How the Trump Administration is Mending a Broken Foster Care System: the President's 'Executive Order is a Long-Term Solution'

World Magazine : Aug 31, 2020
Intercessors For America

"I am so truly thankful that foster care and adoption are the focus of those who have the ability to make a positive change for those who are in the system. We have been invisible for so long." -Trent Taylor

[IFAPray.org] Father, thank You that the foster care system is slowly being mended. I pray that we would continue to elect leaders that would mend the brokenness in our society and especially the foster care system. (Image: The Taylors (from left: Trent, Mac, Pam, and Mike) pose on the back porch of their home in Wake Forest, NC, holding a photo from 2010 near the time when Trent and Mike were adopted /Marc J. Kawanishi/Genesis /via IFAPray.org)

Trent Taylor's earliest childhood memories involve trauma. His biological mother left him crying in a swing for hours. His parents regularly allowed an uncle to babysit, even after they knew he was sexually abusing Trent and his siblings.

After neighbors spotted 4-year-old Trent and his siblings digging through a trash can for food, the North Carolina Division of Social Services removed the children. Trent entered the foster care system—but the trauma didn't stop. That's partly because his older brother continued to abuse him sexually. It's also because Trent spent the next five years in five homes.

"When a child floats around in the system for five years, it affects their ability to trust and attach to people," Trent, now 19, says. "Every one of those moves is traumatic for the child."

Trent's biological family members fought legally to retain their rights, but they continually failed to meet court-appointed benchmarks. The court granted repeated extensions, but finally, in 2010, a Christian couple named Mac and Pam Taylor adopted Trent at the age of 9.

"It was an answer to prayers, that's for sure," said Trent, whose younger brother Michael was also adopted by the Taylors. Trent has since written two books and with his family runs a ministry to foster families called Watch Me Rise...

Each state administers its own program, and some—including Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia—are so broken that they've become entangled in years-long litigation. System neglect, poor oversight, and accusations of racism have led some to call for the abolition of the system.

Whatever government problems may exist, at least as many problems come from societal factors. The opioid epidemic has funneled more minors into state care (parental drug use was the cause of 34 percent of removals in 2019, but some experts believe the real number is higher), and the further breakdown of the two-parent home continues to wreak havoc (children living with their mother and a boyfriend are 11 times more likely to suffer abuse or neglect than children who live with their married parents). A shortage of eligible foster care parents is also a perpetual problem, leading some children to bounce around in group homes and even juvenile detention centers.

This complex stew of issues contributed to a steady rise in the number of children in foster care from 2012 to 2017—an increase nationally of roughly 45,000. Last year the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported a small decrease, and in August HHS reported a decline for fiscal 2019 from 435,000 to 424,000. That's the fewest children in the foster care system since 2015.

Naomi Schaefer Riley, a senior fellow who focuses on child welfare issues for the American Enterprise Institute, cautions against reading too much into the numbers, because removal decisions can be based on external factors—such as the availability of foster care homes. "The numbers may not be directly tied to how children are being treated in this country," Riley said.

Still, fewer children in foster care is a good thing, and interviews with a range of child welfare advocates and policymakers revealed praise for the Trump administration's efforts to make that happen—at both ends of the foster care system.

Spearheading the push is Lynn Johnson, a devout Catholic from Colorado with a long history in social work...

President Trump nominated Johnson in 2017 to become assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at HHS, and the Senate finally confirmed her more than a year later. With a portfolio ranging from Head Start to the then-ongoing child separation crisis at the southern border, Johnson made foster care and adoption a top priority. Under Johnson, ACF has moved to eliminate red tape and pressured states to do the same.

"I've worked with ACF for a long time, and it's not always easy to get them to move on something," said Joseph Ribsam, director of the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth, and Families. "They approved our 'foster care to 21' program in a month."

Last October, Johnson launched the All-In Foster Adoption Challenge, which aims to get some 125,000 children adopted out of the foster system by October 2020. To promote that effort, Johnson and her staff have met with all 50 governor's offices—often with Johnson talking directly with governors—to emphasize the importance of eliminating barriers to adoption... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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