Legally Kidnapped

Shattering Your Child Welfare Delusions Since 2007


Saturday, November 29, 2008

Gifts that Heal

I post this video only because it mentions using this program to provide dental care for foster children. I'm not picking on the program itself. It's a good thing I guess, but it does suggest that the state is not providing for foster children if a program like this would be needed.

1 comment:

  1. Arrgghhh!

    That's a great example of charitable giving based on emotional appeal and not actual NEED. Kids in foster care automatically get Title 19, so their dental care is completely free of charge- so, they're living in nice middle class homes and have free dental care, but since people think of foster kids as being the modern day equivalent of Lil' Orphan Annie, it sounds nice to give stuff to foster kids.

    Why doesn't it occur to anyone to set up a charity to help families whose kids are in danger of being placed in foster care, or reunited families?

    When kids go into foster care, the family gets $200 per kid to buy clothes and other needs. It doesn't matter if the kid already has plenty of clothes, if the parents packed and labeled a trunk full of clothes as if the child was going to summer camp. The foster family still gets $200. However, the reunified family gets nothing. They might not even get back the stuff they sent with the child into foster care. The foster family gets paid per child per day, so that's an extra $450-$1350 per kid per month on top of their own (usually middle-class) wages. That makes it a lot easier for foster families to be able to afford extras, like going to the swimming pool or horseback riding. The biological families are almost always in poverty to start with, and we're expected to do as good of a job on a fraction of the budget.
    Everyone understands how money gives an advantage in other skills, like sports or music, but then they act like love is all you need to be a good parent. Trying to raise a child in poverty is like trying to play music on a broken instrument, or playing sports with worn-out equipment. We might be struggling, but if people saw us as worthy of charity, maybe we'd get the help that would give us a chance to shine.

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