InvestigateWest (https://www.invw.org/category/foster-care/)
After a report by a government-appointed watchdog group found Washington foster kids sent to a group home in Iowa were mistreated, InvestigateWest documents how dozens of other Washington foster kids remain at group homes in South Carolina, Wyoming and Michigan that also appear to have mistreated children, according to reports from oversight agencies in other states.
Washington this year became the first state to provide financial assistance for foster youth to enter into apprenticeship programs that experts say provide hope and a paycheck for traumatized young people who otherwise are more likely to drop out of school or be jailed. Meanwhile, a June 2017 executive order by President Donald Trump may also help foster youth land apprenticeships.
Washington State legislature is considering a bill that would phase out detention of youth for non-criminal offenses including truancy. Opponents of the bill say Judges need detention as a last resort to get kids to comply with court orders, while others say these punishments are detrimental to the welfare and growth of the children.
Washington foster parents are organizing to demand more respect from the state, saying they should get at least some consideration when legal decisions are made about what happens to the kids in their care. They lost on that measure this year, although several other pieces of legislation designed to help foster kids remain alive this year.
Housing abused and neglected children in Washington state is costing up to $600 a night in some cases, a clear indication that the state’s foster care system is dysfunctional, according to data obtained by InvestigateWest. The main reason is that there are far too few foster parents to handle the number of young people in the state care. With demand high, a small number of foster homes can reap huge financial benefits.
Foster kids and foster parents in Washington state have something to celebrate as state officials carry out legislative orders, backed with extra millions in funding, to overhaul the state’s beleaguered foster-care system
Republicans and Democrats in Olympia insist they want to shore up the state’s failing foster care system, but major reforms could falter as they head into a special legislative session to hammer out budget and policy proposals that remain miles apart.
A recent report by the Children’s Administration shows how many of the highest-needs foster children in its custody are falling through the cracks. This “placement crisis,” as agency leaders and lawmakers have taken to calling it, has largely been the result of insufficient and unpredictable state budgets. A bill that would have improved funding for the state’s foster care system has died in the Senate.
Will abused and neglected children in Washington’s foster-care system be rescued by a $10 million reorganization of the state’s state’s system to care for foster children? Even if the Washington Legislature comes up with the $10 million, what will really change?
Foster youth in Washington state rally at the state capitol to demand the state Legislature better fund the foster-care system and make provisions to do more for foster youth who often become homeless when they “age out” of foster care.
In this Seattle Channel recording of the Town Hall event spurred by InvestigateWest’s reporting, panelists Snohomish County Prosecutor Adam Cornell, Representative Ruth Kagi (D-Seattle), former Department of Social and Health Services employee Dee Wilson, advocacy lead and Washington State Parent Ally Committee/Children’s Home Society of Washington staffer Alise Hegle, and Foster Parents Association of Washington State Executive Director Mike Canfield discuss paths forward with moderator and Town Hall Program Director Katy Sewall.
