Foster care cuts challenged

Two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law an eight-bill package designed to improve the lives of thousands of children in foster care.

Last year, the governor's budget included a 5 percent rate increase for families caring for foster children, the first boost in six years, and set a goal of providing "safe, stable" homes for every child.

Now, Schwarzenegger is proposing a 10 percent across-the-board cut in state services because of a budget deficit he says may reach $20 billion. Foster care programs would be slashed by $82 million. Combined with forfeiture of federal matching funds, this cut would trim services by $190 million in all.

Schwarzenegger's budget also calls for $130 million less in state and federal funding for child welfare services, which the County Welfare Directors Association says would eliminate 840 social worker positions and imperil the lives of some of the state's most vulnerable children.

Assembly Speaker-elect Karen Bass said the proposed cuts are untenable and intimated tax hikes will be needed.

"We cannot close the deficit just by cutting – and that goes for education, health care and foster care," said Bass, D-Los Angeles, who convened hearings two years ago that led to the eight measures the governor signed.

"When we remove a child from a home, the state of California becomes the parent and, one can argue, is guilty of abuse if we don't take care of the children in our care," Bass added.

Sen. Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat and the upper house's incoming president pro tem, called the proposed reductions "another example of the deep distance between the rhetoric of cutting and reality."

According to the County Welfare Directors Association, if the cuts are implemented, hard-pressed social workers will be unable to investigate more than 13,000 reports of abuse and neglect per month.

Advocates for children say the governor's proposal also would reduce the number of families and relatives able to afford to care for foster children and force thousands of children into more costly group homes.

John Wagner, director of the California Department of Social Services, said the state is "facing a pretty dire situation."

"But the administration and this department are committed to ensuring these children have safe and stable homes," Wagner said.

The administration and Legislature, he said, have invested "hundreds of millions of dollars" to shore up the foster care and child welfare system and are exploring ways to maximize that investment.

But advocates say California's foster care system is already jammed with children being pushed from one home to another, largely because of substance abuse and incompetent parents.

And with 75,000 foster children, the state is finding it increasingly difficult to locate families to care for them. Families receive about $500 per month per foster child.

The rate, adjusted for inflation, has decreased 23 percent since 2000. The governor's budget also calls for reducing clothing allowances and health care services.

"This is a huge cut to out-of-home care, case workers and other services to kids," said Frank Mecca, the County Welfare Directors Association's executive director. "The cuts on the table would put us back to where we were 10 years ago."

Mecca said social workers already have caseloads of 35 to 60 children, despite a state commission's recommendation in 2000 for caseloads of 10 to 15.

The federal government, which conducts periodic inspection of child welfare programs, levied a $9 million fine against California after it failed several performance measures in 2001.

The state, which has made progress in addressing those problems in recent years, is appealing the fine.

But, Mecca said, the state would increase its liability with fewer social workers.

On Tuesday, hundreds of foster care advocates are expected to rally at the Capitol to kick off National Foster Care Month.

The event will focus on the emotional, educational and health issues that foster children face – and argue the need for government reforms.

Studies have estimated that half of foster children will be unemployed when they become adults, a third will become homeless and one in five will wind up in jail.

Programs like the Kinship Support Services team are focusing on early intervention efforts.

The program – created last year as a partnership between Lilliput Children's Services and Sacramento County's Department of Health and Human Services – provides resources and services to relatives who take children into their homes.

The program has helped families like the Ocons of Del Paso Heights.

Mauricio and Ruth Ocon are currently caring for three grandchildren.

But they are struggling to supplement the money they receive from the state with Mauricio Ocon's Social Security benefits. Ruth Ocon calls the governor's proposed cuts "horrible."

"Our kids are our future," she said. "If we don't invest in them, it will come back to haunt us."

About the writer:

• Call Aurelio Rojas, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5545.