Child Welfare and Foster Care

Posted on December 20, 2013 by admin

• Increasingly, youths are entering U.S. alone and undocumented, By Julie Shaw, December 20, 2013, Philadelphia Daily News: “Esteban rode on top of seven cargo trains, narrowly escaped death at the hands of a Mexican gang leader and was robbed on his years-long journey from Honduras to Philadelphia…And like a staggering number of minors under 18, Esteban – not his real name – entered without papers and without a parent or adult guardian. In the last two years, the number of unaccompanied children who have made the dangerous journey alone, and who have ended up in federal custody, has nearly quadrupled…”
• Private foster care system, intended to save children, endangers some, By Garrett Therolf, December 18, 2013, Los Angeles Times: “They were found barefoot in January, huddled under a blanket against the biting High Desert winter cold, two kids on the run from a former foster mother, who had bound their hands with zip-ties and beat them. Investigators substantiated in October that a Lancaster foster father sexually abused two young sisters in his care. Such cases of abuse are scattered through the files of California’s privatized foster care system — children whipped with belts, burned with a car cigarette lighter and traumatized by beatings and threats. California began a modest experiment 27 years ago, privatizing a portion of foster care in the belief that it would better serve children and be less expensive. Lawmakers decided to enlist local charities to help recruit and supervise foster parents. Today, the state’s private foster family system — the largest in the nation — has become more expensive and more dangerous than the government-run homes it has largely replaced…”
• Tennessee uses incentives to change a troubled foster care system, By Garrett Therolf, December 18, 2013, Los Angeles Times: “Private foster care agencies in California are paid a set fee for each child — about $1,870 per month to cover the cost of care and administration. The payment system has created an inadvertent incentive for some foster agencies to scrimp on care and lower standards on foster parents so they can take on more children. Over the last two decades, a group of states has begun to take a new approach based on setting big incentives — and big penalties. The basic strategy has been adopted by at least 12 states across the country, including Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Florida and Tennessee…”