Today’s guest blogger is Matt Roesler.
This article discusses a new bi-partisan U.S. Senate Bill S.2574 titled “Modernizing the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care Act”. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Grassley, Gillibrand, Franken, Peters and Blumenthal. The bill aims to streamline placement of children into foster homes regardless of state lines. Currently the placement of youth in foster homes in other states is highly regulated by an outdated Interstate Compact on Placement of Children (ICPC) that often slows down the process. Partially because of the outdated system, ICPC processes can be different from state to state.
Gillibrand talks about her home state of New York not exploring foster home options in other states even in situations of potential kinship placement. She is quoted as saying “Thousands of children in New York and across the country urgently need a loving home, but often child welfare agencies don’t explore the options of placing them with a foster family out of state because of long paperwork processing delays.”
The author of this article, Robert Harding, seems to have done a very nice job reporting the facts rather than putting any political spin on it. The ICPC system is not very well known by those not involved with or close to the child welfare system. Furthermore, those very familiar with ICPC generally do a nice job navigating and using the system. Often times the trouble comes from the ideals of workers and supervisors who use ICPC as an excuse to not do a little more work. This article did not really use much data to explore which states are using ICPC effectively. The article also did not really explain the ICPC process in much detail at all so many readers who are not familiar with the system likely are left with more questions than they started with.
This article, and SB 2574 itself, express the importance to center around the client and do what is genuinely best for them rather than just what fits in with the bureaucracy of regulations. Obviously, in many cases it makes sense to keep the children in state, but only if that is where their best placement options are. Over the years there are many youth that are placed in “stranger care” because it was all that was allowed or easiest, rather than placed in an out of state kinship option.
Work cited: Harding, R. (2016, February 26). Gillibrand seeks to modernize foster care system, get children into homes faster. The Citizen. Auburn, NY. Retrieved from http://auburnpub.com/blogs/eye_on_ny/gillibrand-seeks-to-modernize-foster-care-system-get-children-into/article_497fb890-dbf8-11e5-b646-834288c63092.html