Children of the System

New research supports a radical shift in child-welfare policy for the thousands of teens who ‘age out’ of foster care at age 18, only to face high rates of homelessness, unemployment and incarceration. The system is failing thousands of youth under their care each and every year, 29,000 youth faced aging out last year.

By Daniel Heimpel Mar 9, 2009

Eighteen-year-old John Kyzer’s blue eyes are bleary and the skin around them puffy as he paces a corner of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Kyzer has been spending his nights on a bench in front of a Starbucks. And now, he is dangerously close to entering the ranks of dozens of other former foster youth who “cop a squat” (sit) on concrete stairwells and sleep in “abandos” (abandoned buildings) up and down the street.

Soon after his 18th birthday, the state of California “terminated” Kyzer’s case and he was forced to leave his group home. He moved in with his girlfriend and their 4-month-old baby in the home she shared with three generations of her family. Wanting to help support his son, Kyzer got a job at Starbucks and worked as many hours as the boss would give him. For two months his confidence brimmed.

But then he did something many teenagers do. He blew off work and was fired. Now, the door to his girlfriend’s house is shut. Kyzer is on his own.

For Kyzer and many of the more than 25,000 other foster youth in the United States who “age out” of the system every year, there is no family and no support network to pick you up when you fall. Within two years of emancipation, half of Los Angeles County’s foster youth will be unemployed, one fifth will be homeless and a quarter will have been to prison, according the Children’s Law Center. Similar fates can be expected across the country for many of the 500,000 children who call the state their parents.

But a law signed by President Bush in the waning days of his administration could radically change the futures of these children. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 offers states matching federal funds to extend care to age 21 for all foster youth who choose to stay in the system after their 18th birthday. What’s meant by “care” would vary state by state, but could include extending Medicaid coverage to age 21 (which about 20 states now do), providing housing vouchers or access to group homes, vocational training, educational funding and psychological counseling services.

“We have known for a long time that kids don’t suddenly become self-sufficient at the age of 18,” says the federal bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state. “The law we passed last year finally recognized the need to better provide the building blocks of success to these children.”

Research released Monday suggests that the approach makes financial sense for a government weighed down by the costs of incarceration, welfare, Medicaid and homelessness incurred by former foster youth who struggle after emancipation. Conducted by the University of Washington School of Social Work, the study finds that caring for young adults until age 21 will represent a return of $2.40 on every government dollar spent in California.

Experts hope the report will lead more states to implement the federal law. But adding anything to a state budget right now is a hard sell. Thus far only seven states have put forward such legislation, including California. And before the passage of the federal legislation, only two states had implemented comprehensive extended care for foster kids after age 18—Illinois and Vermont.

The study’s leading researcher, Mark Courtney, director of Partners for Our Children, a public-private collaboration promoting child-welfare reform at the University of Washington, sees the federal legislation as the most radical shift in child-welfare policy in the last decade. “The government has been unwilling to help kids after 18 beyond teaching them independent-living skills,” he says. “That is not what parents do. A parent is not happy to kick a kid out at 18 and say good luck.”

Courtney’s earlier work has shown significant long-term benefits for kids who get a few more year’s care versus those who are pushed out of the system at 18. His hallmark “Midwest Study,” published in 2005, was instrumental in shaping the current federal legislation. That report followed 732 foster youth through their 17th, 18th and 21st birthdays. It found that along with lower rates of incarceration, homelessness and unemployment, young people in a state like Illinois, which extends care until 21, were 3.5 times as likely to have completed a year of college than peers in states like Iowa and Wisconsin, which routinely cut care at 18. (Census data show that less than 3 percent of foster kids earn college degrees, compared with 28 percent of the population as a whole.)

“The minute we kick them out they start looking for their families,” says Karen Bass, speaker of the California Assembly and coauthor of The California Fostering Connections to Success Act. The legislation plans to increase spending to $70 million in California for youths age 18 to 21, largely through the newly available federal funds. “When they can’t find their families, they make families of their own on Hollywood Boulevard. In L.A., they are couch surfing; you have groups of young people living together and it is homelessness, just a different form.” Bass and coauthor Jim Beall say that despite the budget wrangle and deficits that California faces, the bill bears the name of 26 Assembly members, has wide cross-aisle support and will likely pass.

In this latest study of foster care, Courtney narrowed his focus on higher education. As he had already shown, young people in extended care were better equipped to pursue a higher level of education and thus vastly increased their lifetime earning potential. For an expenditure of $37,948 over the course of extended care, Courtney concludes that those foster youth will earn $92,000 more in their working life. “We are talking about spending $38,000 over one to three years versus what it costs to incarcerate somebody for 20 to 30 years,” says Bass. In California, the Department of Corrections anticipates the annual cost of incarceration will jump to $53,000 in fiscal year 2009-10.

But these undeniable statistics are running headlong into the cold reality of a national financial crisis. “Here is the most significant piece of [foster-care] legislation in a decade and it may be slowed down by these economic times,” says Kathi Crowe, executive director of the Foster Care Coalition. “It’s almost too bad it is optional.” Nonetheless, Courtney believes that the evidence he has presented along with the National Youth in Transition Database, which will be implemented nationwide as of October 2010 and will track young people as they mature into adulthood, will force states to act. “At that point some states may be shamed into changing their laws if the outcomes of their former foster youth look much worse than the outcomes for youth in states that have extended care to 21.”

But for Kyzer and the kids currently “copping a squat” on the streets, it may be too late. “I just wasn’t ready,” Kyzer says of being a father, holding a job and moving into his own place. Tonight he is couch surfing, but tomorrow, his only option may be an abando.

Sabotoged By the System

Sabotaged By the System
By Jesse Ellison | NEWSWEEK
Published Feb 7, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009

 

When Tyrome Sams turned 18 two years ago, he engaged in a modern rite of passage: he applied for a credit card. Credit wasn’t hard to come by then, yet Sams was refused again and again. Eventually he requested a credit report—and that’s when he found out that when he was a 12-year-old in foster care, someone had opened utility accounts in his name, amassing hundreds of dollars of debt. “Anybody could have gotten hold of my information,” says Sams, a tall, thick-shouldered Californian whose youth is betrayed only by a voice that still cracks on occasion. “I’m 20 now and I’m still trying to fix the problem.”

Sams’s case isn’t just an unfortunate fluke. Identity theft among foster kids is common, and for good reason: they’re easy targets. They move often among various homes and schools, so their personal data pass through dozens of hands. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, half of the 84,000 kids in California’s system may have been victimized. The problem got so bad that in 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring credit checks for kids in state care when they turn 16. But it had no enforcement mechanism, and overburdened case workers had more urgent concerns than credit. An October 2008 study from Javelin Strategy and Research found that one in 20 children overall have been the victims of identity theft, averaging $12,000 in wrongly assigned debt. “We were stunned by the results,” says Bo Holland, CEO of Debix Credit Protection, which commissioned the study. Most foster kids discover the fraud only after they “age out” of the system. By then, according to another Javelin study, it typically costs more than $1,000 and 150 hours to clear up the problem. And that’s if you know what you’re doing. These kids don’t. “The onus is on the victim to clear their name,” says Tiffany Johnson, associate director of the California Youth Connection, but “when you emancipate from foster care, you have no legal representation. These people don’t have the resources to fight. They’re basically screwed.”

Not every case of juvenile ID theft is intentionally illicit. In low-income families, a parent with bad credit might put a heating bill in a child’s name, not anticipating the snowballing debt that could accumulate. With the economy in free fall, the problem is sure to get worse. “It’s an issue, but you’re dealing with so much other stuff,” says Nancy Crawford of Hardin, Mo., who has adopted kids from foster care, one of whom had been a victim of ID theft. “Cleaning up their credit is something you can do later.”

That’s what Sams is now trying to do, without much success. He’s enrolled at Pasadena City College and works as an intern at the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, but he still can’t rent an apartment or put bills in his own name. “It’s really preventing me from getting started with my adult life,” he says. Last year an identity-theft standards panel suggested a simple solution: a federal database where lenders can cross-check Social Security numbers against registered birthdates. It’s a good idea, but for people like Sams, who’ve already had their lives turned upside down, it’s too little, too late.

7 Yr. Old Foster Youth Hangs Himself!

Personal Note: When I read this article for the first time I cried for Gabriel. At age 7 he decided life was no longer worth living. It brought back to me memories of my own years in foster care.

By the age of 10 I had been in foster care since the day of my birth. I had been moved into 3 different insitutions and ten foster homes by that time. 

The next move was to a Juvenile Detention Center to await a new foster home. In my book I share a few expereiences from my time ther…it tells why I relate so much to Gabriel.

The passage from the book reads:

 The stability of four years came to sudden end in May, 1960, when I was abruptly removed from the Monshor’s home. I was placed in the Wayne County, Michigan Youth Detention Center. My crime: at age ten I was guilty of not having a family to claim me as their son nor a place to call home.

The Detention Center was to be my home until a new foster home was found. Here I was placed amongst youth offenders who were charged with a wide assortment of crimes. My bed, to start due to overcrowding, would be a thin mattress in the open area of the block.

I am the youngest boy on the block, as well as the smallest. Though I attempted to fight as best I could I was unable to overcome the attacks of older boys. I was repeatedly sexually assaulted. ..gang raped!

One day after being assaulted and left naked in a cell, I felt my life was no longer worth living, no one wanted me and I had been used and discarded as trash, I attempted to hang myself with a belt. I was discovered before the act could be completed and placed in an isolation cell, where I would remain for two months.

Those responsible for the repeated rapes are never charged or held accountable in any manner.

In late July, another foster home was found…the eleventh in ten years.

Here is Gabriel’s sad story:

Apr 26, 2009 3:00 pm US/Eastern
7-Year-Old With Troubled Past Commits Suicide
Gabriel Myers Told Therapist He Was ‘A Bad Person… Born A Liar’
MIAMI (CBS) ―

A 7-year-old boy who allegedly hanged himself complained to his therapists that he was “a bad person,” and “born a liar,” taught to lie by his own mother, according to newly released documents.

The nearly 1,500 pages released late Friday night by state officials paint the portrait of a terribly troubled child in the foster care system — going from home to home with a repetitive sentiment: loneliness and anger. In just seven years, Gabriel Myers seems to have experienced a life no parent would want for any child, reports CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.

Myers, who turned 7 in January, died on April 16th when police say he hanged himself using the extendable shower-head in his foster parents’ Margate home. But according to the documents obtained by the CBS, the child’s troubled life began long before.

In 2003, the 7-year-old’s mother, Candace Myers, was arrested by Hallandale Beach police on charges of cocaine possession and driving under the influence. But it wasn’t until a similar arrest last June by the same police agency that a judge ordered the child be removed from his mother’s custody. He had been found in a car with his unconscious mother, surrounded by powdered cocaine and crack cocaine.

That’s when a child in the midst of losing his innocence — and ultimately his life — is captured on paper.

“My mom taught me how to lie. She always lied to the police, to everybody,” he told a therapist after throwing scissors in school. “I lied when I was 1 year old, I lied when I was 2 years old. I was born a liar and I will always be lying,” he said in another therapy session.

“[The] devil makes me lie and do all those bad things. He is bad and he makes you do bad things,” the boy told the therapist.

In the documents, the child recalls being molested by another 12-year-old boy and being told to “pee in [the 12-year-old's] mouth.” The records also show the child had been molesting girls and boys at school, touching them inappropriately, and threatening to kill others and himself. He repeatedly said he had no friends.

“I used to have some imaginary friends. I still have one but I haven’t been talking to him a long time,” Myers reportedly said.

Psychiatrists and therapists wrote that the young boy wasn’t suicidal or psychotic, but from time to time, had dramatic tantrums. It was during one of those tantrums that he lost his life and, according to a DCF spokesperson reached Saturday, the circumstances surrounding that tantrum could have been a violation from the start.

According to the DCF documents, when Gabriel Myers was found dead April 16th, he was left at the Margate home with 19-year-old Miguel Gould. Gould is the son of Michael and Daver Gould, Myers’ foster care parents. He was visiting from Canada, according to the DCF spokesperson.

Miguel told Margate police that he was “caring for Gabriel for the day because the boy was home sick from [school].” The child reportedly threw his bowl of soup into the trash, “so Miguel sent the child to his room,” Margate police documented. While in his room, the boy began throwing toys then told Miguel Gould that “he was going to [go] into the bathroom and kill himself.” Miguel Gould told police that he later called his stepmother to tell her what happened and couldn’t get into the bathroom for another five to ten minutes. That’s when the child was reportedly found hanged.

