The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "foster care" ...
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Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families
NPR launched a three-part series investigating the placement of hundreds of Native American children in foster care and a troubling incentive behind the effort: money.
Tags: native Americans; foster care; Indian Child Welfare Act
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Forced to Fight
The original story documents how a remote facility for foster children with developmental disabilities forced to fight each other for the staff's entertainment, then rewarded the winners with snacks. The subsequent stories exposed a history of abuse and neglect at the facility.
Tags: neglect; foster care; developmental disabilities; Dystar Residential
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Sex offender, other felons ran camps for homeless kids
This investigation "found that Palm Beach County officials paid a convicted child molester, drug dealers, thieves and other people with criminal records nearly half a million dollars in public money to run summer camps for homeless, foster and impoverished children during the past three years."
Tags: child safety; sex offender; criminal records; child care; criminal background; camp; child welfare
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Afghanistan: Corrupted by Drugs
The three-part series tracks the distribution of heroin and opium out of Afghanistan throughout Central Asia. The narcotic industry in Afghanistan exists securely under the foster care of U.S. forces while feeding the epidemic-sized hunger for heroin in Russia.
Tags: Tom Lasseter; narcotics; Russia; Afghanistan; Asia; heroin; opium; drugs; economy; trade; military; Tajik;
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Broken Families, Broken Court
The series exposed systemic problems in the operation of California Juvenile Dependency Courts, the nation's largest court system overseeing children in foster care.
Tags: child welfare; California Juvenile Dependency Courts; foster care; court; juvenile; parent; children; reunification
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To Hug a Porcupine
Debbie and Jorge Garcia-Bengoches did not understand why the three little boys they'd adopted were acting so violent. Only years later and by accident did the couple discover that the boys had been horribly abused by a series of adults in early childhood, a fact that the state's foster care system knew but filed to disclose. The technical name for the boys' behavioral ailment is "Reactive Attachment Disorder" but they have been described as sociopaths. The parents successfully sued the state for $10 million but cannot get the money released due to budget cuts and the concept of sovereign immunity.
Tags: reactive attachment disorder; adoption; foster care; budget cuts; mental health; child abuse
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Colorado Humane Society
"Using informed sources and dozens of hours of hidden camera investigating, the 7 News investigative team uncovered fraud, mismanagement, a lack of fiscal accountability, a failure to follow sate laws and inadequate and improper care" of animals at the Colorado Humane Society.
Tags: animal cruelty; humane society; fraud; state government; whistleblower; hidden camera; euthanasia; cat; dog; pet; donations; federal regulations; vaccines
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Potent Pills: Foster Children and Mood Altering drugs
"While Monroe Country NY has a foster care medical clinic that is considered a national model, our research showed an alarming increase in the prescription of psychotropic medications to foster children in the county."
Tags: foster care; medical; clinic; child protective services; psychotropic; modd-altering drugs
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A History of Neglect
The series investigated whether the promise of "child welfare experts and politicians in New York" made 20 years ago to improve their assistance from black and Latino children had been kept. They found that they hadn't. Instead many agencies had poor records of success.
Tags: child welfare; minority agencies; St. Christopher's Inc.; Miracle Makers; foster care; Hispanic; Latino; black; African American
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Could You Have Saved Ricky?
The author used the death of 7-year old foster child Ricky Holland as an example to highlight problems of abuse and mistreatment in the foster care system. The extremely detailed stories go into great depth about Ricky's time in foster care, the abuse heaped on him, his death, the police hunt launched after he was reported missing and the detective work that finally led police to arrest his foster parents.
Tags: foster care; abuse; state government; child abuse; murder; family services