My letter to the Office of Child Support Enforcement

May 13, 2012

Vicki Turetsky
Office of Child Support Enforcement Commissioner
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Office of Child Support Enforcement
Administration for Children and Families
370 L’Enfant Promenade, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20447

Dear Commissioner Vicki Turetsky,

As you may know, there are approximately 500,000 children in the foster care system in the United States. Recent studies have shown that foster youth who leave the system without a permanent family or home, face consistent negative life outcomes and suffer with psychological, social, and mental issues.

Children wait months to receive care due to social workers’ caseloads. The government is faced with an overwhelming demand for services and an inability of social workers to cope with demands. More than 20,000 children each year never leave the system until they “age out.” Putting “The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act” into effect would increase federal support – promoting adoption and relative guardianship resulting in permanent families; as well as focusing on improving education and health care for foster children.

Enclosed is a report outlining information on the negative effects that are occurring due to the inefficient foster care system, trends that are being seen within the children, statistics proving so, and possible alterations.  Above all, the implication of The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act is at hand and stressed.

With your 30 years of experience as a public administrator and advocate for low-income families, I seek for you help. Your expertise in family policy and influential acts in enhancing child support payments to families can make the difference between the Fostering Connections Act being successfully implemented and states failing to act in accordance with the law. Thus, your expertise and moral commitment is greatly needed to encourage state agencies and legislatures to take advantage of this law’s provisions and help emphasize the need for suitable implementations.

Please consider this proposal for the foster youth aging and engaging in our communities.

Sincerely,
Betsaida A. Garcia
California State University, Monterey Bay
Collaborate Health and Human Services Major
Concentration in Social Work
Restorative Justice Partners Inc. Mediator

Listen up folks..

Approximately 500,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States, more over the time frame a child needs to be in foster care is quite extensive. Persistent moves in and out of foster homes can be deeply unsettling for children. Most children who grow up in the foster care system suffer from psychological, social, and mental issues.

Children enter the foster care system when their parents or legal guardians are unable or unwilling to provide care. A child, who falls under the Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300 descriptions, is under authority of juvenile court, which may deem the child to be dependent on the court and turned over to Child Protective Services. A child protective agency then works together with a family court and makes legal decisions for the child to be taken care of by the foster care system.

Unfortunately, State budget cuts have affected California’s department of family and protective services, resulting in hundreds of foster children facing the possibility of moving into agency offices instead of foster homes due to insufficient availability of foster home placement. Children can even wait up to months to receive treatment or counseling due to social workers’ caseloads. The government is faced with an overwhelming demand for services and an inability of social workers to cope with demands.

More than 20,000 children each year never leave the system, they remain in foster care until they “age out.” Studies conducted on foster youth leaving the system without a permanent family or home, have shown steadily negative life outcomes.

Adolescents who grow up in the foster care system are far more likely to grow up with complications and misfortunes than children who have permanent homes. The nation’s foster care system is inefficient and rife with problems; it requires adjustments to improve the wellness of children and their future.

Federal, State, and local governments, communities, and individuals all have a role to play to make sure that foster children do obtain the resources and encouragement they need to reach their full potentials.  

It is important to provide support and hold provisions in budgets to assist states with the child welfare reform that includes foster care and adoption services. Putting “The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act” into effect can increase federal support – promoting adoption and relative guardianship resulting in permanent families; and focuses on improving education and health care for foster children.

Alterations need to be made, for the reason that these children will grow up to construct our communities. Living in healthy environments and receiving all the aid needed, assists foster children to be vigorous adults in our societies.                                    

Placement Settings

The foster-home shortage has left a growing number of children in crisis shelters, group homes and treatment facilities, rather than in family homes. Older youth in the foster care system are more likely to be placed in a group home or institution setting than younger children. They are even less likely to be taken into a pre-adoptive or family foster home, including with relatives or in guardianship. In 2009 nearly 54,000 youth aged 13 to 21 lived in a group or institutional setting.

Shown in the chart below, only 4 percent of the children under the age of 12 lived in group or institutional settings, because 84 percent of the children under the age of 12 were placed in foster homes with foster parents or relatives. So the likelihood of being in a family felt, foster home setting decreases when a child hits the age of 13.

 

Placement Settings for Youth in Foster Care (2009)

 

Older foster youth’s goals are significantly different from younger children, in the foster care system. Youth 13 and older are less likely to think that they will exit the foster care system through reunification with their parents or adoption. These children are more likely to have the goals of emancipation or long-term foster care. Furthermore that leads to having the older youth have longer stays in foster care. On average, kids between the ages of 19 and 21, have spent at least 7.5 years under the care of the foster care system.

 

The fact that children are staying in offices, crisis shelters, group homes and treatment facilities for no reason other than, the foster care system not having homes for them is ridiculous. It is wondered why foster children grow up with such negative aspects in their life, but it’s not that hard to see that it is their placement settings that drives that. Children need healthy homes in order to grow up with minor difficulties.

Overcrowded Foster Care System

The issue is that…

Approximately 500,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States (McCuistion, 2009). On average, children stay in the foster care system for almost three years before either being reunited with their families or adopted. (ABC News, 2006). Thus as time progresses, we come to face not having nearly enough possible foster care homes for the amount of children needing a shelter and care.

Rhetorical Timing

40% of the homeless people living in the United States were once in foster care and consist of the fastest growing portion of the homeless population (McCuistion, 2009). However Scott McCowan, the executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, states that it does not automatically mean that if an individual is in foster care, he or she will become part of that statistic. Yet there are often serious attachment disorders as a child may be moved from home to home. He says, “Sometimes there are too many children in one home. This is a vulnerable population and they need extra care” (McCuistion, 2009).

A Baltimore study completed by the McCuistion Program tracked foster care children for 12-18 months after they aged out of foster care and found: (McCuistion, 2009).

• 27% of the males and 10% of the females were incarcerated.
• 33% required public assistance.
• 37% had not finished high school.
  
  These statistics encouraged for the “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act” to be signed into law by President Bush on 2008. This act made a significant amount of changes in the Child Welfare System in order to improve foster care and adoption assistance (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). Without a doubt, by putting this act in effect, numbers of such negative impact on individuals in the foster care system would decline.