What's the fix for the foster care system in Texas?

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

 

On 9/8/2021 at 10:25 PM, workswithseed said:

It's like the state fails all the time. 

 

The foster care system in Texas relies on private citizens to take care of children that have been neglected or abandoned. The problem is that there are too many children who need the assistance and not enough private citizens who can and are willing to take care of them, and the state refuses to do anything about it. There have been multiple solutions proposed in this thread, most of which would at least do something to mitigate the problem. Everyone of those solutions involves more from the state.

 

Smoke less. I'm pretty much a legalize it type of guy, but you are the poster child for the "mj is bad, mmmkay" crowd.

 

[crash_davis 23113]

7 hours ago, Balcones said:

Maybe we should poll the kids. Would you rather be aborted or alive in the Texas CPS system? 

maybe we should poll the mothers who have kids in the system. how many of them would've become pregnant if they had birth control provided free of charge to them? 

provide free birth control: reduce unwanted pregnancies, reduce the number of abortions, reduce the number of kids in the foster home system, reduce costs everywhere, reduce the human suffering of a shitton of people.

 

even homeless drug addicts want to live. asking people if they would rather be alive even in their miserable situation than not being born seems like a misplaced stupid question. a better question may be how could we have prevented the kids from being in the foster home system in the first place.

 

Edited September 10, 2021 by crash_davis
less aholish tone

[Pescado_Rojo 19423]

Does Texas still prevent same-sex couples from being foster parents? 

[Loch Ness Monster 3533]

How many unwanted children grow up in healthy and loving homes? Single women that are poor, young, and don't have family around.

[crash_davis 23113]

3 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Does Texas still prevent same-sex couples from being foster parents? 

yes...but...

https://www.familyequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/44-Texas-Snapshot.pdf

 

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

22 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Does Texas still prevent same-sex couples from being foster parents? 

 

I have a couple of friends who wanted to adopt because they couldn't have children for medical reasons. He was late fifties at the time, she was early forties. Texas wouldn't let them adopt because he was too old.

 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

Age is only a number, specifically your net worth number

[Harrison Bergeron 1798]

Does anyone know the background of why adoption is so incredibly difficult and expensive in general? We have friends who had to go overseas because it was too expensive and difficult here as well as friends who did a couple of private adoptions. Not a panacea, but feels like adoption basically should be free. I understand they need to do background checks, etc., but should it really be expensive?

On foster care, no idea ... do every consider returning to orphanages? I am sure there are unique drawbacks but might at least be able to provide a consistent, steady experience for most kids. I used to volunteer at the Methodist Home in Waco, and they did a pretty good job as far as I could tell.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

It really wasn't very difficult or expensive for us, but we were already foster parents and so we already had the home study and most of the background stuff taken care of.  It ended up costing us under $5K (almost all of that was legal fees due to some unique circumstances in our situation) and that was reimbursed under my company benefit plan.  I think I even got a tax deduction of top of that IIRC.

[BearSchlong 8098]

A few PI lawyers I know handle adoptions as part of their pro bono work.

I usually see Facebook posts from a few guys on "adoption day" at family court, smiling families with the judge, and am never not moved by them.

[conVINCEd 21469]

8 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

A few PI lawyers I know handle adoptions as part of their pro bono work.

I usually see Facebook posts from a few guys on "adoption day" at family court, smiling families with the judge, and am never not moved by them.

I know several lawyers who have posted similar, and many call it their favorite day of the tear (I have no idea how often it actually happens, just remember seeing the posts).

[TwiceHorn 31495]

6 hours ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

Does anyone know the background of why adoption is so incredibly difficult and expensive in general? We have friends who had to go overseas because it was too expensive and difficult here as well as friends who did a couple of private adoptions. Not a panacea, but feels like adoption basically should be free. I understand they need to do background checks, etc., but should it really be expensive?

On foster care, no idea ... do every consider returning to orphanages? I am sure there are unique drawbacks but might at least be able to provide a consistent, steady experience for most kids. I used to volunteer at the Methodist Home in Waco, and they did a pretty good job as far as I could tell.

The legal costs associated with adoption shouldn't be that prohibitive, even paying "full boat." And, as noted, there are lots of lawyers doing them pro bono or at reduced rates.

The stickiest wicket is that birth parents must relinquish or have terminated their parental rights.

There are scads of parents whose parental rights have been involuntarily terminated; unfortunately, their children are typically not infants and in any case may be traumatized in various ways discussed here.

Legitimate adoption homes, where expectant mothers are housed and medically cared for, and counseled regarding adoption, giving up a child, and terminating parental rights, have pretty stiff expenses for all that, and rely in large part on adoptive parents to defray them. And, that pipeline is typically running on empty.  

 

[TwiceHorn 31495]

I think the answer really is some kind of "orphanage," but run with careful oversight and using the best techniques psychology has to offer.

Like "lunatic asylums," they became socially and poltically disfavored, but the whole thing needs to be rethought.

[BearSchlong 8098]

Its years away, but an orphanage is in the works, near Austin, according to DFPS scuttlebutt.

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

This will seem pollyanna-ish, and it was in a different state, but my two youngest half-sisters ended up in foster care in Tennessee. I guess they lucked out because our mom was so fucked up and their dad had gone temporarily nuts that it was a life-saver for them -- they got out of the ghetto in Nashville and saw that some families were different than ours. Both of them are doing very, very well now. 

