How to Discourage Foster Parents

Many state agencies have trouble keeping foster parents in the system, but West Virginia seems to have found an entirely new way to treat them badly. The state switched to a new system that delayed payments for some families, and then didn’t bother to tell them that the money would be late. According to the agency spokesperson, the department notified “the public of the delay via press release and social media.”  Apparently, the agency didn’t tell anyone directly  

Predictably, foster parents had payments bounce and incurred bank overdraft fees. The agency’s only solution was to suggest that foster parents apply for emergency funds. In other words, it was not the agency’s job to keep its promises, it was the foster parents’ job to track down what they were owed. 

This is exactly the sort of scenario that keeps people from signing up to be foster parents. It also illustrates why foster parents seek laws with actual enforcement. Agencies know that they cannot delay payments to employees because of all of the litigation and fines that would follow. Most foster parents, however, do not have any such protections. Agencies that need more foster parents first must treat well those parents they already have. 

This snafu also illustrates one way in which the community can assist foster children and their parents.  A place of worship or civic organization can support individual foster families and step in when the state falls through in its obligations. These groups also can do ore than an individual parent to hold the government accountable. We need not only more foster parents, but more community support for those we already have.