The problem is Miguel Gould wasn’t even supposed to be left alone with the 7-year-old, according to the DCF spokesperson. He had not been officially screened by the agency.

“Kids in Distress [one of the organizations charged with overseeing Gabriel Myers] was aware that Miguel was coming to visit. They had begun background studies on him, but he was not a part of the recently signed safety contract so he should not have been left alone with Gabriel, if that’s what happened,” said DCF Regional Spokesperson Leslie Mann.

A REPETITIVE CYCLE

The Gould foster home was Gabriel Myers’ third in less than a year. The DCF documents obtained by the I-Team show he first entered the foster care system on June 29, 2008. He was placed in a licensed home through Kids in Distress. Some days later, he was moved to the home of his aunt and uncle. He lived there for some three months until Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) investigators received a report alleging sexual and physical abuse.

While investigators found no signs of sexual abuse, the uncle revealed he “did try corporal punishment” and hit the child with a belt. A Broward County judge issued an emergency order and moved Gabriel Myers back to the licensed home.

However, that wasn’t the last move for Gabriel. In March, the foster parent thought Gabriel might be a threat to his baby and requested “expedited service” in removing the child from his home. Officials with Kids in Distress, ChildNet, and DCF moved Gabriel to the Gould home.

MEDICATION COCKTAIL

According to the documents, when Gabriel first entered the system, he had with him a prescription bottle of Adderall XR, a drug typically taken for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The medication appeared melted. A new prescription was filled, but ultimately stopped. The DCF documents show Gabriel began seeing a psychiatrist soon after entering the system.

The psychiatrist later prescribed Lexapro, a drug for depression and anxiety, and Vyvanse for the child’s ADHD. In March, doctors took Gabriel off Lexapro, and put him on Symbyax, also for depression and possible schizophrenia.

All three of the drugs have an FDA-mandated “black box” warning — a statement on the prescription’s box which describes its possible adverse reactions, including suicidal thoughts.

DCF INVESTIGATION STALLED

Meanwhile, DCF intends to continue its investigation and Mann says an important piece of the puzzle is whether he was left alone with the 19-year-old, the DCF spokesperson said. But law enforcement won’t allow DCF to interview the Gould family to see if Miguel had any prior training to take care of Gabriel, until after Margate police finish their investigation

“Urgency is our mission and transparency is our mission. It’s difficult to answer because we don’t have all the answers. We’re thinking Gabriel was home alone with the 19-year-old but we don’t have 100 percent confirmation of that. If he was, that would have been a violation,” said Mann.

The documents show a child shuffled around, seemingly not wanted by anyone, and in the end, alone in a Margate bathroom.

Care Packages Replace Traditional Luggage

The article below recently appeared in the newspaper for a project I began:

November 19th was a great day for former foster child turned author and activist Larry Adams of North Dakota.

It was also a tremendous day for local youth that unfortunately may need to enter foster care.

It was the culmination of the first drive to collect and package merchandise to be distributed to youth going into care was held.

“It was the start of the project I have been working on to get started for the past several months titled “Dignity and Hope Project”,” said Adams. “Funding was received to purchase 200, 30″ nylon duffel bags as youth prefer these over suitcases.”

These bags will be able to hold a large quantity of personal property of youth entering care, said Adams.

“Funding was further received to purchase material to make “tie blankets” or buy “quilt blankets” to go into each of the bags,” stated Adams. “Based on the type and style of the blankets determined if each bag was for a young girl or boy or an older boy or girl and each bag was marked accordingly.”

In each bag, in addition to the blanket, was packed with new soap, toothpaste/toothbrush, deodorant, comb or hairbrush, pencils, pens, a book, crayons, and coloring books for younger youth as well as stuffed animals for younger children, notepads, lotions, mirrors for older girls as well as some costume jewelry which was received from a variety of donors including a collection conducted by the local high school.

“The bags will be distributed in the next few weeks to the local Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) offices as well as Lutheran Family & Children Services to give to each youth upon their entering the foster care system,” Adams explained. “We hope each youth will feel a sense of dignity and hope receiving the bags and realize someone cares about them.”

 

Photo of youth making “tie Blankets”, photo is blurry to protect the identity of foster youth who had volunteered

Adams spent his entire youth in foster care experiencing 14 moves by the age of eleven. At age eleven he was sent to the famed “Boys Town” in Nebraska where he remained until he aged out at eighteen and graduated from Boys Town High School. Each time he was moved his property packed in brown paper grocery bags. Adams, said he knows what it feels like to pack your belongings in a paper bag or the plastic garbage bags used for many years. He said he always felt degraded, humiliated and as a second class citizen. 

Adams, said those participating in the project had only expected the local group of Jim Casey Youth Leadership to assist in the packaging (12-15 youth) but was surprised when the local high school Honor Society also showed up to assist.

“This group also agreed to spearhead a collection drive at their high school some time in the spring for future “love packs” for foster youth,” said Adams. “What was expected to be a three-hour packaging time turned out to last only an hour due to the high number of volunteers assisting us.”

A pizza lunch at a local pizzeria was held for all those who assisted when the job was complete which was greatly appreciated by all, said Adams.

“This will be an on-going project since unfortunately there are always youth entering care and it is hoped we will be able to expand to other areas of the state as time marches on,” he said. “All in all it was a great day and I am so happy to see the project near and dear to my heart get off the ground with such success.”

Adams, author of Lost Son? A Bastard Child”s Journey of Hope, Search, Discovery, and Healing, said it humbled him to see the number of people willing to assist by donating funds, merchandise, or in packaging.

Teen Won’t Let Foster Care be His Legacy!!!

I read this article in the Detroit Free Press the other evening after getting my daily “foster care” alert. Reading Alex’s story made my chest swell up in pride for him and anyone who has been placed on the foster care merry-go-round and not allowed it to overwhelm them, make them want to make themselves a victim and determined that foster care will NOT be what defines them for the rest of their lives.

This young man’s insight and determination is absoluting amzing!

I think every foster parent should have youth in their care (age appropriate) read this article to encourage them that they to can be all they want to be no matter what society may think of foster youth.

We have not heard the last from Alex!

I thank the Detroit Free Press for highlighting such a youth in a feature article in their Sunday edition.

Fiercely determined teen refuses to let foster-care situation define him
BY JEFF SEIDEL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • January 4, 2009

Alex

A 17-year-old ward of the state sat at a computer in Grosse Pointe Woods writing the most important letter of his life. It was a sales pitch to 30 prospective foster care parents in the Rochester Hills area. He’d found them by searching through court records and legal documents. He was begging for a place to live. Begging for a chance to follow his dreams. On a spring day in 2008, he picked the families from the documents and wrote to them, all strangers.

“I’m sure you’ve never received a letter of this nature before, and I’m also quite sure you will be surprised, albeit unpleasantly, at the circumstances under which I am writing this letter.”

His father left the country when he was a toddler, he explained. His mother’s parental rights were terminated.

“My name is Alex, and I am a junior, soon to be senior, at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills. I found your name and contact information after quite a bit of rigorous searching, strangely enough on a business listing Web site since ‘Foster Care’ is technically a public service business.”

An honor roll student, Alex wanted to graduate from Stoney Creek and go to Harvard. Or Columbia. Or Stanford. Or New York University. Or the University of Michigan. But he had a problem. After bouncing through eight foster placements, he was sent to live at Children’s Home of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Woods. He was afraid that he would have to change schools for the third time in four years. All he wanted was to get back to Stoney Creek.

The school meant everything to him. It was more than a building; it was his home. The teachers and counselors and students and secretaries and principal at Stoney Creek had become his family.

So he kept writing his letter, trying to sell himself.

“I suppose this is where I should delve into a brief summary of my life, for your own understanding of my situation.”

It is highly unusual for a child to do his own research to try to find a foster parent, but everything about Alex is unusual.

He has a 3.95 grade point average on a 4-point scale and is on track to become a National Merit Scholar. He nearly aced the ACT, receiving a 35, one point below a perfect score. And he scored 2,330 on the SAT — only 70 points below a perfect score.

“He is extremely intelligent,” said Richard Strenger, the Lake Orion lawyer who has represented Alex for more than a year. “I don’t know what his IQ level is, but I would guess it’s at the genius level. He is more impressive considering the adversity he has gone through. He’s very, very impressive.”

“My parents divorced when I was 2 years old, and I have not heard from my father since.”

Alex was born in Romania. As an infant, he moved to the United States with his mother and father. “He ended up getting deported back to Romania and I haven’t heard from him since,” Alex said of his dad. “I don’t even remember him.”

Alex’s mother earned a doctorate in computer science engineering and started teaching at a local university.

“She was a really good parent,” Alex said. “She would take time to not just help me with my homework but teach me the next chapter and the next chapter after that.

“She was very compassionate. She had a strong moral compass and I feel like she instilled that in me. I think that’s the reason I turned out the way I did,” he said.

“My mother was a nurturing and loving person, to which I credit my early start on a path of academics until she suffered a closed-head injury from a car accident and developed bipolar disorder.”

Alex said that after the accident, his mother changed. They fought constantly. He was first removed from his mother’s custody in 2001.

He said it was shocking to see “someone so smart and intelligent” who was suddenly “unable to focus her eyes on you, shaking back and forth, unable to speak, and slurring words.”

“I was removed from her multiple times and placed in foster care only to be returned to her when she returned to temporary stability.”

He bounced through a series of foster placements. One time, when he was in the eighth grade, his mother went through a “spell,” as Alex calls them. They lost their home.

“I went back to the apartment and found all my stuff scattered across the lawn,” Alex said.

He was taken in for a short time by the principal at a Bloomfield Hills middle school. It was one example of countless times that Oakland County school administrators, counselors and teachers went out of their way to give Alex a safety net.

“I was relieved to have someplace to go home to,” Alex said. “I gathered up as much stuff as I could into a van. It was a really sad day, but it was pretty moving too. A bunch of my teachers and neighbors helped me move my stuff into a van and gather everything up.”

Her rights were terminated last year because of physical neglect and improper supervision, according to Aretha Lewis, his caseworker at Lutheran Social Services.

“While I do feel quite sad for how tragic events have transpired, I think it was in both of our best interests to pursue normalcy in our own lives prior to maintaining a family relationship.”

Alex developed a rubber soul, able to bounce back from anything, forced to adapt to countless experiences and people.

Alex

“I’m a good kid with no criminal or negative behavior record, but more visibly I am an excellent student. … My most fervent dream is to be accepted to an Ivy League school, and I actually have the intellectual and emotional capacity to do so.”

Every time he was placed in a new home, there was a strong attempt by Rochester school counselors to keep him at Stoney Creek.

“My school means everything to me. When chaos reigned at home, I immersed myself in my studies and my friends, forging strong bonds of compassion and support.”

Alex has built relationships with many people at Stoney Creek. For his birthday last year, school secretaries got him a cake. “Alex is one of our favorites, a star,” said principal Dan Hickey. “We’ve worked really hard with him.”

Colette Judge has been Alex’s counselor since his freshman year. She saw a bright student with potential, who needed some tender, loving care. “This is his home,” Judge said. “This is the only constant that he’s had. I’m a mom and I treat him like one of my kids.”

“Truly all I need is someplace to stay, even if I have to pay a couple hundred dollars a month in rent, for the 2008-2009 school year.”

During the summer, a new family came forward. Alex moved in one day before school started and is now finishing his final year at the school he loves.

Suzanne, his foster mother, said Alex is a “caring, very bright, responsible young man, very talented and very gifted.”

She said he represents hope and inspiration.

“I think a lot of people can make the choice to be amazing,” Suzanne said. “They can make the choice not to give up. I think it’s awesome. He has made the choice: ‘I’m not going to quit. I’m not going to let it beat me. I’m going to choose to survive.’ “

Lewis, his case manager, said his potential is unlimited. “We are very proud of him,” she said. “He has done very well in his placement. They are very happy to have him.”

Alex wants to major in political science or economics with an emphasis on environmental policy. Then again, he might work in foster care.

“I want to do something meaningful,” Alex said. “I want to improve quality of life for people, and I want to do it on a large scale.”

He said he has been accepted into the Honors Program at the University of Michigan, but he’s still waiting to hear from Columbia and Harvard.

