September 10, 2008

Assembly Report

Evaluating foster care in California

By Assemblymember Jim Beall Jr.
Special to the Times

Recently, I was handed a tremendous responsibility. But it is an assignment that I gladly accept.

In July, I was appointed chair of the Select Commit-tee on Foster Care by Assemblyspeaker Karen Bass, who had overseen this committee since its in-ception three years ago. The committee's role is to evaluate how well Cali-fornia's foster care system is performing. Is it meeting the needs of the youth? How can the state's various agencies do a better job? Are they working in concert?

For years, the care of foster care children has been a deep concern to me. There are 74,000 kids in foster care statewide; half of them are younger than five. In Santa Clara County, more than 2,000 children live in foster care.

These children are in the system not because of anything they've done wrong. On the contrary, it's because of what adults have done to them. These innocent children are in the system because they have been abused or neglected.

And when authorities make the decision to pull them out of danger and place them in foster care, these children become the state of California's responsibility and, in essence, thereby become the children of every citizen in the state.

Foster care advocates have told us too many children are trapped in the system until they are emancipated at 18. But with no alternatives - no familial support or employment - 25 percent of them become incarcerated within two years of emancipation. Twenty percent become homeless. Only 46 percent will get a high school degree and a mere 3 percent will graduate from college.

It's traumatic enough for a child to be separated from their parents and home. It's our duty not to make this ordeal worse.

Foster care children and the people who welcome them into their homes have been shortchanged by the state budget for years. I've long advocated changing our budget priorities to help them. Along with others up and down our state, I am fighting to make that come true one day.

But there are many other ways to improve the system. The latest Select Committee hearings have focused on county agencies and organizations whose local best practice policies can serve as a blueprint for an effective statewide program. A parallel example is Eastfield Ming Quong's pioneering Wraparound program that tailors and coordinates comprehensive services for kids with complex and varied problems.

The committee received ideas from Southern California agencies in coping with drug abuse that can break apart families and listened to social workers in Fresno and San Mateo counties discuss how they were able to spend more time with families to gain a clearer picture of their situation.

These ideas may very well serve as the foundation for new legislation that will help thousands of foster care children and providers. We cannot ignore the needs of foster youth - to do so would not only be callous but unwise because they represent our future, just as surely as your children do. Foster care isn't about someone else's kids - it's about our kids.

As the chair of the Select Committee on Foster Care, I look forward to working on this issue and improving the plight of our children who face some of the longest odds in our society.