How the next DCFS Director in L.A. County can find more foster
parents
Whoever is hired as the next director of Los Angeles County’s
Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) will face a stiff
challenge: how to recruit and retain high-quality foster parents.
DCFS currently oversees more than 21,000 children placed in
out-of-home care in the county.
With statewide Continuum of Care (CCR) reforms underway, the county
faces pressure to find more foster homes. Under CCR, the emphasis on
placing foster children in family settings instead of in group homes is
causing concern that county child welfare agencies will be unable to
meet this mandate because the number of available foster homes has
declined dramatically over the past ten years or so.
According to recent press reports, Los Angeles County lost more than
50 percent of its foster homes between 2005 and 2015.
Recruiting and retaining many high-quality foster families and
relative caregivers will be a major challenge for the person selected to
be the new DCFS director. Advokids’ hotline staff has talked to many
angry, frustrated and upset Los Angeles County caregivers over the past
ten years.
Based on what they have told us about their experiences as
caregivers, here a few suggestions that might help the new director
locate and retain quality foster parents:
- Treat caregivers (whether they are foster parents or relatives)
with courtesy and respect. Sadly, this is not a required standard of
behavior for everyone who works in the foster care system. Rude,
disingenuous, disdainful, dismissive or hostile child welfare
professionals often cause good caregivers to quit because they have
been treated so badly.
- Comply with the laws that mandate that notice of hearings be
given to caregivers and that they be given an opportunity to provide
information to the court. By law, caregivers are entitled to be
present at review and subsequent hearings for children in their
care. But foster parents are not always present at these court
proceeedings. Welcome them and the information they can provide
about the needs of the child instead of barring them from entering
the courtroom.
- Give foster parents the required seven-day notice and an
opportunity for the legally required administrative hearing before a
child is moved to a different foster care placement. Sometimes the
information upon which the agency has based its decision to move the
child is incomplete or inaccurate. Unnecessary placement changes are
not only traumatic for children – they are also traumatic for
caregivers.
- If a placement change must be made, consider a gradual
transition instead of an abrupt move. A gradual transition is not
only better for the child, it may also help ameliorate the foster
parent’s feelings of sadness and loss. Reducing that pain would
reduce the instances of emotion-based decisions to stop being a
foster parent.
- If a caregiver calls or emails expressing concern about the
well-being of a child, respond. Caregivers repeatedly complain that
when they attempt to contact the DCFS social worker and/or the
child’s attorney about their concerns, no one returns their calls or
responds to their emails.
- Treat the child’s caregivers (whether they are foster parents or
relatives) as members of the team helping the child’s family. The
prudent parent standard notwithstanding, current culture treats
caregivers as temporary babysitters who have nothing useful to offer
when the agency is deciding how to best meet the needs of the child
and family. California’s new statutory scheme under CCR contemplates
that the caregiver will be a member of the child and family team
(CFT) and will be included in team meetings held to develop
recommendations for each child and family (Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code
§§16501(a)(1)(B); 16501.1(a)(3)). Conscientious implementation of
this mandate would generate major, positive changes in caregivers’
status and engagement.
Treating caregivers with respect and giving them the opportunity – as
an equal member of the child welfare team – to contribute, collaborate,
and cooperate in meeting the needs of each child and family will not
only encourage their continued willingness to provide a home for a
foster child, it will also yield more and better foster families and
relative caregivers in Los Angeles County.
By Janet Sherwood
11 May 2017
Janet Sherwood is the deputy director of Advokids, a non-profit
that provides legal information and support to anyone concerned about
the well-being of a California foster child. She is also an
NACC-certified Child Welfare Specialist with more than 40 years of
experience in child welfare law.
https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/opinion/next-dcfs-director-l-county-can-help-increase-number-foster-parents/26813
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