On a visit to Harvard, he spent a night in the dorms.

“I felt like I belonged,” he said, “like this is where I want to end up.”

In the letters that he sent to prospective foster care families, Alex closed by writing this:

“While my experience as a foster youth has had a major impact on me, it is by no means my defining attribute. I instead treasure my ability to weather the instability — be it from my mother, foster homes, or youth residential facilities — and focus on what is truly important in life; fulfilling work, an education, and bettering the lives of those around you. A person’s real impact on this world is not measured by gross income or collegiate degrees. It is instead revealed by the courage of their moral conviction and human lives they touch. I choose to be the latter.”

2008 A Bad Year for Foster Care…Prospects for 2009!!

 

 A few hours ago we turned the final page, read the last paragraphs and finally closed the book called 2008.

 

We know how dreadful a year it was in regards to our economy, many losing their jobs and homes, more people without health care, falling apart infrastructure and the list goes on and on. We know of all this because the news media hammered it home day after day in their news coverage and headlines of the day.

 

Unfortunately one area of disaster is not well known amongst the public as the media did not consider it worthy of the attention. Yes, we saw the random headlines and occasionally it received coverage on the news; though most of the time it was limited to local coverage.

 

I am speaking of the continued plight of youth in our nation’s foster care system. We as a nation were in 2008 continuing to lose yet another generation of youth who face the tribulations of foster care. These youth continue to be voiceless, unseen and forgotten by most.

 

In 2008:

 

We saw an increase of over 6,000 youth whose parents had their rights terminated continue to languish in foster care as legal orphans: from 123,000 youth in 2007 to 129,000 youth in 2008. This count does not include youth 16-18 years of age who choose not to be adopted.

 

We saw the continuing trend of more youth aging out of the system; in many cases unprepared for the world that awaits them. Just a few years ago the number was holding steady at 20,000 youth a year aging out but the numbers have been increasing; 2007-24,000 youth and 2008-26,000 youth. I have reported in other blog entries the high failure rate of youth aging out of the system.

 

We saw judges continue to ignore ASFA1997 and allowing youth to linger in the system well past the 15-22 month rule. We saw them give the biological parents chance after chance to work their case plans while the youth were held in limbo in regards to permanency.

 

We saw foster parents after foster parents being denied the ability to adopt youth in their care while the youth languishes in the system supposedly temporary becomes a permanent pawn of the system until they age out.

 

We continued to see youth experience move after move of one foster home to another though it has been well documented that with each move a youth will suffer damage.

 

I could go on and on about the failure of our foster care system in 2008 but hopefully this gives you a picture. The unfortunate thing is 2008 is not a new failure. The failures of today are in many cases the same failures I faced while in the system 50 years ago.

 

Prospects for 2009:

 

You would think with so many years of failures being the history of our foster care system that I would think 2009 would be just another year of such failure.

 

However I am optimistic about 2009.  What gives me reason for this optimism?

 

In the spring of 2007 I wrote a letter to each of the candidates for President of the United States whether they be Democrat or Republican. Though I have never been a one issue voter the plight of youth in foster care is a vital one to me. I wanted to know where each candidate stood on the issue and what they would do if nominated by their respective party and ultimately elected.

 

Sixteen letters were written. Here is the text of that letter:

 Dear _______________:

 

There are thousands of American children who are in desperate need for our leaders to “defend their lives”. Over 500,000 currently reside in our nation’s foster care system…123,000 languish in the system while currently eligible for adoption.

 

There is also an alumnus from the foster care system of over 12 million men/women today.

 

American children are being abused and neglected in record numbers. It is outrageously despicable that in a great country such as ours these innocent lives are not being protected. There are American children who are suffering abuse repeatedly. It appears that “parental rights” gives someone the right to abuse, neglect, and molest our littlest victims.

Many of these children are placed in foster homes to have their broken bodies, minds and hearts mended by loving foster parents, only to be returned over and over again to their abusers. Some are eventually murdered.

 

It is time a fierce stand is taken to protect these innocent lives. Current laws are not effective in preventing violence against children. Current laws do not give children in foster care the stability and permanency they so deserve. Current laws do not do what our children need them to do, protect them and consider their best interest. There is a need for laws and regulations to provide safe, loving, nurturing environments for our children to live and thrive in.

 

Many, many foster care children are never adopted, many of them age out of the system. They age out of the foster care system into our prison systems, homeless etc. This is because after being repeatedly abused, neglected, and reunited with their perpetrators they are so severely traumatized that they become mentally ill.

 

The federal government has in the past used incentives such as bonuses to the states for the adoption of foster children over the age of nine. These children need adopted in their early years. They are hardened by the very system set-up to protect them. By the time these children are nine years old it is hard to find families willing to adopt a child who has numerous behaviors issues. Issues that they developed by the trauma they suffered while in the “system”.

 

Over the years there have been token changes to the laws, regulations, and other governmental acts that were suppose to protect abused and neglected children. None of these have made a meaningful or useful change for the children. Children are still languishing in foster care. Children are still being reunited with their abusers only to be returned to the broken foster care system, time and time again. When are we going to “defend their lives”?

 

I the undersigned had my life touched forever by the foster care system. I was thrust into on the day of my birth and remained until I aged out. I went through sixteen moves, sexual abuse and other humiliations during those years. The last move was being thrust onto the streets to fend for myself when I reached eighteen.

 

I am one of the lucky ones who survived the system and have made something of my life.

 

I am not a one issue voter. However, this is one of the main issues I am concerned about. I don’t want the usual political spinning, more studies or commissions. I want proposals with action to correct what I consider to be a national crisis.

 

I urge you to consider legislation, if nominated or elected, to our Representatives and our Senators to make unprecedented changes that are “in the child’s best interest”. The current system of “state run systems” has failed these youth. I believe that if the foster care system was a federally ran system there would be more consistency and uniformity in the protection of the United States foster children. We need action now, before more innocent lives are lost.

 

I have contact with several thousand former foster youth as well as foster/adoptive parents I wish to possibly garner their support for you from. There first question is “What does he/she plan on doing about the foster care system problem?” I want to be able to answer that question but I do not have an answer to date.

 

Will you please “stand on OUR side” as I and others “defend” these little lives we so desperately want to protect and stand by “your” side?

 

Sincerely,

 

 

I received only one response. It was not your typical form letter reply thanking me for writing about an issue. It was obvious a letter than had been very carefully considered as it addressed not only the issue but responded to the things I had experienced as a youth in foster care. One could tell this candidate had read my letter personally and responded to it in the same manner.

 

This candidate was Senator Barack Obama. He showed he cared about me as an individual, as an American as well as the issue. He was not the typical politician just looking for votes.

 

I became an immediate supporter of Senator Barack Obama for President.

 

 

He made two promises in his letter to me:

 

1. He would clearly state on his web site his position for child advocacy
2. He would establish a specific office in the White House if elected for children & youth issues

 

He followed through with this statement of advocacy on his web site:

 

Child Advocacy:

 

Barack Obama is a committed advocate for children. He will make sure that every child has health insurance, expand educational opportunities for low-income children, extend resources for low-income families, support and supplement our struggling foster care system, and protect children from violence and neglect.

 

On December 9, 2008, just a month after his election as President he carried through with his second promise.

 

President elect Obama and his transition team are requesting feedback from the general public on the issue and what we would like to see be done.

 

Never before in my memory has a President asked we the public to be part of establishing policy.

 

Whether you voted for President elect Obama or not it is time for each of us to not only complain about problems but to offer potential solutions to a person who has promised to listen to us.

 

It is time for each of us to let our voices be heard on the issue of our broken foster care system and the damage it causes.

 

Below is the link where you are able to do so. You will be required to sign up but then you can speak to this issue or other issues that may be of interest to you.

 

http://change.gov/open_government/entry/establishing_the_white_house_office_on_children_and_youth/

 

This is not the end but only the beginning. We must hold President Obama’s feet to the fire. We must let him know when we agree with him on this issue and when we disagree. We must let him know we will not continue to allow our current system of foster care to destroy another generation of youth.

 

He has kept his first two promises to me and now I want to see change!

 

Knowing what the President will have on his plate day one of his presidency I do not expect immediate solutions to the problem but I do expect the beginning of the process within 2009.

 

To those reading this please do your part’ go to the link above and be heard!

 

Reform needs to begin and it needs to begin NOW!!

Family Giving Up Custody of Abused Boy!

I find this story absolutely sickening, deplorable and sadas this boy’s life may already be destroyed as well as the family that adopted him in hopes of giving him a better life.

To tell the adoptive parents that for him to get help he must be given up…and in the end the system will just let him go on in own at age eighteen whether he is prepared or not tells us what the system thinks of our children!

This was reported on Channel 9 News is Colorado…Thank you News 9 for sharing this story with the public:

JEFFERSON COUNTY – Their father is still in prison, their mother served her time, but six children left in the wake of what Jefferson County Human Services employees describe as the worst case of child abuse they had ever seen continue to pay for the crimes of their parents.

There were six children under the age of 6 found in a motor home in the dead of winter in January 2002. The children were dirty and cold, the temperature inside was just 36 degrees. There was no running water.

Jefferson County Human Services soon discovered the conditions inside the motor home that kept the family on the run for years may have been the most pleasant part of the children’s existence. Those who were old enough, soon began to detail stories of widespread sexual abuse at the hands of both parents along with physical violence and neglect.

Now, four years following the conviction of their parents, Gerald and Eva Hurley, the children are still reeling from the experience. The pain has spread to the families who decided to take the children in as their own, hoping to give the children a new life.

Despite their best efforts, the family that eventually adopted the youngest of the Hurley children has made the heart-wrenching decision to give him up.

9NEWS is not using the legal names of those involved with this family to protect the identity of the child, who is now 6 years old. He was just a few weeks old when his parents were arrested and was adopted 18-months later.

“Mike” and “Lisa,” who live in Jefferson County, adopted the boy we’re calling “Bobby.” They already had one child of their own when they decided to adopt. The couple says shortly after bringing their new son home they realized his behavior was not normal, even for a newly-adopted child.

"Bobby"...not his real name

“In the home he would attack us randomly,” Lisa recalled. “He would run up behind you and bite you on the thighs or attack his siblings.”

Lisa said the toddler, then 3 years old, even attacked the family dog.

“He tried stabbing the eyes out of the dog,” she said.

After Bobby was kicked out of three day cares, Lisa says she decided to stay home. Nothing the couple tried seemed to work.

“It came to a point he was so out of control it was absolutely unsafe for himself and everyone else,” she said.

After a 90-day hospitalization at The Children’s Hospital, the couple says Bobby lashed out at his brother again.

When they took him to the state mental hospital at Ft. Logan he broke a nurse’s nose. Doctors there recommended Denver’s Mount Saint Vincent’s residential treatment center where he’s been ever since.

Earlier this year, Jefferson County Human Services told the couple they would have to prepare for Bobby to return home. The couple says they were told funding for the boy’s care had run out.

Jefferson County Human Services cannot comment on the specific case because of privacy concerns. They do say it is their policy not to hospitalize children forever. A spokesperson says the county is always looking for a more permanent home.

The couple was faced with what they describe as an impossible decision, bring the boy home to the three other small children in their home or face a civil charge of dependency and neglect.

“We had to choose our healthy children over our unhealthy child and that’s been awful,” Lisa said holding back tears.

She and her husband say they were told Bobby wouldn’t develop the same behaviors his siblings were showing because he was so young at the time of the abuse. They say those promises turned out to be wrong.

Two people who know a lot about the behaviors the Hurley children display are Jim Brandon and Vickie Armstrong. The former state lawmakers are foster parents to Bobby’s twin brother and sister and they say they do not plan to adopt any time soon.

“She asks me all the time when am I going to adopt,” Armstrong told 9NEWS earlier this month speaking about her foster daughter she’s been caring for since 2002.

9NEWS agreed not to give the twin’s names to protect their identity.

Armstrong and Brandon had adopted four children before taking in the Hurley children and say they need to protect the rest of their family from the same kind of future Lisa and Mike are facing.

“No family should adopt a special needs child until the county of record guarantees that they will pay any out-of-home treatment or voluntary placement,” Brandon said.

They say they fear their foster children will someday need residential treatment and they say they can’t afford to foot the bill alone.

