Youth Voices Can and Should Be Heard

The Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO) recently launched the My Story Project, an opportunity for foster youth to create photo and video expressions of what foster care reform would mean in their lives.

Why should youth participate? Because too many kids are spending too many years in foster care, and changes need to be made. Many are waiting to go home; others are waiting for a permanent family. Current or former foster youth know this better than anyone.

PCSAO will be creating a Web site to showcase the resulting projects, and will feature them in a film festival in September.

All youth who participate by submitting their stories by July 1, 2007, will receive a My Story Project T-Shirt, be entered into a drawing to win an iPod Nano, and have a chance to advocate on behalf of other youth. We encourage you to tell any current or former foster youth you know about this exciting opportunity to raise their voices in a call for reform.

Subsidized Guardianship Legislation Introduced in House

By Mary Boo, NACAC assistant director

On May 10, 2007, Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) and Congressman Tim Johnson (R-IL) introduced H.R. 2188, the Kinship Caregiver Support Act to mark the 10th anniversary of Illinois’ highly successful subsidized guardianship program. As Davis explained, this bill would provide kinship caregivers with the necessary resources to meet their children’s needs.

Currently federal financial assistance is available only to foster and adoptive families, with only a few states having a waiver that enables them to receive federal support for guardianship families. In his statement, Davis noted:

“Adoption is not a viable option for many children to exit foster care. For example, courts explicitly rule out this permanency option for approximately 20,000 children in relative care each year. Moreover, adoption is not equally availed by families of all races and ethnicities, especially those in African-American and Native-American communities. Thus, subsidized guardianship is an important path to permanency for many abused and neglected children."

In addition to federally funding subsidized guardianship, the bill would:

• implement additional supports for kinship caregivers, such as establishing informational navigator programs to assist grandparents and relatives in accessing appropriate services and supports
• allow states to establish separate licensing standards for relative foster parents and non-relative foster parents and require state agencies to provide prompt notice to all adult relatives when children are removed from parental custody
• expand eligibility for the Foster Care Independence Program so that education and training vouchers as well as independent living services are available to young people who exit foster care after age 14 to guardianship or adoption

Congressman Johnson, in a press statement, explained that the Kinship Caregiver Support Act serves not only meets the aims of family cohesiveness but long-range savings in tax dollars as well: “We are now in effect penalizing grandparents who have the heart and compassion to raise their own but not always adequate means,” Rep. Johnson said. “We can achieve family unity and all the blessings that confers along with saving resources over the long-term. This is a common-sense, bipartisan proposal that deserves to become law.”

This bill is a companion to Senate bill 661 of the same name, introduced by Senators Clinton (D-NY) and Snowe (R-ME).

Bans on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Parents Are Bad for Kids and the Nation

By Mary Boo, NACAC assistant director

The Urban Institute recently released Adoption and Foster Care by Lesbian and Gay Parents in the United States, which includes the following key findings:

• An estimated 2 million GLB individuals are interested in adopting.
• An estimated 65,000 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.
• An estimated 14,000 foster children are living with lesbian or gay parents.

The report also notes that a national ban on GLB foster care would cost the country at least $87 million to $130 million, with costs to individual states ranging from $100,000 to $27 million.

More importantly, the report notes that if a national ban were implemented from 9,000 to 14,000 children would be displaced, severing critical bonds with approved, caring parents and harming the children. Moves in foster care have been shown to be particularly damaging to children, affecting their education, mental health, behavior, and more.

NACAC opposes bans on gay and lesbian foster and adoptive parenting, and this report makes clear that such bans are bad for children and youth. Children and youth in foster care need families to help them grow and thrive. We should not exclude an entire group of parents who can offer them a safe, stable, loving home.

We Must Do More for Foster Children

By William A. Thorne, Jr., Judge, Utah Court of Appeals; Member, Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care

There are half a million kids in this country in foster care today. There are 800,000 kids who will be in foster care this year. That is about the population that was evacuated from New Orleans before Katrina. And we were ready to move mountains to help those people—justifiably—they needed help. And yet people don’t seem to be getting upset that we have half a million kids who also need help.

I issue a challenge to all of you: If these kids were your children, would we be satisfied with what we do for them and on their behalf?

