California: No refuge: Committee focuses on foster
youth
Our children, our responsibility
THERE HAVE been enough studies on the plight of foster
children in California. Study after study has quantified the struggle
for young people in the foster-care system. Fewer than half graduate
from high school. Not surprisingly, a majority are left unemployed soon
after their emancipation. One in five is incarcerated.
This is not "someone else's problem." The 80,000-plus
children in foster care are our collective responsibility -- yet, as a
trove of newly compiled data showed last week, the quality of care and
vulnerability of the youths vary widely from county to county.
It's time for action.
The newly created Assembly Select Committee on Foster
Care convenes for the first time today in Los Angeles. Its chair,
Assemblywoman Karen Bass, is determined to make improvement of the
foster-care system a priority in the upcoming legislative session.
"With this I want to raise the issue of foster care in
the public, especially when it comes to resources," Bass said. "There
should be no question about taking care of these kids. It's like
deciding whether or not to feed your kids at night. With this committee,
we won't be reinventing the wheel, we'll improve the system."
Bass has picked up the torch from ex-Assemblyman
Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, who successfully authored a
2001 bill to review county child-welfare systems. What that research has
shown is an appalling lack of consistency from county to county.
Steinberg told us he hoped the select committee could finally "bring all
the parties together and create more consistency" in the system.
One of the California Legislature's goals for 2006
should be to assert and install a level of state oversight to ensure
that foster children throughout the state have decent levels of care and
services. Too many foster children are now left bouncing from home to
home. One of the state's goals should be development of programs that
help reduce the number of children in the system.
"Special interest" is a pejorative term in Sacramento
-- and with good reason. It's used by Republicans and Democrats to
describe the groups that hold sway with the other side through campaign
contributions and lavish lobbying. Issues that don't have a big push
from a special interest tend to fall by the wayside.
Foster children don't fit the conventional definition
of special interest. They don't have CEO titles or political action
committees to open doors in Sacramento; they are too young to vote.
But these children should be this state's real special
interest. The establishment of a select committee is a good start, but
the California Legislature's commitment to the issue will be measured by
whether the bills that emerge from this session can offer a level of
stability and hope that is an illusion for too many of our foster
children today.
Editorial
21 November 2005
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/21/EDGQIF5HB21.DTL
