FORNEY, Texas — State officials have suspended Kingdom Kids Child Placing Agency and their services effective immediately, while records show a Forney woman had been cited for not providing adult supervision just months after becoming a foster mom. The details and events surrounding Natalie Parker, the foster mother arrested after an infant child died in her custody on December 29 continue to surface.
FORNEY, Texas — State officials have suspended Kingdom Kids Child Placing Agency and their services effective immediately, while records show a Forney woman had been cited for not providing adult supervision just months after becoming a foster mom. The details and events surrounding Natalie Parker, the foster mother arrested after an infant child died in her custody on December 29 continue to surface.
Just after inForney.com reported on Kingdom Kids and their involvement with the case of five-month-old Elizabeth Henson being placed into a foster home that ultimately led to her death, and their questionable status with the IRS, officials notified Kingdom Kids that their services had been suspended indefinitely.
In a letter released to inForney.com by Texas Department of Family and Protective services (DFPS) on Monday, officials notified Kingdom Kids via email dated January 9 that effective immediately the agency is suspending all new placements of DFPS children into Kingdom Kids Child Placing Agency.
“The decision to suspend placements is due to allegations that impact the health, safety, and well-being of children,” the letter read.
Further, the agency ordered Kingdom Kids to submit copies of all foster home studies, addendums, and supporting documentation for each foster home caring for a DFPS child. The documents were to be submitted by Kingdom Kids to DFPS officials no later than noon Monday. DFPS officials have not confirmed whether Kingdom Kids met their deadline in entirety.
DFPS spokesperson Patrick Crimmins, tells inForney.com that DFPS began thorough safety checks of Kingdom Kids’ 23 active foster homes on Monday, January 7, and will continue until every child has been seen.
Since March 1, 2018, online DFPS records indicate the agency has paid Kingdom Kids Placing Agency $962,246.77 on a contract originally slated to end in August 2021. As inForney.com previously reported, Kingdom Kids lost their non-profit designation by the IRS in 2015; yet still maintain and represent themselves as a 501c3 non-profit organization.
Foster mom previously cited for leaving children without supervision
Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is responsible for the oversight of foster homes and parents used by DFPS.
HHSC spokesman, John Reynolds, tells inForney.com that Kingdom Kids first accepted Parker as a verified home on March 23, 2017, and closed the home on December 30, 2018. Kingdom Kids is the only child placing agency Parker has been involved with he says.
“We conducted five investigations of possible minimum standards violations at the home. We cited the provider once for supervision,” Reynolds reports to inForney.com in an email Monday. “An August 21, 2017 investigation found children in care were left without adult supervision.”
No fire inspection or health safety checks
One of the state mandated requirements for foster parents looking to care for DFPS children is a fire and health safety inspection of their home prior to being eligible.
City of Forney officials, after an information request submitted by inForney.com, says the city has no records of such inspections at Parker’s address. Kaufman County Fire Marshalls office confirms that there is no report of a fire inspection report for Parker’s home on Chisolm Trail from their office either.
Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) environmental officers, those trained and charged to perform the county’s health and safety inspections, have no records of ever visiting Parker's home for inspection.
Investigators say that the entry way and main living area of Parker’s home was clean and tidy. The rest of the house was reportedly “filth and squalor” and in some cases dangerous according to officials who responded to the scene.
Investigation Continues
37-year-old Parker surrendered to sheriff's deputies January 7 on felony charges for tampering with a witness, injury to a child, and abandoning or endangering a child. Parker's 19-year-old son, Christian Richmond, also known as "Smokey," was arrested for possession of child pornography in the day's following the infant's death and was released on bond. Police say the charges for Richmond are not connected to the death of the child. Parker remains in custody at the Kaufman county jail on bonds totaling $195,000.
A cause of death has still not been released. A KCSO spokesperson says that the investigation remains ongoing.