the full interview between CARES and Brandon, it is very obvious that key information was left out of Dr. Barton’s report, perhaps intentionally. 

    In the almost hour-long interrogation with Michelle Borgquist, Brandon states several times that nothing is wrong at home, his mother takes care of him, they do things outside of the house, and that he has plenty of access to food. 

    The interview begins with Michelle telling Brandon that they are in her “Talking Room” so that she can ask him questions and he can feel safe answering them. She makes him promise that he will tell the truth. Brandon agrees and then proceeds to answer her questions.

    When asked about things that he enjoys doing, Brandon answers include badminton, bowling, golf, chess, video games, board games, as well as several other outside activities. 

    At approximately 8m:45s into the interview, Brandon is asked if he can think of anything that has happened recently that made him sad or unhappy. Brandon answers, “Not being able to be with my family.”

    How you can help

    Support the Family – www.facebook.com/bringbrandonmccreeryhome .
    Financially Support Brandon’s desire to have a new attorney who will advocate on his behalf. 

    Change.org Petition – https://www.change.org/p/idaho-cps-bring-brandon-home

    Court Support & Rally – July 16th 2019 1:30 to 5:00 PM
    Juvenile Justice Center
    222 N 12th Ave, Caldwell, Idaho 83607

    SEND AN EMAIL:

    This article originally appeared at: https://hfi.designbyparrish.com/homeschool-teen-medically-kidnapped-in-idaho.

  • Idaho CPS Traumatizing Innocent Families

    March 2022 -The recent tragic incident involving Meridian Idaho Police ripping a breast-fed infant from his mother’s arms and arresting her for her protective instincts has thousands of people in shock! The doctor treating this child with special medical needs said “the infant should be returned to the family”. Yet, the state decided to keep the infant in state custody. Parents everywhere are rising up to seek an end to the often unlawful, traumatizing, and damaging effects that Idaho Child Welfare / CPS has on parents and their innocent children.

     

    That’s a lot of children placed in a system that is proven to be less safe than in their own homes.

     – Miste Karlfeldt, Executive Director Health Freedom Idaho

    • How many of these children were traumatized worse from being removed from their situation than they would have been if they could stay with their parent(s)?
    • What is the bounty CPS gets paid for every child they kidnap? 
    • How many children are helped and don’t end up with addiction issues, depression, suicidal thoughts, or committing suicide, or are in and out of jail/juvenile detention centers? 
    • How many children kidnapped by CPS end up on mood and behavior-altering drugs, destroying their bodies’ chemical makeup forever?
    • How many of these children were traumatized worse from being removed from their situation than they would have been if they were able to stay with their parent(s)?
    • What is the bounty CPS gets paid for every child they kidnap? 
    • How many children are actually helped, and don’t end up with addiction issues, depression, suicidal thoughts or committing suicide, and/or are in and out of jail/juvenile detention centers? 
    • How many children kidnapped by CPS end up on mood and behavior altering drugs, destroying the chemical make up of their body forever?

    In 2019, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare conducted 10,159 investigations based on referrals for child abuse, neglect or abandonment out of 23,599 referrals made to the department. In Idaho, it is mandatory that every person report suspected child abuse or neglect, which creates a huge number of referrals.

    CPS social workers or law enforcement attempted comprehensive safety assessments at 4% of the Idaho households with children under the age of 18.

    In every one of those cases, CPS told the parents that they must submit to questioning, entry to their home and that they must submit their children to the questioning and examination of the children by government workers outside of the presence of the parents.

    Idaho CPS social workers say that “nobody ever questions” these intrusions into the family home and the privacy of the relationship between parents and children.

    But, because of the Constitution of the United States, it is simply not the law that parents must obey every demand of CPS

    Just because the Department rules require CPS workers to attempt to infiltrate your home and family life does not mean you have to allow the invasion.

    The fact is that abuse and neglect under Idaho’s Child Protective Act are over-reported and exaggerated. Many of the calls are anonymous, and after investigation, fully 83% of the investigations (8,432 in 2018) are found “unsubstantiated, meaning there was no abuse or neglect.

    In their attempt to investigate, CPS social workers working for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare frequently use coercive tactics, like showing up with law enforcement officers and telling parents they must cooperate, or they could lose custody of their own children. The Department frequently shows up at odd times, like on a Friday evening or even on holidays.

    That is because their rules require that they investigate priority 1 and 2 referrals either immediately or within 24 hours. And CPS social workers will never confine themselves to just investigating the nature of the original referral. Their “comprehensive safety assessment” means they will stray far and wide from the referral to investigate and explore everything about you and your family relationships, including your parenting philosophies and how often and what types of foods everyone eats.

