Message to Michael Antonovich

Dear Michael Antonovich (LA County Supervisor),

As someone who has experienced the loss and devastation of losing someone to the foster care system, I ask that you re-evaluate and help change the process of determining the best interest regarding placement of a foster care child.  Since you have been actively involved with the issues surrounding the “aging-out” process that foster care teens go through when they are left feeling abandoned and unprepared for their future; I ask you to address the child placement process in the earlier years of a child’s life.  To have a strong foundation and upbringing should be of utmost importance in the foster care system and I strongly believe, through my own personal experiences and detailed research, that the system is wrongly focused and determined to reunify a child with their birth family regardless of the conditions of that biological family.  There is currently no enforced law to first right of adoption after a child has been reunified with their birth parents just to be brought back into the system shortly after…  When children re-enter Foster Care, so many of today’s youth are torn from loving foster families because of the system’s focus on re-unification and lack of agency protocol when the child re-enters the system.

I ask that you bring to light and take action towards enforcing a method for checking past placement records so that if children leave their birth parents again, they can be reunited with their foster family prior to the re-unification.  This way they can at least experience a form of normalcy and the best chance of being adopted.   The child’s record/case must be re-visited and thoroughly assessed so that the child can be placed in a home quickly and in a timely manner.  With thousands of children in the system, shouldn’t there be a strict focus on giving the child the best future?  How can placement agencies fail to contact previous Foster Care parents for placement consideration or other biological family members when they re-enter the system?  It appears that the cycle continues for children moving from home to home because there is a lack of attention or even consideration of checking their past foster placements….

I would truly appreciate and admire any work that can be done because change needs to happen.  I believe you are the person to make this change.  What kind of future will our country have if thousands of today’s youth are trapped in the system unable to speak up for their rights to the best life and family to support them?  What is it like to love if you’ve never been loved yourself?  It is time to put the child’s needs first and do what is in their best interest – placement in a loving and stable home they all deserve.

Thank you,

An advocate for the little wonders waiting for their lives to begin…

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Reunification

I found an article on the American Bar Association Website that makes me cringe.  “Enhancing and Celebrating Family Reunifications from Foster Care.”  Before you make assumptions, I have mentioned in previous postings that I am in full support of parents and families re-uniting with their children if they have done the work to cleanup their situation and get the help they need to be the best guardian and provider for their child.  However, with the experience my family had with Meredith, who we lost when family relatives gained custody of her, and so many other cases, the standards at which the biological family must meet are not being met or enforced whatsoever.

“Reunification is the most important, since the cost of separation is quite damaging both on emotional and financial levels,” said Amie S. Gladfelter, a caseworker with the County Office of Children, Youth, and Families in Pennsylvania. “Funding should be supplied for things necessary for the family to be successful, like housing, transportation and food.”

What I see jump off the page is “financial levels.”  From my experience and from reading this article is that parents who want their child back and are committed to loving and caring for them in the best way possible, should have the support of the system for a certain amount of time before the child can go back into their care.  Meanwhile, I know from my sister’s experiences, that foster parents are raising these children for sometimes up to TWO YEARS while the US government spends money on helping these parents, who make no effort to improve themselves or their living situation, become better fit parents.  Meanwhile the child is torn between fully adapting to their foster family and going for weekly visits with their parents.

Without going into detail, I have seen the effects of this separation and attachment process and how unhealthy this cycle is for foster children at a young age.  This article addresses the need for a better system to help willing and fit parents make positive changes to be the parents they want to be.  It is NOT about Foster Care making them what they want to be just so they can put the “we reunified the child with their parents” band aid without making sure the home is the best option for the child.

Take a moment and read the article as it reinforces the assumption that reunification is the optimal choice for foster children.  Law needs to enforce what every child deserves – the best possible home and environment to prosper.  Reunification is a great option if it’s what is best for the child.  Otherwise, the system should primarily focus efforts on adoption or foster parents serious about future adoption.

Click image to be directed to article

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