Making Money from Child Protective Services

One of the most horrendous facts of life in the United States is the existence of Child Abuse and Neglect. Even worse are the people who profit from it. In the year 2005, there were over half a million children in the United States Foster Care System. (1) Approximately 24,000 more children entered the system than did exit the system through the various methods, for example adoption, reunification with the parents, or permanent kinship placements such as aunts and uncles or grandparents. “Child protection is one of the biggest businesses in the country. We spend $12 billion a year on it.” (2) That said, there are lots of people with their hands out to get a piece of that pie. A lot of money is made behind the scenes under the guise of protecting children from abuse and neglect.

“The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Public Law 93-247) provides federal funding to States in support of prevention, assessment, investigation, prosecution, and treatment activities and also provides grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations for demonstration programs and projects.” (3) This law provided the funds for the Child Protective system that we have today. Although well meaning when enacted, as nobody could righteously deny the need to protect children from abuse or neglect, this law has been abused by those looking for a profit. Even today innocent families are being destroyed at the hands of these sadistic profiteers who stand to gain from keeping kids in the system. “Far more common are cases in which a family’s poverty is confused with child “neglect.” Several studies have found for example, that one-third of foster children could be back home right now if their parents simply had adequate housing.” (4)

Instead the poor have become easy targets due to their inability to fight by providing themselves with the best lawyers against a system with so much inside and outside influence, that it was in turn fluffing the numbers in an effort to grow their businesses. Those who can afford it, spend thousands on lawyers, therapists and psychological and parenting assessments in their fights to get their children back. Many foster children have suffered heartwrenchingly difficult lives while caught up in the system that wants to keep them safe from loving parents based on the money that those who control their lives get from the federal and state governmens for doing so. For example, lawyers who are appointed to look after a childs best interest as Guardian Ad Litem, are given contracts by the states and paid to look out for their best interest. The longer that kid is caught up in the system, the longer their contract lasts, it’s as simple as that. Psychiatrists and Private Therapists are able to get medicade payments. Foster children are also much more likely to be found to have special needs and be medicated with psyciatropic drugs then are non foster children. Most commonly diagnosises of ADHD and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are made.

Although it would be much cheaper to keep a kid in the home, it is much more profitable for those who are against the parents to get and keep them in foster care. “The estimated average cost of providing preventive services is $8,000 a year per family. The average cost of keeping a child in foster care: $20,000.” (5)

Foster parents are also paid monthly payments to keep these children in their homes, although many have complained that it’s not enough. Many foster parents take in several children at a time and of course a foster parent can earn even more if the child is special needs. “Eligible foster parents can earn $22,000 a year plus medical benefits for caring for a developmentally disabled child through the program. In some cases, a family taking an additional such child may be paid a total of $35,000 a year.” (6)

Lets also not forget the Group Homes and Treatment Facilities which deal with children with special needs. In one state alone, “Residential child caring institution - Foster care payments range from $80 to $250 per day.” (7)

All of these financial incentives have caused the children to be stuck in foster care, even the ones who otherwise could have gone home if the families had simply been provided the services that they needed to be better able to care for their children

Then in 1997 President Clinton passed the "Adoption and Safe Families Act." (8) This new law was supposed to correct the problems of children languishing in the foster care system for years, by providing bonuses and tax credits for the successful adoptions of foster children. This provided a whole new set of target dollars to shoot for. For example, “Today's award of nearly $20 million in adoption bonuses to States demonstrates the dramatic success of our efforts to move more children from the foster care system to loving homes they can call their own.” (9) With the passage of this law, a lot of this money went to the adoption agencies, many of which are for profit businesses. At the same time, lots of birth parents, many of whom fought tooth and nail to regain custody of their children, lost them permanently as the agencies pushed the courts in an effort to get the adoption bonus.
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Bibliography
1. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/trends.htm
2. http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Abuse_Prevention_and_Treatment_Act
4. http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:E2PcWEpNCD4J:www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc+kids+could+go+home+if+they+had+adequate+housing&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us
5. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7DA1E3AF930A2575BC0A967958260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/H/Human%20Resources%20Administration
6. http://www.liftingtheveil.org/foster07.htm
7. http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-124-5452_7117_7658-14898--,00.html
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption_and_Safe_Families_Act
9. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2889/is_38_36/ai_66935274