From: noraa@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (aaron.l.hoffmeyer)
Subject: Neglected or Abused Children, CPS, Foster Care and Prison
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 08:08:19 GMT
Keywords: children, special interest, state government, government, prison, legal

This article casts light on the systematic placement of neglected or
abused children in foster homes.  Often "neglect" means that the
parents are too poor to defend themselves against intervention by
Children's Protective Services.  The federal government gives $25,000
to the state per year for each child placed in foster homes.  The
state, in turn, gives foster parents about $6000 per child.  The state
nets $19,000 to cover the expense of the bureacracy.  The federal
government and the states rarely give money to the real parents for
education on parenting, or money just to get the electricity turned
back on.  And now, we are seeing the results of such a "slash and burn,
remove the children and brutally condemn the parents, at least we got
our piece of the pie" approach.

Here's the article....

Placement of children in foster homes can be harmful

	COLUMBUS, Ohio (UPI) -- Officials of children services agencies say
placement of children in foster homes can be harmful to the youngsters
and sometimes affect them for years afterward.

	``We are damaging these children, sometimes for life,'' said Dan
Schneider, director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio,
which represents the 88 county agencies statewide. ``No matter how bad
the situation at home, the attachment to the birth parents is very
strong.''

	Schneider said the goal of children services agencies is to protect
children, and that means there always will be a need for removing
children from obviously dangerous situations. But currently it is done
far too often, he said.

	Karen Boyd Bell of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio
said a study conducted by Urban Systems Research and Engineering in
Washington, D.C., showed more than half of the inmates in Ohio prisons
were once in the foster care system.

	``Sixty percent of the people in prison were in foster care as
children,'' Bell said. ``Everyone in this business knows that. But we're
only starting to wake up to it. We haven't been listening to the
children.''

	Foster care also is costly.

	Ohio children service agencies spent about $224 million in local,
state and federal money on foster care in 1991, Schneider said.

	Some people who work in the system want to see changes in how the
money is spent.

	But, national funding priorities work against helping fix families
and in favor of taking children. There is relatively little money for
helping families with the mental health problems, drug problems or
poverty issues that lead to chlid dependency, neglect or abuse. But
there is plenty of federal money for placing children in foster care.

	The federal government guarantees states partial reimbursement for
expenditures for children in foster homes, group homes and other
institutions.

	``If we do all the right things, we can be reimbursed for up to 60
percent of placement cost and administrative costs,'' said Don Friend,
associate director of Franklin County Children Services in Columbus.

	``There's nothing that comes in for helping us buy services,'' Friend
said. ``The state is not dumping any money on us, but plenty of
regulations to comply with.''

	Bell noted that some children, after surviving abuse and neglect at
home, also survive the foster care system and go on to become successful
adults.

Aaron L. Hoffmeyer
TR@CBNEA.ATT.COM