Monday, February 18, 2008

By Cindy V. Culp

Tribune-Herald staff writer

An initiative to place children who have been removed from their homes with relatives is intended to ease their fears associated with foster care and to cut state expenses, officials say.

Child Protective Services started the program, dubbed kinship care, in spring 2006. It was launched in McLennan County this fall. The child welfare agency has long placed children who cannot be cared for by their parents with other family members. But the program is an intensified push for family placement, backed by funding, officials say.

In 2005, the Legislature appropriated money to hire more workers so the agency could have kinship specialists. Money also was allocated to ease the financial burden on those who care for family members’ children. Unlike foster parents, relatives previously have not been paid by the state.

Promising results

Colleen McCall, who oversees CPS field operations, said she thinks the funding was approved because of kinship pilot projects in several large Texas cities using federal funds. They showed promising results for children, chiefly that they were more comfortable when placed with people they knew and they had more stability. Children in foster care often are moved to several homes, but children placed with relatives can stay in one place, she said.

Since the program was unveiled statewide, CPS has been busy trying to hire people to fill the new kinship positions. Officials hope to have one kinship worker for every 54 families, McCall said.

The Waco office is supposed to have two kinship workers, but CPS has been unable to fill those positions, officials said. They hope to have the workers hired by the end of the month, they said.

Even with some spots unfilled, officials say the initiative is paying off. In 2000, 14 percent of children removed from their homes by CPS were placed with relatives. Now, 25 percent to 30 percent of placements are with other family members, according to CPS figures.

One reason for the increase is the new financial help, said Annie Jones, a kinship specialist in Bell County who is temporarily covering the Waco region.

Before, some relatives would initially agree to take the children, Jones said. But when they learned they wouldn’t get financial help like foster families, it put them in a quandary. Adding additional children into any household budget is daunting, she said.

With the new program, families can get a $1,000 “integration payment,” Jones said. It is designed to help families buy necessities for the children such as beds, clothing or baby formula, she said.

Also, after the first year, the families are eligible for an annual payment of $500 per child.

That money does not come close to covering the costs of caring for the children, but it softens the blow, Jones said.

“At least it helps families get situated and gives them some sense of appreciation as well,” she said.

Further assistance

In a related push of the kinship program, workers connect families with social service help, including government programs such as food stamps or private sector help such as church clothes closets, Jones said.

The program also can pay for child care in some cases, she said.

But the emotional support provided by the kinship program seems to make a bigger difference, Jones said. Families often just need someone to talk to, she said. While children’s caseworkers frequently have too many duties to respond to such needs quickly, kinship care workers don’t.

“We’re an extra advocate,” Jones said. “As long as they know there is someone out there who is there to help them, listen to them, let them vent, they’re OK.”.

Families also now have the option to share with each other, Jones said. The kinship initiative calls for support groups to be started for family members. During those sessions, caretakers can talk about issues such as behavioral problems and get feedback from others who know what they’re going through, she said.

The initiative has required a significant philosophical shift within CPS, McCall said. One change has been getting away from the idea that it might not be safe to place children with relatives of a parent who was abusive or neglectful.

Many good families have a member who goes astray, she said.

“We really need to be careful about indicting the whole family,” McCall said.

Another challenge has been training all CPS staff to think about placements in a way that emphasizes kinship care, McCall said. Even if a suitable relative can’t be found when the child is first removed, workers all the way up the chain are urged to keep looking for family members who could take the children, she said.

The program saves the state money in foster care payments it doesn’t have to make, McCall said. But most importantly, it has proven a benefit for the children involved and real promise for society, she said.

“In the long run, 15 or 20 years from now, there are probably better outcomes for the community,” she said.

cculp@wacotrib.com

757-5744

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/02/18/02182008
wacCPSkinshipcare.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor