Resolve to reunite foster children with families

Resolve to reunite foster children with families

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a statewide children's advocacy organization based in Harrisburg.

Northampton County (Pennsylvania) January 14, 2010

A new year commonly ushers in declarations and promises of what we can do differently, better, healthier. As a child advocate, I can think of no sounder resolution than to ensure every child in the Lehigh Valley, and in Pennsylvania, lives in a safe, stable and permanent home in 2010 and beyond.

Between April 1, 2008, and April 1, 2009, there were more than 31,000 children living in foster care in Pennsylvania; 607 in Lehigh County; 419 in Northampton County. While many children will safely be reunified with their birth families or relatives, others will neither be reunited with their birth families nor adopted and instead placed in group homes and institutions, perhaps until they turn 18 and ''age out'' of the system as 1,100 youth in Pennsylvania do every year.

How is Lehigh County doing in assuring safe, stable and permanent families for its children? ''The State of Child Welfare,'' (porchlightproject.org/reports_and_media_socw09.shtml) a new report by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, shows that while there are many practices already in place that help to promote permanency and strengthen families in crisis, there are key areas that need improvement as well.

Lehigh County has a very low rate of re-entry into foster care for children who have left the system as compared with other urban counties and the state. From April 2007 to March 2009, barely 6 percent of children re-entered the foster care system within 12 months following reunification with parents or relatives compared with 32 percent of children in other urban counties. That is to be commended and shows that the county is concentrating on strengthening its families by addressing the reasons children were removed in the first place and remedied them so children don't return to foster care.

However, far too many Lehigh County children in the foster care system face great instability as 43 percent experience three or more placement settings in the time (12 to 23 months) spent in care. Every time a child moves, the traumatic experience of separation and lack of continuity in his or her life grows. A child who experiences multiple placements while in foster care struggles to build and maintain healthy relationships and is disadvantaged academically due to repeated school changes.

Northampton County children also experience lower re-entry rates than the state and other like counties. However, the county emancipates a lot of its older youth in foster care (11 percent) and needs to do a better job finding permanent families for these teens, perhaps turning to relatives and extended family members as potential guardians.

My organization's report doesn't single out any one county. That is not the purpose. The report provides comprehensive data for all 67 counties that will help policy-makers, children and youth administrators and others invested in the welfare of vulnerable children assess how state and county governments are doing providing safe, stable and permanent families for all children in Pennsylvania. It is important to note that every county -- every local child welfare system -- can make improvements in how it addresses the needs of children in the foster care system and how families are aided and strengthened to help prevent a child's removal in the first place.

Both Lehigh and Northampton counties have made strides to improve the conditions for children who are at risk of abuse and neglect and should keep building on their efforts, moving forward to assure every child a safe, stable and permanent family.

These are all our children, therefore all of us can make a collective resolution to safely reduce the number of children in foster care this year and to find permanent families for those children who cannot be reunified with their birth parents or relatives. We can make 2010 the year we devote to creating forever families for all children in Pennsylvania.

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a statewide children's advocacy organization based in Harrisburg.
Copyright © 2010, The Morning Call

http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-yv_benso0106.7139267jan14,0,6691622.story