Fixing Foster Care

I’ve said it before. If you’re going to be an advocate for runaway and homeless youth, there are two populations in which you have to take an active interest; GLBTQ youth and foster care youth. While there is some cross-over between the two, both of these populations represent respectively up to 40% of young people on our streets.

That’s why a newspaper article in last Saturday’s Portland Oregonian caught my eye. Titled “Foster kids belong to all of us”, the article highlights bills and budget requests currently before the Oregon State Legislature to improve the foster care system, and featured the stories of two young people raised by that system. Among the bills currently being considered; prioritizing placement with relatives, keeping siblings together, ensuring legal representation, and providing drug and alcohol treatment for parents of foster children.

That’s all well and good -- particularly the bill to keep siblings together (separating brothers and sisters has always been one of my pet peeves) -- but there’s another issue that seriously needs to be looked at: adequate reimbursement for the cost of providing foster care.

A friend of mine currently provides foster care for an infant. The infant goes through a minimum of 4 cans of formula each week, at $25.00 per can. Providing care for this infant costs $400.00 per month just for formula – we haven’t considered all the other expenses of providing care for an infant child. Yet the monthly subsidy received is just over $300.00. Why do we have a shortage of families willing to accept foster children? Maybe it’s because the system is designed so that very few families can actually afford to do so.

The cost to raise a child, by conservative estimates, is approximately $8,000.00 per year -- yet we ask families to accept the responsibility for young people in the foster care system for slightly more than $3600.00; less than half what we know the cost will be. Curiously, this is significantly less than we spend on a child in Head Start -- an education program that sees young people only a few hours each week. Wouldn’t it make sense that 24 hour care should receive a higher rate?

There are so many things wrong with the foster care system one almost doesn’t know where to start, but here’s my suggestion: let’s make it so good families can open their homes to children without having to pawn the family jewels to afford it.