Florida Sets Example in Foster Care

Preventive Services Keep Kids at Home

2 June 2009

By Thomas L. Weitzel

LSF Communications

On May 27, National Public Radio reported that "Florida has become a leader in keeping children out of foster care" by investing in preventive services.  The story noted a significant shift in the state after it "lagged near the bottom of foster care rankings" only a few years ago.  (Click here to listen to the full story.)

The child welfare work of Lutheran Services Florida in Lee and Charlotte counties bears this out, according to Tom Desio, Director for LSF's Child Welfare Case Management program.

"The number of children in out-of-home care has dropped this fiscal year in our district by about seven percent with the number in foster care specifically dropping by about five percent," said Desio.  "In Lee County, the fall in foster care has been around 16% this fiscal year."

The reason for the change in Florida comes directly from the Florida Department of Children and Families.

"The Secretary of the department has mandated a 50% reduction in out-of-home care by 2012," reports Desio.  "This has led to a focus on diversion and other front end interventions statewide."  Such diversions and interventions would include parenting classes, counseling, and rehabilitation from substance abuse and domestic violence.

It's not just the state, however, that is mandating reductions in foster care, says Patricia Leonard, Director of the LSF's Southwest Region.

"It is being mandated at the federal level because foster care is expensive, more so than prevention services such as family preservation," says Leonard.  But it's not just dollars driving this new emphasis, she adds.

"Foster care is damaging to children," she says.  "Removing children from their parents, even if the parents are abusive, is traumatic for children.  Sometimes, many times children never recover from that trauma, and go on to develop problems that lead them and their own children right back into the foster care system."

Another factor that mitigates for keeping children in their homes is the "disproportionate minority representation in the child welfare system," says Leonard.  "Children of color are more likely to be removed from their homes, more likely to be sent to foster care, and linger longer in foster care than white children, and then are less likely to be adopted or find permanence, even though there is no evidence that their parents abuse them more than white parents."

It's clear that the new emphasis on diversion and prevention services is having an impact in Florida.  NPR reported a total state drop of 30 percent in the foster care population over the past two years.

"We have focused on efforts to get kids home from foster care quickly in order to reduce the number," says Desio.

But falling numbers may not be telling the whole story, says Leonard.

"Even though the numbers in foster care have dropped, the numbers of children returning to foster care after being reunited with their families has risen," she states.  "Federal law requires that children be reunited or find permanence through adoption or placement with a relative within nine months.  Not all families are functioning at the same level, and so cookie cutter mandates don’t always work with every family.  Child welfare is like most systems, it's not perfect."

Nonetheless Leonard believes that the emphasis on family preservation gets at a significant problem with the child welfare system raised by many critics, namely that poverty is too often the cause for children being needlessly removed from their families.

"Over 25% of children in this country live below the poverty line," says Leonard.  "The majority of children in foster care come from single parent families.  The majority of families involved in the child welfare system have multiple stressors in their lives that most Americans cannot begin to imagine:  racism, substance abuse, histories of trauma, abuse and neglect for parents, poverty, lack of resources, unemployment, lack of safe affordable housing, lack of affordable daycare, domestic violence, lack of education, low paying jobs, living in neighborhoods infested with crime, violence and drug abuse, lack of affordable healthcare, no transportation. The list goes on and on."

The Child Welfare Case Management program of Lutheran Services Florida assists approximately 1,400 children in Lee and Charlotte counties annually.  To read more about LSF's Foster and Adoptions Care work, click here.

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