Latest news with #DepartmentofChildServices
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Mom of 7 accused of offering man on Snapchat to sexually assault her infant daughter for $400
An Indiana mother of seven allegedly told a man she met on Snapchat that he could rape her infant daughter in exchange for money. Morgan Stapp, 32, was charged with child sex trafficking after allegedly attempting to facilitate the assault between the man and her seven-month-old daughter. In a probable cause affidavit, seen by PEOPLE, it is alleged that Stapp sent a message in November last year saying the unknown man could sexually assault her daughter. 'U can f*** her for $400. Half now, rest after. I'll send my address I do live alone and her dad is not in the picture', Stapp is alleged to have said to the man. The message was flagged with authorities and FBI agents met with her shortly after, the affidavit said. Stapp allegedly told agents she did not have access to her Snapchat after it was 'recently compromised' and had purchased a new phone. It adds that she then admitted to a caseworker from the Indiana Department of Child Services that this was not true. The affidavit alleges that agents found over 7,000 messages had been sent between October 29 and November 1 including 81 that offered sexual pictures of her daughters 'to pay for diapers'. Appearing in court last week, Stapp said that she is a stay-at-home mom and receives government aid, and help from her parents. She added that she is unemployed but does DoorDash and Instacart deliveries for additional income. Stapp said she had her children taken from her in December by the Department of Child Services and got them back in June. Her bond was set at $200,000 surety before it was then lowered to $100,000 She was handed a no-contact order for two of her children. Stapp remains in jail, with a pretrial conference set for September 15.
International Business Times
18-06-2025
- International Business Times
North Manchester Parents Charged After 4-Year-Old Mistakes Gun for Flashlight, Dies of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound
Two North Manchester parents are facing a felony neglect charges after their 4-year-old son died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mikayla Stanley, 25, and her husband, 26-year-old Nathan Stanley, were formally charged Tuesday with neglect resulting in death after their son died on May 30. They have both been arrested and booked into the Wabash County Jail. Child Picked Up the Gun After Mistaking it for a Flashlight A female family member was watching the couple's two young boys the day the 4-year-old died, court records show. The woman said she and the boys were in the Stanleys' bedroom when the gun went off. She was about to change the younger boy's diaper while the 4-year-old, identified as Charles "Alan" Stanley, played with items on a bedside table, according to court documents. The woman said she heard him say "Oh, a flashlight," and turned to see what he had – that's when she heard a gunshot. Life-saving measures were attempted, but the boy was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy showed he died from a gunshot wound to the torso. His death was ruled a homicide. Child's Mother Told Police Her Husband was Always Leaving His Guns Out Police say the parents arrived back at the home at the same time, with Mikayla Stanley asking police if it had something to do with her husband's guns, adding that he was "always leaving them out," court records show. Nathan Stanley allegedly told police he believed he had three handguns, a shotgun and possibly a .22 rifle in his bedroom, all outside of a safe, court documents say. He told police he took several guns, including the Canik 9mm believed to have killed his son, shooting five days before the 4-year-old died, adding that he did not secure them back in their cases afterward. The father told police he had a safety plan with the Department of Child Services for guns. Mikayla Stanley told police she would periodically move her husband's guns when she saw them out and that she was "always getting onto Nathan about locking his guns up," court records show. She said he would often leave guns on the kitchen counter as well. The Stanleys each face a potential 40-year sentence.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Indiana DCS cut foster care in half — and now claims children are safer
Indiana's Department of Child Services faces a new round of scrutiny following the death of Zara Arnold, a child with extensive DCS history who was killed by her father. Yet, just last year, DCS celebrated drastic reductions in the foster care system and improvements in child safety. Once known for having among the highest rates of children in foster care in the country, Indiana reduced placements by 50% between 2018 and 2024. DCS attributed its 'success' to the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act, a bipartisan federal law enacted during the first Trump administration. FFPSA defunded group home and institutional placements and created a funding stream for "prevention services" as an alternative to foster care. Yet, the interventions funded by FFPSA have been slow to roll out, both because of burdensome regulations and because such dramatic shifts in the continuum of services were never supported by data. To date, there is no evidence of improved child safety or impacts on placements. Indeed, Indiana's flagship service — the Indiana Family Preservation Services program — is described as having "0 favorable effects" by the federal clearinghouse for evidence-based programs. That did not stop DCS from asserting the exact opposite last year. In federal testimony, Deputy Director of Child Welfare Services David Reed confidently pointed to Indiana's family preservation program as 'an intervention that helps keep kids safe and out of foster care.' He further claimed to have reduced racial disparities in foster care entries by two-thirds, relying on a calculation that anyone understanding basic statistics could debunk. But Indiana did reduce its foster care population by 50% — if not through their prevention program, then how? It wasn't because Indiana had fewer concerned residents calling the hotline about suspected child maltreatment. Those numbers have barely budged, aside from a temporary drop during the pandemic, when children were out of the public eye. It also wasn't because Indiana was providing services to more families when abuse and neglect was reported — the number of families receiving services has been in steep decline since 2017. In other words, DCS did not provide more support to reduce the use of foster care. It is not intervening differently — just less. The most likely explanation is that DCS simply raised the threshold for investigating reports of maltreatment and responding to child abuse and neglect, whether through in-home services or foster care. Perhaps intervening less would be good if Indiana was previously over-investigating and over-intervening. If that's the case, then DCS should be honest about it