By Bevanjae Kelley, a grandmother raising her two granddaughters and a board member of the Child Welfare Organizing Project in New York
We were experiencing an empty nest, and I was going back to school to get my degree before my granddaughters, 4-year-old Cyré and 14-month-old Ayanna, came to live with me. Their mother, my daughter, was struggling, unable to recover from a traumatic childhood incident.
My daughter didn’t get the help she needed, and the law said she had only 15 months to comply. She wasn’t ready after 15 months. She told me her lawyer never returned her calls and that everyone she talked to said she would never get her kids back. I didn’t know anything about the system and neither did she.
When the 15 months was up, I was pressured to adopt. I would have preferred to be the girls’ guardian and not have to adopt them. Then my daughter wouldn’t have needed to terminate her parental rights.
I love and care for those girls and do all I can to meet their special needs. Cyré has now been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and everything has been a roller coaster ride these past few years. Both girls have also been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder. I got help from a local program that serves families with children who have a mental illness. They help the family work through problems instead of calling ACS. They provide 24-hour access to a psychiatrist, a case manager who coordinated services with school, a respite provider who took the girls out three times a week, and a therapist who provided in-home family therapy once a week. We were part of that program for about two years and it was very helpful. We all have more coping strategies and things are so much better.
I really wish these same services could have been available to my daughter when the girls were young. Everything would have been different then.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Kin Can and Do Provide Permanent Families for Foster Children
By Jennifer Miller, ChildFocus
Federal and state policies promote relative placements as the priority when children enter state custody. Recently, relatives have played an expanded role as resources for safety and permanency in the child welfare system. Relatives can help children preserve family relationships and help minimize the impact of separation from birth parent homes. (See CLASP's resource on kinship care.) They can provide support to birth parents working toward reunification. They are critical links for children in need.
When children cannot return home, relatives often provide permanence through adoption or guardianship. Adoptions by relatives increased from 15 to 21 percent between 1998 and 2000. By 2003, of the 50,000 children adopted from foster care, 23 percent were adopted by relatives. When adoption is not an option, guardianship is an increasingly viable permanency option. (Visit www.kidsarewaiting.com or www.cornerstone.to for more on guardianship.)
Relative adoption is particularly beneficial to African American children, who are vastly overrepresented in foster care. According to Penelope Maza of the Children’s Bureau, the percentage of African American children adopted by relatives increased each year since 2000, reaching a high of 25 percent in 2004. (Read full report.)
Relatives are often heroic—putting their lives on hold, delaying retirement, or using retirement years to parent again. Unfortunately, these same relatives are often marginalized. On the whole, children living with relatives receive fewer services, less oversight, and less funding than those living with unrelated caregivers. (Learn more: Children Cared for by Relatives: Who Are They and How Are They Faring? and Identifying and Addressing the Needs of Children in Grandparent Care.)
Reforms are needed to ensure that children living with relatives receive the help they need, including:
• Federal support for subsidized guardianship
• More flexible resources to prevent the need for children living with relatives to enter foster care
• More flexible funding to support relative adoptions; and
• Allowing states to set licensing and training standards for relatives that are different than those for unrelated caregivers
Kinship care is no longer a discrete program that sits off to the side of the child welfare system. Instead, it has become the face of child welfare and helps children achieve the safety, permanency and well-being they deserve. But relatives cannot do it alone. It is time to recognize and support this role for what it is: creating the next generation of healthy and productive citizens.
Federal and state policies promote relative placements as the priority when children enter state custody. Recently, relatives have played an expanded role as resources for safety and permanency in the child welfare system. Relatives can help children preserve family relationships and help minimize the impact of separation from birth parent homes. (See CLASP's resource on kinship care.) They can provide support to birth parents working toward reunification. They are critical links for children in need.
When children cannot return home, relatives often provide permanence through adoption or guardianship. Adoptions by relatives increased from 15 to 21 percent between 1998 and 2000. By 2003, of the 50,000 children adopted from foster care, 23 percent were adopted by relatives. When adoption is not an option, guardianship is an increasingly viable permanency option. (Visit www.kidsarewaiting.com or www.cornerstone.to for more on guardianship.)
