WA - Avril, 1, baby girl, suspicious death, prob fentanyl exposure, CPS called by grandmother months ago, DCYF closed case, Snohomish Co, 7 May 2023

[imstilla.grandma]

Avril, 1, died in early May after Danette Scott says she worked for months to get the state to remove Avril from the care of the baby's mother, who was using fentanyl.

According to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, Avril was staying with her 37-year-old mother on May 7 in an Everett hotel room, where “fentanyl was being smoked” when the child became unresponsive. Detectives believe fentanyl exposure likely led to her death, though toxicology reports are pending.

“There was a clear path to protect this child and keep this baby alive,” said Scott, who called Child Protective Services (CPS) in December after she said she observed Avril’s mother smoking fentanyl around her grandchild.

“I needed somebody to help me make sure that the baby was safe," Scott said. “What good did CPS do? Nothing. They didn't do anything to help this child.”

Avril’s mother, who Snohomish County detectives said is a suspect in the “suspicious death” investigation, declined an interview request. KING 5 is not naming her because she hasn’t been charged with a crime.

A KING 5 review of DCYF records revealed Washington state child welfare workers were involved with the family in the months prior to Avril’s death. In March – less than two months before the child died – DCYF closed its case while recognizing Avril’s mother continued to battle fentanyl addiction.

The social worker shared resources for treatment options and urged the child’s mom to “think of Avril’s safety” if she “chose to use” the “extremely dangerous” drug, according to a copy of the CPS closure letter provided to KING 5 by Scott.
“You know that she’s using fentanyl and you just leave the baby with her? How is that supposed to be safe?” said Scott, who hoped she could get temporary custody of the child until her daughter got clean. “Shock just turned to just fury and I couldn’t even believe it.”

‘They didn’t do anything': CPS closed case before Snohomish Co. child’s suspected fentanyl death

The grandmother of a Snohomish County child who died of suspected fentanyl exposure accuses the Washington state DCYF of not doing enough to protect her.

www.king5.com

 

[KooshBall]

Disgusting that this baby was left with a mother who was known to be actively using a dangerous drug.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

BURLINGTON, Wash. — The grandmother of a Snohomish County child who died of suspected fentanyl exposure accuses the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) of not doing enough to protect the young girl, as a new state law raising the standard for removing children from a home is poised to take effect.

‘They didn’t do anything': CPS closed case before Snohomish Co. child’s suspected fentanyl death

The grandmother of a Snohomish County child who died of suspected fentanyl exposure accuses the Washington state DCYF of not doing enough to protect her.

www.king5.com

 

[tlcya]

In cases like Avril’s, where parental substance use is flagged as a concern, child welfare experts said caseworkers can only do so much. DCYF does not have the authority to independently remove children from homes. It’s up to local law enforcement and courts to make those decisions.

A new state law, which passed the legislature in 2021, tightens the criteria for removing a child from their parent. It significantly changes how the state’s child welfare workers can respond to allegations of abuse and neglect, and it makes it mandatory for them to consider preventive services for families.

In order to remove a child from his or her parent, the “Keeping Families Together Act'' requires caseworkers to prove to the courts that the risk of “physical harm” to the child is imminent. The previous standard made child welfare workers prove a “serious threat of substantial harm.”

The law also prevents the state from removing children because of certain conditions in the home – including substance use – unless there is a specific connection to imminent physical danger. Inadequate housing, domestic violence and a parent’s mental illness are also not sufficient reasons alone.
‘They didn’t do anything': CPS closed case before Snohomish Co. child’s suspected fentanyl death

 

[Springrain]

Especially in that area too, I would imagine, since everyone is doing fentanyl there. I'm exaggerating somewhat, but good Lord it is everywhere there.

 

[tlcya]

Fentanyl abuse, both intentional and unintentional, are rampant across this country. I don't think I am out of line to describe it as an epidemic. People are dying in alarming numbers every single day. Due to it's being so very cheap and available it is being added to and mimicking all sorts of other drugs. I was actually kind of surprised to hear this mother was intentionally smoking it. Most people in my area unwittingly get it laced into marijuana or pressed into pill form to mimic Percocet, Adderall, and other popular abused prescriptions.

