HTT: Private foster care agencies

Sally J

Back from vacation from Denver!  I finally got to meet my DD's foster family and it helped provide a lot of closure for all of us.  At any rate, they have requested to have another baby placed with them but have been waiting for almost a year for a placement!  They are concerned that their complaints about the previous social worker (who was awful and even I complained about her) has somehow jeopardized their chances of another placement. 

I asked them about the idea of using a private agency to do foster adopt rather than going straight through the county.  I admit I don't know much about this route for foster-adopt since I thought all foster care was handled throught the state.  In doing some research I came across this news story:

https://extras.denverpost.com/news/foster0521a.htm

Basically it talks about how the private foster care agencies are hugely profitable at the expense of the welfare of children.  The article of course starts out with a very graphic scenario of situations gone very wrong.  Apparently CO issues permanent licenses to these businesses, even if they break state rules.  These private agencies handle more than 50% of the states foster care cases and don't necessarily have anything in place to screen foster parents or protect the children.

Now this is just one article for one state.  Anybody else have other examples of how private agencies work?

Do you think it's okay to for private agencies to exist that make profit off taxpayers funds?

What about permanent vs. yearly renewal licenses?  CO's system can't be the norm and I honestly can't believe the state doesn't have the option to revoke the license if rules are being broken.

What percentage of the caseload should private agencies handle?

lilmufish

I haven't read the article yet, but i'll start typing and then i'll read it

As far as private foster care agencies go...we are currently in the process of being licensed through one.  In our state, (Missouri), there are an over abundance of foster care cases open, and the state does not have enough workers, or resources in order to make sure all of the cases are taken care of. Therefore, the foster care cases are contracted out to several agencies throughout the state. I read somewhere online that it was over 50% of the cases. Some are religious based (Baptist, Luthern, Catholic, etc) and some are non-religious based. I know that although the individual agencies each have their own caseload of foster kids, they network together with other agencies to provide resources and such.

We are going through a subsidiary of Catholic Charities, and our particular agency has MORE requirements than the state. So basically, we go through all the same requirements that the county / state requires, plus additional for our particular agency.  Ignoring being under Catholic Charities, furthermore, we are under an umbrella of 5 agencies that all work together in order to provide training and resources. So my PRIDE class has a combined group of individuals from all five agencies.

In regards to the article - in just the first few paragraphs I read about how there was abuse in the agencies and the state was doing nothing.    In all states, there is foster child abuse - done with in the counties. So don't discount private agencies as a whole, just because of an isolated event or isolated area. There ARE agencies that are doing good for Children! 

Something disturbed me, I really, can't believe this happened, i'm so sad for these children.  , "- About 40 percent of the 2,440 children in the private foster-care system are supervised by businesses whose records included serious problems, such as using former criminals as foster parents, placing kids in homes where they later were abused or molested, or repeatedly violating state rules." 

See, to me, that wouldnt happen in our agency. We have background checks, employment checks, family, friend and character references, etc. We have been told we will have workers coming in and out of our home, not only OUR agency worker, but the child's agency worker.  I've met one person who is currently fostering through this agency and she said "they don't just threaten visits, they really do come in to make sure things are going well in the home."

Before I start rambling...about the rest of the article, I noticed they kept saying foster care businesses.  We are in a non-for- profit agency, i wonder if those are meant to be the same or if they're different?

 

 

 

 

GLynn2009

This was hard to read. I hope this is not the norm.

lilmufish

fredalina:

Before I start rambling...about the rest of the article, I noticed they kept saying foster care businesses.  We are in a non-for- profit agency, i wonder if those are meant to be the same or if they're different?

i'm not anti-private agency at all.  If there were private agencies that had younger kids who don't have serious issues in my area, we would probably have used one.

But as i was explaining to a coworker just this morning, not-for-profit means very little.  It means they literally don't sell stocks and take in more income than outgo.  Most of the time there is a director or a board of directors who take a salary for serving on the board, and may even get bonuses.  So a company that *may* make $1M a year more than it expends can easily get around the "can't make a profit" rule by giving the directors salary or bonuses in the amount of $1M.  The peeps at the very top *may* be in a position of being able to take home a really big salary and/or bonuses.

This is exactly what happens when you hear about the non-profit scandals.  Legally, they're obeying the laws.  But morally, it's very very squishy.

 

I dislike non for profits that do stuff like that. It puts a bad name for the other non profits who really are trying to make a difference. Sigh.

 

 

come*on*baby

we've been with two private agencies and we've loved working with both of them. you get more "protection" with most of them and a middle man when you get a crazy case worker (which we have).  Both have been far from profit making. Our first agency closed the foster care department (due to financial reasons) but it was the smallest department in the whole deal.

INgirlinDenver

I live in Denver and had seen this article.  As a former caseworker and as a current foster parent...I have to say what the article is decribing is not the norm and not all the info is correct.

 Anybody else have other examples of how private agencies work?  We are going through a "private" agency..non-profit.   It does cost more than a normal county foster home as the casemanagers with our agency provides services to the child as well.  More homevisits, extra services, etc.  They also work with all the counties rather than just the one county.  Our agency requires more training than the county as well as has stricter guidelines.  In regards to foster parents having felonies, drug/alochol history...I think that may have been one rare case.  I know as a former caseworker and working with several child placement agencies that they tend to be more "picky" than the county homes and have harsher guidelines.

Do you think it's okay to for private agencies to exist that make profit off taxpayers funds?  The majority of the CPA's here are non-profit.  As a former caseworker, I don't remember any of the CPA's being for profit. 

What about permanent vs. yearly renewal licenses?  CO's system can't be the norm and I honestly can't believe the state doesn't have the option to revoke the license if rules are being broken. This suprised me and I don't know that what the article said is accurate.  I know of at least 4 CPA's that were closed down by the state and DID lose their license due to issues.  I know that the state also has closed foster homes within those CPA's . 

What percentage of the caseload should private agencies handle?  I don't tihnk it should be percentage based...I think it should be based on finding the best foster home to match the needs to the child.

 

thebratbride

I am with a private agency and I love them- they are very hands on and respond quickly when i need them.  They do all the background checks and everything else required.  I have found that the private agencies are much easier to work with- I  have friends who are with the state and they say the SW turn around is alarming and it is easy to be just a number and wait days if not weeks for a reply.  I am not anti-state but they are always over worked.  They have to take every case, the private agencies do not and therefore can control the number of case so they do not become overwhelmed.

come*on*baby

thebratbride:

I am with a private agency and I love them- they are very hands on and respond quickly when i need them.  They do all the background checks and everything else required.  I have found that the private agencies are much easier to work with- I  have friends who are with the state and they say the SW turn around is alarming and it is easy to be just a number and wait days if not weeks for a reply.  I am not anti-state but they are always over worked.  They have to take every case, the private agencies do not and therefore can control the number of case so they do not become overwhelmed.

 

i completely agree!