Dear 2UrbanGirls,
Please publish this letter I sent to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on behalf of foster care providers. Thank you.
Dear Board of Supervisors:
I am writing on behalf of a friend that has been providing foster care services through The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for 20+ years. Over the last year, the licensing/oversight of foster homes has changed from the state to DCFS. This change has adversely affected some foster care providers.
Under DCFS’s new oversight, foster care providers’ capacity to have children with medical problems (known as medical fragile that includes medical conditions and developmental disabilities) is limited. The new DCFS oversight system ONLY allows for one (1) medical, foster child per foster home, which is a shift from the practice when the state provided oversight for the foster home licensing. Under the state’s supervision, a home could have two (2) without a waiver and more than two (2) with a waiver. My friend at one time had four (4) medical, foster kids under the state-supervised system because she was granted two (2) waivers that ironically DCFS granted.
She currently has three (3), but the new DCFS supervision says she can only have one (1) medical foster child (the system is not trying to remove any kids, but it is not allowing her to take in any more medical, foster kids). There is a hold on her license = no new medical, foster kid placements in her home.
I understand there have been foster care issues in the news, but a blanket solutions are not an answer to problems. And to my knowledge, there have been no issues with multiple medical, foster kids in a home, well at least not in the news. DCFS needs to return to the practice of granting waivers when a foster care provider can provide for multiple medical foster kids.
My friend has received calls for medical placements, but DCFS is unwilling to grant the necessary waivers they previously granted. Good foster care providers should not be punished. It is unfortunate that a bad one was in recent news, but the good and long-tenured ones outnumber the bad. The good ones are considering not continuing as foster providers due to several punitive changes made.
The foster home and I both are in the 2nd District; however, I am including all the Supervisors in this email because it is a County issue. I did not include Director Bobby D. Cagle as today is his last day in the position, and I could not find an email for Chief Deputy Director Virginia Pryor.
Overwhelmed
7 Comments
Well dcfs stole my children and still has them in foster care care for two years . I’ve always took care of my babies and because some person in a motel claims that I had my children in a closet locked up which was a lie and reported three months later, the Los Angeles dcfs took my 12 and sixteen yr old girls but we dare not take on the state for they are all powerful and a poor person can’t fight them but God will handle it and for all u people out there that think our children are always better off because dcfs says so are misinformed but let’s not talk about this cause the news don’t they and I say they because all the news companies have never tried to hear my story and it’s a crazy story
As A RFA parent with a regional child and a capacity for 4 children, I too feel like DCFS want to tell me how to be a parent my incoming children, obviously no one has read my background before denying me another child.
But DCFS tried to bring me a 15 yr old young man offering me basic rate and knowing this young man has had many traumas such as abuse by family member then about a year ago reunified him with bio dad who was homeless. I had to find homeless behaviors in my home. Such as him peeing in water bottles instead of walking to the bathroom which was 5 steps from his bedroom. Also not bathing but sitting in my bathroom for 10 minutes running my water. They later offer something called LOC level of care. The young man wore 4XL jacket and size 15 shoe, along with his emotional issues. FYI all children taken from their parents are Trsumatized! As a RFA parent we just want to be included in this partnership and we’re not being included.
This seems like a complicated issue. Seems like there should be a separate division within the department that oversees multiple Foster Children so the case workers are actually former Nurses and such. This may also be a cautionary tale because of COVID-19. Since the health risks of COVID-19 can be great for those with Medical issues, maybe the limit is somehow designed to protect the medically needy. However, if a Foster Home compensate by adding non-medically needy kids, that seems even more dangerous to me since their higher level of activity may more likely bring COVID-19 in from the outside. The solution appears to be to get a Nurse’s board, Nurses who have retired and have them be case workers for homes with multiple Foster care kids with Medical needs.
Alessandro, the issue has nothing to due with COVID. The new practice started way before COVID.
The article states….”over the last year”. COVID has now been around for almost 2 years. Also, I offered a suggestion.
LOL thank you!
Yes, COVID has but, again, this is not COVID related. I am the writer and medical fragile is a wide ranging term used by DCFS. In the home in question, the kids are all fully-vaccinated and are going for boosters soon. None of them have “medical” conditions that you are probably imagining and one their medical is autism. As you mentioned, it is complicated but not COVID related complicated, and trying to shed light is the reason for the post that was sent to all the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.