Do you think that good people are passing on foster care because of lack of resources?

Siver C

Yes I do.
My sister applied to foster and had to fight every step of the way. It was absurd. She has a houseful of kids already, beautiful place, in fact what you'd think of as MODEL foster parents.
It took them 18 months of interviews, inspections, classes. And then I don't know how MANY times my sister called to ask about getting the first child... it was months.
THEN >>> They didn't pay her!!! Now she's lucky in that they can carry all of that >>> and let me add the state provided NOTHING for an infant. No swing, no little floor gym NOTHING!!
It took her five months of asking to get paid.
Ironic enough she recieved the full amount the day after child was reunited with her Mom.
So YES I do
I think a WHOLE lot of good people just give up. The Dept. is overworked and can't keep track I guess.

cpnpicard1

My wife and I have been foster parents for the past 10 years and we have had about 20 kids. We have also adopted two of the most precious children ever through the fostering process. Fostering takes more than just someone willing to help children. Along with it comes pain, anguish, heartache, stress, fear, etc. But fostering also has its advantages and our two children are a great example. I work a full time job and my wife stays home with the kids. My job has great insurance and I can understand people not being able to do fostering because of it's lack of insurance. With medical costs and prescription medication costs at an all time high you can't survive without insurance. States would go broke if they had to provide insurance to foster families other than the Medicaid that they already provide for the foster children.

Steve K.

I know my parents aren't allowed to foster because they already 'have too many kids' (there are five of us total). Both of them are teachers, so they would be home at the end of the school day for any foster child, and all five of us get along, and are really well adjusted. Kevin and I are both over 18 and communting to college, but still that doesn't count, five kids is just too many to deal with apparently. I will be moving out when I get married next month, and I know my parents have thought about fostering in the future, but that probably won't be a reality until Kevin or someone else gets their degree and moves out of the house.

Serenity71

From talking to experienced foster cares its more that they become frustrated with the system after a while so they quit fostering altogether. (I'm referring to fostering in Australia, just so people don't become confused by my answer.)

I don't really feel its about the money for most people who foster children, and from what I know its not the reason they give for stopping fostering children altogether.

Mostly its in temporary fostering that has the highest turn over of carers. The family takes in a child who has been abused only to see that child go back and be abused again and put back into foster care numerous times. Word gets out about this kind of thing and people don't want to constantly put their heart through the wringer after all their hard work with a child becoming undone in just a few months.

One of the other things is the social workers attitudes towards the carers. (Not all but enough to make a foster carer comment about it.) They don't treat many carers like they are worth something, failing to inform them about medical or details that will assist in their care of the child. More open communication and respect for the experience of the carers would go a long way to keeping the good ones.

It should never be a job, if that was the case abuse in fostering would sky rocket.

I admire foster carers, especially the ones that do temporary care of families. Those are the people that can get a phone call at 4pm and have four kids turn up on their doorstep in an hour because the need a home after being taken from an abusive home. It takes a special kind of person to do it properly an welcome those kids into their lives. Maybe adoption awareness week should really be "Foster family awareness week."

Randy B

I'm not so sure I get the point of your question. It sounds to me like in your area they look at someones job and income before they get approved as foster parents? Is my understanding correct? If so, that seems odd. I can see where they want to make sure that they are sufficiently employed so they don't make being a foster parent their "job". In that way they know that the kids will be cared for properly with the small stipend that the foster parents get for their care and expenses.

While extending some benefits to foster parents may sound like a good idea I'd worry that it may encourage people to foster more as a job then anything else. By benefits I'm assuming you mean pension, medical, unemployment....?

In our case, if we didn't have any other children in the home and we took in some more we would end up with about $1200 a month, per child, tax free. 4 kids = $4400 a month tax free....not bad. It would only go up if the children were special needs in any way. Of course, that's all a "what if" and not what we did at all. We only had one child as a foster child till her adoption was done and we are waiting on a call for another eventually.

I know in my area they work on supporting the foster parents well and I think that helps. For example, besides the money we get for the support of the child (which really isn't enough if you do it properly), we also get access to new supplies when we need them such as beds/cribs, high chairs, car seats, change tables... The foster care association even pays the extra amount for home insurance I needed to have and supplies the fire extinguishers and first aid kits. As well, because our medical system up here in Canada is a bit different the children already have free medical and dental care and extras like prescriptions and glasses are covered 100% by the Dept. My daughter didn't go on my insurance until her adoption was completed and even then the Dept still covered her for the first three months till the benefits kicked in.

The community helps as well. We get to take advantage of programs such as reduced costs on family memberships at the YMCA (as long as we have a foster child). Just the Y membership alone is a savings of over $600 a year, more if you include the fact that there are free swimming lessons for the kids included. One major retailer even gives us an extra 15% on top of any voucher we bring in for supplies. It all helps.

I think if the Departments and the community support them better then that may be the way to go. Hopefully that way it's less of a job and more of a support for the children who need it kind of situation.

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