I know a few foster parents right now and I am shocked and appalled at the length of time a child can continue on in care and not be given a permanent plan. I know a child right now who was picked up at birth by foster parents, she just had her first birthday recently and the judge gave additional time to a father who had missed the past 3 visits and failed the past 2 drug tests. The foster parents are the only family this child has ever known, she is well adjusted and happy.
There is something to be said for keeping a child in their biological family, that is always the best bet but at what point do we look more at the best interest of the child than at the 'rights' of the parents. There is a law that rights should be terminated after being in care for the past 17 out of 22 months....this is ironically one of the most often violated laws. I have to go into this fostering experience knowing that I can only do so much and I need to focus on caring for the child and not fixing the system but this stuff drives me nuts. For now I have settled on educating myself and doing some reading and perhaps, by blogging, raising some awareness.
Monitor: State failing in fix of foster care system
Catherine Jun / The Detroit News
Detroit — Michigan's
child welfare system is still failing too many children, according to a report released Tuesday, and a federal judge overseeing the system's overhaul is placing hopes for a fix on Gov.-elect Rick Snyder. Nearly two years after the state agreed to fix its broken foster care system, the state is not meeting court-sanctioned deadlines for reform, the report said. The 200-page progress report, authored by a court-appointed monitor, describes a bureaucracy with overburdened caseworkers, too few foster homes and more children left in foster care without the hope of adoption.
"Sustainable, positive change is hard, but it is possible," said Kevin Ryan, who was appointed by U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds to monitor the reform process. "And here in Michigan, it is essential."
The persistent deficiencies cited in the report initially prompted the child advocacy group that has been behind the reforms to announce plans to file a motion of contempt this week and seek a federal takeover of the Michigan Department of Human Services, the agency that oversees foster care and adoption.
But later Tuesday, the agency, New York-based Children's Rights, backed away from the plans after Edmunds said she received assurances from Snyder that his incoming administration will make fixing the Department of Human Services a top priority.
"I have every reason to believe Gov.-elect Snyder is extremely interested in this issue, in this case," Edmunds said.
A spokesman for Snyder said he plans to swiftly address problems with the foster care system.
"The governor-elect is very interested in resolving this issue as soon as possibleand it's something he is going to be discussing with his new director of Human Services, once that appointment is made," said Bill Nowling, spokesman for Snyder's transition team. "It's obviously something he's going to want to resolve right away.
"We're going to look at this seriously."
This is the latest update in a five-year overhaul of the state's foster care system. Children's Rights sued in July 2008 after a series of high-profile deaths in foster care. The state settled the suit and agreed to a five-year plan to dramatically change how it handled its caseloads.
But the latest report, the third since the settlement, shows the state is at least a year behind schedule, and is backsliding in some areas of improvement.
"For young people in foster care, a year can feel like a lifetime," said Sara Bartosz, senior staff attorney for Children's Rights.
And with 1,300 staffers expected to retire from the agency, caseloads for child protective service workers are predicted to worsen, the report said. This is the final report before Snyder takes over as governor next month. DHS Director Ismael Ahmed is slated to be replaced in January, a department spokesman said.
Meeting planned for Jan.
Ryan submitted his report to Edmunds at a hearing Tuesday afternoon. The report covered the six-month period from Oct. 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010.
In addition to failures in reducing caseloads and recruiting enough foster homes, Ryan found data-keeping and mathematical errors in state records, including how the state counts the children in its care. The state delayed the recording of adoption finalizations in some cases by as much as 225 days.
"Child welfare managers and staff across Michigan, in both the private and public sector, are working very hard, but their best efforts are often undone by poor planning and a lack of adequate coordination," the report stated.
Following a meeting in Edmunds' chambers, attorneys agreed to meet again with DHS officials in late January — after Snyder takes office — to devise a plan to get reforms on track.
"We have every confidence that they see how urgent this is," Bartosz said. But she added the group hasn't ruled out seeking federal intervention later if the system doesn't improve.
State officials cite progress
Children's Rights has sued other child welfare systems in the last several decades, pushing for better protections for foster children and resorting to seeking a receiver when reforms lag.
In a case similar to Michigan's, a federal court in September found Washington, D.C.'s system in contempt of court-ordered reforms.
The federal judge ordered D.C. officials to allocate more money — as much as the District spent on legal fees over a year and a half fighting Children's Rights — on programs for youth aging out of foster care. The city has been under a consent decree since 1993. Its child welfare system was under federal management from 1995 to 2000.
Michigan officials acknowledged the state had failed to meet deadlines for improvement. But there has been significant progress in some areas, they say.
More children have been adopted from foster care, are receiving better mental health services and have better outcomes overall, Ahmed, the department director, said in a statement.
Other accomplishments include reducing the number of children in foster care and expanding a program that provides in-home services and support to families with children who have serious emotional problems.
"The safety of children is our No. 1 priority," said Edward Woods III, spokesman for DHS. "Don't say we don't have a sense of urgency. That's not true."
"There's always been a sense of urgency."
The previous report issued in March showed the state then, too, missed significant targets, like sufficiently reducing the number of children aging out of foster care and documenting adequate responses to allegations of abuse or neglect of foster children.
DHS then was put on a 30-day watch to get reforms on track.
