Why promote Rosie O'Donnel now? She has a new movie coming out about Foster Care. This is a tough subject, but it is a reality. Rosie's new movie is called "America" and will be shown on Lifetime on Feb. 28 at 9 pm, March 1 at 8 pm and March 3 at 8 pm (et/pt). The movie is based on the book "America" by E.R. Frank. For more about the movie and book go to Lifetime: http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/movies/america
I haven't seen the movie and probably won't since I don't have cable (economics, I don't need cable. I need to pay the electricity.) Anyway, I haven't seen the movie but the issue is of great interest to me. We fostered to adopt our son. It was a heart wrenching process with no promises or guarantees. The 18 months that our child was classified a foster child was difficult. Paperwork, meetings, and court dates on top of normal life was consuming, but we were lucky. The biological parents voluntarily signed over their rights and our son was made available for adoption. What a relief! We can focus on normal life and not worry about insurance issues, court approval for vacations, certification of babysitters, etc.
Foster Parents are remarkable people. When you agree to foster, you agree to potentially care for a child for as little as a day or for as long as 18 years (in the State of Texas). You don't know for sure what health issues, finanical issues and emotional issues the foster child will bring into your home. Foster Parents are remarkable people, but not all of them go into it with admirable intentions. Many are in it for the money. Kids in a tough spot are being exploited for a tiny pay check from the State.
Case Workers are remarkable people. Case Workers can have up to 50 cases at a time. 50 cases means 50 chilren. In Texas Case Workers are required to physically see all 50 kids every month (note they are not required to see the Foster Parents). Every month Case Workers are required to write a progress report on all 50 kids. In addition to checking up on all these kids, Case Workers are required to be in court every time one of their cases comes up; depending on the case every child could potentially have a court date every quarter. That could potentially be 200 court appearances in a year. Do you think the courts take into account the Case Worker when they schedule their dates? Do they try to get all the Case Worker's cases on the same day or even the same week?
Hypothetically, a Case Worker with 50 cases has 50 meetings, writes 50 reports and appears in court approximatly 17 times every single month. Don't forget they have other administrative duties. When a child is identified as in need of services, someone has to evaluate the family, living and personal issues of that child and not only determine a course of action but put it in writing and meet with other people and facilitate implementation. Once a child is placed in foster care there are other duties to evaluate the family, living and personal issue of that child. Needless to say the turn over job rate for Case Worker's is high.
The State Foster Care Program is a great idea but a difficult reality. The State does offer money to help Foster Parents care for the children. The State does make available specialiezed services to help parents regain custody, to help get children specialized services for individual needs and to help foster parents. But there are so many rules, so much paper work, so few workers. As a previous Foster Parent, the program appears to be a balloon about to burst. Then what happens to the children?
I have no answers but the more people that are aware of the issues, the more minds pondering the issues, perhaps the next ingenious idea on how to fix or at least improve Foster Care will come sooner than later.
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