(This is all really complex -- when my mom and dad divorced, she spiraled down from middle class into heroin addiction,  and my dad stayed the same. So until the state awarded my dad full custody of me, I had this half-ghetto, half middle class existence, depending on who I was staying with. My half-brother and two half-sisters got the full immersive ghetto experience.)

So I guess I am saying there are success stories. Surely, Tennessee's system can't be worse than ours, right?

On the other hand, I do wonder if there is something to be said for orphanages, provided they are well funded and inspected (lol to both, probably). 

[someguy 1508]

I've worked as a CPS lawyer for almost 20 years, and have been involved in foster care the entire time.  I've tried to stay out of this thread because I knew it was just going to piss me off.  There are too many people who have strong opinions on things they do not even come close to understanding, and a particularly virulent strain who simply see this issue as yet another partisan football.  That disgusts me.  Bonus points to the folks who immediately pivoted to abortion.

About half my career was in NY and the other half in Texas.  Very different states politically and with somewhat different foster care systems.  There are things NY does well that Texas does not and things Texas does well that NY does not.  I'm not saying political policies have no effect - obviously they do - but the solution to this problem is not primarily political.

To answer a few questions I saw upthread:

- Texas does allow same sex adoptions.  The link that was posted came from an advocacy group and was not a good faith representation of the issue.

- It is essentially free to adopt within the foster care system.  Foster parents get a monthly subsidy and adoptive parents get a subsidy until the child turns 18.  The home study and other required parts of the adoption are handled by the CPA (child placing agency).  Adoptions are expensive when they are private arrangements outside the foster care system.  The upside of adopting outside the system is that you do not have to foster first and run the risk of family reunification, which is always the initial goal of a foster care placement (except in very rare instances)

- I am not particularly looking to engage Sheeeit's post, as it is nothing short of batshit insane and full of made up assertions not connected to reality.  But lest anyone read that and be misled - there are most certainly newborns in foster care.  There may be a waiting list to adopt newborns outside the system, but I can assure you plenty of newborns are taken into foster care.

- orphanage is a bit of an old fashioned term, but there are most definitely residential group homes all over the state.

BearSchlong - you/your wife have my respect.  Same to F250 and others (apologies, but I don't remember all the names) who have stepped up and put skin the game.  The biggest need for any system is to have good people doing a very difficult (and often thankless) job.

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2652]

12 minutes ago, someguy said:

I've worked as a CPS lawyer for almost 20 years, and have been involved in foster care the entire time.  I've tried to stay out of this thread because I knew it was just going to piss me off.  There are too many people who have strong opinions on things they do not even come close to understanding, and a particularly virulent strain who simply see this issue as yet another partisan football.  That disgusts me.  Bonus points to the folks who immediately pivoted to abortion.

About half my career was in NY and the other half in Texas.  Very different states politically and with somewhat different foster care systems.  There are things NY does well that Texas does not and things Texas does well that NY does not.  I'm not saying political policies have no effect - obviously they do - but the solution to this problem is not primarily political.

To answer a few questions I saw upthread:

- Texas does allow same sex adoptions.  The link that was posted came from an advocacy group and was not a good faith representation of the issue.

- It is essentially free to adopt within the foster care system.  Foster parents get a monthly subsidy and adoptive parents get a subsidy until the child turns 18.  The home study and other required parts of the adoption are handled by the CPA (child placing agency).  Adoptions are expensive when they are private arrangements outside the foster care system.  The upside of adopting outside the system is that you do not have to foster first and run the risk of family reunification, which is always the initial goal of a foster care placement (except in very rare instances)

- I am not particularly looking to engage Sheeeit's post, as it is nothing short of batshit insane and full of made up assertions not connected to reality.  But lest anyone read that and be misled - there are most certainly newborns in foster care.  There may be a waiting list to adopt newborns outside the system, but I can assure you plenty of newborns are taken into foster care.

- orphanage is a bit of an old fashioned term, but there are most definitely residential group homes all over the state.

BearSchlong - you/your wife have my respect.  Same to F250 and others (apologies, but I don't remember all the names) who have stepped up and put skin the game.  The biggest need for any system is to have good people doing a very difficult (and often thankless) job.

Good info. Thanks 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

When my son and daughter can to us as foyer kids he was 14 months old and she was 14 days old, so yes newborns do come into the system.

[Neonmoon 38129]

14 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I think the answer really is some kind of "orphanage," but run with careful oversight and using the best techniques psychology has to offer.

Like "lunatic asylums," they became socially and poltically disfavored, but the whole thing needs to be rethought.

Absolutely agree. They both need to be brought back (After Reforming the level of care, regulations, and inspections, etc). They provide necessary services for society. 

[Guest]

so basically...kid prisons.

Awesome.

I'm not saying that's your intent.  It tends to be the result, however.  That's why they pretty much don't exist any more.

[TwiceHorn 31495]

4 minutes ago, slorch said:

so basically...kid prisons.

Awesome.

I'm not saying that's your intent.  It tends to be the result, however.  That's why they pretty much don't exist any more.

It's true that they can become kid prisons.  But there are some that are privately run that are OK I think, Buckner Childrens Home is one.

Psychology and psychiatry have come a long way since we abolished asylums and orphanages.

I think it's pretty clear that the number of kids in the system is too large to be handled by the foster care volunteers.

And, it appears from the person with expertise that there already are "group homes."

[BearSchlong 8098]

so basically...kid prisons.
Awesome.
I'm not saying that's your intent.  It tends to be the result, however.  That's why they pretty much don't exist any more.

Ah, finally, the opposite side of this impasse. How to achieve normalcy without resorting to such things.