The following editorial originally appeared in The (Tacoma) News Tribune:
Out of sight, out of mind are words that should never be associated with the care of foster children in Washington. Sadly, for hundreds of abused and neglected kids, a sense of invisibility comes with the territory, as common as living out of a duffel bag.
Some foster youth are placed in hotels, costing the state thousands of dollars more than a group home or family foster setting. Others bounce between social workers’ offices during the day and foster homes at night. And as of last fall, roughly 100 foster kids with severe emotional or behavioral problems were being shipped off to group homes outside Washington, away from the local support networks they need to get their footing.
Out of sight, out of mind, out of state: This is the byproduct of a foster care system in distress. It’s caused by more children being removed from their homes, fewer placement options and low reimbursement rates for agencies that provide Behavioral Rehabilitation Services. Private providers that don’t get paid enough either shut down or stop taking BRS clients.
On Monday, majority House Democrats in Olympia unveiled their operating budget proposal for 2019-21, and it includes a combined $27 million in additional state and federal BRS funding.
That amounts to a little more than half of what’s needed to do right by young people who wind up in state custody. A study ordered by the Legislature concluded that a $50 million increase in the next biennium would allow officials to lift reimbursement rates to sustainable levels and fix a system that’s lost more than 170 residential beds in eight years.
Balance funding
Hard discussions lie ahead, as legislators wrangle over how to pay for everything. Regardless of funding sources, lawmakers must not discount the needs of foster youth.
Washington’s shortage of therapeutic group homes has led to costly short-term placements, including more than 2,000 hotel or office stays in 2017. Ross Hunter, secretary of the Department of Children, Youth and Families, laid out the details in his 2019-21 budget request.
Placing children in homes ill-suited for their needs is a bad way to handle the overflow. “This typically results in the child ‘blowing out’ of that placement, damaging the child further and often resulting in the foster family dropping out of the system,” Hunter wrote.
Among his top priorities: Reversing the decline of therapeutic foster care options, and bringing all out-of-state placements home within 18 to 24 months.
A former state representative and chief budget writer, Hunter knows what legislators are going through right now, pressured by a long parade of interest groups seeking a bigger slice of the pie. Still, his plea to bring foster-system funding into balance should not fall on deaf ears.
If “Putting People First” is truly a guiding principle for Washington leaders, then our foster youth cannot be made to feel like second-class citizens.
