Human Services News

From NYT > National:

States struggling to fill a void left by parents lost to drug addiction, AIDS and incarceration are increasingly using such programs to deal with the rising costs of foster care.

Thirty-eight states have such programs, more than half of them initiated in the last five years.

Now, Congress is considering legislation to finance the programs, correcting what some advocates call a perverse system that provides much more support for children in foster care than it does to get them out of the child welfare system.

"Many of the half million children in foster care are spending years and years stuck without a permanent home, and these programs are an excellent exit strategy for them from the child welfare system," said Carol Emig, executive director of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, a nonpartisan panel of experts convened to study problems with the child welfare system.

States like the programs because they are cheaper than foster homes, which require more oversight.

Child welfare advocates like them, too, because they are more permanent.

Critics say the programs are a new form of welfare and potentially more costly than advocates claim.

Studies show that foster children average more than two years --- double the time that federal law advises --- without a permanent home, often drifting from family to family.

Read more from this post.