This new state law preventing CPS from removing children from homes based on substance abuse alone is a really really bad one IMO MOO. I don't see why they couldn't have distinguished between classes or schedules of drugs in the law so that the more serious and deadly ones are probable cause to remove children while the "lesser" ones (pot) are not.

I get what the law was supposed to accomplish. But it will 100% get more children killed. This is not hard to see coming down the pike. Again, all just MOO

 

[KooshBall]

So it is acceptable under the law to have children in homes where drugs like meth ànd fentanyl are being consumed?! This is shocking and really sickening. Meth induces paranoia and violent behavior. Fentanyl causes nodding out and OD's. So Washington is okay with children experiencing this type of stress and trauma?! What a way to usher in the next generation of trauma survivors with their own substance abuse issues. Washington should be ashamed. I'm livid reading about this.
May this poor child have not died in vain and people start contacting their legislative representatives and demand children be protected.

 

[AislingGray18]

Especially in that area too, I would imagine, since everyone is doing fentanyl there. I'm exaggerating somewhat, but good Lord it is everywhere there.

I'm in Washington as well, and you are not wrong. I have lost lifelong friends, friends children to this drug, and it seems like every day I find out another person I know is using it.
I had my own personal dealings with DCYF just before and during covid. I was a kinship provider for a SIL, and DCYF did me and those kids no favors. I have never felt more taken advantage of, as I did by the state.
They blindly reunified three times during covid, knowing my SIL was still in active addiction, knowing the kids were begging to not go back, they forced those teenagers back into a house of abuse. Thankfully it blew up and her rights were eventually terminated, however, in the midst of all this, there were other children hiding in the house that DCYF was not aware of and were not supposed to be there. I tried for three years to get them to step in and help get my former stepkids out of that trap house, and they flat-out refused.
It got to the point where no one in authority (school, truancy court, dr, dentist, etc) had seen my stepkids in almost four years. They stayed totally off the grid and in the house until they turned 18 and they were automatically unenrolled from school. Craziest thing I had ever witnessed. It's like those kids never existed

 

[AislingGray18]

So it is acceptable under the law to have children in homes where drugs like meth ànd fentanyl are being consumed?! This is shocking and really sickening. Meth induces paranoia and violent behavior. Fentanyl causes nodding out and OD's. So Washington is okay with children experiencing this type of stress and trauma?! What a way to usher in the next generation of trauma survivors with their own substance abuse issues. Washington should be ashamed. I'm livid reading about this.
May this poor child have not died in vain and people start contacting their legislative representatives and demand children be protected.

As a former WA state foster parent to my former in law-nieces and nephews, I can attest that yes, it is wholly acceptable.
What DCYF did to my family,to them, and to me, was wrong.

I had to make a call today to DCYF about my former stepkids, my ex overdosed on fentanyl a week ago and the kids had to give him narcan and called 911. Police and EMT's took him to the hospital because all the other adults fled
None of them seemed concerned about the children they left in the apartment alone

The person I spoke to when I made the report was not interested until I told him my ex does in fact have a handgun in the house, and that there is severe physical abuse.

If he did not have a gun, DCYF would not go look for my former stepkids, who have not been in school since before covid.

The things I could tell you would make you see red. Karreon Franks lived in my old neighborhood, he is just one of many, Oakley Carlson as well, another Harmony Montgomery., It enrages me, and I have been fighting the system for six years.

JMO, this is my personal experience with Wa state DCYF

 

[Soulmagent]

Sorry about your ex going though all of that .
I hope he survived.
My friend has 3 kids and their dad just died on 8/4 due to an overdose.
I wish I could have been shocked by his death but truth is I saw it heading that way.