    • https://www.cwla.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Idaho-Fact-Sheet.pdf

    If parents know their rights and begin to exercise their rights, they will be empowered against an over-reaching department, and even if the Department continues to attempt its intrusions, at least individual parents will be empowered to operate on a more level playing field. 

    The goal is to equip you to handle Idaho CPS and law enforcement in these CPS investigations.

    LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR RIGHTS:  

    What to do if CPS Knocks

    Medical Kidnap: Homeschool Teen

    Data RESOURCES:

    https://www.cwla.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Idaho-Fact-Sheet.pdf

    https://www.childtrends.org/publications/state-level-data-for-understanding-child-welfare-in-the-united-states

  • Be Heard

    BE HEARD BY JULY 3rd! RIGHT NOW THE CITIZENS CAN COMMENT! We have an unprecedented opportunity to have our voices heard on ANY state rule that we have concerns about! State law requires that the public receive notification when a state agency initiates proposed rulemaking procedures and be given an opportunity to comment to that rulemaking. Due to the lack of vote at the end of Legislative Session last year the rules department has published ALL the temporary rules and they must provide us opportunity to comment on them.
    However, COMMENTS CLOSE July 3rd (10 days!). 

    #BeHeardbytheThird 

    Now is the time to have a real and meaningful impact on the 8200+ pages of Idaho Rules and Regulations up for public input. Remember that the Legislature did not automatically approve all the rules at the end of last session. Review how this happened read an overview on page 2>

    It is really that simple to make a difference. Complaining and getting angry with government will not fix government; only involvement and civil communication will.  I hope you get involved in this GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY! – Heather Scott

    There are THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of pages of rules. 

    HINT START AT PAGE 1900 
    to find a search using KEY WORDS using CNTL F – find – search keywords

    HFI Concerns with IDAPA RULES…

    IDAPA 16 Department of Health and Welfare Docket 16-0000-1900

    IDAPA 16 Department of Health and Welfare Docket 16-000-1900f

    **You can choose to send public comments on these rules and other areas that cause you concern!
     Don’t limit yourself! 

    You can send numerous emails on various topics. Just be sure to email the appropriate department. All Health and Welfare Concerns: go to dhwrules@dhw.idaho.gov 

    Make the MOST of your time and efforts 

    Be sure to CC your email all the Health and Welfare Committee legislators, your personal legislators <find them here> and Health Freedom Idaho) 

    <COPY/Paste EMAILS Addresses>

    WHAT ABOUT OTHER RULES? 

    There are a lot to choose from, such as the Department of Transportation, Fish and Game, Environmental Quality, Dentistry, Education, Board of Medicine, Idaho Commission on the Arts, Parks and Recreation, State Police, Attorney General and many more.  If you click on the rule you are interested in in the table of contents, it will take you to that section in the document where you can read what the rule says.

    • You do not like the way that the Department of Labor deals with unemployment insurance requirements.
    • You believe that the systems for pardons and parole needs improvement.
    • You do not like the Commission of Libraries condoning promotions of certain political agendas.
    • You believe the Department of Education should allow more charter schools.
    • You believe the requirements to get an occupational license for Sign Language Interpreters is restrictive.
    • You believe the Health and Welfare Department is denying parental choice when it comes to vaccinations.
    • You are tired of Common Core (re-branded as Idaho Core) and its agenda in the schools.

    HINT: Concerned about other department’s rules? You can find the department’s contact information by looking at the document pages 4 – 25 and click the hyperlinked “Notice of Omnibus Rulemaking – Temporary and Proposed Fee Rulemaking” there is a link under each docket. 

    We have this opportunity to make a public comment to the department on every state rule. This has NEVER happened in Idaho before, don’t squander it.

    RESOURCES:

    What’s the difference? Negotiated and Proposed Rules? <see page 8>

    Where did all these rules come from? Here is an index of all the rules https://adminrules.idaho.gov/cindex/16.pdf

  • Protect Your Parental Rights When CPS Investigates

    There’s nothing quite like the adrenaline rush and flood of shame that hits when you open the door to find someone from Child Protective Services (CPS) on your doorstep. It’s horrifying. It’s embarrassing. You immediately start to remember every CPS horror story you’ve ever heard and you begin to worry. Since more parents are experiencing a visit from CPS than ever before, and since sometimes those visits have resulted in the quick removal of children – despite no grounds to allegations of harm or abuse – it is critically important for every parent to have a good idea of how to respond to a CPS visit.

    Parents have been ‘reported’ to CPS for some reasons that have nothing to do with neglect or abuse:

    • Loving parents who refuse a recommended medical treatment for their child can be reported by a doctor who might fear losing his license to practice medicine.
    • Neighbors or estranged family members may report a family despite the lack of grounds to support any allegations of abuse.
    • Parents with a sick child seeking a second opinion have been reported to CPS by a hospital or medical authorities.

