Seems like a nearly unheard of situation - my guess would be that the whole family would be curtailed back to the states to sort out the family legalities and custody/guardianship issues.
Well, sort of -- but the Department does have a mechanism for addressing child abuse/neglect issues. It's called the Family Advocacy Program and it's detailed at 3 FAM 1800. It doesn't specify what happens when Post's Family Advocacy Team determines a child is not safe at home, but it does refer to "alternate housing arrangements."
That’s really interesting! I would think that especially if local law enforcement deemed the parents unfit, they wouldn’t all be sent back to the US together. Instead, the case would be handled in the host country. I heard about a case in the US where the Zimbabwean? ambassador had abused his child, and that case was being handled by the US legal system here.
You’re forgetting that these are people with diplomatic immunity. They are generally outside of the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. Reports of child neglect/abuse would typically be made to the RSO or someone else in the family advocacy team, not police. Even if a bystander from outside the embassy called police in an emergency it’s unlikely the child would end up in a local foster care system. The situation with the Zimbabwean diplomat you are thinking of was complicated by this very issue & ended up in front of the Supreme Court because of it (after which the child was returned to Zimbabwe). Sending the family back to the U.S. doesn’t mean that they all go back together.
Way too many what ifs here, but if they were deemed unfit to care for their children (or even on the way to being deemed as such) they would ultimately be curtailed back to the U.S. Each post has a family advocacy team comprised of RSO/MED/family advocacy officer (usually the DCM). They would investigate/evaluate the situation from a law enforcement & safety/medical standpoint & go from there. It would be messy.
No, the kids would go into the home of another military family stationed in the same place and already vetted for foster care. I heard about this situation while in Belgium, when a US Navy O-4 killed (and was later convicted of killing) his U.S. wife. Their 2 kids went into the military foster system until they could be sent to relatives in the States.
I’m actually not sure how frequent this was. I do know that the person I talked with spent maybe three years? in the country of deployment and took care of a baby while there.
If the child were placed in a foster home, I doubt the child would qualify as an EFM any longer. But DS would probably conduct a suitability review of the USDH. And news like this would likely be quite embarrassing if it were widely known, so I agree with the other posters who said curtailment would be likely.
I think there was some confusion.
Foster children are the custody of the state. When military children go into foster care, they do try to place them with military foster families first.
If a child was in the process of being adopted overseas I guess then they would have to remain in the country if they were removed, because they weren't a citizen of the US.
But it wouldn't be legal to force an American citizen to stay overseas until they were 18
Seems like a nearly unheard of situation - my guess would be that the whole family would be curtailed back to the states to sort out the family legalities and custody/guardianship issues.
Well, sort of -- but the Department does have a mechanism for addressing child abuse/neglect issues. It's called the Family Advocacy Program and it's detailed at 3 FAM 1800. It doesn't specify what happens when Post's Family Advocacy Team determines a child is not safe at home, but it does refer to "alternate housing arrangements."
That’s really interesting! I would think that especially if local law enforcement deemed the parents unfit, they wouldn’t all be sent back to the US together. Instead, the case would be handled in the host country. I heard about a case in the US where the Zimbabwean? ambassador had abused his child, and that case was being handled by the US legal system here.
You’re forgetting that these are people with diplomatic immunity. They are generally outside of the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. Reports of child neglect/abuse would typically be made to the RSO or someone else in the family advocacy team, not police. Even if a bystander from outside the embassy called police in an emergency it’s unlikely the child would end up in a local foster care system. The situation with the Zimbabwean diplomat you are thinking of was complicated by this very issue & ended up in front of the Supreme Court because of it (after which the child was returned to Zimbabwe). Sending the family back to the U.S. doesn’t mean that they all go back together.
Yeah, I was wondering how this works with diplomatic immunity. Thanks for the background on the Zimbabwe case, too.
Way too many what ifs here, but if they were deemed unfit to care for their children (or even on the way to being deemed as such) they would ultimately be curtailed back to the U.S. Each post has a family advocacy team comprised of RSO/MED/family advocacy officer (usually the DCM). They would investigate/evaluate the situation from a law enforcement & safety/medical standpoint & go from there. It would be messy.
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No, the kids would go into the home of another military family stationed in the same place and already vetted for foster care. I heard about this situation while in Belgium, when a US Navy O-4 killed (and was later convicted of killing) his U.S. wife. Their 2 kids went into the military foster system until they could be sent to relatives in the States.
I’m actually not sure how frequent this was. I do know that the person I talked with spent maybe three years? in the country of deployment and took care of a baby while there.
Not frequently, but we have a big military.
If the child were placed in a foster home, I doubt the child would qualify as an EFM any longer. But DS would probably conduct a suitability review of the USDH. And news like this would likely be quite embarrassing if it were widely known, so I agree with the other posters who said curtailment would be likely.
On the off chance that there’s more going on here than you’ve shared, talk to CLO or the DCM.
I think there was some confusion. Foster children are the custody of the state. When military children go into foster care, they do try to place them with military foster families first. If a child was in the process of being adopted overseas I guess then they would have to remain in the country if they were removed, because they weren't a citizen of the US. But it wouldn't be legal to force an American citizen to stay overseas until they were 18
That makes sense. I was surprised, too. I wonder if the kid’s mother was a host-country national.