I have said in previous posts that there needs to be a consistent way of doing things on a national level, when it comes to providing for children in foster care. As it is now, it is up to the individual states as to how they run their programs, and what services they offer children and families in need. I will now begin to cover each state and what they offer as far as foster care services.
While some programs are the same state to state, many states offer very different and unique services for children in care. I will progress alphabetically, and start with Alabama.
One of the first things I found on the Alabama Department of Human Resources web site is that they have a foster parent handbook. I’m talking about 123 pages of great information, like minimum standards for foster care, dealing with birth parents, confidentiality, training, fun surveys, developmental stages in children, …etc. How cool is that? I saved a copy for my reference too. It’s an awesome resource for any foster or adoptive parent.
Then there is an Alabama foster parents’ bill of rights, which is an eight page document that spells out exactly what is expected of foster parents, and what support services are available to them.
The state offers foster care services for children as well as programs to help teen Moms. They also have therapeutic foster care homes, and a therapeutic foster care manual. There is a residential services directory, an online residential resource directory, and a therapeutic foster care directory.
Alabama has child protective services, foster care services, and family services. They have links to the Alabama Heart Gallery, Alabama non-profit organizations, and waiting children. With just the limited amount of research I have done on the state of Alabama and its foster care services, I would say that they are one of the states that are doing it right. By that, I mean they have a plan of how they are going to try and solve the problem of children in out of home placements, by helping families and children prior to abuse and neglect becoming a problem.
Next, we have Alaska…
There have been efforts made towards nationwide consistency.
Two recent examples are:
1.) The National Judicial Leadership Summit (last summer) invited judges and welfare administrators from states all over the nation to come up with “State Action Plans.”
The National Center for State Courts has just released plans from that summit.
2.) A National Curriculum for Caseflow Management was also developed (in 2005).
Likewise, the PEW Commission has been working towards nationwide consistency in judicial leadership regarding foster care.
It’s not that efforts aren’t being made to address the problem of nationwide inconsistency… it’s that somehow those efforts aren’t being communicated.
Too many family court judges don’t even know about the PEW Commission.
As a former foster child and current child advocate, I discuss these issues in my blog:
http://sunshinegirlonarainyday.blogspot.com/
Lisa,
Thanks for the comment, and especially the link to your blog. I couldn’t find you last time. I know the PEW commission and others are making progress in reforming the system, but I want to get the word out there so everyone knows what is going on.
I very much support the work that you are doing.
I am a chapter designee for FCAA (Foster Children Alumni of America). I will be traveling to Seattle, Washington at the end of the month to find out what this entails.
I look forward to discussions with other foster care alumni about our personal experiences in the system and efforts to change policy nationwide.
Publicizing the good things that are being done, and challenging some of the atrocities is a worthwhile goal.
Thanks to you and your colleague(s) for your postings toward that effort.
Lisa
Has there been any discussion on this blog about the recent development of Washington forming a foster parent union? A group of foster parents in our area have been following this closely and we have many of the same concerns. We are in Kansas and our foster care system in ran by private agencies who contract with the state. They are making huge profits off of the state contracts, but shifting more and more work to the foster families. We are now expected to supervise visits with the biological parents! We are “volunteers” as foster parents. We do not even get reimbursed the USDA national average of cost for raising a child in our area. We recieve a rate of 18.50 per day, they pay daycares more than the “reimburse us for the costs of raising these children. Please don’t think “we are wanting in it for the money”…but why are foster parents, who are in the trenches everyday suppose to foster out of the goodness of our hearts? Why don’t the social workers and agency workers, the Dr.s, they psycholigist, the dentist and all other people who work with foster children doing it out of the goodness of their hearts? Do you think we would have social workers if they were asked to be “volunteers”?? The only thing worse than being the only volunteers for foster children, is that we are volunteers without a voice and without rights. I have fostered for over 6 years and I love it,but the out of pocket expense is becoming overwhelming. We do not get reimbursed for school supplies, respite care, extracarricular activities, graduation expenses, prom expenses, mileage reimbursement, supervising visits (which we are not trained for) going to dinner and a movie with thier friends, car insurance….the list is endless. And everyone acts like it is such a mystery why there are not enough foster homes….hmmmmm, let me think………