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Inside Out: Foster Care Reform - Specific Reforms Needed

Part 4: Specific Reforms Needed

More of this Feature •Part 1: Neglect •Part 2: Documented Abuses •Part 3: Poor Outcomes •Part 4: Specific Reforms   for California

Related Resources •Advocacy & Reform •Becoming a Foster Parent •Formerly Fostered •From Fostering to Adopting

Elsewhere on the Web •Children's Homes: Alternative •Formerly Fostered: Canada •Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 •Legislation Issues •Lost in Foster Care?

A child has a constitutional right to permanence, and that permanence should have a favored place in the law, although thereis little law to be found on the issue.

1. We must show that Child Protective Services (CPS) is not acting responsibly by removing children without substantiating the facts of the case. [And when they make mistakes, apologies and corrective actions should be forthcoming.]
   
   
2. Agencies must be required to have probable cause for removing children, and must be required to prove their evidence upon removal. If they cannot, they must be required to work with the families first.
   
   
3. It is our goal to see that the foster family is given immediate permission to pursue doctor appointments during an early placement so that the child can be fully evaluated for a potential illnesses.
   
   When a child is removed, he/she has a right to be accurately diagnosed. Itis not in the child's best interest to ignore the possibility that he/she couldpotentially have a serious medical or psychological condition.

Targeting Former Foster Children



We cannot have CPS targeting the very group that they are paid to educateand assist in independent living, when they become adults. The removal of children of former foster children must stop and CPS must be required to work with the families first.

If CPS is allowed to remove children of former foster children without provingallegations of abuse, the agency has a built-in source of children foradoption and foster care. Former foster children - citizens - are less likely to put up a fight than other citizens. Agencies already have a written record of the former foster child and all of his/her weaknesses and difficulties. Even though those records are private, they are open to CPS.

There is a place for protecting children, and a place for children to be removed from their families, but why would we allow an agency to remove children and not prove its allegations based on an anonymous complaint?

* * *

If we want to make foster care better, we have to show that the outcomes of current foster care systems damage children.

Our only way to gain respect and cause social change is to gain numbers. The best way to do this is to join forces with other groups in networking, letter-writing, and giving testimony at legislative sessions throughout the country.

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© 2001 William J. Ritchotte, All Rights Reserved

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