ParentingBanter.com - View Single Post - abc's crisis of the foster care system (cross-posted)

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wrote:
abc's primetime did a june 1 story on "the crisis of the foster care
system"..............among abc's conclusions were 52 percent of foster
children suffered from post-traumatic stress (a rate twice as high as
soldiers returning from war).............thirty percent of the homeless
have been in foster care............ twenty-five percent of those in
prison are foster care alumnus............. like welfare, foster care
is intergenerational (children growing up in foster care can become
mothers with children in foster care........... "the highest ranking
federal official in charge of foster care, wade horn of the department
of health and human services, is a former child psychologist who says
the foster care system is a giant mess and should just be blown
up"............."there are no provisions for treatment, prevention,
family support, or aging out - just for supporting things as they
are"..........that status quo costs taxpayers $22 billion a year and
works out to $40,000 a year to keep a child in foster
care....................beyond abc's findings, the per annum cost per
child in foster care would keep a child in a good boarding
school............

You miss the point. In fact that IS about what is happening.
Unfortunately THIS "boarding school" is about one, keeping the child
safe from the abuses done to them by their parents and family...in 95%
of the cases.

This "boarding school" must include therapy for the mental confusion and
suffering, rehabilitation for the developmental injuries, often medical
rehab for physical injures.

The truth is it costs a family, on average from birth to age 18 ...

"According to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a family
with a child born in 2000 can expect to spend about $165,630 ($233,530
when factoring in inflation) for food, shelter and other necessities to
raise that child over the next 17 years. "

That would pencil out, presuming they haven't abused their child into
special needs category, as the vast majority of CPS foster placed
children are, to $13,737.05 per year.

Other sources estimates run as high as $13,900 per year.

Do YOU know any foster parent getting 13k per annum foster subsidy per
child?

Do mental health and rehabilitative services come free?

Should the workers and staff of CPS work for free, on overloaded case loads?

What does it cost to support the legal services to the child?

$26,263 is what's left from that $40,000. For all these other supports
and services.

INCLUDING THE FOSTER SUBSIDY itself.

That averages about $5,400 per year (around $450 mo).

Now we are down to $20,600 for the remainder of costs.

A single session of therapy runs about $100 and are usually once or
twice a week. It is not uncommon for a child to have multiple
complaints, physical and mental, to be healed.

Many are behind in school when they enter state custody. Some
developmentally delayed. Some are so emotionally disturbed that they
cannot even reside in a regular foster family but must be placed with a
specially trained and higher paid "therapeutic foster family."

Some, sadly, can't even manage there and have to go to a more secure
and regulated setting where even line staff are trained therapists, and
in addition, trained in dealing with dangerous clients.

I worked in such a place.

The children that came there from their bio families had a lot of
interesting issues. Old untreated broken bones. Eye's eskew from from
head injuries, and of course also untreated. Drug effects. Developmental
disorders and disfunctions (meaning some were treatable and some not).

And these was NOT the end of it. Some children were so bad off they
could not even reside in a treatment facility, but had to be sent to a
locked psychiatric hospital ward.

Only a few, but there they were. Too sick and dangerous to live
anywhere, but locked up.

And those that work in the mental health child rehab and treatment field
are notoriously underpaid. Those are the ones that do the day to day
living with the children as surrogate temporary parents.

$40,000 IS A BARGAIN, stupid.

What proof do I have that you are observer?

Easy. Your lack of information, your lack of intelligence, your
propensity to lie continuously, and finally your unerring ability to
make a complete fool of yourself.

0:-

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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin (or someone else)