 

[CptCari]

So it is acceptable under the law to have children in homes where drugs like meth ànd fentanyl are being consumed?! This is shocking and really sickening. Meth induces paranoia and violent behavior. Fentanyl causes nodding out and OD's. So Washington is okay with children experiencing this type of stress and trauma?! What a way to usher in the next generation of trauma survivors with their own substance abuse issues. Washington should be ashamed. I'm livid reading about this.
May this poor child have not died in vain and people start contacting their legislative representatives and demand children be protected.

Abso-freaking-lutely. WA DCYF doesn't actually CARE. My cousin should have had her kids taken from her years ago- instead, my family and I continually report her to CPS when her youngest (she's 5 now, I think) is doing live FB videos at a lake with no adult, or even teenage sibling, in sight, talking about how they got evicted. And when her kids are no longer going to school, or are so hungry when they visit family that they ravage the kitchen, or when her 14 YO son is obviously on fentanyl and other drugs... just like his parents. Have they done anything? Nope. They took her kids twice - once for giving birth to an addicted baby and once when she moved her baby daddy back in after he was ordered to stay away from her and the children due to domestic violence issues (I THINK that was the reason).
Now they live in a tent in someone's yard and the 17 year old daughter lives with her boyfriend. Oh, and the youngest girl sleeps inside the house with the man that owns it? No one has even done a welfare check on those kids, despite multiple reports. Sometimes more than 2 a week!

Sorry, that was a lot. I hope someday WA state gets a clue.

 

[Soulmagent]

Abso-freaking-lutely. WA DCYF doesn't actually CARE. My cousin should have had her kids taken from her years ago- instead, my family and I continually report her to CPS when her youngest (she's 5 now, I think) is doing live FB videos at a lake with no adult, or even teenage sibling, in sight, talking about how they got evicted. And when her kids are no longer going to school, or are so hungry when they visit family that they ravage the kitchen, or when her 14 YO son is obviously on fentanyl and other drugs... just like his parents. Have they done anything? Nope. They took her kids twice - once for giving birth to an addicted baby and once when she moved her baby daddy back in after he was ordered to stay away from her and the children due to domestic violence issues (I THINK that was the reason).
Now they live in a tent in someone's yard and the 17 year old daughter lives with her boyfriend. Oh, and the youngest girl sleeps inside the house with the man that owns it? No one has even done a welfare check on those kids, despite multiple reports. Sometimes more than 2 a week!

Sorry, that was a lot. I hope someday WA state gets a clue.

So quick questions for research purposes ,
Why have you not applied for custody of your cousins children? That is an unfair question ,I know .Why keep calling cps on her instead of making more practicle solutions for the kids? ?

Did you feel the kids were better off the 2 times they were taken?

 

[CptCari]

So quick questions for research purposes ,
Why have you not applied for custody of your cousins children? That is an unfair question ,I know .Why keep calling cps on her instead of making more practicle solutions for the kids? ?

Did you feel the kids were better off the 2 times they were taken?

I was actually asked to take the baby when she lost custody the first time. All the kids were ultimately cared for by our aunt but my cousin kept wanting her kids back and the state gave them back each time. Can't just "apply for custody" and get to keep the kids.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

*Oct 2023
Danette Scott says she tried, to no avail, to get the state to remove Avril from the care of her mother, who was using fentanyl. Avril died in May from a suspected drug overdose, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, KING-TV reported.

Patrick Dowd, director of the Washington State Office of the Family and Children’s Ombuds, pointed to an effort to keep families together when possible rather than, “frankly, in some cases, needlessly removing children from parents’ care.”

She says she called Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families last December after she saw her daughter smoking fentanyl around Avril. The case was closed in March, just two months before Avril’s death, which state officials acknowledging that Avril’s mother was addicted to fentanyl, KING-TV reported.

“They knew she was using and they just left her with it, and they say that they cannot take a child unless they’re in immediate danger,” Scott said. “Fentanyl is an immediate danger.”

The nation’s children have become increasingly endangered by the proliferation of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is often trafficking into the country by Mexican drug cartels.

Grandmother faults CPS for not protecting baby who overdosed

Danette Scott says she tried, to no avail, to get the state to remove Avril from the care of her mother, who was using fentanyl.

www.newsnationnow.com