Foster kids ill-prepared for adulthood
A new survey suggests Florida has done a poor job of equipping foster
children for life out of care.
Posted on Sat, Jan. 05, 2008
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/367938.html
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
Ronnie Williams, 20, has aged out of the Foster care system and now
lives in his own apartment. He says his biggest challenge has been
finding safe, affordable housing on the $892 monthly stipend he receives.
DAVID ADAME / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
Ronnie Williams, 20, has aged out of the Foster care system and now
lives in his own apartment. He says his biggest challenge has been
finding safe, affordable housing on the $892 monthly stipend he receives.
* Findings of foster children survey
In southern Sarasota, nearly one in four former foster kids is homeless.
In St. Augustine, fewer than one in 10 foster children age 17 is
performing at grade level. And in Miami, Tampa and Daytona Beach, fewer
than one in four 17-year-old foster kids passed Florida's high-stakes
standardized assessment test.
These are some of the findings of a recent survey of children age 13 to
23 in state care designed to gauge Florida's success in preparing older
foster children for adulthood. More than 6,700 foster children were
interviewed during the survey, which also included a review of state
records.
Child welfare administrators and children's advocates who have seen the
report say it confirms long-standing fears that Florida has done a poor
job of preparing foster children for the demands of adulthood and
independence.
''This is child abuse,'' said Department of Children & Families
Secretary Bob Butterworth, who has called the plight of former foster
kids one of his agency's highest priorities in 2008. The agency
commissioned the survey.
Ronnie Williams, a 20-year-old from Miami, said no one taught him how to
cook, keep a house or apartment, live within a budget, balance a
checkbook or maintain a relationship with a landlord before he aged out
of state care. His biggest challenge by far, he said, has been finding
safe, affordable housing on the $892 monthly stipend he receives from
the state.
Next year, he will lose Medicaid, his health insurance.
''The state did very little -- nothing,'' Williams said.
Still, Williams is lucky. Because he's enrolled at Miami Dade College as
a prelaw student, he qualifies for assistance under DCF's Road to
Independence Program, which offers, at best, about $1,014 a month for
former foster kids who stay in school.
His sister, who at 19 has two children, receives only $416 a month,
Williams said, and would be essentially homeless if he hadn't taken her in.
''The state is a lousy parent,'' said Andrea Moore, a Coral Springs
attorney who heads the advocacy group Florida's Children First.
``Children need permanent homes and not to be raised by the state. When
the state is the family of last resort, the children must be adequately
parented so that they can become successful adults.''
TIGHT BUDGET
One cause of the plight of Florida's ''aged-out'' foster kids is money.
The statewide budget for Florida's Independent Living services, as the
program for foster care graduates is called, has been $25 million in
recent years -- a spending plan agency administrators acknowledge is
inadequate.
Last budget year, the DCF asked lawmakers to increase spending for
foster care grads by an additional $18 million. The Legislature cut the
increase to only $1 million.
''We didn't get anywhere close to what we asked for,'' said DCF Deputy
Secretary Don Winstead. ``It was a difficult year.''
And it's unlikely DCF will do any better in the upcoming legislative
session. The agency is asking for an additional $16.8 million for the
Independent Living program, Winstead said.
But state Rep. William Galvano, a Bradenton Republican who chairs the
House Children and Families Committee, said, ``This will be a very tight
budget year, and it's hard enough to fight for dollars during robust
budget years.''
State revenue estimators predict a deficit of $2 billion through the
2008 budget year.
Some advocates insist, though, that DCF and its contracted private
foster care agencies -- called community-based care agencies, or CBCs --
have done poorly with the few dollars they have received.
''This is not only about money,'' Moore said. ''The data indicates the
Community Based Care agencies are not implementing the very good laws
passed the last four years in the Legislature'' to help foster care grads.
Among the recent laws: a requirement that every child in foster care be
given an educational plan to guide their path to graduation and either
employment or college.
The study said, for example, that only 39 percent of foster kids age 13
through 17 had a written educational plan.
In Miami-Dade, only 26 percent of 13- through 17-year-olds had an
educational plan. The figure was more than double in Broward, at 70 percent.
Galvano will hold a hearing Tuesday in Tallahassee to seek fresh ideas
to improve programs for young adults who have left foster care -- such
as subsidized housing projects, tutoring, counseling and other
educational supports.
As the state's program now stands, Galvano said, exiting foster care is
a little bit like ``falling off a cliff.''
OFF THE RADAR
And the report likely underestimates the scope of the problem,
administrators say. Among foster care grads receiving Road to
Independence stipends, 86 percent responded to the survey. Fewer than
half the grads not receiving assistance replied, and administrators
acknowledge many are not even on the radar.
''What concerns me the most are the ones we cannot locate,'' Butterworth
said.
About three years ago, Miami-Dade County's Homeless Trust included in
its annual census a question to determine how many homeless people are
former foster children.
About 5 percent had at one time been in foster care, said the trust's
executive director, David Raymond. In the most recent census, about 220
of 4,392 homeless people surveyed had at one point been in foster care,
he said.
Statewide, about 11 percent of homeless men and women counted in similar
surveys reported being a foster child in the past, said Al Zimmerman,
DCF's spokesman in Tallahassee.
''This is a very serious problem,'' said state Sen. Evelyn J. Lynn, a
Daytona Beach Republican who has served 14 years on the Children,
Families and Elder Affairs Committee. ``These children have to make it
on their own. It's hard enough for any young adult to make it on their own.'
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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