    The fact of the matter is that over 80% of the calls that are called in to CPS are false and bogus. But CPS says, all calls have to be investigated. In Idaho statistics reveal that almost 80% of the children removed from their parents are returned to their parents. This calls into question the validity the government agency traumatizing the children and their parents with this forced separation, however that is a discussion for another post. 

    The reality is any visit by CPS should be taken VERY seriously.

    The most significant mistakes made by parents are usually in the very first encounter. If you can understand how to handle the very first encounter with CPS, you can increase your chances of maintaining your family’s rights and freedom.

    CPS will often seek to take a family by surprise. Be prepared.

    1. Be polite & SAY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.
    2. Do NOT let them in your house. Continue to be nice but STAY FIRM.
    3. Ask permission to ask THEM questions. “I realize you are just doing your job. Would it be ok if I asked you a couple of questions?” Record the conversation. Investigator’s contact information. The supervisor’s contact information. Details of the allegations.
    4. Close the conversation telling them you will speak to your attorney and get back with them. 
    5. Close the door. 

    Realize that closing the door will not close the investigation, but will allow you preserve your rights, gather your support and contact your attorney.

    1. THE KEY: Be polite & SAY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. 
    You might be terrified inside. You might be frightened and angry if you feel there is injustice going on, but the number one thing you can do is stay calm and be polite. Anything you say can be twisted. Do NOT DEFEND YOURSELF and do NOT volunteer information.

    Most CPS referrals are very vague. They only know what was reported to them and usually, that information is not very specific. If you jump in and defend yourself, anything you say could be used against you later.

    Once a CPS investigation has begun, they will investigate every aspect of your family. (Take a look at the CPS manual – the social worker doing the investigation is suppose to ‘know’ the answers to questions that involve parental self esteem, job security, discipline practices…) Even if the allegations against you are false, they will be paying attention to other items of concern and can begin investigating other allegations based on their findings.

    The best defense? A closed mouth.

    2. Do NOT let them in your house. 

    Continue to be nice but STAY FIRM. Have one statement ready and repeat it over and over “I know you are just doing your job, but my main obligation is to my children and to help them avoid unnecessary trauma.” If they do not have a warrant and there is no apparent emergency, they are not allowed access to your home. If a police officer is with them, they all know it is illegal to enter a home unless you CONSENT, or unless they have a warrant, or can hear an emergency situation going on.
    DO NOT CONSENT.

    Do not even open the door to allow the CPS agent look into your home to see your children: they can see something that creates an “emergency situation” even if it is not true. 

    Be FIRM. You should not waiver nor give in to thinking: “What’s the harm?” There is no compromise here: no exception. If you invite a CPS investigator social worker into your home, you have just waived your Federally-protected fourth amendment constitutional protection. 

    3. Ask permission to ask THEM questions. 
    “I realize you are just doing your job. Would it be ok if I asked you a couple of questions?” 

    Record the conversation. Idaho recording laws: At least one party must give consent in order to record an in-person conversation. Idaho Code Ann. § 18-6702.> If you need to get your cell phone, close the door and say, “I need to get something.”

    • 1. Get a copy of their ID.
    • 2. Supervisor Information.  What are the name and phone number of your supervisors?
    • 3. “What are the exact allegations that have been made against me? Federal law requires that I should be informed of any allegations against me.” If they say something vague, like “child abuse” or “environmental neglect,” demand specific answers. You have the legal right to this information!
    • 4. Ask them if they have a warrant. Be direct. “Do you have a warrant to search my home or speak to my children?” If they produce a warrant make sure it is signed by a judge and dated. Ask for time to review the warrant. Read it over thoroughly.  Tell them you want your attorney to review the warrant.

    Without a warrant, they must gain your consent to enter your home or speak to your children. They are doing their job. Their supervisor has instructed them to make this visit and they will use whatever tactic they feel will be effective to GET MORE INFORMATION AGAINST YOU. They may alternate between: trying to be nice, being firm, threatening or trying to bargain with you. Stay immune to every tactic. Be Nice, but know your rights. Do not get caught up in their games. Don’t engage them in any discussion, except on the questions above.

    If either CPS or police try to enter your home, ask what the emergency is and inform them you will be video recording once they enter the home. Without a warrant, they cannot take your children unless they feel they are in imminent danger.

     Idaho Code section regarding imminent danger: §16-1608(1)(a). A declaration of imminent danger can be made “only where the child is endangered in his surroundings and prompt removal is necessary to prevent serious physical or mental injury to the child or where the child is an abandoned child . . .”https://isc.idaho.gov/cp/manual/Idaho_CP_Manual-3rd_Edition.pdf

    If the police do force themselves into your home, do not physically resist. Allow them in, state that you object to their violation of your rights and state that you wish to have an attorney present. These statements may assist you in a later court hearing.

