Report: Proposed Foster Care Limits Mean More Child Abuse, Crime; Ohio Law Enforcement Leaders Urge Senators to Oppose Safety Threats

Report: Proposed Foster Care Limits Mean More Child Abuse, Crime; Ohio
Law Enforcement Leaders Urge Senators to Oppose Safety Threats

2/24/2005 10:49:00 AM

Contact: Cyndy Rees of Fight Crime Invest in Kids Ohio, 614-485-0358;
614-264-6662 (cellular)

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio, Feb. 24 / U. S. Newswire/ -- Ohio law enforcement
leaders today released a new report showing that a proposed new limit
on national foster care funding would likely result in both more child
abuse and, when abused children grow up, more crime. They urged the
state's congressional delegation to oppose this dangerous abandonment
of America's commitment to child and public safety.

Current law ensures that whenever Ohio has to provide more eligible
abused and neglected children with foster homes, it can count on the
federal government to provide a matching share of the needed support.
However, as early as March, Congress is expected to consider
legislation that would limit national foster care funding to states.

At a news conference held at the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Ohio
law enforcement leaders said that research shows leaving kids in
dangerous homes where they face continuing abuse and neglect increases
the risk that they will become violent criminals by 27 percent. Four
out of 10 children who are abused and neglected and left in their
homes, but later need to be placed in foster care because of further
abuse, commit violent crimes when they grow up.

"Ohio law enforcement leaders are counting on Senators DeWine and
Voinovich to ensure abused and neglected children get safe foster
homes," said Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly. "If we don't invest in
foster care now, we'll pay later when our communities and loved ones
are at risk of crime and violence. Homeland security begins at home."

The law enforcement leaders are representatives of the statewide
anti-crime organization FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS OHIO, whose
members include more than 85 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and
crime victims. It is part of the national organization headquartered
in Washington, D. C., FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, with more than
2,000 members.

Jeff Kirsch, vice president of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, said that
the limit on national foster care dollars proposed by Representative
Wally Herger (R-Calif.) would likely lead to a shortage of adequate
foster homes, and to more abused and neglected children being left in
homes where there is the threat of further abuse or neglect. In 2002,
50,141 children in Ohio were victims of abuse or neglect, and 72 died
as a result of being maltreated. Had a funding limit gone into place
in 1999, the number of Ohio children in need of foster care would have
exceeded the limit in each of the following three years.

Ohio would not be alone in facing a shortage of safe foster homes for
at-risk children under this proposed new limit on national foster care
dollars. More than three-fourths of the states had an increase in
demand for foster care in at least one of the four years from 1999 to
2003.

"When more children need foster care, what's going to happen to them
if the funds are capped?" said Cyndy Rees, state director of FIGHT
CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS OHIO. "Are the caseworkers going to have to say,
'Well, we're just going to have to leave this one at home, even though
it's not a safe place to be, because we just don't have a safe
alternative."

In 1997, Ohio began implementing a waiver demonstration project that
capped foster care funding to 14 counties and thereby removed the
commitment of assistance for each eligible abused or neglected child
who needs a safe foster home, in exchange for more flexibility in
administering the funds. An evaluation of the project found that the
waiver did not bring about a significant change in foster care
expenditures or child and family outcomes. According to the report,
Abandoning Ohio's Most Vulnerable Kids: Impact on Crime of Proposed
Federal Withdrawal of Foster Care Funding Pledge, the outcome of this
demonstration proves that trading the commitment of a safe foster home
for children who need it in exchange for flexibility, alone, does not
deliver results.

"Abandoning the assurance that the federal government will share the
cost of providing each abused child a safe foster home could well mean
leaving kids in homes where they face continuing cruel abuse or
neglect, and lead to more crime in the long run," Kirsch said.

The law enforcement leaders expressed concern that methamphetamine and
heroin use is increasing in Ohio, and a surge in drug use could
further increase the number of abused and neglected Ohio children
needing safe foster homes. Methamphetamine lab seizures in Ohio have
shot up from 29 in 2000 to 123 in 2004. In just three months in 2003,
the interim director of Child Protective Services in Clermont County
had seen 20 to 25 children removed from their homes due to their
parents' involvement with meth.

The report also notes that heroin use in Ohio is on the rise. The Ohio
Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services reported the number
of treatment admissions for heroin abuse increased from 6,878 in 2002
to 7,416 in 2003.

Columbus residents Bill and Margie Rains, who adopted their young son
from the foster care system more than a year ago, described their
experience parenting a former foster child who desperately needed a
safe home.

"We know from experience that foster families make a difference in the
lives of vulnerable children," Margie Rains said. "It worries us that
when we're trying to provide a normal life for children, a limit on
foster care funding would pull the rug out from under children and
foster families."
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43508

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