California-based foster care agency Little People’s World made headlines last month after directors were caught embezzling more than $460,00.
The agency is a non-profit funded by tax dollars.
The news is a slap in the face to taxpayers, who shouldn’t have to give up their hard-earned dollars to fund a dishonest family’s vacation.
But it is even more unfair to the foster care children who were part of Little People’s World. Once again, they’ve been harmed by the foster care system.
The frequency of fraud within the foster care system raises a red flag to us. Less than one-tenth of the $11 million funds embezzled between 2000 and 2010 by agency non-profits has been recovered, according to the Los Angeles Times.
But the treatment of children in foster care is even more egregious. Ashley Rhodes-Courter, the author of the memoir Three Little Words, spent nine years in the Tampa Bay foster care system in the late 1980s through the 1990s. While she was ultimately adopted, she went through 14 foster homes before finding a permanent home. She rarely stayed at the same school for more than a year.
During that time, she was placed in some good home situations, but also some horrendous ones. She endured an abusive situation in an over-crowded foster home, and the foster system turned a blind eye to the abuse. Her foster mother was convicted of her crimes several years later. Rhodes-Courter was also placed in the home of a pedophile.
Clearly, the foster care system is broken. There are many hard-working, caring people within the system who want to help children. But the system needs a change.
Our society bounces children—stripped away from their parents—from home to home. They change schools so many times that even the most naturally intelligent student couldn’t be expected to succeed. This causes many children to fall behind. In most states around the U.S., when a child turns 18, they age out of the foster care system. So if a child turns 18 and has not yet been adopted, the system refuses to help them anymore.
Florida has tried to rectify this problem. The Nancy C. Detert Common Sense and Compassion Independent Living Act, passed in May 2013, allows children over 18 to stay in foster care as long as they are continuing their education.
But the bill is already short of funding, according to the Orlando Weekly. So while Florida makes strides to improve the foster care system, its efforts appear to be falling short.
The foster care system needs reforms. We’re not sure how that looks, but it’s time we say we will not tolerate the treatment of children in foster care any longer. We cannot to throw more taxpayer money to a system that abuses both the money and the children within the system.
Let’s start the conversation, and look for a better way to protect our children and our dollars.
