Re: DRG's and Child Welfare

["Judy M. Laurendine" <msju@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Re:  Funding for foster care etc.
This is true regarding the funding however realize that workers do not know
this as researchers do.  I did a survey regarding this issue (and others)
and found that it was only high level people who knew this information--the
direct workers and supervisors who make decisions regarding placement,
adoption, termination of parental rights, etc. are totally unaware of these
funding incentives to states.  It just does not figure into the decision
regarding these children.  It is also true that  foster care children are
financially backed and in the past there has not been enough funding or
services available to keep kids in their own environment--However, recent
funding from the 1997 law has created Family Resource Centers that are
designed to provide a multitude of concrete and clinical services to
families to prevent placement into the system.  The Center is for child
protection and juvenile offender program clients only with 75% of the slots
going to child protection families.  These programs are just starting down
here so I can't report results but they do have an evaluation component
built into the program.  I am on the start up and evaluation team for one of
these projects beginning in Louisiana this summer.--Judy Laurendine
--Original Message-----
From: Cynthia Blanchard <cblanche@icdc.com>
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
<CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu>
Date: Friday, May 14, 1999 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: DRG's and Child Welfare


>You stated that placing children in foster care is a last resort.  However,
>this is not how the funding works.  States are partially reimbursed for
each
>child in foster care--no maater how many are placed while services are
capped.
>AFSA also reimburses states for each child adopted.  Thus, we say that we
want
>to prevent placements and to facilitate family reunification when children
are
>placed, but our funding does the opposite.
>
>I am completing my dissertation on services to families of children in
foster
>care and the relationship to family reunification.  I have found that
almost no
>services had any statistical significance with family reunification.  I
also
>found what many others have found--that the majority of children placed
come
>from families who are poor and minorities.  We need more services which are
>effective, particularly in the area of substance abuse, both to prevent
>placement and for reunification.  However, the child welfare system cannot
>address the larger issues which lead to poor and minority children being
>placed.
>
>I do agree that children need a permanent plan and absolutely should not
>languish in foster care.  However, I do not see AFSA, with its emphasis on
>adoption, as the only solution.  We need to do more to prevent placements
and
>to reunify families when children are placed.
>
>Cynthia Blanchard
>cblanche@icdc.com
>
>
>Julie Forman Jones wrote:
>
>> I urge you to do as you have asked us to do - take a look at the law.  As
>> an agency attorney, I can assure you that we are not setting out to make
>> legal orphans - but we are also not assuming that a 15 year old boy
cannot
>> be adopted.  This legislation has forced us to take a long, hard, and
>> serious look at cases - from a child's perspectvie.  Try it - it's a
little
>> different than what most of the system is used to, but it sure looks
>> different and makes a lot of sense.
>>
>> It starts with taking children into care only as a last resort.  We then
>> work openly and honestly with parents, letting them know that the days of
>> floating in and out of their child's life are over.  They must make a
>> commitment and make some changes - TODAY.  It's the parent's decision.
If
>> they are not willing to provide a safe home for their child within 12
>> months - then a determination is made on a case by case basis.  If there
>> are grounds for tpr, and if it is in the child's best interests, then we
>> file.  If there are no grounds, or if it is not in the child's best
>> interests, we don't file.  It's really not rocket science, but it has
>> turned some heads and moved a lot of cases (many kids have been adopted,
>> and many have returned home - most importantly, many have been placed in
a
>> permanent home as opposed to foster care!)
>