FosterCareCapacity.org

There has been an important shift in the conversation around child abuse and neglect fatalities in recent years. Previously, our systems were designed to respond only after a tragedy occurred. Today, however, with the support of new public policy and greater knowledge, we are beginning to think and act in terms of preventing child abuse tragedies before they occur.

A new data project focusing on foster care capacity has illustrated a growing reality across the nation’s child welfare system: relatives are increasingly stepping up to provide care for children removed from their parents.

Again this year, The Imprint has done a good job of highlighting how our foster care system is working (or not working) across the United States. In Georgia, we’ve been pleased to see improvements in the number of licensed foster homes available and especially in the number of children and youth in state custody placed with relatives, the latter figure up from 17 percent in 2011 to around 30 percent today.

About three years ago I wrote an article published by The Imprint entitled “California’s Continuum of Care Reform – Will It Produce as Promised?” So has it? The goal of the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) was to reduce group home placements by shifting foster youth to family-based services.

In response to a large influx of children into state care in the late 1990s resulting from tragedies that spawned fear within the agency, Connecticut developed a sprawling system of institutional settings to have enough “placements.”

It takes a special type of person to step forward to be a foster parent. There’s no greater responsibility than caring for children who have been placed in foster care after experiencing abuse or neglect in their homes.

The number of youth in foster care declined for the first time since 2011, according to an annual report on youth in care released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) operates the largest child welfare agency in the nation. With this comes a great responsibility, and I am extremely grateful to work each day with some of the most dedicated and passionate people in the child welfare arena.

As California continues to implement sweeping changes to its child welfare system through its Continuum of Care Reform, fewer youth are placed in group homes. But the demand for supportive family homes continues to increase.