Foster Care Report

I've been studying a report from the California Mental Health Planning Council, "Foster Care Study Report", dated October 2007. You may be asking why, well, I don't have a book of Fairy Tales (which is quite an inside joke and not a dig on the Report, actually). When I am asked why I am reading it, I usually say, "so that you don't have to."

This sucker is 60 pages long, and I am only on page 20. Plus, throughout the report it alludes to different studies and agencies which I also have to get familiar with. Today, I got through some 10 plus pages while sucking down a Jamba Juice. (I was talking to a judicial officer the other day and I mentioned I was reading this report. The response was some degree of frustration of the amount of reports needing to be read. I'd say. Ironically, I then handed a report to her to read!)

Highlights so far:

To improve accountability there are several components being implemented. I am commenting on just one of them. It is called County Self-Assessments, with the purpose of identifying its strengths and challenges and conducts re-assessments every three-years. EVERY THREE YEARS?!!! That is WAY TOO LONG!!! (Well, in all fairness, there is also the Quarterly County Data Reports which I will get my hands on.)

One of the welfare services policy and practice shifts is called, Prevention and Early Intervention. To quote, "the service approach has changed to place a greater emphasis on prevention and early intervention activities as the most effective method of protecting children and decreasing the demand for foster care."

BUT

"the current financing structure creates a financial incentive to place and keep children in foster care."

"This means that there are limited funds available to provide services to families to keep them at home, or return them to their parents. Moreover, funding is scarce for the types of prevention and early intervention services that communities are seeking."

This is the point that has been being used to alleged that Child Protective Services are kidnapping children for 'bonuses'.

However, in January 2007, there supposedly was an exemption or waiver to partly address the above. "The purpose of the waiver is to encourage and allow the use of innovative strategies or intensive services in order to prevent or limit placement in foster care." This waiver ends on December 20, 2011.

Some other bullets of possible interest from the report:

Medi-Cal program expenditures for Foster Care increased 350% over a ten-year period to $3,352 per eligible and the average cost per client was $6,793.

"... it is impossible to judge the quality, availability or the manner in which services are being delivered. "

"More than 700,000 children come into contact with California's child welfare system each year. On any given day, more than 175,000 children are in contact with the child welfare system. However, the majority of children in California's CWS (Child Welfare System) are not in foster care."

"More than 86,000 children were in foster care in 2004, a decline from the 108,000 children who were in foster care in 2000."

"Of the children in foster care about 19,000 will reunify with their parents and 8,000 will be adopted during the course of a year. About 51% of the children in foster care in California have been in foster care for over two years. As these children remain longer in care, their likelihood of being reunified decreases..."

Tomorrow is probably another 10 pages, another Jamba Juice.