“It’s very likely that our kids will need some kind of help in the future that we can’t afford and the only way we can provide it to them is to not adopt them and keep them as foster kids,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong and Brandon think state laws need to change to help parents such as Lisa and Mike. They feel the law needs to address situations when parents are faced with a decision like Lisa and Mike’s.

Once they relinquish parental rights, Lisa and Mike will have one last meeting with Bobby to say goodbye. Then, they will be allowed no more contact with the boy.

“He’s 6,” said Mike, also holding back tears. “He knows who his parents are.”

The parents say this was the best decision for them and for the boy they could make at this time. Bobby’s Guardian Ad Litem (an attorney who fights for the rights of the child) agrees.

Rep. Mo Keller, (D-Jefferson County), known as a mental health advocate, says sometimes the county needs to force decisions like this. Counties, she says, need to make a long-term plan for the placement of children like this that does not include life in an institution.

“You don’t want to have children confined in an institutional setting for multiple years or for the rest of their lives,” Keller said. “We have found through many years of experience this is not the best for them because they become institutionalized,” she continued.

Keller says there is one way for families to give up custody of a child but not sever all ties with him or her. It is what Keller describes as a lower category of dependency and neglect called “beyond the control of the parent.”

Dependency and neglect cases are typically filed in juvenile delinquency cases involving human services. The civil action is also used less frequently in cases such as Lisa and Mike’s.

The parents say their lawyer has advised them that having a dependency and neglect action on their record could be detrimental to their other children and their business.

So, on Dec. 30, despite the fact the couple wants to remain connected to Bobby in someway, they will share with a Jefferson County magistrate their plans to give up their parental rights. Joe Stengel, an attorney with Benson & Case who represents the family, says he feels the county sends a bad message.

“Our society encourages people to adopt and when they do and things go wrong you see what happens to good parents,” Stengel said. “The system has turned against them when all they wanted to do is be good parents and take a child into their lives and make them have the best life that they could give it.”

During an interview with 9Wants to Know in 2004, the boy’s biological father Gerald Hurley said Jefferson County made up the charges against him so they could sell his children. A court order severed his parental rights following his conviction.

The boy will most likely stay in the treatment facility he is in right now until his adoptive parents relinquish their rights, according to Keller. Then, she says, the county will make plans which could include a stay in a therapeutic foster home where he could remain, unless he is adopted again, until he is 18. After that, he will be on his own.

Hurley received a 12-year sentence in a plea deal. Both he and his wife received relatively short sentences because the county could not prove where the abuse occurred.

Hurley is serving his sentence in Canyon City. He could be eligible for early release in 2013. His wife, Eva, has already been released from prison. She is now a registered sex offender in Tyler, Texas where she is working at a local ice cream shop.

The Agony of Foster Care Does NOT End When You Leave It!

I am a firm believer that though one may leave the foster care system the foster care system never leaves you.

One may go on with their lives, and they need to, but the system and one’s expereiences will always remain a part of you…one must learn however to not allow it to control them.

The article below is an interesting one in light of this:

Bittersweet Christmas: Holidays hard for foster kid
By Janine Zeitlin • jzeitlin@news-press.com • December 23, 2008

Lakiesha Moss decks the walls of her Fort Myers apartment with construction-paper snowmen and wreaths by her 7-year-old daughter, Keashana.

She reminds her that Christmas means family and Jesus’ birth.

Their tree stretches about 6 feet. Her holiday decor fills a few boxes.

Moss, 21, tries to craft merry memories for her two daughters to overcome the ones stashed in her own childhood.

“I wouldn’t call them holidays,” said Moss, who entered foster care at 14 after her mother abandoned her. “We didn’t have a Christmas, trees or gifts. We’d watch all our friends ride bicycles and have fun with their toys.”

The onslaught of the holiday offerings may sound Christmas blues for the lonely-hearted and those far from family. But, for those who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their families, the pain runs deep.

But, for many who are too old for foster care, the bond is not to the state. Or to blood. They define family as caring mentors or advocates. During the holidays, they turn to those who have shown them what Christmas can mean.

Some say these young adults need more support.

Signs of cheer can stir depression and resurrect hardly greeting card reflections. Few can conjure many, if any, happy holidays with their families.

“For kids who don’t have good memories, it just brings more loneliness and sadness,” said Judi Woods, executive director of Footsteps To The Future, which mentors young women in foster care or those who have left it.

“You think about how many people will be alone on Christmas, way too many foster kids will be alone. The reason they’re still alone is because their picture is on nobody’s dresser.”

A Christmas a few years back, she soothed girls who had become suicidal.

There are almost 70 young adults in a program that provides some state support for former foster children once they turn 18 as long as they attend school. But, for most, it’s not enough to survive.

The Children’s Network of Southwest Florida gave the young people gift cards and hosted a party at Mike Greenwell’s Family Fun Park in Cape Coral with the Children’s Home Society of Florida.

“We do try to keep them safe and happy,” said Aimee McLaughlin, a network spokeswoman.

Moss returns to Our Mother’s Home, a place for girls in foster care and their babies in San Carlos Park, for the Christmas party.

She moved there seven years ago with Keashana, then 1. Her first Christmas seemed like a dream. Not accustomed to feasting as a family, she felt strange sharing a dinner.

“Everybody was so close and taking pictures. I’ve gotten used to it. … I feel like that’s my family,” said Moss, an Edison State College student who hopes to become a school therapist. “There’s just a real connection. There’s love.”

Mary Lewis, the organization’s executive director, said she hears from or sees about 10 graduates a year around the holidays.

“Christmas is a time of memories, and I think they’re trying to fill themselves up with some of that love,” Lewis said.

Desiree Lewis-Dahlte remembers being relegated to a separate table during holidays spent in foster care and receiving meager presents when compared to the booty of blood-related children.

Now 25, she was 4 when she entered foster care.

“A lot of foster homes, they do stuff, but for their real kids they do more stuff,” she said.

After her adoptive father abused her at 16, she entered care again and met Woods. This year, Lewis-Dahlte is low on cash but wants to show her boys a happy Christmas.

Woods invited the mother and her sons, 4 and 5, to her home after hearing she was scheduled to work a 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. cooking shift at Denny’s.

“I’ve just got this soft place in my heart for her,” Woods said. “If they have no place to go, they’ll come with me.”

Lewis-Dahlte, who rears her boys in a Pine Manor duplex, plans to attend candlelight service with Woods, stay at her home, and rouse around 5 a.m. to open presents.

“I try to make it better for my kids,” she said.

Woods contacts the young women in her program to ensure they have a place to stay. She worries about the young men.

Dominic Nealy, 18, doesn’t have Christmas plans. He hasn’t put up a tree in his east Fort Myers apartment he shares with his fiancee.

This will be one of the first Christmases he will be out of jail in recent years.

Nealy was arrested about a week before Christmas 2007 on a robbery charge and released months later into foster care.

He didn’t have transport to attend the network’s party. He can’t afford a car. He pedals a loaned bike.

He said he hasn’t had a warm holiday since 1999. The next year, his uncle, a strong father figure, died.

Nealy does consider Richard Sapp, a fatherly figure in his child welfare past. Sapp heads the organization that runs two group homes, Chariot House and Hope House, where he lived.

Sapp said past residents sometimes swing by near holidays.

“Once the kids connect with you, they sort of rely on you as a family member,” he said. “We try to wean them from us. We don’t want them to develop a dependency and want to steer them in the right direction for independence.”

Nealy one day hopes to have children with his fiancee.

Maybe then Christmas will feel different.

“I believe in Christmas but don’t too much care about it,” Nealy said. “I just look at all the Christmas decorations and keep on going. … But I don’t want them to have the same kind of lifestyle I have.”

Nannette Miller and her family bought presents for an 18-year-old former foster child and her two children after Miller’s 11-year-old offered to sacrifice her Christmas to someone in need. The Fort Myers hair stylist found the family through Footsteps.

She feels the community and the child welfare system need to embrace these young adults beyond the holidays.

“I would hope the system changes and these kids are taken care of and at 18 years old, they’re not just let lose,” Miller said. “They’re not getting the support they need to make their life work for them.”

Bitter Life Teaches Foster Youth to NOT Limit Herself!

I think it is important for foster youth or foster alumni to read and hear about others who have gome through the system who have made it, who have not proclaimed themselves as victims.

Therefore I was delighted when I read the article velow in the Idaho Statesmen and felt the need to share it here for those who may not get alerts dealing with foster care.

Bitter life experiences teach foster child not to limit herself
Katherine Jones/Idaho Statesman

“Everything has made me, me,” says Brittany Mars. She was born to parents addicted to drugs, moved from foster home to foster home until she was 18, transformed her life after a failed adoption and now is a happy, successful college student. “I just think that to narrow it down to my foster family or even (my siblings) is too narrow. There is so much more in this life that has made me who I am,” she says. “Every experience, and every place we go shapes us in one way or another.”

As a toddler, Brittani Mars developed her sense of what “family” meant – by watching television. She’d see kids in a loving environment with doting parents enveloped in a sense of security with happy endings. It certainly wasn’t what her house was like.

She says: “I knew we were missing out on something. As a kid, I always knew I wanted to have what they had (on television). I never experienced that until I was adopted. Or maybe in foster homes, but they never lasted.”

Brittani is the second of four children born to parents addicted to drugs. Her parents separated, her father disappeared and, when she was 3, her mother lost custody. When Brittani was 7, her mother’s parental rights were terminated – about seven years late, Brittani says.

“I was born addicted to meth. I should have been taken from mom at that point”

Brittani was adopted when she was 7.

“I never felt as if I’d have a home and family and somebody to call my own (but then I did)

Her adoptive mother was diagnosed with a degenerative disease. Brittani was, she admits, quite a handful, and at age 10, she went back into foster care. It was, and still is, painful for both her and her adoptive family.

“I was still acting out, lying, doing anything I could to get attention, either positive or negative. I was a lot of work I was getting counseling, but I think we didn’t start early enough.

“(However), I was transformed with the failed adoption. I learned I couldn’t just treat people how I wanted. I couldn’t just do whatever I wanted. I lost everything I cared about because I couldn’t get my act together.”

In Idaho, there are almost 2,000 kids in foster care. In Boise, the number of foster families has not increased in six years, though the number of children in need continues to grow. There is a nearly desperate need for foster families in general, and in particular, families willing to care for adolescents, sibling groups and pregnant teens.

Brittani lived in six foster homes between the ages of 10 and 18. Although some of the homes were difficult and even traumatic, some of them were exactly what she needed. One family took her to church, where she found a faith to count on. She was assigned a caseworker who gave her rock-like support. In another home:

“I moved in with an older single ladyIt was a really perfect place for me. She gave me freedom and independence, but with structure and rules. She wasn’t always in my face and she wasn’t touchy-feely. She gave me the space I needed to heal.”

But Brittani still craved the sense of family. In one last move before she was 18, she found a place that she now calls home.

“A few key people in my life made a significant impact on who I am and have gotten me where I am today. At the same time, (there’s something internal that’s) a testimony to the human spirit and the willingness to do what it takes to survive.”

Today, Brittani is a well-adjusted 19-year-old student at Northwest Nazarene College, studying social work. She doesn’t make a secret of her childhood, but she realizes it’s a lot for people to digest.

“Kids in care are so stereotyped. When people find out you’re in foster care, they automatically assume you are bad; they see you differently. Kids in care are just like kids anywhere else, except they’ve gotten help

“Kids have behaviors. That’s not why they’re in foster care. It’s because they’re hurting and need to be loved and they need people to care for them. There are ways to remedy behavior problems; there’s always a solution.

One of the things she was given – that she created – is a wisdom rising from her past.

“I value relationships a lot more. I know what it feels like to lose people you care about

“Everyone has goodness, and there’s weakness in everyone, too. But even the hardest mean-spirited person cares about something.”

Although originally cut off from them, over the years Brittani has been in contact with her biological family. Some of her siblings are fine, yet others are trapped in the legacy of abuse, drug use and psychological trauma. “I don’t know why it worked for me,” she says.

“(But) it’s important to know where you come from. It’s important to resolve issuesIt would be a shame to go through all of this for nothing.”

Her past has led her to where she is – and to where she will go. From her foster family’s church work with an organization in Rwanda, Brittani learned about the genocide there.

“That awareness awakened a passion in me for children and what they’ve gone through.

