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| Half of foster care children wrongfully removed from their homes in Los Angeles County |
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The Daily News of Los Angeles reports that the $1.4 billion spent on foster care annually in Los Angeles County might be better spent on helping families stay together. David Sanders, the new county director of the Department of Children and Family Services, stated that up to half of the county’s 75,000 foster children could have remained with their parents if appropriate services had been provided to the families. A researcher with Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco blames the too-high foster care placements on federal and state financial incentives to keep children in foster care until they reach adulthood. The federal government provides about $5 billion annually for children in foster care vs. $700 million to help families stay together. Overloading the foster care system can have tragic consequences. The Daily News also reported that L.A. County’s foster care system is one of the most dangerous in the nation with foster children 10 times more likely to die from abuse and neglect in out-of-home care than anywhere else in the country. Los Angeles County is just one example of a child welfare agency facing the dilemma of how to keep children safe in a time of increasing caseloads and decreasing funding. To its credit, L.A County is facing this issue head-on and is asking the federal government for a waiver to allow the county to divert about one-fifth of its foster care budget for services to help keep children with their families. NFPN promotes intensive family preservation services as one solution to an overloaded foster care system. To assist those who would like to contact their own county and state officials regarding this issue, NFPN has prepared background information and talking points in a paper titled Is Cutting IFPS in a Budget Crisis a Good Idea? |
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