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The Neglected Children Behind the Headlines

Much of the country watched in surprise as Funny Cide captured the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2003. One of his upstate New York owners, Jack Knowlton, has pretty much been on top of the world since.

Until earlier this month, when a surprise that wasn’t funny at all came his way. He and his wife Dorothy were given custody of their 5-year-old granddaughter while their 8-week-old grandson was placed in foster care.

How did this happen to a successful businessman and his family? The same way children often are referred to Sunrise Children’s Services – parental neglect. It’s something that can happen in almost any family, regardless of class, race, education or religion. It’s a problem we as a society can’t seem to fix.

The neglect, in this particular case, was severe. Jack and Dorothy’s daughter, Wendy Cook, had struggled with drug addiction since high school. Recently, Wendy had been doing well in a local drug court program that kept her out of jail by participating in substance abuse treatment and submitting frequent drug tests. She had been clean for almost a year, her parents believe. They speculate about reasons for her recent relapse: the suicide of her husband in the fall of 2003, the painkillers she was given after her son’s birth by caesarean section, and her best friend’s unexpected death from an aneurism last month.

But they may never know exactly what led Wendy, 37, to allegedly smoke cocaine in front of her children and engage in prostitution while they were in her car. She faces a felony charge of reckless endangerment and several misdemeanors.

Wendy’s boyfriend gets to visit his son in foster care. Meanwhile, a judge has ordered Wendy to have no contact with her children.

“She put the children in danger,” Jack Knowlton told The Saratogian. “There is never, ever any excuse for that … Society has very strong consequences for that. She’ll be suffering those consequences now and in the future.”

Stories such as this are all too common all over the country. That’s why Sunrise exists – to be there for kids in Kentucky when their parents or relatives can’t give them a safe, caring home.

Please never forget that behind the headlines of drug busts, prostitution sweeps and other crimes, there frequently are hurting children who have lost their homes and everything they’ve ever known.

Are State Governments Reimbursing Foster Parents Enough?

An eye-opening story appeared in Wednesday’s newspapers that begs the question of whether state governments are adequately reimbursing foster parents to care for children. The nationwide study is the first to calculate for each state what researchers are calling the Minimum Adequate Rates for Children (the Foster Care “MARC”).

The study produced by the University of Maryland School of Social Work, the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) and the advocacy group Children’s Rights showed that Kentucky was ahead of most states in the country when it comes to adequately reimbursing foster parents. That’s great news for our foster parents and the children in their care!

Since there is no federal “minimum wage” for foster parents, it’s left up to the states to decide how much they are going to reimburse foster parents to care for kids in state custody. The MARC is based on the monthly cost estimate for providing food, shelter, school supplies, daily supervision, clothing, personal incidentals and liability insurance.

Only Arizona and the District of Columbia “hit the MARC.” That means, according to the researchers, they’re reimbursing foster parents enough. The study said Kentucky was paying above the MARC for children 0-4 years old ($569 per month) but needed to increase payments for those 5-13 years old by 9 percent (to $652 per month) and for those 14-18 years old by 8 percent (to $715 per month).

Kentucky’s amount of compensation, coupled with training and 24/7 support services that Sunrise offers foster parents leaves most of ours satisfied. But consider the children in Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, which have reimbursement rates that must be more than doubled in order to hit their MARCs.

“The bottom line is that when these rates don’t reflect the real expenses that foster parents face, it’s the children who suffer,” the NFPA’s executive director, Karen Jorgenson, told The Associated Press for its story. And these are the children who already have suffered enough due to abuse, neglect and removal from their homes.

What can happen if foster parents aren’t adequately compensated? Without a large enough foster parent pool, children are more likely to go through multiple placements – decreasing their chances of ever having a permanent home and slowing their healing process.

The study urges federal and state lawmakers to adopt the MARC amounts for each state. You can view the entire report at http://www.nfpainc.org/uploads/MARCTechReport.pdf. What do you think? Give us your comments.