Once again there's a story about a foster child gone missing. This time a 7-year-old hungry and barefoot girl was found by a neighbor.
The neighbor, a mother of a 4-year-old daughter, first tried to reach Child Services to report the incident. After half an hour with no response, the mom called the police. The mom told police that the foster child:
The neighbor, a mother of a 4-year-old daughter, first tried to reach Child Services to report the incident. After half an hour with no response, the mom called the police. The mom told police that the foster child:
"said she’d been out walking the neighborhood all morning [the girl wasn't found until 11:30] and she didn’t have any shoes on and she said she was hungry... her foster mom asked her to leave so she didn’t know where else to go.”
Once the police arrived, they told the mom that this was not the first time that this foster kid had been found alone wandering around the neighbor. The foster home where the child stays had been previously investigated.
Despite the many dedicated and caring foster parents who open their doors to take in children, the majority of these cases of abuse or neglect seem to involve foster children in "foster placement," living with adults who are not related to the child.
One area of deficiency for many foster care agencies is the lack of thorough efforts to locate relatives of foster youth. Experts report that in general foster kids placed with their family members are happier, healthier, have less emotional issues, perform better in school and have higher graduation levels.
One proven solution is for the public and businesses to donate to foster youth services such as Find Families In Mexico, where the sole focus is to locate family members of foster children so these kids can be placed with relatives.
Reporters later spoke with the Montgomery County CPS (Child Protective Services) that explained that this particular foster home was under the management of a Southwest Ohio agency. Much greater accountability needs to be placed on social service agencies.
As taxpayers we count on the billions of dollars spent on foster care to provide foster kids with a place where they will be properly cared for and protected against abuse and neglect. Unfortunately, too many adults are using the system to put money in their pockets while leaving physical, mental and emotional scars on the most vulnerable of our children.
There are no easy, fast solutions, but more pressure must be placed on agencies to comply with federal and state laws that mandate thorough and ongoing efforts to find family members and unite them with their related foster children. Until that happens, more foster children will wander neighborhoods, hungry for both food and love.
Do it for the children,
Richard
Richard Villasana
Find Families In Mexico
760-690-3995
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