“I’ve always loved children, especially those neglected and abused. I can relate to them and what they’ve been through. My experience doesn’t begin to relate to what they’ve gone through in Rwanda, but at the same time, I do know what it’s like to feel loss and pain

“We’re all called to help people. I hope my degree in social work can help me understand where I come from, grasp everything I have gone through and (learn) how to use that to help others.”

Brittani has dreams for her life. “College, first of all,” she says. “Here I am. Hallelujah.” And working with neglected or underprivileged children in the inner city or a group home.

“Life goes on. It’s scary. I’m terrified to end up like my mom. That’s why I’m in college. I’m not a strong believer in higher education (she values life experiences), but that sets me apart from my mom. She couldn’t do college.

“We’re only limited by how we limit ourselves.”

Story of a Surviving Orphan Train Rider

From the mid 1850’s to to 1930 over 200,000 youth were moved by train across the United States. Many were adopted while others ended up in orphanages or other type of foster care.

In some cases their families knew of the move and in other cases the youth were just removed from the streets and placed on the train in hopes of offering them the opportunity of a better life.

Most would never have contact with their birth families again. There was no such thing as “open adoption” or “reunion registries”.

Today there are but 15 survivors from the Orphan Train days. The following is the story of one survivor.

Orphan Train rider Stanley Cornell’s oldest memory is of his mother’s death in 1925.

“My first feeling was standing by my mom’s bedside when she was dying. She died of tuberculosis,” recalls Cornell. “I remember her crying, holding my hand, saying to ‘be good to Daddy.’ “

“That was the last I saw of her. I was probably four,” Cornell says of his mother, Lottie Cornell, who passed away in Elmira, New York.

His father, Floyd Cornell, was still suffering the effects of nerve gas and shell shock after serving as a soldier in combat during WWI. That made it difficult for him to keep steady work or care for his two boys.

“Daddy Floyd,” as Stanley Cornell calls his birth father, eventually contacted the Children’s Aid Society. The society workers showed up in a big car with candy and whisked away Stanley and his brother, Victor, who was 16 months younger.

Stanley Cornell remembers his father was crying and hanging on to a post. The little boy had a feeling he would not see his father again.

The two youngsters were taken to an orphanage, the Children’s Aid Society of New York, founded by social reformer Charles Loring Brace

“It was kind of rough in the orphans’ home,” Cornell remembers, adding that the older children preyed on the younger kids — even though officials tried to keep them separated by chicken wire fences. He says he remembers being beaten with whips like those used on horses.

New York City in 1926 was teeming with tens of thousands of homeless and orphaned children. These so-called “street urchins” resorted to begging, stealing or forming gangs to commit violence to survive. Some children worked in factories and slept in doorways or flophouses.

The Orphan Train movement took Stanley Cornell and his brother out of the city during the last part of a mass relocation movement for children called “placing out.

Brace’s agency took destitute children, in small groups, by train to small towns and farms across the country, with many traveling to the West and Midwest. From 1854 to 1929, more than 200,000 children were placed with families across 47 states. It was the beginning of documented foster care in America.

“It’s an exodus, I guess. They called it Orphan Train riders that rode the trains looking for mom and dad like my brother and I.”

“We’d pull into a train station, stand outside the coaches dressed in our best clothes. People would inspect us like cattle farmers. And if they didn’t choose you, you’d get back on the train and do it all over again at the next stop.”

Cornell and his brother were “placed out” twice with their aunts in Pennsylvania and Coffeyville, Kansas. But their placements didn’t last and they were returned to the Children’s Aid Society.

“Then they made up another train. Sent us out West. A hundred-fifty kids on a train to Wellington, Texas,” Cornell recalls. “That’s where Dad happened to be in town that day.”

Each time an Orphan Train was sent out, adoption ads were placed in local papers before the arrival of the children.

J.L. Deger, a 45-year-old farmer, knew he wanted a boy even though he already had two daughters ages 10 and 13.

“He’d just bought a Model T. Mr. Deger looked those boys over. We were the last boys holding hands in a blizzard, December 10, 1926,” Cornell remembers. He says that day he and his brother stood in a hotel lobby.

“He asked us if we wanted to move out to farm with chickens, pigs and a room all to your own. He only wanted to take one of us, decided to take both of us.”

Life on the farm was hard work.

“I did have to work and I expected it, because they fed me, clothed me, loved me. We had a good home. I’m very grateful. Always have been, always will be.”

Taking care of a family wasn’t always easy.

“In 1931, the Dust Bowl days started. The wind never quit. Sixty, 70 miles an hour, all that dust. It was a mess. Sometimes, Dad wouldn’t raise a crop in two years.”

A good crop came in 1940. With his profit in hand, “first thing Dad did was he took that money and said, ‘we’re going to repay the banker for trusting us,’ ” Cornell says.

When World War II began, Cornell joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He shipped out to Africa and landed near Casablanca, Morocco, where he laid telephone and teletype lines. Later he served in Egypt and northern Sicily. While in Italy, he witnessed Mount Vesuvius erupting.

It was on a telephone line-laying mission between Naples and Rome that Cornell suffered his first of three wounds.

“Our jeep was hit by a bomb. I thought I was in the middle of the ocean. It was the middle of January and I was in a sea of mud.”

With their jeep destroyed and Cornell bleeding from a head wound, his driver asked a French soldier to use his vehicle to transport them. The Frenchman refused to drive Cornell the five miles to the medical unit.

“So, the driver pulled out his pistol, put the gun to the French soldier’s head and yelled, ‘tout suite!’ or ‘move it!’ ” Cornell recalls.

Once he was treated, Cornell remembers the doctor saying, “You’ve got 30 stitches in your scalp. An eighth of an inch deeper and you’d be dead.”

Cornell always refused to accept his commendations for a Purple Heart even though he’d been wounded three times, twice severely enough to be hospitalized for weeks. He felt the medals were handed out too often to troops who suffered the equivalent of a scratch.

His younger brother served during the war in the Air Force at a base in Nebraska, where he ran a film projector at the officers’ club.

As WWII was drawing to a close, Stanley Cornell headed up the teletype section at Allied headquarters in Reims, France. “I saw [Gen. Dwight] Eisenhower every day,” he recalls.

On May 7, 1945, the Nazis surrendered. “I sent the first teletype message from Eisenhower saying the war was over with Germany,” Cornell says.

In 1946, the 25-year-old Stanley Cornell met with his 53-year-old birth father, Daddy Floyd. It was the last time they would see each other.

Cornell eventually got married and he and his wife, Earleen, adopted two boys, Dana and Dennis, when each was just four weeks old.

“I knew what it was like to grow up without parents,” Cornell says. “We were married seven years and couldn’t have kids, so I asked my wife, ‘how about adoption?’ She’d heard my story before and said, ‘OK.’ “

After they adopted their two boys, Earleen gave birth to a girl, Denyse.

Dana Cornell understands what his father and uncle went through.

“I don’t think [Uncle] Vic and Stan could have been better parents. I can relate, you know, because Dad adopted Dennis and me. He has taught me an awful lot over the years,” Dana Cornell says.

Dana Cornell says his adoptive parents have always said that if the boys wanted to find their birth parents, they would help. But he decided not to because of how he feels about the couple who adopted him. “They are my parents and that’s the way it’s gonna be.”

Stanley and Earleen Cornell have been married 61 years. She is a minister at a church in Pueblo, Colorado, and is the cook at her son’s restaurant, Dana’s Lil’ Kitchen.

Stanley Cornell believes he is one of only 15 surviving Orphan Train children. His brother, Victor Cornell, a retired movie theater chain owner, is also alive and living in Moscow, Idaho

Law Lets Little Boy Down…Destroys Family!!!

How could the system allow such a travesty to happen…and they wonder why youth involved with the system may turn out, in their words, bad! Do they think of the potential damage they are causing to this boy? Cases such as this absolutely disgusts me and is but more proof the system needs dramatic overhaul!!!

Law Lets Little Boy Down!!!!

Note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN’s “Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull” at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the “Cutting through the Bull” segment of Tuesday night’s (12/16/08) broadcast.
(CNN) — As a mother, I can hardly bear to imagine what the Larson family is going through.

The Utah couple this past weekend said goodbye to the little boy they legally adopted six months ago.

The boy’s name is Talon and when they took him in, they say he had drugs in his system, and that his birth mother had been declared unfit. They took care of the child, and have loved and cared for him for the last six months.

But this couple has now lost their son because the birth mother is part Native American.  Watch Campbell Brown’s commentary »

She’s a member of the Leech Lake band of the Ojibwa tribe. Her tribe went to court and argued that the mother had changed her mind and the tribe won the right to take custody of this child.

A federal law called the Indian Child Welfare Act gives the tribe a legitimate claim.

This was a law that was designed to keep Native American children with Native American families. It was passed in 1978 amid concerns by Native Americans that their numbers were dwindling and that they were losing their culture.

The law allows them to broadly declare who is Native American. For example, the birth mother is apparently only one-quarter Native American. The little boy apparently is less than that.

The Larsons say he doesn’t even meet the blood requirements to become a member of the tribe.

But the outrage here is this: The little boy isn’t going back to his birth mother.

He is expected to go into foster care, perhaps with other siblings already in foster care, again because the birth mother has been declared unfit.

So, a little boy is being taken away from loving parents who have cared for him for the last six months and put into tribal foster care because that is what the law says is the right thing to do.

To me, that is a ridiculous law.

If there is concern in the Native American community that children are being lost to the tribe through adoption because of unfit parents, then focus on strengthening your families so that your children won’t be parentless.

It seems to me that entirely lost here is what is in the best interest of this child. The Larson family is going back to court to try to get their little boy back. I wish them the best of luck.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.

Thank you Campbell Brown!!!!

Fed Judge Orders GA Find Perm Homes for Foster Youth

It is about time a Federal Judge has stepped in and done something…of course if ASFA1997 were enforced by states this action would not be necessary!!

Atlanta Journal Constitution
Judge orders state to find homes for 500 kids
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER

Monday, December 15, 2008

A federal judge on Monday ordered the state child welfare agency to improve its efforts at finding permanent homes for 500 children who have lingered for years in foster care in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

Some of these children are older teens, or those with emotional problems, who tend to be more difficult to place. Many are under the age of 10 and don’t have severe emotional problems. But all have been in the system for three or more years.

The nonprofit that brought the lawsuit, Children’s Rights Inc., recently filed a contempt of court motion, asserting the state has failed to abide by the settlement that promised to find homes for more of these children.

This resolution, negotiated over four months, calls on the state to use national experts and local service providers to undertake intensive individual reviews and craft strategies to find the children permanent homes.

The agency must also establish a special “permanency unit” to consolidate and coordinate the efforts.

“With this agreement, DFCS has made a commitment to take every reasonable step to ensure that the children who have been languishing in custody will not spend the rest of their childhood as wards of the state,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights.

North Dakota “Angels in Adoption” Award Recipients

This article appeared in my local newspaper this morning announcing our state’s winner of the Angel in Adoption Award. This is the second time I have been able to share this family’s story with a wider audience than just Fargo, North Dakota.

Family lauded for adoptions
Mike Nowatzki, The Forum
Published Tuesday, August 12, 2008
 
A West Fargo family that reunited five siblings through adoption now has a date with the White House.

Jason and Dana Mitzel were notified recently by the state’s congressional delegation that they have been selected to receive the Angels in Adoption award and to represent North Dakota in the Adoptive Family Portrait Project.

The Mitzels first accepted their son Brandon, then a 4-year-old from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in south-central North Dakota, as a foster child in 2001.

During the next six years, they reunited Brandon with his older brothers, Ben and Johnny, who were living with separate families in Minnesota, and with the boys’ younger half sisters, Sky Rain and Alicia, from the Three Affiliated Tribes in western North Dakota.

The Mitzels operate the Rainbow Shop Christian bookstore in south Fargo and had tried unsuccessfully to have children on their own.

They decided to reunite the boys despite social workers’ warnings that they couldn’t get along with each other.

Jason Mitzel said they were surprised by the awards.

“We’re just doing what God told us to do, or what we felt God was leading us to do,” he said. “It was a miracle how they all came together.”

U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., who has two adopted children, nominated the family for the Angels in Adoption award, given by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute to honor constituents who enrich the lives of foster children and orphans.

A White House lawn celebration is planned on Sept. 15, followed by a gala on Sept. 16. Mitzel said the family hopes to raise enough money so that they all can attend.