I can’t tell you how angry I am when I hear or read stories like Jessica’s below. When we take kids away from their families, we ought to do better for them. Nobody should have to live the life that Jessica went through. That’s why I joined the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care hoping to make a difference.

Enough is enough. More than 20,000 kids are going to age out of the system this year. 20,000 Jessicas. One expert came to us at the Commission and told us that of the 20,000 who age out, 60 percent will be homeless, in jail, or dead in two years. Jessica is a remarkable success and she has my admiration for having gotten where she is today.

I wouldn’t have been able to get where Jessica has without a family behind me. I listen to youth like Jessica, and they ask, “Where do I have to go for Thanksgiving?” “Where in the world is there a Christmas present for me under a tree?” “Who will be a grandparent to my children?”

We send more than 20,000 of these youth out into the world every year, and we have half a million whom we subject to this kind of risk. In spite of these failures, successes are possible. One of the things the Pew Commission talked about was how to reorient the resources so that we achieve better outcomes. We need to spend money smarter so that we do better by children. The Pew Commission recommendations suggest ways to do just that.

These aren’t your kids over here, or your kids over there—these are our kids. And we owe them the same thing we owe our own children.

Permanent Families Matter

By Jessica Delgado, former foster youth, Pennsylvania

My early life was filled with chaos and abuse due to my mother’s drug abuse. We never had clothes. We had holes in our shoes and lice in our hair. We went to school and people would make fun of us. Caseworkers would come and check on my brothers and sisters and me and we would lie. Kids get scared when they think they might be taken away from their mom. At least we know what it is like with our mom.

At 13, I thought "I can’t live like this" and I ran away. Eventually I had to call social services about my family’s situation and we all entered foster care when I was 15. I spent some time with a foster family but ended up in a group home. When I turned 18 I was released from the group home with no permanent place to go.

Immediately after being released from the system my therapy was discontinued. I was left to get a job and take care of myself. I had not been prepared to deal with the outside world alone. I had no one to rely upon. I was afraid of what path my life was about to take. Wondering how was I going to make it on my own led me into a depression. Let me give credit to a counselor that I had in the group—she did temporarily provide me with a place in her home. Do to my emotional problems, I managed to disrupt that relationship.

One of lowest point in my life was when I turned 19. My depression had taken its toll on me, which then led me to alcohol. As far as a family, it was the local pub. Every day and every single chance I got I went there and drank. Holidays, I was at the pub. Along with drinking, tattoos and piercings were the out for my unhappiness. I was going downhill really fast. Eventually I got pregnant. What in the world was I going to do with a child? Barely knowing the father of my child just added more stress to my life.

After having my daughter Angelina and struggling for a few years, I’ve finally found a family in Angelina’s paternal grandparents. Phyllis and Derrick are like parents to me. They have accepted me as family. They provided Nina and I with so much support. Derrick helped me with my finances, and Phyllis still listens to me, encourages me to move on in a better direction of my life. I've learned a lot about living a more balanced life from Phyllis and a few other strong women. I have expressed to them that without their love, support, and encouragement, my life would have been a bitter story.

Thankfully, even with all of the struggles and abuse, my life has managed to turn around for the better. And now instead of alcohol being my out, speaking out about it gives me a more fulfilling and satisfying perception on life.

Through all of this, I realize that permanency is so important, and is probably one of the main factors of what makes someone feel secure and loved. I still can't understand why providing me with a family or support system was not a priority with social services during my time with them. Why do we seem to think that these children or teenagers who have been neglected, abused, or abandoned are ready for the real world just because of they are 18? Whether it's 5, 10,or 18 years of age, love, family, consistency, security, and patience are all an important part in shaping the type of people we will grow up to be.

Children and Youth Like Me and My Siblings Need Families and Stability

By Michael Drake, former foster youth, West Virginia

In 1998, when I was 12, the state decided that my sister and brothers and I couldn’t safely stay with our mother. After a short stay at a shelter, we were placed together in a foster family. When they decided to stop doing foster care, we were sent to another shelter.

I asked my workers to find my aunt, uncle, or other relatives, but no one did. I was so frustrated and upset, that I ran away. They wanted to do a psychological evaluation on me due to the fact that I had been running away and showing behavior that they deemed was abnormal. So I was placed in a mental health facility in Ohio. In the three months that I was there, they said that I really didn’t have any mental health issues.