Relative adoption is particularly beneficial to African American children, who are vastly overrepresented in foster care. According to Penelope Maza of the Children’s Bureau, the percentage of African American children adopted by relatives increased each year since 2000, reaching a high of 25 percent in 2004. (Read full report.)
Relatives are often heroic—putting their lives on hold, delaying retirement, or using retirement years to parent again. Unfortunately, these same relatives are often marginalized. On the whole, children living with relatives receive fewer services, less oversight, and less funding than those living with unrelated caregivers. (Learn more: Children Cared for by Relatives: Who Are They and How Are They Faring? and Identifying and Addressing the Needs of Children in Grandparent Care.)
Reforms are needed to ensure that children living with relatives receive the help they need, including:
• Federal support for subsidized guardianship
• More flexible resources to prevent the need for children living with relatives to enter foster care
• More flexible funding to support relative adoptions; and
• Allowing states to set licensing and training standards for relatives that are different than those for unrelated caregivers
Kinship care is no longer a discrete program that sits off to the side of the child welfare system. Instead, it has become the face of child welfare and helps children achieve the safety, permanency and well-being they deserve. But relatives cannot do it alone. It is time to recognize and support this role for what it is: creating the next generation of healthy and productive citizens.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
We Must Meet the Needs of Foster Children and Youth
by Joe Kroll, NACAC executive director
In March, the NACAC board approved a position statement (link) that states that the public child welfare system has primary responsibility to assess and address the cognitive, social, emotional, physical, developmental, and educational needs of children and youth who are or have been in the foster care system. To achieve this goal, NACAC seeks:
• Comprehensive assessments, conducted by a community-based, multi-disciplinary team, of a child’s or youth’s strengths and needs within 30 days of entering care, plus follow-up assessments
• Training of social workers, teachers, doctors, nurses, and others on the effects of abuse, neglect, and foster care placement
• A plan for provision of needed services, including continuing those services into adoption, guardianship, or reunification
To help achieve these goals, NACAC calls for legislation and rule changes that:
1. Require private and public medical insurance entities to cover mental health services at the same level as physical health services
2. Review Medicaid reimbursement rules and increase reimbursements and streamline the reimbursement process so that more providers accept Medicaid
3. Require HMOs to hire and retain qualified service providers, and when those providers are not available, to fully fund treatment received out of network
4. Fully support the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) program
To ensure educational continuity and success for foster children and youth, NACAC recommends (among other things):
1. Allowing foster children to remain in their school for a school year, in spite of placement moves, when it is in their best interests
2. Requiring agencies to consider school stability during placement decisions
3. Allowing a foster child to be immediately enrolled in school even if all typical requirements (records, immunizations, etc.) are not met
When a public agency takes custody of a child or youth, it must assume responsibility for providing the necessary services and support to achieve the best possible outcomes for that child or youth.
In March, the NACAC board approved a position statement (link) that states that the public child welfare system has primary responsibility to assess and address the cognitive, social, emotional, physical, developmental, and educational needs of children and youth who are or have been in the foster care system. To achieve this goal, NACAC seeks:
• Comprehensive assessments, conducted by a community-based, multi-disciplinary team, of a child’s or youth’s strengths and needs within 30 days of entering care, plus follow-up assessments
• Training of social workers, teachers, doctors, nurses, and others on the effects of abuse, neglect, and foster care placement
• A plan for provision of needed services, including continuing those services into adoption, guardianship, or reunification
To help achieve these goals, NACAC calls for legislation and rule changes that:
1. Require private and public medical insurance entities to cover mental health services at the same level as physical health services
2. Review Medicaid reimbursement rules and increase reimbursements and streamline the reimbursement process so that more providers accept Medicaid
3. Require HMOs to hire and retain qualified service providers, and when those providers are not available, to fully fund treatment received out of network
4. Fully support the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) program
To ensure educational continuity and success for foster children and youth, NACAC recommends (among other things):
1. Allowing foster children to remain in their school for a school year, in spite of placement moves, when it is in their best interests
2. Requiring agencies to consider school stability during placement decisions
3. Allowing a foster child to be immediately enrolled in school even if all typical requirements (records, immunizations, etc.) are not met
When a public agency takes custody of a child or youth, it must assume responsibility for providing the necessary services and support to achieve the best possible outcomes for that child or youth.
