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May 14, 2000Foster care -- IntroductionChild welfare officials take it case-by-case Binsfeld laws aim at stability Agencies impose strict criteria Changes put onus on biological parents Pilot program making progress with Indian children Home not always a haven for childrenJust because a home is declared safe for a child doesn't mean it's an ideal situation, officials sayBy CARI NOGARecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Recent changes to Michigan's foster care system now give children stability faster, but by no means has the law created Ozzie-and-Harriet home lives. When a child leaves foster care to return to his or her biological parents - as almost 40 percent of kids placed by the region's largest agency do - that child does not necessarily go to a home where kids are read to instead of plopped in front of the television. Or parents who will volunteer to coach Little League or who have begun college education funds. Instead, returning home simply means the home is now a safe place for the child to live and that the abuse or neglect that led to the foster placement has stopped. That can be tough to accept. "It's a concept that's somewhat distasteful - minimally adequate parenting," said Jim Scherrer, deputy director of Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan, the largest foster care placement agency in the region. "It's difficult to sort out middle-classy type values from child protection values," Scherrer said. But foster parents say doing that sorting is essential to success. Mom and Dad are still Mom and Dad, and very nearly always, kids want to be with them. "You become very educated and open to all different lifestyles. Your view of what makes a good family shifts. The priority is love and attention," said Sheila Morgan of Kingsley. She and her husband Dennis have been foster parents for the past 10 years. Foster mother Judy Sandell said remembering that biological parents' behavior is usually the result of a generational cycle of problems also helps avoid the blame game. "I may not like what they've done to their children, but it's probably all they've ever known," she said. If the rights of biological parents to their children are terminated and no one with kinship wants to adopt them, foster parents are given the first opportunity. "I'd adopt myself right out of a job," Sandell admits. But she has refrained because she and her husband Dave want to continue offering their home to children in need. Exposing children to healthy homes, especially young, when there's the best chance of breaking patterns set by parents, is one thing the foster care system can do, Sandell said. There are other places for improvement, too. Morgan wishes medical care could be better. Children in foster care have Medicaid, the state-run health care program for low-income people. Because of low reimbursement, many doctors put a lower priority on seeing Medicaid patients. Some have stopped accepting the government's insurance entirely, which leaves kids in the lurch. "So often there's a prejudice against these children for being in the system," Morgan said. Morgan also believes the guidelines for adoption need to be made stricter. The home studies and licensing requirements done for foster care are more stringent. she said. "That's a permanent placement for the rest of their lives, and they should be equal, if not stronger," she said. Nina Merten, Grand Traverse County's attorney guardian ad litem, said that simply having more foster homes would improve the system. With fewer children, foster parents could concentrate more attention on them. Merten, who represents children going through family court in Grand Traverse County, currently has 45 active cases representing 66 children. Amanda Alger, 20, who grew up in Michigan's foster care system, also attests that more kids can dilute the benefits of foster care. While she spent six years at her last foster home, there was always five girls there temporarily, placed because their parents or school said they were uncontrollable. Their influence on her wasn't always the greatest, said Alger, who wrote an essay in college on the problems of the foster care system. If parents had simply buckled down on their children, rather than giving up when the going got tough, those temporary placements wouldn't have happened, she said. "I really think parents bailing out on their children is bad," Alger said. "It's like, ditch them for the hardest part." Bob Porter is director of the the Grand Traverse County Family Independence Agency, the organization charged with protecting children. Children from Grand Traverse County account for a third of Child and Family Service's caseload. He believes the system could be improved by reducing the year from placement to permanency planning. "I'd like to shorten it to six months," Porter said. "I would not want my own children lingering in foster care for 12 months while I decided whether I wanted to be a parent or not." Sandell also thinks that parents should be held more accountable. "I think they need to emphasize that this is for the best interest of the children," she said. "They need to not pamper the parents' requests so much." For instance, Sandell said visits with parents have been moved to different locations for the convenience of parents, instead of what was best for the kids. Overall, however, those who work with Michigan's foster care system feel good about how it takes care of children. "There is a wonderful network of people involved in child protection proceedings," said Merten. "That is a tremendous asset to the children we have in care." |
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