REFORM  #16:  CHILDREN MUST REMAIN IN THE LOCAL AREA:  When children must be separated from their immediate family, all efforts must be taken to relocate the children within the extended families, i.e. aunts, uncles, grandparents, godparents, etc… Also, every effort must be made to keep sibling children together. If the parents were not taking adequate care of the children, the children were most likely caring for each other. To separate them only compounds their devastation. If they cannot be kept together then they must be afforded regular visitation rights.  It is important to keep children in the same school system that they were in prior to foster care.

REFORM 17:  JOB CORPS. A federal program that will allow foster children 16 to 21 years of age to learn a trade, and to get their high school diplomas.  JOB CORPS is a program already in place. With very minor work on the part of the agencies, this can be implemented immediately.The states are in luck, as this program will cost them nothing. It is a federal program and already exists.

 Any foster child who is doing well in public school (with grades of C or better) could remain in public school, with the option of going to Job Corps before they are 21 years old.

Children who are failing, or are possibly going to drop out and cannot be emancipated, would be sent to Job Corps to learn a trade, study for G.E.D. or high school graduation, develop independent living skills, and generally learn both how to take care of themselves and to work as a team with the Job Corps group.

There must be very few exceptions made and stipulated in this program.

It is a way to give kids an additional push before letting them be on their own if they are heading for failure in the public school system.

We as a coalition do not believe the public schools respect or give equal education to all children. 

Our facts are as follows:

We have been told that less than 30% of all foster children graduate high school and over 90% of the other children graduate high school. 

This is not acceptable as foster children have so many more barriers to cross than a child from a biological family.

________________________________________________________________________

We want children protected while in care and we want the states to take responsibility of the children they are parents to, which amounts to over 750,000 at this moment.

This is such a large responsibility that it should be removed from the welfare people because everyone thinks that the children are welfare grubbers and we as children have nothing to do with what the states do with us. 

Every state in the country cloaks its foster care system in secrecy, prohibiting the disclosure of any information about children's experiences in foster care. Though these statutes often were enacted to protect children, they routinely are used by state officials to conceal illegal and unconscionable practices. These confidentiality laws have served the system, only, by not exposing the abuses caused to children.

The job is much too large for the government to have full, undisclosed, and private responsibility of it and no one can see when he or she falters in his or her responsibility. The only ones that are hurt are the children like myself.

A recent TIME Magazine article references a troubling report commissioned by the Reagan Administration in the late 1980s, which concluded:

Foster care is intended to protect children from neglect and abuse at the hands of parents and other family members, yet all too often it becomes an equally cruel form of neglect and abuse by the state.

In California, two Grand Juries in San Diego County would echo these concerns, concluding: "Professionals working in the field of child abuse voiced strong concerns that the children removed from abusive homes were being abused again by a system designed to protect them.

A Santa Clara County Grand Jury would reach a similar conclusion, having determined that children often face greater risks in its existing foster care program than they do in their own homes.

Sometimes, foster care placements are made that are just as abusive, if not more so, than the home from which the child was removed. The Grand Jury learned of placements where sexual and physical abuse took place. There was even a case where the infant died In Washington State, a blue-ribbon Governor's task force concluded.

The effect of our present foster care system is disastrous. Children are moved from one foster home to another, their school attendance is disrupted and healthcare needs often go unmet. Other children in care sometimes expose them to abuse.

Elsewhere, a recent report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services determined that the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services "has no assurance that the quality of care being given to foster children placed by child-placing agencies was adequate." Federal reviewers found "many cases" of children "in potentially harmful situations." At least one fire or health deficiency was found at 40 of the 48 homes reviewed. In 28 of the 48 homes, no record could be found to prove that required criminal background checks had been made. The report described some foster homes as filled with trash.

The basic question is why are we removing any children with abuse reports coming from all over the country. Each day we read in some newspaper another investigation of child abuse in foster care. Then we look at the numbers of foster children among the homeless and prison population and that is either close to 50% or more than half of that population came from foster care.

There must be some after foster care services for children aging out of foster care.  Former foster children must be able to visit a special office sponsored by the state or non-profit agency that will assist former foster children in their ability to find success in society when they leave care.

CPS is not acting responsible by removing children without any substantiation of the facts of the cases and cannot even apologize when they do make mistakes.

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

The agencies must be made to have probable cause before removing these children and must be made to prove their evidence upon removal, or they must be made to work with the families first.

One of the most tragic aspects of many of these cases is that the children suffer needlessly. For in their zeal to protect them against the perceived shortcomings of their natural parents, child protective workers place them into dangerous homes that inflict upon them precisely the injury they had hoped to prevent or worse.

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 their allegations after receiving the anonymous charges.

What's It Like...

To have a mother hug you because she is proud?

To feel proud of something and tell your parents?

To play catch with your dad?

To be able to say "my family"?

To say "my house"?

To say "mom and dad"?

To hear "C'mon Son!"?

To show your dad you can ride without training wheels?

To feel it "neat" to introduce your teacher to your parents?

To hear your life stories from your family?

To answer, "what does your dad do"?

To get a family heirloom?

To say you have lived here for X number of years?

To know a "family friend"?

To say "I love you" and mean it?

To have Christmas with family?

To not feel "attention seeking" when telling your life story?

To answer the question...

"So... where are you from"?

What's It Like?

Words from a former foster survivor:

Johnny Francis Dunn