Monday, April 9, 2007
The Value of Adoption
By Mary Boo, NACAC assistant director
In December 2006, Mary Eschelbach Hansen—assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies at American Unversity’s Department of Economics—published The Value of Adoption. Hansen found that every dollar spent on adoption from foster care—including money spent by the government, plus money spent by adoptive parents to help their children heal—yields between $2.45 and $3.26 in benefits to society:
“An adoption from foster care costs state and federal government about $115,000, but saves the government about $258,000 in child welfare and human service costs, netting a savings of $143,000 (Barth et al. 2006, adjusted for inflation to 2000 dollars). I show that each adoption nets between $88,000 and $150,000 in private benefits and $190,000 to $235,000 in total public benefits (in constant 2000 dollars). Thus each dollar spent on the adoption of a child from foster care yields between $2.45 and $3.26 in benefits to society.”
These societal benefits are largely due to the fact that adopted children, when compared to those who languish in long-term foster care, do better. As Hansen cites, adopted children are:
• 32 percent less likely to be incarcerated
• 15 percent more likely to be employed
• more likely to have higher incomes (after adjusting for time spent in school) and
• less likely to participate in welfare programs
These advances result in higher wages over the adopted individual’s lifetime. Other savings are due to lower crime rates for children who have been adopted.
It is time for the government to increase its investment in supporting adoption from foster care—it’s certainly good for children and youth who cannot return to their birth families, and it’s good economic sense.
In December 2006, Mary Eschelbach Hansen—assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies at American Unversity’s Department of Economics—published The Value of Adoption. Hansen found that every dollar spent on adoption from foster care—including money spent by the government, plus money spent by adoptive parents to help their children heal—yields between $2.45 and $3.26 in benefits to society:
“An adoption from foster care costs state and federal government about $115,000, but saves the government about $258,000 in child welfare and human service costs, netting a savings of $143,000 (Barth et al. 2006, adjusted for inflation to 2000 dollars). I show that each adoption nets between $88,000 and $150,000 in private benefits and $190,000 to $235,000 in total public benefits (in constant 2000 dollars). Thus each dollar spent on the adoption of a child from foster care yields between $2.45 and $3.26 in benefits to society.”
These societal benefits are largely due to the fact that adopted children, when compared to those who languish in long-term foster care, do better. As Hansen cites, adopted children are:
• 32 percent less likely to be incarcerated
• 15 percent more likely to be employed
• more likely to have higher incomes (after adjusting for time spent in school) and
• less likely to participate in welfare programs
These advances result in higher wages over the adopted individual’s lifetime. Other savings are due to lower crime rates for children who have been adopted.
It is time for the government to increase its investment in supporting adoption from foster care—it’s certainly good for children and youth who cannot return to their birth families, and it’s good economic sense.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Adoption Works!
by Mary Boo, NACAC assistant director
Lamarr’s story (below) shows that adoption works and that children and youth—even teenagers—can find a permanent, loving family. Unfortunately not all young people find a family as Lamarr did. More than 3,000 children and youth in New York City are waiting for a family right now. Each year more than 700 youth age out of the city’s foster care system without legal family connections—more than 20,000 age out in each year in the U.S. Many of these young people have limited education and poor employment prospects. Too many leave care and end up homeless, incarcerated, and physically or mentally ill. A large number wish they had been adopted or lived permanently with a family under guardianship. Finding permanent families for all children must become a national priority.
