HAITIAN KIDS' PARENTS ANSWER WELFARE RULING SEVERAL OF THE 19 ADOPTED CHILDREN NEED STATE SERVICES, WELFARE OFFICIALS SAY.

News-Sentinel, The (Fort Wayne, IN)

Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dateline: SHELBYVILLE

Dan and Kathy Blackburn are back in court, this time to answer a welfare petition that claims several of the couple's Haitian children need state services.

Office of Family and Children officials will not comment on the Blackburn case. But they say such petitions are filed to administer and coordinate services for children.

The petition was filed March 21 by caseworker Ellen Matheney. She alleged that filthy conditions and a serious gas leak meant that at least some of ``the children's physical or mental condition (was) seriously impaired or seriously endangered as a result of the inability, refusal or neglect of the children's parent.''

June Sanders, director of the Shelby County Office of Family and Children, has said such petitions do not necessarily seek to remove children from the home and that state law encourages families to remain intact.

Court hearings in such matters are not open to the public.

Parents have two options when such petitions are filed - to contest the allegations or to admit to them. Dan Blackburn said he admitted that his children require services. He said Kathy Blackburn declined to respond because her attorney wasn't present.

Kathy Blackburn declined comment after the hearing, which Dan Blackburn said will resume May 1.

Dan and Kathy Blackburn adopted 28 Haitian orphans while serving as missionaries. Blackburn was granted custody of the 19 children who still live at home following an acrimonious divorce from his former wife, Kathy. Last month, Shelby Circuit Judge Charles O'Connor ordered Blackburn to quit his two jobs and go on welfare.