When one thinks of the truly caring people of our community, foster parents must be at the top of the list. They provide love, support, shelter, understanding and a stable environment to children who, for a variety of reasons, have been taken away from their parents. Parenting is stressful enough — foster care issues can compound that stress.

Now, a University of Maryland study reported what foster parents already know — there is also a financial stress that is a major part of the foster-care challenge.

Hawai'i is among the states paying foster parents far less than what middle-income families spend to raise their children, according to the report.

The report recommended that foster parents in Hawai'i who have taken in a teenager be paid $790 a month; they now get $529.

Hawai'i, in fact, pays $529 a month for all age groups and it is a compensation level that has not changed since 1990. All of us know how much costs have risen in the past 17 years. We also know that the cost of raising a teenager can be significantly higher than a younger child.

The state does now reimburse mileage and offers health insurance for foster children. In addition, foster parents who take in children with special needs get a special-care differential of $570, which means they get $1,099 monthly.

It would be almost too easy to criticize the Department of Human Services for under-compensating foster parents. All states have the responsibility to do as much as they can to recruit, train and support nurturing foster parents, and should pay them a just amount that covers the basic costs of raising a child.

DHS says it began taking a close look at its budget in July to see if rates could be increased. While foster parents have not raised a public outcry about the economic disparity, the department should move quickly to start action on an increase in payments. If legislative action is needed to increase the department's budget so that foster parents can get just compensation, that should be handled quickly, at the beginning of the next session.

The department owes it to foster parents — and the kids in the foster care system — to move expeditiously. The state asks so much of foster parents already, it is wrong to not move quickly to ease their economic burden.

That said, we must acknowledge and applaud other ways in which DHS has worked to better assist foster parents.

In September 2006, the DHS Child Welfare Services branch spent more than $6 million to increase its partnerships with nonprofit agencies to provide recruitment, training, home studies and support for foster parents.

DHS also said it is addressing the issue of Native Hawaiian foster children being placed in homes outside their culture. It helped the nonprofit Partners in Development Foundation get a grant to recruit more Hawaiian foster parents.

All of us have a stake in making all children's lives better — urge your legislator to give DHS the financial resources to make it happen.