The headline was provided by baltimoresun.com opinion headlines.

NEXT WEEK, most of the youngest children entering foster care in
Baltimore will take part in a privately funded pilot program
designed to offer their parents the help they need - with an eye to
getting families back together as quickly as possible.
The well-designed program, based on one in San Diego that cut
average foster care stays from more than three years to slightly
more than one year, rewards parents who take advantage of
guaranteed, intensive, immediate assistance by quickly returning
their children to them. If parents do not take advantage of the drug
treatment, counseling, housing and other assistance, month over
month, a judge may more quickly release their child for adoption.

Foster care is meant to be temporary, but in Baltimore, a child
under 5 years old who enters such care can expect to stay for nearly
four years. The wait does no one good: Children often bounce from
foster home to foster home, and they lose connection with their
parents, their preschool and their sense of security. A judge who
wishes to permanently place a child can be frustrated by social
workers so busy that when they come to court they don't know if
parents have attended the required drug treatment or anger
counseling classes. Some well-meaning parents can't get into the
programs they need because no slots are available; judges give them
more time to keep trying. And their children wait.

Under the $2.6 million initial program, directed by the Family
League of Baltimore, private counselors will meet with parents
within a day of their first court appearances. The counselor and
parent agree to a treatment plan, which for about 75 percent of
these parents will include some form of drug treatment. The
counselor keeps tabs on parents' progress and reports back to the
court once or twice a month. That frees the Department of Social
Services caseworker to help the parents with career, housing and
other issues as well as to better ensure the children are secure in
their foster home.

Detailed reports will help judges decide whether it's time to return
a child home or direct the state to find another, permanent home for
him. Close reporting on results and costs also will help the state
decide whether to pick up the program and pay for it with state
money in future years.

The idea of using private money until a prevention program proves it
works, then public money to continue it, is being pushed as well by
advocates who are building pilot programs targeting juvenile
delinquents and adult convicts re-entering their communities.

The current system of piecing together short-term grants to pay for
programs doesn't work because those grants expire. For example,
youth drug court, which has shown good results, has not accepted new
children since last year because of funding cuts for the necessary
number of Juvenile Services Department caseworkers. It's bad timing:
With the downsizing of the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, one might
expect even more children could take part in this community-based
program.

For the city's newest foster children and the parents who want them
back, success will be measured in time - the less, the better.



Submitted by

Terry Bankert

http://enewsblog.com/terrybankert/