The best chance in decades to get serious about reducing the number of children torn from their families each year is being undermined by the agency that is supposed to make it work.
Last September, Congress restored the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services to issue “waivers” from rules that restrict a huge proportion of federal child welfare aid to funding foster care and only foster care.
Under current law, the foster care money is an open-ended entitlement. For every “eligible” child placed in foster care – and that’s nearly half of all foster children – the federal government picks up a large share of the cost. This creates a horrendous incentive: Though foster care costs more than better alternatives in total dollars, there are times when it might cost a state or county less to use foster care because the federal government picks up so much of the tab.
● The best way to improve the “well-being” of children at risk of foster care is to make sure they are never placed in foster care.
● And the best way to improve the “well-being” of foster children is to get them the hell out of foster care.
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