This article originally appeared in the January-February 2004 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

In My Opinion

If you could change one thing about the foster care system........

By Mahin Ibrahim

If there's anything that everybody agrees on, it's that Califor-nia's foster care system has to change. That's what a federal re-view team said last January, when it gave California (along with all other states) a failing grade and threatened to withhold federal funds until the problems were fixed. That's what the state's Little Hoover Com-mission said last February, when it slammed the foster care system for continuing failures. That's what the legislature decided when it told the state Department of Social Services (DSS) to overhaul the way it measures counties' performance. And it's what the DSS itself concluded in a report produced after a three-year review by a broad-based "Child Welfare Stakeholders" group.

These reports listed similar concerns: not enough support for families-which would keep more kids out of foster care, inadequate health and mental health care, a shortage of foster families, abuse and neglect in the foster-care system itself, too many kids bouncing from placement to placement, too many delays in reunification or adoption, and more.

Now the state and county child welfare systems are beginning to implement plans for reform. We asked members of the Children's Advocates Roundtable Committee on Foster Care Reform: If you could change one thing about the foster care system, what would it be?

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More support for children and youth

David Kopperud, education programs consultant, California Department of Education, Counseling and Student Support Services.If each foster child had a stable and permanent connection to a caring adult, this would have the most profound impact on foster youths' education and future. An adoptive parent, foster parent, teacher, school counselor, social worker, or supervisor of child welfare could be that adult. These mentors can teach foster care youth the importance of things like attending school. [This] is currently a huge problem [but could be changed] by improving prevention and tutoring programs, by early identification of school adjustment problems, by better counseling and other interventions, and by faster enrollment with fewer placements.

Tiffany Johnson, communications director, California Youth Connection. What I would change is the value placed on siblings. The system is set up for the child as an individual, what's in the interest of permanency or long-term stability for that child, vs. seeing that child as part of a unit with their siblings. They are not recognizing the value in that relationship with siblings. If a youth moves three or four times to different placements, it wouldn't matter if it was with siblings. I was in a group home with my three sisters, but I have experience with others who didn't have that option. When we were in the group home they were thinking of adopting out my youngest sister, who was four. It would have been devastating to us. We were four sisters who had been through so much together.

Chris Forte, legal analyst, California Department of Social Services. I would make sure that every youth who emancipates from foster care has a home to go to, a supportive adult to lean on, and an education that enables them to develop a career. This can be accomplished through greater collaboration between public and private institutions [such as] schools, county social services, county housing agencies, and private individuals.

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More efforts toward family reunification

John Passalaqua, managing attorney, Parent Advocates of Sacramento. I would like to see more collaboration between the foster care system and Child Protective Services to facilitate [family] reunification when appropriate. Many parents in Sacramento only get to visit with their children in foster care for one hour per week. [Sometimes] parents can go weeks without seeing their young child. There are not enough county workers to supervise these visits and provide transportation. [So] even though a case is in reunification, the children are forming a bond with the foster parents [and not] the parents.

Carole Greeley, attorney, Bay Area Dependency Chapter of the California Appellate Defense Counsel. I would focus on preserving existing families rather than on creating new ones through adoption. I recommend more money and effort be directed toward family preservation; parents should be given more time to reunify (which is now as little as six months); and there should be a stronger preference for placement with relatives. [These] would cause delay in some cases, but that is outweighed by the benefits they would provide to the children who would be spared the grief, confusion, and shame of being permanently severed from their families.

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More help for foster parents

Jeri Currey, foster parent specialist, River Oak Center for Children. I would push for more foster parents and supportive programs to make the placement work. Right now there is little to no support given to foster parents to help them cope with problems their children face. Social workers are extrememly busy and don't have a handle on resources sometimes. So often the solution is moving the child instead of supporting the child. This would be [changed] with lower case loads for so-cial workers, programs specifically de-signed to support foster families, and more federal and state funding. Re-garding the lack of foster families, my feeling is that we are not getting the message out about how rewarding it is and how big the need is, so they don't volunteer.

Katina Ancar, staff attorney, National Center for Youth Law. Change is needed in the recruitment, training, and payment of foster parents and relative caretakers. A growing shortage of foster parents has forced more and more children into group home care. The system must focus on recruitment, making it easier for potential foster parents to get information and being honest about what is expected of caregivers. Foster parents and relatives also need adequate training to care for difficult children. Even a stellar, well-trained foster parent can only help so much if the system fails to provide a child with mental health services.

Louise Johnson, former director, Court Appointed Special Advocates of San Joaquin County. There needs to be greater flexibility given to the foster care families. For example, they can't even take a family vacation out of the county without permission from their social worker. It's like the kids are on probation and they haven't even done anything. If this situation were [changed], foster children would feel more like a family member and there would be more parents willing to be foster parents. There would [also] be more of a possibility of keeping foster children together. Siblings get broken up because foster parents can't go over the licensed number.

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More accountability in court

Melanie Snider, attorney, Law offices of Melanie Snider, Esquire. There is no accountability for social workers who falsify testimony in the courtroom or fabricate evidence in social worker reports. No one is held accountable when someone's case file gets lost and no one seems to care that it happens quite frequently. The general public [needs to] understand what is going on and hold the courts responsible. Right now, trials are closed. No court report is open to the media or public. I had a recent case where there is proof a social worker lied on the stand about children being molested in their foster care and the system blamed the children and the birth parents. If someone had looked into this it is likely the children would be home with their parents instead of languishing in foster care, angry and hurt.

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