Lamarr’s story (below) shows that adoption works and that children and youth—even teenagers—can find a permanent, loving family. Unfortunately not all young people find a family as Lamarr did. More than 3,000 children and youth in New York City are waiting for a family right now. Each year more than 700 youth age out of the city’s foster care system without legal family connections—more than 20,000 age out in each year in the U.S. Many of these young people have limited education and poor employment prospects. Too many leave care and end up homeless, incarcerated, and physically or mentally ill. A large number wish they had been adopted or lived permanently with a family under guardianship. Finding permanent families for all children must become a national priority.
Monday, April 2, 2007
My Adoption Story
By Lamarr Stapleton, former foster youth, New York
I was four when my brother and sisters moved in with our first foster family. It was decent. I was an A+ student. After a while, you’d forget you were in foster care. Then the agency says you have to move and the harsh reality that you’re in foster care hits you.
After we’d with the family for three years, the foster mother moved to Florida. My brother went to live with his dad, and my sisters and I were placed with a new family. My problem at the time was that I connected with people too quick. I got close to people and that was a problem when I had to leave.
Finally, my sisters and I moved in with Ms. Shirley Williams. Moving there went okay, but by then I was eight years old and I broke my habit of bonding with people quickly. Instead, I stayed close with my two sisters, the two people I knew I could count on. Things went well until my older sister went to live with her father. When we were all together, we had this chain that we were never going to break. My oldest brother was looking after my oldest sister, my oldest sister was looking after me, and I was looking after my youngest sister. After my brother and sister left, I was alone looking after my sister.
One day I just snapped and I wanted to see what it was like living on the other side of the education chain, I guess. I started skipping classes. I wasn’t smoking or drinking or anything, just school-wise, I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing.
Ms. Williams helped me turn things around. She kind of pushed me on the right path, and eventually adopted me and my sister. I thank her for opening up her family to me. I guess about two years before we got adopted, that’s when I really started opening up to her and her family. It was like I thought, ‘Okay, we’re going to get adopted. I can feel it. I might as well let them in as family now.’
I know I gave my mother a hard time, because I am a hardheaded kid. Whenever she said ‘no,’ I said ‘yes.’ But over time, I learned that when she was telling me these things, it’s to help me learn from her. Now she’s not only my parent, she is my best friend and I can talk to her. I can talk to her sons too. It’s just a cool family.
I was four when my brother and sisters moved in with our first foster family. It was decent. I was an A+ student. After a while, you’d forget you were in foster care. Then the agency says you have to move and the harsh reality that you’re in foster care hits you.
After we’d with the family for three years, the foster mother moved to Florida. My brother went to live with his dad, and my sisters and I were placed with a new family. My problem at the time was that I connected with people too quick. I got close to people and that was a problem when I had to leave.
Finally, my sisters and I moved in with Ms. Shirley Williams. Moving there went okay, but by then I was eight years old and I broke my habit of bonding with people quickly. Instead, I stayed close with my two sisters, the two people I knew I could count on. Things went well until my older sister went to live with her father. When we were all together, we had this chain that we were never going to break. My oldest brother was looking after my oldest sister, my oldest sister was looking after me, and I was looking after my youngest sister. After my brother and sister left, I was alone looking after my sister.
One day I just snapped and I wanted to see what it was like living on the other side of the education chain, I guess. I started skipping classes. I wasn’t smoking or drinking or anything, just school-wise, I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing.
Ms. Williams helped me turn things around. She kind of pushed me on the right path, and eventually adopted me and my sister. I thank her for opening up her family to me. I guess about two years before we got adopted, that’s when I really started opening up to her and her family. It was like I thought, ‘Okay, we’re going to get adopted. I can feel it. I might as well let them in as family now.’
I know I gave my mother a hard time, because I am a hardheaded kid. Whenever she said ‘no,’ I said ‘yes.’ But over time, I learned that when she was telling me these things, it’s to help me learn from her. Now she’s not only my parent, she is my best friend and I can talk to her. I can talk to her sons too. It’s just a cool family.
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