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California care providers have a reason to be hopeful today!
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The
federal district court in San Francisco has ruled that the State of
California has failed to reimburse foster parents for the cost of
caring for children in their care at the appropriate level and this
violates federal Child Welfare Law. A final judgment will be entered
in the case on October 31 of this year. While the court declined to set
a specific amount, this ruling means that California must bring foster
care maintenance payments into line with federal law or risk losing
hundreds of millions of federal foster care dollars. It is expected
that the State will comply with the ruling.
This ruling was brought about by Legal Advocates for Permanent Parenting (LAPP) who enlisted a team of outstanding attorneys to work on the case. Regina Deihl, the Executive Director of LAPP expressed her gratitude to Morrison & Foerster and to the Children's Advocacy Institute for their legal work on the case.
It is expected that this ruling, since it was brought in a federal court, will have ramifications nationwide. We will keep you updated as the case is finally resolved and through our Public Policy Committee, how it might affect your state.
Below are editorials regarding the lawsuit:
San Jose Mercury News EditorialEditorial: California shirking its obligations to foster parents
Article Launched: 10/23/2008 08:00:00 PM PDT
It shouldn't take a court ruling for California to do the right thing by its 75,000 foster children and the saints who care for them. Shame on state leaders for forcing U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Wednesday to tell them what they should have known: The state's low payments to foster parents violate the federal Child Welfare Act.
Alsup should have
required an immediate increase in payments. Caregivers persuasively
argued that rates are 29 to 40 percent too low. Unfortunately, he just
ordered the state to precisely determine the costs for feeding,
clothing and generally caring for foster children, building in more
delay and further harming the kids.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a
bill in 2007 providing an immediate 5 percent increase in foster care
payments, but that still left the state short of where it needs to be.
He and the Legislature are well aware of the consequences.
The average cost of raising a child
in California is in the neighborhood of $700 a month. Foster parents
receive $450 to $625 a month, depending on the age of a child. Partly
because of this, the number of foster parents in California has dropped
30 percent in the past 10 years. In Santa Clara County the drop has
been even worse, 48 percent, losing more than 2,000 foster parents.
When foster parents can't be found,
children are sent to group homes that cost $1,400 a month per child,
double the cost of foster care. And foster homes are far more desirable
for a child's development.
California has a moral obligation
and good fiscal reasons to fairly compensate foster parents. It should
stop litigating and just write the checks.
San Francisco Chronicle Editorial
Foster families need help
Friday, October 24, 2008
A federal judge has connected the dots: One of the reasons that so few families are willing to take in foster children is that the state reimbursement rate falls well short of their actual costs.
The question is whether California will raise its monthly payments to foster parents
- which now range from $446 a month for infants to $627 a month for
teens - before the federal courts mandate it. U.S. District Judge
William Alsup noted that these levels are insufficient to cover "food,
clothing, shelter, daily supervision, school supplies" and other
essentials. Not surprisingly, there has been a 50 percent reduction in
the number of foster children in family homes in the last decade.
In recent years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature have taken bold steps to strengthen the state's foster-care
system and to hold it accountable for the outcomes of the nearly 80,000
young people it is supposed to serve. Two of the most ardent advocates
for foster youth, Sen. Darrell Steinberg,
D-Sacramento, and Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista, have
recently risen to top leadership positions in their respective houses.
So while the political will is
there, the dollars are decidedly tight. The state might have to
consider a sliding-scale system, based on income, to more fairly
compensate the families that have opened their homes and their hearts
to the state's most vulnerable youth.
Associated Press
Judge orders state to review foster care payments
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
(10-22) 23:28 PDT San Francisco, CA (AP) --
A federal judge has ordered California to recalculate the way it determines how much to reimburse foster parents for child care.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup
ordered the changes Tuesday, saying the state's current payments are
violating the Child Welfare Act. He noted payments have fallen to as
little as 60 percent of the amount the state must cover to be eligible
for federal funds.
The judge stopped short of ordering
the state to increase payments. But Alsup did tell the state to
systematically review the costs of providing food, clothing,
transportation and other services to a child. That's the standard
mandated by the federal government in order for a state to receive
matching federal funds.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services says officials are evaluating the ruling and had no comment.
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