Advokids

Whoever is hired as the next director of Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) will face a stiff challenge: how to recruit and retain high-quality foster parents.

As an advocate for foster youth and foster parents, I’ve heard many foster parents complain that they feel voiceless when it comes to decision making and input into the well-being of a child in their care.

By Janet Sherwood  Foster parents and relative caregivers generally spend more time with a foster child than any other participant in the child welfare system.  Consequently, caregivers are the people who know more about the child’s current needs and well-being than anyone else in the system, including the caseworker, the CASA, the service providers, the child’s attorney and the court.