The portrait project is put on by Voice for Adoption, a national group that advocates for better adoption policies.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told the Mitzels in a July 30 letter that they were chosen for the project because of their “invaluable efforts in making a difference in the lives of wonderful children.

“Your family is a shining example to both the community and the nation of the enrichment and joy adoption can bring,” Conrad wrote.

This is a link to the story I shared about them back in October, 2007. 

http://prairieguy.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/5-siblings-reunited-through-adoption/

I believe this is an amazing family!!!

You’re Nothing More Than a Foster Child!

This was sent to me by a youth who has been in foster care for the past 7 years and will age out next March with no family or support network to go to. It breaks my heart that things I expereinced and thoughts I had over 40 years ago remain a constant in so many of the lives of youth in care today. Society should hang their heads in shame.

UPDATE: I have just received notice that the young man who sent me this is NOT the author of the article. I apologize to the author and wish to give her proper credit. The actual author is Catherine Daniels, a young woman who spent years in foster care. I am sorry I did not verify if the young man who sent this to me was in fact the author.

 

Imagine…

Being the last person to sit down to the table for dinner because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Watching the other children get new shoes/clothes/toys but you have to wait on a “check” because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Getting left behind while the rest of the house goes on vacation or visits a major theme park because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Not wanting to unpack your bags and put things away because you never know when you might be up and moved again because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Sleeping on the couch or porch, with storage bins and trash bags storing your belongings with no personal space to call your own because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

When you move you don’t have a suitcase as other children but rather garbage bags because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.
Not having surgery your doctor recommended because it needs to go through a board for approval before it can be done because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Getting a CD, book, and candy bar as christmas while the rest of the children got DVD players, Walkmans, bikes, etc because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Running away, crossing county, state or even country lines and having no one look for you or report you missing because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Having someone start to care about you, and start to form an attachment only to be up and moved simply because someone decided a different home would be better for you for God knows what reason because you aren’t the biological or adopted child… You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Having a school refuse to re-enroll you for the seventh time in ONE school year. You’re nothing more than a foster child. 

Having doctors offices leave your address blank because it changes so many times. You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Not making friends because you never know when you’ll be up and moved.
You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Refusing to take school pictures because you know you won’t be there at the end of the year. You’re nothing more than a foster child.

Hardening your heart to attachments because you know how quick they disappear. You’re nothing more than a foster child.

When one lives for years within the foster care system, experiences numerous moves and maybe even things worse than that because “You’re nothing more than a foster child”…how can society expect one to form relationships and attachments or even trust others?

This is the life of one who is “Nothing more than a foster child!”

Foster Care Data for FY2006

The United States Foster Care System

 

FY2006 Foster Care Data

The U. S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children & Families collects data each year from the states as to their foster care system. This, along with other resources provide for the base of this analysis. There is usually a 2 year lapse in this data collection; thus this data is from FY 2006…the last fiscal year that data is fully available.

In FY2006:

The U.S. spent $22 billion dollars ($5 billion from the Federal government and the balance from state/county governments) to provide services for children and youth in foster care. This averages out to $40,000 per child.

303,000 youth entered foster care

799,000 youth spent some portion of FY2006 in foster care

209,000 youth exited foster care via reunification, adoption, runaway, aged out, etc

129,000 awaiting adoption

77,000 had TPR completed

26,517 youth aged out

509 youth while in state care

51,000 adopted by foster parents or others

510,000 remained in care at end of FY2006

Placement settings of youth in foster care during FY2006:

Pre-Adoptive Home	3%	17,351
Foster Family Home (Relative)	24%	124,571
Foster Family Home (Non-Relative)	46%	236,911
Group Home	7%	33,433
Institution	10%	53,042
Supervised Independent Living	1%	5,872
Runaway	2%	12,213
Trial Home Visit	5%	26,606

 Case goals of the youth in foster care FY 2006:

Reunify with Parent(s) or Principal Caretaker(s)	49%	248,054
Live with Other Relative(s)	4%	20,359
Adoption	23%	117,380
Long Term Foster Care	9%	43,773
Emancipation	6%	30,662
Guardianship	4%	20,945
Case Plan Goal Not Yet Established	6%	28,827

 Outcomes for the children exiting foster care during FY 2006:

Reunification with Parent(s) or Primary Caretaker(s)	53%	154,103
Living with Other Relative(s)	11%	30,751
Adoption	17%	50,379
Emancipation	9%	26,517
Guardianship	5%	15,010
Transfer to Another Agency	2%	6,683
Runaway	2%	5,049
Death of Child	0%	509

 

 

 NOTE

: Deaths are attributable to a variety of causes including medical conditions, accidents and homicide.(NOTE: totals do not equal per the US DHHS due to how states submit their data)

 Of the youth entering foster care in FY2006 the percentage based on age is as follows:

Less than 1 Year	6%	30,418
1 Year	7%	34,344
2 Years	6%	30,367
3 Years	5%	26,966
4 Years	5%	24,384
5 Years	5%	23,021
6 Years	4%	21,574
7 Years	4%	20,760
8 Years	4%	20,025
9 Years	4%	19,263
10 Years	4%	18,958
11 Years	4%	19,475
12 Years	4%	21,532
13 Years	5%	25,706
14 Years	6%	30,949
15 Years	8%	38,259
16 Years	8%	42,272
17 Years	8%	39,624
18 Years	3%	13,303
19 Years	1%	5,488
20 Years	1%	3,316

 The lengths of stay in foster care for youth in care at the end of FY23006 are:

Less than 1 Month	5%	24,312
1 to 5 Months	19%	97,990
6 to 11 Months	18%	90,875
12 to 17 Months	13%	67,689
18 to 23 Months	9%	46,109
24 to 29 Months	7%	35,047
30 to 35 Months	5%	25,219
3 to 4 Years	11%	55,671
5 Years or More	13%	67,088

 The 10 states with the most youth of foster care at the end of FY2006 are:

1. California

2. New York

3. Florida

4. Texas

5. Pennsylvania

6. Michigan

7. Illinois

8. Ohio

9. Georgia

10. Massachusetts

Race/Ethnicity of youth in care:

AI/AN-Non Hispanic	2%	10,168
Asian-Non Hispanic	1%	2,978
Black -Non Hispanic	32%	162,722
Hawaiian/ PI-Non Hispanic	0%	1,104
Hispanic	19%	96,967
White-Non Hispanic	40%	205,662
Unknown/Unable to Determine	2%	11,286
Two or More-Non Hispanic	4%	19,112

 Gender Percentage:

Male	52%	267,027
Female	48%	242,973

 Foster Homes Available:

In 2006, there were 160,000 licensed non relative foster homes nationwide.

None of the above data includes the more than 2 million U.S. children living with grandparents or other relatives because their parents cannot care for them but are not part of the foster care system. When relatives provide care it is known as kinship care.

There are currently 129,000 youth who are eligible for adoption at the end of FY2006 after 51,000 youth were adopted in FY 2005. The data does NOT include youth age 16 and over who are eligible for adoption but whose case plan is for them to age out of the system. The rate of adoption of youth from care has remained fairly stagnant the past five fiscal years. This is an increase of 15,000 youth awaiting adoption over FY2005.

Age percentages of those waiting for adoption at end of FY2006 are:

Less than 1 Year	4%	5,102
1 Year	9%	11,023
2 Years	8%	10,420
3 Years	7%	9,463
4 Years	6%	8,362
5 Years	6%	7,840
6 Years	6%	7,150
7 Years	5%	6,978
8 Years	5%	6,688
9 Years	5%	6,372
10 Years	5%	6,208
11 Years	5%	6,267
12 Years	5%	6,473
13 Years	5%	6,844
14 Years	5%	6,907
15 Years	6%	7,207
16 Years	4%	5,607
17 Years	3%	4,089

 Lengths of stay for those youth awaiting adoption at end of FY2006 are:

Days-11 months 13%

12-23 months 25%

24-35 months 23%

36-5 years or more 42%

Age percentages for those youth that were adopted from foster care during FY2006 are:

0-5 years 53%

6-10 years 28%

11-14 years 14%

15 year-up 5%

The above data clearly shows the older the youth is and the longer the youth remains in care the less opportunity they will have to be adopted and instead will age of out the system.

 

Top 10 states with the great number of youth adopted from foster care during FY2006 are:

1. California

2. New York

3. Texas

4. Florida

5. Michigan

6. Pennsylvania

7. Ohio

8. New Jersey

9. Missouri

10. Illinois

 

 

The 10 states with the greatest number of youth in foster care but eligible for adoption at the end of FY2006 are:

1. Texas

2. New York

3. Florida

4. Michigan

5. New Jersey

6. Ohio

7. California

8. Oklahoma

9. Pennsylvania

10. Illinois

In FY2005 26,517 (this is up 2,210 from FY2005) youth aged out of the foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services. Several foster care alumni studies show that without a lifelong connection to a caring adult, these older youth often are left vulnerable to a host of adverse situations. Based on previous studies done over the past number of years these youth will face the following:

Will earn a high school diploma 54%

Will obtain BA or higher 2%

Will become a parent 12-18 months after discharge 84%

Will experience unemployment 51%

Will have no health insurance 30%

Will become homeless 25%

Will receiving public assistance 30%

Will experience the justice system 27%

There is vital data missing from what the states report to the federal government (or the state does not provide this data) which would prove vital in analyzing the foster care system and the potential damage caused to youth in care. They are:

1. The number of placements the youth experienced while in care. This is vital as it has been shown the more the placements the higher the possibility of damage to the youth.

* Children have on average three different foster care placements. The longer a child or youth remains in foster care the more moves. Frequent moves in and out of the homes of strangers as well as new schools can be profoundly unsettling for children, and it is not uncommon to hear of children who have been in 20 or 30 different homes or 5 to 7 new schools. Many have been separated not only from their parents, but from their siblings.

*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

 

2. The percentage of lengths of stay and age percentage for each state. This would show how each state is doing in complying (or not) with the AFSA of 1997 in regards to the 15 months out of 22 months rule.

3. Data be furnished indicating exact number of youth aging out of the system each year from each state rather than just the total count nationwide.

Christmas Wishes!

I want to take this early morning opportunity to wish each of you, my readers, the full richness of the Spirit, Joy and Blessings of the Christmas Season!

As you rush to complete those last minute details in preparation for the day I pray each will take a moment to remember those who are less fortunate than us…especially the orphans of the world and those youth spending yet another year in the US foster care system.

As one who spent 18 Christmas seasons in foster care I know how difficult this time of year is for youth in care and even after they may age out as I did. You may read about it in my blog entry entitled, “All They Want for Christmas” at:

http://prairieguy.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/all-they-want-for-christmas/

To those of you who are foster parents or have adopted youth from foster care please know that despite what you may say…YOU are HEROES!

Finally as we approach the new year my wish and prayer for each of you is that 2008 will be a year of fulfillment and your best year ever.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Peace,
Larry~

Do You Know What ASFA of 1997 Really Says??

A decade ago, children were more likely to spend years in foster care as authorities tried again and again to reunite them with their biological families.

Reunification at ALL costs appeared to be the ultimate goal of the various state agencies. Young lives were being damaged at best and destroyed at worst with this philosophy.

The 1997 Children and Safe Families Act called on states to terminate parental rights faster so that children would be available for adoption sooner. The idea was to give more children permanent,stable homes.

I belong to numerous messageboards on line dealing with foster care and adoption issues. From various comments I have seen about ASFA it appears there are a great number of misconceptions as to what it says.

I have done extensive research to find out exactly what it says as well as what it means.

Do you know what ASFA 1997 actually includes? (Any BOLD passages have been made bold by me to emphasize the wording.) I will add some commentary at the conclusion of going through the sections of the law.

ADOPTION AND SAFE FAMILIES ACT:

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), P.L. 105-89, 111 Stat. 2115, amending 42 U.S.C. §§671-675, was passed in 1997 to improve the safety of children and to promote adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, as well as to continue to support families. Stating that the child’s health and safety were of paramount concern, the law made changes in and clarified some of the policies established under the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980. It contained a wide range of provisions, from reauthorization of existing programs to providing adoption incentives for states.

ASFA regulations were announced by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department on January 25, 2000 and went into effect on March 27. States had 12 months in which to meet some of the requirements, but most had to be met right away. See 65 F.R. 4020 (January 25, 2000), amending 45 C.F.R. Parts 1355, 1356, and 1357.

