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note: This article cites a recent Humboldt County Grand Jury Report near the
end of the article. We have added the link to the report.
According
to a recent series in the Times-Standard about foster care in Humboldt County,
there is a shortage of caseworkers. There is a shortage of lawyers. There is a
shortage of foster parents. But one thing isn’t in short supply: excuses for
the extremely high rate at which Humboldt County tears apart families and
consigns children to foster care.
The
executive director of First 5 Humboldt, Mary Ann Hansen, says there must be
lots more child abuse in Humboldt County.
But
the overwhelming majority of cases involve “neglect” not abuse. And often,
poverty itself is confused with “neglect.” Even when factoring in rates of
child poverty, Humboldt County takes away children at the eighth highest rate
in California. Among counties with at least 5,000 children living below the poverty
line, Humboldt County is No. 1 in child removal.
The
good news: This means there is no evidence that Humboldt County is a cesspool
of depravity with vastly more child abuse than the rest of the state. The bad
news: Humboldt County probably is far more likely than other communities to
mislabel poverty as “neglect” — and then claim a high rate of “child abuse.” So
Humboldt County winds up needlessly destroying families with a
take-the-child-and-run approach to child welfare that has been discredited across
the country.
The
typical cases that dominate the caseloads of child welfare workers are nothing
like the horror stories. Far more common are cases in which family poverty has
been confused with “neglect.” County Social Services Director Stephanie Weldon even
admits that in Humboldt County families are torn apart because of
“intergenerational poverty.”
Study
after study has shown that simply providing a little extra income can
dramatically reduce so-called neglect. One study, released just this month,
found that just increasing the minimum wage by $1 an hour reduces “neglect” by
10 percent. At least three other studies have found that 30 percent of
America’s foster children could be home right now if parents just had decent
housing.
Other
cases fall between the extremes. So it’s no wonder that two massive studies
involving more than 15,000 typical cases found that children left in their own
homes fared better even than comparably maltreated children placed in foster
care.
Even
in cases involving drug abuse, now the all-purpose excuse for high rates of
foster care, we should have learned from previous “drug plagues.” Researchers
studied two groups of children born with cocaine in their systems; one group
was placed in foster care, another left with birth mothers able to care for
them. The children left with their birth mothers typically did better. For the
foster children, the separation from their mothers was more toxic than the
cocaine.
It
is extremely difficult to take a swing at so-called “bad mothers” without the
blow landing on their children. That’s why drug treatment for the mother almost
always is a better option than foster care for the child.
Hansen
blames high rates of foster care on “adverse childhood experiences.” But being
torn from everyone loving and familiar is among the worst traumas a child can
endure. You don’t fight trauma with trauma.
That
trauma occurs even when the foster home is a good one. The majority are. But
the rate of abuse in foster care is far higher than generally realized and far
higher than in the general population. Multiple studies have found abuse in
one-quarter to one-third of foster homes. The rate of abuse in group homes and
institutions is even worse.
But
even that isn’t the worst of it. The more that workers are overwhelmed with
false allegations, trivial cases and children who don’t need to be in foster
care, the less time they have to find children in real danger. That may well
explain the [Humboldt] county grand jury’s finding that some
reports alleging abuse got no response for months at a time.
None
of this means no child ever should be taken from her or his parents. But foster
care is an extremely toxic intervention that should be used sparingly and in small
doses. Humboldt County is prescribing mega-doses of foster care. At a time when
the New York Times is calling foster care the new “Jane Crow,” the county needs
to look to, and learn from, states and counties that have improved child safety
by embracing safe, proven alternatives to foster care.
Richard Wexler is executive director of the National
Coalition for Child Protection Reform, www.nccpr.org
Times-Standard
September 2, 2017
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