[EGreg]

The CURRENT situation makes the kids worse off in the name of making them better? I'd rather take having my parents late without keys for 90 minutes than being taken away from my family by force and have to grow up who knows where at age 10. And these kids from broken families then do worse in life. No offense to foster parents, there is a great need to take kids in after REAL disasters where THEY want to leVe - ones where the parents are actually unfit or dead. When does leaving a kid to play in a yard the equivalent of being an angry drunk who beats your kid?

[xahrepap]

I struggle to find in my comment where I say that's okay.

> No offense to foster parents, there is a great need to take kids in after REAL disasters

None taken, but you seem to think foster parents are somehow involved in the removal process. Here's how it really works:

-Phone rings -Hello Mr. Foster, I have 3 siblings that I need to place. [Description of what they know]. Do you think this would be a good fit for your family? -Yes -Thank you. Can you pick them up at [location]?

I have no chance to say, "sorry, I believe you shouldn't have removed them. Please send them home." I mean, I can say that. But it wouldnt do any good. only the judge can make that call (in my state). I will, however, have an opportunity to expressy opinion based on how I feel after talking with the kid(s) over a period of time.

Obviously what is described in this article is a horrible situation. All I'm saying is that the way they describe the foster parent feeding the kids only cereal is most likely not hypocritical or even a problem. It's more likely them focusing on getting the kid to eat anything.

[EGreg]

Oh, I see. If that's all you were saying then I wasn't responding to that. And I didn't mean to imply that the foster parents are responsible for the kids being taken away. Although it is good to know the foster parents can really have a voice in the process after talking with the kid, who may insist that they want to be back home.

I'm just saying the SYSTEM seems broken if one phonecall from a stranger can turn average parents into felons and kids into effectively orphans.

[xahrepap]

At least where I live, as the case progresses and the foster parents create a bond with the kids, they really take what the foster parents say in heavy consideration. Especially if the kids have been assigned a good Guardian Ad Litem (the child's own lawyer).

The system can be broken. This is something that's governed very differently between states. And some states are far more broken than others. I think Utah (where I live) has a very good system (one of the few government programs I've learned a lot about and haven't been frustrated with how my tax dollars are spent). The numbers I'm familiar with say that 66% of all cases end with the kids going home with the parents. However, another statistic that makes that number much more impressive is that 75% of all cases, meth is involved in the home. So the state really works hard with the biological parents and places a heavy emphasis on reunification (as long as the kids will be safe from illegal activities) and the bio parents get a lot of government supported rehab no matter what the case is (ranging from parenting classes to alcohol/drug rehab). If you do the math, that means a lot of parents are successfully getting the rehab they need to they can support their children. I think that's impressive.