A state must meet certain requirements in order to comply with foster care program provisions of the Title IV-E state plan or to be eligible to receive federal financial participation for foster care maintenance payments. While some requirements affect state plan compliance alone, others affect the child’s eligibility for Title IV-E foster care payments.

Reasonable Efforts Generally: The state must make reasonable efforts to: 
maintain the family unit and prevent the unnecessary removal of a child from his or her home, as long as the child’s safety is assured; effect the safe reunification of the child and family (if temporary out-of-home placement is necessary to ensure the immediate safety of the child); and make and finalize alternate permanency plans in a timely manner when reunification is not appropriate or possible. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(b).

“Contrary to Welfare” Determination in First Court Ruling: A child’s removal from the home must be the result of a judicial determination that continuation in the home would be contrary to the welfare of the child, or that placement outside the home would be in the best interest of the child. This determination must be made in the first court ruling that sanctions (even temporarily) the removal of the child from the home. If this “contrary to the welfare” determination is not made in the first court ruling, the child is not eligible for Title IV-E foster care payments for the duration of that stay in foster care. The omission cannot be remedied. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(c).
 
Reasonable Efforts to Prevent Removal: When a child is removed from his or her home, a judicial determination as to whether reasonable efforts were made, or were not required, to prevent removal must be made no later than 60 days from the date the child is removed from his home. If this determination is not made, the child is not eligible for Title IV-E foster care payments for the duration of that stay in foster care. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(b)(1).

Reasonable Efforts Not Required: Reasonable efforts to prevent removal or to reunify the family are not required where the state agency has obtained a judicial determination that such efforts are not required because:
 
The parent has subjected the child to aggravated circumstances (as defined in state law);
The parent has been convicted of murder or voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent, aiding or abetting, attempting, conspiring or soliciting to commit murder or voluntary manslaughter, or a felony assault that results in serious bodily injury to the child or to another child of the parent; or
Parental rights have been terminated involuntarily with respect to a sibling. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(b)(3).
 
Foster Care Placement; Limit on Court Role: To satisfy the requirements for a case plan for each child (see §38.3 on P.L. 96-272), the state agency must promulgate policy materials and instructions for use by staff to determine the appropriateness and necessity for the foster care placement of the child. Federal financial participation in foster care payments is not available when a court orders a placement with a specific foster care provider. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(g).

Permanency Hearing; Deadline: Previously, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act required that states hold dispositional hearings within 18 months after placement of a child in foster care. ASFA repeals this provision and establishes a permanency planning hearing. This hearing must occur within 12 months of the date a child “is considered to have entered foster care,” or within 30 days of a judicial determination that reasonable efforts to reunify the child and family are not required. A child “is considered to have entered foster care” on the earlier of the date of the first judicial finding of abuse or neglect or the date that is 60 days after the child is removed from the home. 45 C.F.R. §1355.20(a).

Permanency Plan Set at Hearing: The court must determine the permanency plan, or goal, for the child at the permanency hearing. 45 C.F.R. §§1355.20 and 1356.21(h). (This hearing to determine the permanency plan does not have to be the “permanency hearing” described in state law. Under ASFA, the court can hold a hearing on the permanency plan any time, which must be at least every twelve months; the state law presumptions at permanency hearings under the Children’s Code are a separate matter.)
 
Permissible plans: Permissible permanency plans, or goals, under ASFA are:
Return to parent;
Adoption;
Legal guardianship;
Placement permanently with a fit and willing relative; or
Another planned permanent living arrangement, but only if the state agency has documented to the court a compelling reason why none of the other options would be in the child’s best interest. The regulations offer examples of compelling reasons, including that of an older teen who specifically requests that emancipation be his or her permanency plan. 45 C.F.R. §1355.20
 
Reasonable Efforts to Finalize Plan: The state agency must obtain a judicial determination that it has made reasonable efforts to finalize the permanency plan that is in effect (whether the plan is reunification, adoption, legal guardianship, placement with a fit and willing relative, or placement in another planned permanent living arrangement). This determination must be made within 12 months of the date the child is considered to have entered foster care, and at least once every twelve months thereafter while the child is in foster care. If the determination is not made, the child becomes ineligible for Title IV-E payments after the end of the twelfth month following the date he or she is considered to have entered foster care, and remains ineligible until such a determination is made. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(b)(2).
 
TPR Required: Deadline for Filing. The state must file or join in a petition to terminate parental rights if the child has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months. The petition must be filed by the end of the child’s 15th month in foster care. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(i)(1)(i).

This 15 month period runs from the date on which the child is considered to have entered foster care, that is, the date on which the child was adjudicated an abused or neglected child or the date 60 days after the child was removed from the home, whichever comes first. 45 C.F.R. §1355.20(a).

TPR Within 60 days of Felony Determination: If the parent has been convicted of one of the felonies listed in the regulations, the petition to terminate must be filed within 60 days of a judicial determination that reasonable efforts to reunify the child and parent are not required. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(i)(1)(iii) 

TPR Within 60 days of Abandoned Infant Determination: If a child is determined by the court to be an “abandoned infant” (as defined by state law), the petition to terminate must be filed within 60 days of the judicial determination that the infant is abandoned. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(i)(1)(ii). 

Exceptions to TPR Requirement: The state agency may elect not to file for TPR if: 
at the agency’s option, the child is being cared for by a relative; the agency has documented in the case plan (which must be available for court review) a compelling reason for determining that filing such a petition would not be in the best interests of the individual child, or the agency has not provided to the family services that the state deems necessary for the safe return of the child to the home, when reasonable efforts to reunify the family are required. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(i)(2).

Recruiting Adoptive Family Begins At Filing for TPR: When the state files a petition to terminate parental rights, it must concurrently begin to recruit, identify, process and approve a qualified adoptive family on behalf of the child, regardless of age. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(i)(3).

Specific Findings on Contrary to Welfare and Reasonable Efforts Required: Judicial determinations regarding contrary to the welfare of the child, reasonable efforts to prevent removal and reasonable efforts to finalize the permanency plan in effect, including judicial determinations that reasonable efforts are not required: must be explicitly documented, must be made on a case-by-case basis, and so stated in the court order. 

A transcript of the court proceeding is the only other documentation that will be accepted to verify that these determinations have been made. Affidavits, nunc pro tunc orders, and references to state law are not acceptable. 45 C.F.R. §1356.21(d

Commentary:

As one reads through ASFA 1997 it all sounds very good. Unfortunately, as with many laws, it is not worth the paper it is written on. The states DO NOT follow the act and they in the past years have NOT suffered any penalty; though the youth have!

Termination of parental rights petitions are rarely filed following the 15/22 rule. Agencies and judges seem to believe this is a guideline rather than a mandate. They continuously restart the clock giving bios chance after chance to get their act together. Meanwhile the youth continues to linger in limbo.

This is despite a ruling by a Federal Judge in 2001:

Case Law:

http://ssw.unc.edu/fcrp/fp/fp_vol6no1/wijudge_sue_speedy_adoption.htm

The law requires, except where exempted, reasonable efforts to reunify youth with their parents. It appears that states are using the Exceptions to TPR Requirements clause in any way possible to not follow the 15/22 clause. Some states continue, seven years after implementation, to operate under the old philosophy of reunify at all costs no matter how long it may take.

You can quote the Adoption and Family Safety Act of 1997 and get a totally blank look from the people who are supposed to be in charge of enforcing the act. They need to get “all their ducks in a row” and follow the intent of the act which is “the best interest of the child is uppermost”. As it stands now, it’s the rights of the parents.  Their “civil rights” have to be protected no matter how much further damage is done to the children already scarred by the placement in the system.

A law is good only if it includes enforcement and penalty clauses; ASFA does not! The federal government completed it first audit of all 50 states in 2005 to see if they met the minimum of seven standards. The results were/are alarming as not one single state passed the audit. Despite this result not a single state was penalized.

Overall it appears to me that ASFA of 1997 has been a failure! You may read other of my blog entries that sight the various statistics for the past several years.

I could go on in length but will conclude this commentary with a simple statement: “It is time for the general public to demand the law be enforced. It will be to society’s benefit but more importantly to the youth languishing in the system.”  

Right to be heard:

I have addressed this issue in a previous blog entry but thought it appropriate to also include it here so the two laws would be together.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families web site includes the following:

8.3C.2b  TITLE IV-E, Foster Care Maintenance Payments Program, State Plan/Procedural Requirements, Case review system, notice and opportunity to be heard
 
2. Do the notice requirements in section 475(G) of the Social Security Act apply to all court hearings? Do they apply to shelter care, emergency removal, adjudication and disposition hearings? Do they apply to procedural hearings, such as pretrial hearings or hearings on motions for discovery?
 
Answer:  The revised statutory language confers a “right” to be heard instead of an “opportunity,” as well as changes such right to be heard to a “proceeding” instead of “review or hearing” as in the previous language. Thus, we are interpreting this change to mean that in having a “right” to any “proceeding” to be held with respect to the child, the foster parents, pre-adoptive parents or relatives providing care for a child must, at a minimum, be provided with notice of their right to be heard in all permanency hearings, as well as six-month reviews, if held by the court.
Source:  01/29/07
Legal Reference:  Social Security Act – section 475(5)(G), 45 CFR 1356.21(o)

If you wish to go to the source:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/j2ee/programs/cb/laws_policies/laws/cwpm/policy_dsp.jsp?citID=1

Imagine this was YOU!

For a brief moment, close your eyes; free your mind and imagine a baby, or a 2, 4, 6, or 10 year old and playing with their favorite toy.

All of a sudden, there’s a knock on the door. The foster parent opens the door and in walks a nicely dressed lady. The lady briefly speaks to them, then walks over to the child and says that they need to go with her. They don’t know where they’re going. As they are leaving, they notice the foster parents walking behind – carrying a partially packed brown paper grocery bag with all their worldly posessions. At this point, they don’t understand what’s happening; their heart starts to beat fast, they want to ask where they’re going but are afraid. Finally they take a deep breath and blurt out, “Where am I going?” The nicely dressed lady looks at them and replies, “You are going to a nice home.” The mind starts to travel, “What did I do wrong? Why can’t I stay here? Why don’t these people want me anymore?  Will I see my friends again? Will I go to the same school?”

At this moment, all that they have ever known has been taken from them; everything, except their name…though they aren’t sure if even that is real.

Now, imagine that child is YOU! Imagine also this has happened to you not once but two, four, eight…even twelve to fourteen times. Imagine finally that after all this you are left to age out of the system; upon your eighteenth birthday you are thrown out by a system that has been your “parent” all those years like a piece of garbage and told, “You are an adult now…make it on your own!”

This scenario is played over and over for the many children that are faced with foster care. Sometimes, we are given a second chance in life; the opportunity to come full circle. What we do with what is offered is totally up to us and no one else. Sometimes we go from bad to worse.

Being a foster child is not what we choose to be; but something that has been chosen for us. I often see us as “a product of the system”, viewing the world differently than others may view it. In our world, we often have seen pain, mistrust, abuse and even hatred. We are given a stigma that is hard to shake; if you ever can. Words are spoken to us that hurt tour very core.

We, in turn, create our own world where we hope to find that little piece of love, happiness or stability that was taken or absent in our lives. We use this as our defense mechanism.

Whether it benefits or harms us, this is the world we create; one which I created. My world was often in a remote area of the backyard of my various foster parents home; there I played with toy soldiers thinking for awhile I could rule the world.

As foster children we long to belong, to be loved and to have our very existence acknowledged. We want to belong in a world where we are like your own children, your own relatives. We wish to belong to a family that says we are theirs no matter what. We don’t want pity, we don’t need pity; we just want to be loved and cared permanently for without the presence of mistreatment, misrepresentation or dismissal.

As foster children, we experience special occasions such as holidays or birthdays and find them especially difficult and painful. We don’t really look forward to them but can’t stop them from coming. We see kids with their families, and wish that it were us. We lie in bed at night and ask “why not me?”
 
I have to wonder how many biological parents or children could endure the life many foster youth have had to endure…could you survive it and be whole?

I now find myself in a position to assist other foster children in ways that I was not assisted. God does things in His own time.

When I was young, I resented my bio-parents for what they had done and often my foster parents for what they didn’t do. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to accept the hand that I was dealt and now view the negative events in my life as things to make me a stronger person and as just stepping-stones to my future.