    4. Worried you might look ‘guilty’ by not letting them in? 
    The close the conversation with this: “I’d like to have this conversation with you after I have had a chance to speak to my attorney. Is this the number you can be reached to schedule a time for that conversation?” Then simply close the door.

    Once the door is closed take a deep breath, hug your kids tight and begin to prepare in defense of your family.

    The minute you become aware that your family is being investigated, YOU MUST find an attorney who has experience in fighting CPS.

    Juvenile Dependency courts are worlds unto themselves. Your most seasoned and experienced lawyers when first stepping foot into a Juvenile Dependency courtroom are totally dumb struct. Most lawyers –even experienced Family Law attorneys– who are not experienced with CPS mistakenly think that it is their job (as it would be in any other court setting) to find out what CPS wants and then communicate all the details to their clients. Shockingly, doing exactly that often leads to total disaster and the loss of your children.

    If you are accused of physical abuse, immediately have your doctor give your child a thorough physical exam.

    Ask your doctor to write a letter stating that there are no bruises or injuries observed, nor any other health-related issues that would raise any concern or suspicion of child abuse or neglect. Obviously, go to a doctor whom you trust. If a CPS or DCFS social worker suggests a doctor for you or suggests that they know where you can see a doctor at NO CHARGE (as attractive as that may be), NEVER visit with a doctor recommended by CPS. What you may not know is that these doctors are a regular part of the CPS system and they are commonly called as expert-testimony witnesses by CPS as a witness against the parents.

    Create a list of relatives and friends who are willing and able to care for your children if CPS takes them.

    If your children are removed from your home, or the court is demanding that your children must soon leave your home for some period of time it is always better that your children are taken in by relatives or friends. Having your kids in foster care is simply adding one more level of stress and complexity to your plate.

    RESOURCES FOR YOU:

    Idaho Parents CPS Manual: https://isc.idaho.gov/cp/manual/Idaho_CP_Manual-3rd_Edition.pdf

    Corruption in CPS: https://www.liftingtheveil.org/reports2.htm

    YOUR RIGHTS: IT’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL FOR CPS TO CONDUCT AN INVESTIGATION AND INTERVIEW A CHILD ON PRIVATE PROPERTY WITHOUT EXIGENT CIRCUMSTANCES OR PROBABLE CAUSE.

              The decision in the case of Doe et al, v. Heck et al (No. 01-3648, 2003 US App. Lexis 7144) will affect the manner in which law enforcement and child protective services investigations of alleged child abuse or neglect are conducted.  The decision of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found that this practice, i.e. the “no prior consent” interview of a child, will ordinarily constitute a “clear violation” of the constitutional rights of parents under the 4th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.  According to the Court, the investigative interview of a child constitutes a “search and seizure” and, when conducted on private property without “consent, a warrant, probable cause, or exigent circumstances,” such an interview is an unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the rights of the parent, child, and, possibly the owner of the private property.

              The mere possibility of danger does not constitute an emergency or exigent circumstance that would justify a forced warrantless entry and a warrantless seizure of a child. Hurlman v. Rice, (2nd Cir. 1991)  A due-process violation occurs when a state-required breakup of a natural family is founded solely on a “best interests” analysis that is not supported by the requisite proof of parental unfitness. Quilloin v. Walcott, 434 U.S. 246, 255, (1978)

    http://www.parentsinaction.net/english/Legal/KnowYourFamilyRights.htm

     CPS does not have a legal right to conduct an investigation of alleged child abuse or neglect in a private home without your consent.  In fact, removing a child from your home without your consent even for several hours is a “seizure” under federal law.  Speaking to your children without your consent is also a “seizure” under the law.  If CPS cannot support a warrant and show that the child is in imminent danger along with probable cause, CPS cannot enter your home and speak with your children.  Remember, anonymous calls into CPS are NEVER probable cause under the Warrant Clause.  And even if they got a name and number from the reporter on the end of the phone, that also does not support probable cause under the law.  CPS must by law, investigate the caller to determine to see if he or she is the person who they say they are and that what they said is credible.  The call alone, standing by itself, is insufficient to support probable cause under the law.  Many bogus calls are made by disgruntle neighbors, ex spouses, someone wanting to get revenge so CPS needs to show due diligence as do police to get sworn statements.

    ACCESSING YOUR CHILD’S RECORD

    Your children’s records are protected by FERPA and HIPAA regarding your children’s educational and medical records.  They need a lawful warrant like the police under the “warrant clause” in order to seize any records.  If your child school records contain medical records, then HIPAA also applies.  When the school or doctor sends records to CPS or allows them to view them without your permission, both the sender and receiver violated the law.

    http://www.parentsinaction.net/english/Legal/KnowYourFamilyRights.htm