Everything in the American society is a business; including foster care.
Critics have often expressed they feel that influences by Federal and State financial incentives may be affecting objectivity. Even going as far
as accusing the evolution of our system, as becoming a witch-hunt atmosphere; referring to cases as wrongly accused parents.
One American goal seems to remain steadfast: to provide the best possible care at the lowest cost - but could this imbalanced commitment be
causing explosive negative results.
Staggering statistics show 60 to 80 percent of reported abuse cases, remain unsubstantiated.
Children desperately waiting to be rescued from the dangers of unfit parents are so often left behind, while those wrongly accused are
saturating the systems space and resources.
We learn from history, or do we? It should be hard to forget one of the most famous murder trials of the 1980’s: the death of six-year-old,
Elizabeth “Lisa” Steinberg. Needless to say, many other horror stories of failed children have followed in the last three decades.
Ask and most will say, the system is a tickertape parade of bureaucratic paperwork, causing massive confusion to continue to interfere with
clear vision and goals for the safety of children.
Case workers with good intentions are inundated with pen ink, instead of flesh and soul; and ill-informed parents and society are left to run-
a-muck.
Doubt is dangerous. Our child protection system is complicated, and drenched with misfiled cases of people reporting what they shouldn’t,
and scaring those who should, not to call when they must.
A caseworker from Pennsylvania’s, Child Protective Services (CPS), who requested to remain anonymous said she agrees the first place of
reform should be to reevaluate the “Lacking uniformity during intake process, too much paper-work, and not enough time allotted with the
children and families themselves; and more effort to keep kids with their families – the system is not set up to raise children.”
Dr. Robert Shapiro of the Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati, was once quoted as saying, “… the responsible reaction is to
listen carefully to allegations of abuse so that abused children will be identified and false allegations recognized.” (May 2002)
Are Shanel Nadal and Nephra Payne, innocent of the abuse charges against their own children?, or is there validity of the charges against
the accused foster parents? Is everyone hurting these children?
Punitive actions can be taken against a parent simply based on economic situation such as failure to have dental services performed for your
child, or failure to replace broken glasses. Understandably these are necessities, but to what degree do we ignore the realistic grey area of life
and circumstances and call it abuse – or not abuse?
With wonderfully intended sentiment, the 1997, Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was created to expedite the process of foster children
stuck in limbo to be placed into permanent adoption.
Owner/Editor - Chris Chmielewski