Every child will have a story to tell. Whatever story it is; Our Children will look to their teachers, social workers, clergy, and parents, as their guide through life. Will they tell the story of hate, sorrow, mistrust and pain? Or, will it be one of love, a story of someone that made a difference in his or her life.

Now reread the first paragraphs of this entry; imagine you lived this sort of childhood; What might your story be?

December Heroes to our Foster Youth

This is the third month since this particular blog entry began. I have found it extremely interesting searching the Internet as well as various other resources available to me in making my selection

My selection this month came down to two possibilities. One was a family in my own local community (Fargo, ND) who adopted four youth from foster care on National Adoption Day. This was a tough choice to pass up. The second, which is the choice, was chosen because of the work they do and the age group they work with.

December’s choice for “Heroes for our Foster Youth is:

“The Homecoming Project”
Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Homecoming Project is a Minnesota Department of Human Services project to increase the number of adoptions of adolescents who are under state guardianship in Minnesota.  The Minnesota Department of Human Services is contracting with the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network (MARN) to provide these services.  This demonstration project, funded by a federal Adoption Opportunities and Activities Grant, provides an opportunity to expand efforts to recruit permanent families for teenagers.

Their mission is:

To increase the rate and frequency of adoptions for teenagers under state guardianship

To strengthen participating youths’ connectedness to caring adults and the larger community

They work with youth ages 13-17 who:

• are under state guardianship

• have a permanency plan of adoption

• have no identified adoptive family

• had a termination of parental rights court 
   ordered more than one year ago

Minnesota, like most states in the country, has a high proportion (22%) of its youth in care between these ages. However, this age group only makes up 8% of the adoptions each year. Though I have a passion for all youth in care, this age group holds a very special place in my heart for I have been there, done that!

It has been shown across the country that as a youth ages as well as the longer they remain in care the less the prospect they will ever be adopted. This means they will age out of the system upon their eighteenth birthday.

In a few states assistance if offered to those aging out; if they meet and continue to meet certain requirements.

Unfortunately for youth in most states aging out; they will be on their own whether they are prepared for it or not. If teenagers in foster care don’t find permanent families, they face a grim future. Every year, more than 24,000 American young people age out of foster care.

Young people who age out of foster care don’t tend to fare very well. With nowhere else to go, many return to the biological families they were taken from to begin with, families where they faced abuse and neglect. They’re more likely than their peers to end up pregnant, or in jail. One study found that one in five young people who age out of foster care becomes homeless. Many never even finish high school.

A decade ago, children were more likely to spend years in foster care as authorities tried again and again to reunite them with their biological families. The 1997 Children and Safe Families Act called on states to terminate parental rights faster so that children would be available for adoption sooner. The idea was to give more children permanent, stable homes. This has proven in some cases successful but this success story mostly applies to babies and younger children, not teenagers.

In the years since, the number of children in foster care has dropped, overall. But the number of teenagers in foster care has risen. And for teenagers in foster care, the odds are still heavily against finding a family to adopt them.

Here are some of the numbers:

Total number of children in foster care in the United States:

1998: 559,000
2005: 513,000

Number of teenagers in foster care:

1998: 180,961 (31 percent of total)
2005: 203, 382 (40 percent of total)

Number of teenagers adopted from foster care:

1998: 3,096 (8 percent of total adoptions from foster care)
2005: 5,750 (11 percent of total adoptions from foster care)

Number of teenagers considered “awaiting adoption”*:

1998: 17,719 (14 percent of all children awaiting adoption)
2005: 29,437 (26 percent of all children awaiting adoption)

Number of teenagers who emancipated, or aged out, of foster care:

1998: 20,000             2005: 24,407

*Most of the children in foster care are not considered to be “awaiting adoption.” Adoption is the “case goal” of only 20 percent of the children. The case goal of some children is emancipation or long-term foster care, meaning no attempt is being made to find permanent families for those children. 2005 is the last year data is fully available.

Sources:

Figures compiled by Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System
(AFCARS).

The AFCARS report preliminary estimates for 2005 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

How many of you can say we were ready to face the world without support from family, mentors or others in the community willing to offer support in some fashion?

Most, when you turn eighteen will have a supportive family or other resource.  You may have assistance in helping pay for college; you will have a home to go to spend the holidays and summer vacations from school. You may even be provided a rent free place to live if you are attending college locally. You definitely, in most situations, will not be on your own; alone in the world.

I remember my first summer after aging out; it was spent on the streets surviving in any manner I could until college started in the fall. I was fortunate I at least had a scholarship to college. 

I remember that first Christmas season after I aged out of the system. During Christmas break when the campus closed down I had nowhere to go; I did not have a family or a home. I spent those three weeks, with special permission from the college, alone in my dormitory room. I spent the following years in the same manner.

Since I was not taking courses during the summer I had to vacate my dorm room. It was not home to family that I went; rather it was to a “rented room” while I worked during the summer until the fall semester.

I was one of the fortunate ones. Despite the lack of a support system; I made it! However, an overwhelming number of youth aging out without a support network, especially family, do not do so. Only 2% of these youth will make through to a college degree.

This is why “The Homecoming Project” is so important to the youth it serves.

Family is vital, whether it be biological or adopted, to a youth not only before they turn eighteen but even after. Many have family for many years; some even until their own death. Too many youth, where parental rights have been terminated, have no one.

The failure statistics among these youth I have indicated in previous blog entries.

One of the major practices The Homecoming Project is having the youth actually have a voice, many times for the very first time since they came into care. The youth are fully engaged in identifying and achieving their individualized permanency outcomes.  Not only are they able to participate in cultivating their own recruitment plans, developmentally they must participate, in order to mature into healthy adults. 

The Homecoming Project field tests innovative practices in adoption.  Wilder Research will document and evaluate the effectiveness of the project.  Findings will be published and distributed throughout the project, setting new standards for practice with adolescents in adoption…it is hoped it may one day become a program in communities throughout the country.

So with this in mind; has the project and youth proven to be successful?

The Homecoming Project got a federal grant to try to place more teenagers in permanent homes. It assigns kids adoption recruiters who search for people to adopt the kids. The project is now entering the fifth year of its five-year grant, and it has placed 32 teens in permanent homes. That’s a third of its caseload, and a much higher rate than the state average.

Here are just three of the success stories of The Homecoming Project:

Amanda & Chris: were featured on a MN NPR documentary program in November

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/fostercare/c1.html

Roger:

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/fostercare/e1.html

The project is directed by Michelle Chalmers, herself a former foster youth who aged out of the system. She spends her days trying to find families who will adopt teenagers, trying to persuade teenagers that they ought to consider being adopted, and trying to persuade the rest of the world that they should care what happens to kids in foster care.

When Chalmers herself turned 18 and couldn’t stay in her foster home anymore, she went to college. That’s unusual.

She couldn’t go back and stay with that family in the summer. She had to find jobs that included housing, such as being a camp counselor. She’s gone on to make good friends and to find a partner, but she still misses having a family. She says she’s 40 years old, but she’s still aging out of foster care. I can relate to Michelle since I am now 57 and still aging out. I say, “though you may leave the system, the system never leaves you!”

“Every holiday it’s the same, trying to figure out how much time I can be with my partner’s family,” she says.

The people in her partner’s family like each other. They call each other up to chat.

“It’s very nice. It’s very sweet,” she says.

“It’s wonderful but I have to take breaks. It makes my mind go crazy places … It’s a constant reminder of what could have been, or what most people on the planet have, in terms of human relationships.”

But that loss also helps her understand kids whose own families have fallen apart. “I think it’s one of the ways that I think I do my work well, is that I know the empty spots,” she says. “And that doesn’t mean we’re all a bunch of freaks running around who can’t function. But I think there are vulnerable empty spots that are just going to be there.”

So it makes her angry when people ask her why bother finding adoptive homes for teenagers.

“That blows me away, that anybody thinks that kids in foster care need families only until their 18th birthday,” she says. “I say, you’re 40, do you have a family? Most do.”

Although many people lose family members to divorce and death, it’s a rare person who has no family at all.

Chalmers says foster kids ought to have the same opportunity to have lifelong connections with people.

“We should have the same expectations for their future as the kids we birth,” she says. “We have a higher responsibility to them because we took these kids from their families – for good reason most of the time, but implicit in that is a promise to find something else.”

It makes her angry when well-meaning social workers teach foster kids how to find a homeless shelter or a food shelf after they age out.

“It’s like people who go on suitcase drives to collect suitcases because foster kids often move with their stuff in a garbage bag. That just puts me over the edge. Why do we assume that it’s OK for foster kids to move 500 times so we just get them luggage so they can do it prettier?

“People do these feel-good activities and the assumption is: You don’t deserve a family, you’re not going to get one … so here’s a new duffel bag! Good luck to ya! It feels insane to me.”

Michelle Chalmers wants to keep doing this work. Once the grant expires, it is in its final year, she plans to launch her own agency and keep finding teenagers a place they can call home forever.

For more information on the Homecoming Project works and the support they provide go to:

http://www.mnadopt.org/homecoming.htm

Some of the current teen youth eligible for adoption:

http://www.mnadopt.org/hp_youth.htm

Foster Care; “Right to be Heard”

As stated in previous blog entries; I belong to a number of on line message boards dealing with foster care and adoption.

One, of numerous, issues I have seen from foster parents is proceedings being conducted in which they were not advised of or not being given the opportunity to be heard at proceedings. This is an issue because who knows the foster child the best but the foster parents. Foster parents care for the youth twenty-four/seven while a social or case worker might be the youth for 20 minutes or so a month; if they are lucky. The judge and they mainly rely on the “case file” in making decisions.

Recently I received my E mail copy of “Fostering Perspectives” November 2007 issue. This comes out twice a year from the North Carolina Department of Human Services. I consider it one of the best state agency newsletters dealing with foster care and adoption in the country.

Two of the first sentences in the issues immediately caught my eye:

“There is a lot of change afoot in North Carolina’s child welfare system.

Just consider: a new federal law gives foster parents the right to be heard at court hearings.”

My first reaction was, “What, I haven’t heard of a new federal law! What is it and when was it passed and why hasn’t there been any news about it?”

I immediately felt the need to research the issue because I know of its importance to foster parents and foster youth.

I went to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families web site. It is very detailed though it is done in a way where one must know what they are looking for. I did numerous searches entering a variety of words…then BINGO! I hit the jack pot! Surprisingly the answer is in the Social Security Act and not one directly related to foster care.

8.3C.2b  TITLE IV-E, Foster Care Maintenance Payments Program, State Plan/Procedural Requirements, Case review system, notice and opportunity to be heard
 
2. Do the notice requirements in section 475(G) of the Social Security Act apply to all court hearings? Do they apply to shelter care, emergency removal, adjudication and disposition hearings? Do they apply to procedural hearings, such as pretrial hearings or hearings on motions for discovery? 
 
Answer:  The revised statutory language confers a “right” to be heard instead of an “opportunity,” as well as changes such right to be heard to a “proceeding” instead of “review or hearing” as in the previous language. Thus, we are interpreting this change to mean that in having a “right” to any “proceeding” to be held with respect to the child, the foster parents, pre-adoptive parents or relatives providing care for a child must, at a minimum, be provided with notice of their right to be heard in all permanency hearings, as well as six-month reviews, if held by the court.

Source:  01/29/07
Legal Reference:  Social Security Act – section 475(5)(G), 45 CFR 1356.21(o)

If you wish to go to the source:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/j2ee/programs/cb/laws_policies/laws/cwpm/policy_dsp.jsp?citID=1

As far as I can tell, in my initial research, that North Carolina is the only state to date to implement this change in the law regarding foster parents having the right to be heard in ALL proceedings regarding youth in their care. I have much more research yet to do about other states.

I believe every foster parent in every county and state should print a copy of this new federal statement and give it to their local agency and also send it to their state office and let them know they need to implement this new policy.

I am sure most states, as they have in the past on many issues, will move slowly on this issue or attempt to ignore it if possible.

This policy was established in January 2007 and it is now about to be December 2007. A year has almost gone by yet it appears foster parents continue to not be notified of proceedings and even when they are they are told not to come nor advised they have a right to be heard. This MUST change!

When it comes to foster youth, those who know the most about them; their problems, their improvements, etc. is the ones who provide the care not those who just read a case file…which many times is totally incomplete or contains wrong information.

It’s up to us; foster parents, youth advocates…the policy is now in place…WE must see that our state follows it!