instead of claiming that its new prevention supports keeping children safe at home and, thus, drives large-scale foster care reductions. DCS should release data about the children who previously would have received services but no longer do. Let the public evaluate whether those children should be left with no oversight. Like Zara Arnold, we know that other children continue to die of maltreatment. Children like Gwendalyn Cooksey, an 8 year-old girl with cerebral palsy and a history of physical abuse and exposure to parent drug use, who died of fentanyl poisoning in January. Or 5 year-old Kinsleigh Welty, who was starved to death in 2024 by her mother and grandmother only five months after the courts determined it was safe for her to return home from foster care. New leadership should understand how DCS cut foster care in half without evidence of more, or better, services. The public deserves to know whether the children no longer served by DCS are truly 'safe at home." Sarah Font is an associate professor of sociology and public policy at Penn State University. Emily Putnam-Hornstein is the John A. Tate Distinguished Professor for Children in Need at UNC Chapel Hill. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana foster care cuts leave children at risk | Opinion
Indianapolis Star
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana DCS cut foster care in half — and now claims children are safer
Indiana's Department of Child Services faces a new round of scrutiny following the death of Zara Arnold, a child with extensive DCS history who was killed by her father. Yet, just last year, DCS celebrated drastic reductions in the foster care system and improvements in child safety. Once known for having among the highest rates of children in foster care in the country, Indiana reduced placements by 50% between 2018 and 2024. DCS attributed its 'success' to the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act, a bipartisan federal law enacted during the first Trump administration. FFPSA defunded group home and institutional placements and created a funding stream for "prevention services" as an alternative to foster care. Yet, the interventions funded by FFPSA have been slow to roll out, both because of burdensome regulations and because such dramatic shifts in the continuum of services were never supported by data. To date, there is no evidence of improved child safety or impacts on placements. Indeed, Indiana's flagship service — the Indiana Family Preservation Services program — is described as having "0 favorable effects" by the federal clearinghouse for evidence-based programs. That did not stop DCS from asserting the exact opposite last year. In federal testimony, Deputy Director of Child Welfare Services David Reed confidently pointed to Indiana's family preservation program as 'an intervention that helps keep kids safe and out of foster care.' He further claimed to have reduced racial disparities in foster care entries by two-thirds, relying on a calculation that anyone understanding basic statistics could debunk. But Indiana did reduce its foster care population by 50% — if not through their prevention program, then how? It wasn't because Indiana had fewer concerned residents calling the hotline about suspected child maltreatment. Those numbers have barely budged, aside from a temporary drop during the pandemic, when children were out of the public eye. It also wasn't because Indiana was providing services to more families when abuse and neglect was reported — the number of families receiving services has been in steep decline since 2017. In other words, DCS did not provide more support to reduce the use of foster care. It is not intervening differently — just less. The most likely explanation is that DCS simply raised the threshold for investigating reports of maltreatment and responding to child abuse and neglect, whether through in-home services or foster care. Perhaps intervening less would be good if Indiana was previously over-investigating and over-intervening. If that's the case, then DCS should be honest about it instead of claiming that its new prevention supports keeping children safe at home and, thus, drives large-scale foster care reductions. DCS should release data about the children who previously would have received services but no longer do. Let the public evaluate whether those children should be left with no oversight. Like Zara Arnold, we know that other children continue to die of maltreatment. Children like Gwendalyn Cooksey, an 8 year-old girl with cerebral palsy and a history of physical abuse and exposure to parent drug use, who died of fentanyl poisoning in January. Or 5 year-old Kinsleigh Welty, who was starved to death in 2024 by her mother and grandmother only five months after the courts determined it was safe for her to return home from foster care. New leadership should understand how DCS cut foster care in half without evidence of more, or better, services. The public deserves to know whether the children no longer served by DCS are truly 'safe at home."
Indianapolis Star
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Micah Beckwith's Christian nationalism is wrong for Indiana
I had the privilege of spending an hour and a half in a room with Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, along with a couple dozen other Christian pastors. He is charming and, as far as I can tell, sincere. He is also dead wrong for Indiana. Beckwith's Christian nationalist theology is being used as an excuse to rob the people of a safety net. When I brought the safety net problem up to Beckwith, he painted a portrait of a future Indiana where the people are all well-fed and happy, because everyone who has means pitches in, generously donating to charity. This is not based in reality — even church people only give 3-4% of their income, on average. While we're at it, why not insist that churches fund and administer Medicaid, the Indiana Veterans' Home and the Department of Child Services? Perhaps youth groups could be in charge of highway repairs during the summer months? Briggs: Micah Beckwith and his Indiana DOGE bros are livin' large Also, have you noticed that not everyone goes to church? Whether Beckwith realizes it or not, he and his fellow Christian nationalists are setting up laws and preaching rhetoric that divides our middle class, ultimately setting up a two-tiered economy where White Christians of a certain variety are preferred over other citizens. In education, government and in courts of law, a so-called Christian Indiana will no longer be a place of liberty and justice for all. Let me offer an alternative. I am a Red Letter Christian, which means I start with the teachings of Jesus — sometimes printed in red — and go from there. The real litmus test of any administration's policy is the question, 'What Would Jesus Do?' Jesus began his ministry in a radical way, by proclaiming that he 'came to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free' (Luke 4:18). This is God's economics, and what is truly right for our great state.
