Posted on: Wednesday, May 19, 2004

EDITORIAL
Foster care needs much greater support

Faced with a 30 percent jump in child abuse and neglect cases in the last half-dozen years, Hawai'i is in dire need of more foster families. Much of the blame for this increase in children in need of care can be placed on the ongoing problem of ice addiction.

Satisfying this growing demand entails more than just finding homes. It requires a state and federal commitment to upgrading the foster-care system so that more children can find their way to permanent homes. Today, far too many drift from one temporary abode to another.

Across the nation, there are some 500,000 children in foster care. A report by the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care called for serious reform, both in financing at the state and federal levels and in court oversight.

While foster care can help heal a child who has been abused or neglected, too many children languish, moving from temporary home to temporary home, the report said.

Foster care is administered at the state and local levels, but the federal government provides substantial support. That money can spur states to make decisions that are not always in the child's best interest, the report found.

For example, federal money is restricted largely to paying directly for foster care, limiting the extent to which states can seek out other options that might move children more quickly to safe, permanent families — or keep them safely out of foster care in the first place.

The report also found that delays in court proceedings keep many children in foster care longer than necessary.

Federal foster-care dollars must be redirected so that states have greater flexibility to better focus on getting children into safe, permanent families.

Children deserve more from our child welfare system than they are getting today. For this to happen, however, those on the front lines of foster care — caseworkers, judges, foster parents and others — need the support, tools and training necessary to do their jobs more effectively.

In Hawai'i, we clearly owe foster parents and the system that supports them a huge debt of gratitude for taking in children who might otherwise fall through the cracks.

But it isn't enough.

Investing in a high-quality foster system now will save us heartaches, headaches and millions of dollars in the long run. Quality care now will help prevent children from dropping out of school, getting addicted to drugs and entering the criminal justice system.

It's expensive, yes, but we need to divert this tidal wave of misery up-front.