From: sbishop@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: misc.kids,alt.dads-rights,alt.child-support,soc.men,soc.women
Subject: Re: Neglected or Abused Children, CPS, Foster Care and Prison
Date: 15 Dec 92 06:29:18 EST
Organization:  Wright State University 

In article <1992Dec15.080819.7725@cbnewsk.cb.att.com>, noraa@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (aaron.l.hoffmeyer) writes:
> 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.
> 

First of all, I would suggest you check your figures.  In our county, foster
care providers are given $300 per child per month, not any where near $6000
a year.
And, in the state of Ohio, the case workers are mandated to get the child
placed back in the home as soon as possible.

One thing to note, I am very familiar with the lady who runs our local 
Childrens' Services.  Last time I talked to her she was feeling very harrassed.
She said she was getting innodated with phone calls from people wanting
CS to TAKE their kids.
BTW, ADC is pretty much comparable to Foster Care payments. 


> 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 

In our area there are almost no foster care providers who take teens.  The
teens end up in group homes or back home with abusive parents.  Often the
kids end up bouncing back and forth between the foster homes and the parents.

Counciling is provided free for distressed families but the problems in many
families is so bad that no amount of counciling would help.  

Most of the kids I see in our area are not from extremely poor families, but
from working class or middle class families that are extremely dysfunctional.
Sad to say, abuse is not tied to poverty or lack of money.

Sue