Show V A push to fix foster care Miriam Aroni Krinsky Special to the Los Angeles Times The welfare child-welfare system is broken This harsh indictment has been beena a constant drumbeat in Los Angeles headlines for years In the past few months the tragedy of a year old subjected to horrifying mistreatment grabbed the publics public's attention The pendulum started to swing and demands mounted to address the crisis But there are underlying challenges facing struggling families and overwhelmed child- child welfare professionals that headlines and an swinging ever-swinging pendulum dont don't and cant can't address Consider just one part of the system foster care Los Angeles is home to nearly foster youth We collectively commit to watch over these children when we bring them into foster care yet too many struggle with the most basic of needs Foster youth drift from placement to placement t 4 I f lack basic health care fail to graduate from high school and have no stable adult anchor When they age out of foster care most at the prepared ill-prepared age of 18 they often find themselves homeless unemployed and on the threshold of our justice system Although passionate social workers judges and advocates are dedicated to improving the plight of these vulnerable young people they battle against inadequate support and inordinately high caseloads In California there are positive signs of action The California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care launched in 2006 will submit its final recommendations for reform in August including changes in how juvenile courts do business implementing attorney and judicial caseload standards ensuring a meaningful voice in court for all participants and implementing court performance measures The new state Child Welfare Council with leaders from the three branches of government is crafting an agenda to tackle lack of coordination inadequate information sharing and disjointed leadership among the government agencies accountable for children in care And Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tern Tern- elect Darrell Steinberg are standing long-standing champions of foster care reform Yet only limited progress is possible absent federal engagement Federal money is the largest source of foster care funding and federal laws control a large number of foster care practices But for forthe forthe forthe the past decade federal foster care reform has been nearly nonexistent with bipartisan bickering blocking visionary reform In June the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Fostering Connections to Success Act welfare legislation considered by Congress in a long tim time L AI This legislation addresses some of the most crucial concerns facing foster youth and significantly it would promote proven reforms It allows states for the first time to use federal money to support foster children until age 21 A handful of states have experimented with that policy so we know that extending care to the youths who otherwise would age out each year would enable a much higher percentage of foster kids to become productive members of our communities Similarly the proposed law would for the first time provide federal financial support for relatives assuming legal guardianship of foster children they have been raising thereby promoting an established effective cost-effective alternative to foster care In the coming week the Senate will consider this legislative package Hopefully it will keep alive the chance for real change in the lives of our most risk at-risk children f |