A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » alt.parenting » Spanking
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Foster care alternatives sought



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old June 10th 08, 06:57 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
fx
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,848
Default Foster care alternatives sought

Foster care alternatives sought

BY LAURA KELLAMS

Posted on Monday, June 9, 2008

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/228183/

It’s long been the state’s goal to more quickly find permanent homes for
children who otherwise would languish in foster care.

Now, child welfare officials are looking for ways to keep some of those
kids from being uprooted in the first place.

“We need to make sure our workers have all the resources they need to
keep kids safe at home, if possible,” said Pat Page, director of the
Department of Human Services’ Children and Family Services Division.

To that end, Arkansas is taking part in a “policy academy” with the
National Governors Association. The aim is to come up with ideas for how
to safely reduce the number of children in foster care. Arkansas is one
of six states chosen by the association, along with Florida, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

In Arkansas, the number of children in foster care grew 40 percent from
1999 to 2007. During the same time, the number in foster care nationally
declined about 10 percent.

Susan Golonka, the association’s program director for human services,
said states have realized that some children would be better off if
they’d never been removed from home at all.

“There’s a growing recognition and understanding that while it’s always
important to make sure children are safe, we probably remove children
more often than we should,” Golonka said. “And once they’re in care,
they’re there too long.” The tricky part is figuring out when it’s safe
to leave the children in their homes. Arkansas officials will be working
with their colleagues in other states and with the association to figure
out in broad terms what types of situations lend themselves to a
different approach.

“Removal from the home itself creates trauma,” Golonka said. “If we have
supports we can provide the family and the child in the home, in their
community — that, in the long run, can be better for the child.” It
could mean requiring parents to take part in substance abuse treatment
or mentalhealth care, or helping them find housing or other services
from state agencies or local nonprofit agencies or churches.

The project is underwritten by Casey Family Programs, a Seattle-based
foundation committed to halving the number of children in foster care by
2020. More adoption is part of that, but so is reducing the practice on
the “front end,” Golonka said.

“It’s pretty ambitious,” she said.

In its proposal to the governors group, the state Children and Family
Services Division reported that there’s a dearth of substance-abuse
programs available to Arkansans.

Parental substance abuse accounts for 25 percent of children entering
foster care, according to the report. Yet the division estimated that
only 7 percent of Arkansans needing treatment for substance abuse got it
in 2007.

Another problem is the “family preservation” programs — such as those to
relieve parents of child-care duties temporarily — have dwindled as the
number of children in the system increased, taking a greater share of
state resources, the report stated.

The “team” working on an Arkansas strategy includes Department of Human
Services employees as well as lawmakers and representatives of Gov. Mike
Beebe and the juvenile court system. They’ll meet with National
Governors Association officials later this month to begin devising a
two-year plan by the end of the year.

Connie Hickman Tanner, director of Juvenile Division Courts for the
Administrative Office of the Courts, is a member of the policy team. She
said she wants the group to look closer at short-term foster cases to
determine why the children were placed into care to begin with and what
happened.

She pointed out that in 2007, 11 percent of the children were in foster
care for less than 30 days. Another 12 percent were in for less than 90
days.

They can find out why it happened that fast — whether the children were
returned home quickly or the state found relatives or others to take
care of the children. If they went home quickly, the state or other
community support groups may have been able to offer help that was
effective.

“Those two figures make you think... what can we do to strengthen these
families ?” Tanner said.

Children aren’t necessarily better off in foster care, she said. Two
children have died in Arkansas while in foster care in the past month.
On the other hand, she and others have complained that the state has
been slow to take some children into foster care who they think should
be there.

Any decisions have to be made case by case, and the state has to have
the resources to fall back on to make those decisions with the safety of
children in mind, Tanner said.

Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, said lawmakers and others are
beginning to wonder whether there are just too many children in foster care.

“We question whether we’re doing well by all of those children, because
some of them get moved from house to house,” Madison said.

Madison and Rep. Tracy Pennartz, D-Fort Smith, are the legislative
members of the policy academy team.

Pennartz said the state might be able to shift spending priorities to
help the system work better. If there are fewer children in foster care,
then the payments made to foster parents could be used instead to
support services for biological families.

“If we could reinvest some of that money and get these families that
type of counseling,... we’d have a much more effective Division of
Children and Family Services,” she said





An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"

Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.

every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

Perpetrators of Maltreatment

Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.

THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST

Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia

http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6

This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.

http://www.jbs.org/node/4632

Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail

FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler

http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc

HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN

http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html

Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News

http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm

A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca

30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed

Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.

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.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991

Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing.

This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.

Front-page story in USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close

Read the studies online.

Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"

http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm

MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"

http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf

Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports:

www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren

The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...

CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Florida, Foster care inquiry sought: Andrea Moore said "It's clearFlorida children are not being protected in our child protection system," fx Spanking 0 August 3rd 07 06:31 AM
Florida, Foster care inquiry sought: Andrea Moore said "It's clearFlorida children are not being protected in our child protection system," fx Foster Parents 0 August 3rd 07 06:31 AM
Calif: Large foster care probe sought by legislators Fern5827 Foster Parents 0 March 10th 04 06:17 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:32 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright 2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.