Teen moms slipping under scope of foster care bill

Teen moms slipping under scope of foster care bill

By JONATHAN FOERSTER, April 4, 2005

Two bills before state legislators this session propose to give
children in the foster care system an extra year under state control,
if either the courts or the child requests it.

But lost in the deluge of budgets and policies rests a small subset of
Florida's foster care population: foster children who are parents.

An even smaller population is those mothers in the foster system who
haven't graduated from high school, but are closing in on age 18. At
that point, they are no longer part of the system and must be prepared
to make it on their own.

Under the proposed legislation, these girls and their children would
only be eligible to remain part of the foster system at the rate of
payment given to a foster parent, $415 a month. The foster children at
this point could only remain in their current foster care situation.
That's not a problem for most foster home relationships, but for the
girls in foster care at Our Mother's Home in San Carlos Park, the
monthly stipend is not enough to cover even a week of care.

For the second year in a row, a teenage mother at the group home will
have her 18th birthday before she graduates from high school. In fact,
the girl will still be a year short of getting her diploma. But come
May 29, she has to find an apartment of her own.

"There isn't enough of a transitional situation for these kids,
because that's what they are — kids," local child welfare advocate
Stan Appelbaum said. "They're not adults. Most of the time they aren't
ready to deal with the issues in the real world."

The foster care system will give foster children who age out of the
system about $850 a month, as part of the Road to Independence
program, to help out with expenses if they continue to go to school.
The amount is less than one-third the amount the girl from Our
Mother's Home would need for her and her child to stay at the group
home, which needs $107 per mother-child group each day to operate.

It's also not enough to make end meet for a single mother going to
school full-time, said Mary Lewis, executive director of Our Mother's
Home.

"Turning 18 isn't a milestone," Lewis said. "Graduating is a
milestone. And even graduating from high school doesn't mean you are
ready to make it own your own."

Lewis is lobbying state legislators in an attempt to get enough
funding to let the girls and their children stay in her care until
they graduate high school. But lawmakers say it isn't as simple as
changing the regulations.

State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, is sponsoring the
Florida House of Representatives version of the bill to increase the
age limits. She said she is running into issues with the Department of
Children and Families over the financial ramifications of extending
the cut-off age to 19.

After correspondence with Lewis, Bogdanoff said she is considering
amending her bill to include provisions for specialty group homes, but
said she needed to study the issue before making a decision.

"I'm doing the research," she said. "DCF has already put a substantial
financial burden on the bill at this point."

However, she said money shouldn't be the reason to not to make changes
if necessary.

"It can't be an out of sight out of mind philosophy with these kids,"
she said. "We have to make sure they have the skills to succeed."
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