After I left there, my siblings and I were placed with a foster family. About a week later our mother gave up her rights to me and my siblings. We stayed with that foster family for about a year, which was the most permanent placement I ever had in foster care.

Between 14 and 18, I moved more than 15 times, bouncing between shelters, group care facilities, and foster families. I did not live with my brothers and sister and rarely got to spend time with them. I tried to remind them that we were still a family, but it was hard.

I wish the state had done more to help our mom keep the family together. If the state had invested the same money they spent putting us in all those placements into weekly visits with our mother and had given her skill lessons, it might not have escalated to us needing to go into permanent foster care.

At 18, I “aged out” of foster care without any family at all. So did my brother Randy. My sister was adopted and my youngest brother remains in foster care. In my opinion, foster care destroyed our whole sense of family in the end. We can’t sit down together and feel like we are siblings. It becomes more like, “Oh, I know that person” but it’s not like, “Oh, he’s my brother.”

Facilitated Openness Can Benefit Children Adopted from Care

By Diane Riggs, NACAC communications specialist

When my parents adopted in the early ’60s, adoption was not something we shared openly. Today, most adoptive parents don’t keep such secrets and realize how important past ties are to their children. Given the proven value of openness, we must consider how safe contact with birth family members can benefit children adopted from care.

Facilitated contact, though difficult at times, can help children:
• The promise of birth family contact can help some youth accept adoption. A recent study found that before agreeing to an adoption plan, “adolescents needed to be told early that adoption would not preclude contact with their birth families.”
• Contact with past caregivers can ease the adoption transition and keep children from worrying about whether they are okay.
• By promoting contact with important figures from children’s past, adoptive parents show respect for their children.
• Helping children face family realities is better than allowing them to invent nightmares.
• Keeping in touch can ease worries and promote information exchange.
• Contact can help youth reconcile disparate pieces of their identity.

When pondering contact, parents must put their children’s well-being first, and never force contact if the children are unwilling. Barb Fischer, an adoptive, foster, and kinship parent in Minnesota, encourages contact only after she confirms that it is in her child’s best interest.

After agreeing on contact, families must set rules about the amount/kind of contact, supervision needed, and how to avoid bad situations. Parents must also guide children through feelings and behaviors that may arise, and limit or stop contact that proves harmful.

Parents may find it hard to reach out to their child’s first family. Contact can, however, help children and teens gain a better sense of who they are and how they fit in their adoptive family.

African American Foster Youth Are Being Adopted

By Mary Ford, NACAC research associate

It is often assumed that African American children are less likely to be adopted. Although this is not true, African American children are adopted at a slower pace than other children. If one looks at longitudinal data carefully, African American children are more likely to be adopted than other children, and this increased likelihood coincides with the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA).

According to a 2006 article by Fred Wulczyn and colleagues, of almost 400,000 children who first entered foster care in six states between 1990 and 2002, 24 percent of African American children were eventually adopted, compared to 16 percent of white or Latino children. However, it took longer for these adoptions to occur. Further, the data show that children from urban areas who were placed with relatives were adopted at a higher rate (26 percent) than those placed in other forms of care. (See previous posts for more information on relatives as permanency resources for foster children. Learn more about NACAC's position on relative care.)

Wulczyn, in a 2003 article, suggests that “the adoption cycle for a given cohort may take up to 10 years to complete, and that African American children are in fact more likely to be adopted.”

ASFA provides states with incentives to find adoptive families for foster children and prioritizes child safety in all decisions concerning family preservation and reunification. Wulczyn and colleagues note that state policies implemented after ASFA (though they vary a lot) appear to have given inducement to pursuing adoption for more foster children.

However, the data also reveal that the growth in the rate of adoption for African American children may be connected to the decline in family reunification during the decade between 1990 and 2000. Wulczyn and colleagues plan to study the effects of ASFA on the process of family reunification in upcoming research.

To increase public child welfare accountability and accuracy—and to reveal important outcomes for children like those studied by Wulczyn and his colleagues—NACAC believes the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) process and AFCARS (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System) should be changed to use longitudinal data, In addition, the federal government should continue to help states build their accountability systems by maintaining the federal match for State Automated Child welfare Systems.