Foster Parents Quit Because of Treatment by Government Agencies

Kansas commissioned a survey to determine why it lost 500 parents between July 2019 and June 2022. What it found should have come as no surprise. Most foster parents quit because they did not like how the child protection agencies treated them. The most common complaints were the lack of respect, training, communication, and support. If any other states wanted to debrief foster parents who have quit the system, they likely would find the same complaints.

The key problem is in a statement by one of the people in the state ombudsman's office that conducted the study. Brook Town said, "Foster parents really wanted to be treated like professionals." Instead, overworked and understaffed state agencies tend to treat them like hotels. So, we heard comments such as those from Shawn Wilson, whose experience as a kinship caregiver soured her on the system. “When we first started we were like, ‘Okay, you know, maybe we could do this,’” Wilson said. “After we were in this system … (it) was like one and done, I will never do this again.”

Any business knows that the most powerful recommendations, either good or bad, come from other customers. Until foster parents currently working with agencies can report better experiences, no amount of outreach will attract new foster families.