Welfare Watch - July 12, 2010 - Please Don't Forget Your Children

Georgia's "Governor wanabes" are making all kinds of promises to their constituencies in order to get elected.  The most popular promise is that they are going to cut taxes.  They are saying this while promising increased services to Georgians in the form of better education, improved transportation, greater water resources and safer communities.  Their constituencies will eventually elect them and see if they can deliver in some very difficult economic times. 

There may be one constituency that is not being heard right now.  Georgia's children.  When Georgia takes a child into custody, they promise to take care of that child as if it were their own.  Georgia becomes the surrogate parent for these children.  It is a awesome responsibility.  It is a responsibility that Georgia does not take lightly.  In recent years, more emphasis has been placed on what is called "family centered practice."  This is a practice that values the family.  The first priority of this practice is on the biological family of a child.  If care of the child by the biological family is not a possibility, then relatives of the biological family become the second option.  Sometimes relatives can not be found to care for a child, so other families, not related to the biological family have to be found.  These are our adoptive families. 

These adoptive families often are the foster parents that take the child into their home when the child can no longer stay in their own home.  The adoptive family literally give of their lives, their love, and the resources to care for a child that they choose to accept and adopt.  Often these children come with a lot of liability. Many have disabilities, both physical and behavioral.  Adoptive families are the heroes of the child welfare system. 

Georgia's assistance to these families has recently become more limited.  In the latest round of budget cuts, the "512 funding" was cut by more than $1.5 million.  This funding helps these foster families become adoptive families. Without this funding, many adoptions would not take place.  This funding pays for the adoptive home study and the adoption attorney costs. 

"512" funding pays for respite, child care and other essentials that help these adoptive families stay together as families. Without these funds adoptive families will be more at-risk of disruption.  Some estimate that as many as 15% of all adoptions disrupt. 

Any new cuts will diminish the work that Georgia, by law, is committed to do, especially when all the easy cuts have been made and most efficiencies have been squeezed out of the system.  These efficiencies and effectiveness have been partly achieved because of this funding.   

We hope that Georgia's "Governor wanabes" will begin to speak for the least of these, their constituencies, these children.  Even though these children do not vote, these candidates hopefully will hear the cries for safe and stable families that they can call their own.  Even though these children do not give contributions to their campaigns, these candidates will say "no more cuts to children services."  Even though these children are not a part of large unions, the moral imperative of their care will put them as a priority in their budgets and the State's.

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Welfare Watch, an email newsletter of the
Georgia Association of Homes
and Services for Children
as a public service.
http://www.gahsc.org
                       Normer Adams, Editor
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