Posted on 26. Jul, 2010 by zmartin007 in Blog, National, Newsroom
Letter to the Editor: Fostering Care
San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 19, 2009.
Like so many other state responsibilities, foster care fell by the wayside earlier this year while Sacramento fought over the budget. But the needs of foster children – our children – don’t disappear because of a recession, so we were pleased to see that several foster care bills were signed into law.
AB131 was sponsored by the Judicial Council of California and authored by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa. It would require parents who can afford it to reimburse the state for court-appointed counsel in a dependency case. Another Evans bill to receive the governor’s signature was AB154, which brings California in line with the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act. The new law doubles financial incentives to adopt foster children who are older or have special needs.
But the governor should have signed Evans’ third bill, AB82. The bill would have established safeguards for foster children being prescribed psychotropic medications. Such medications can be dangerous. Ordinarily, a child’s parent would provide this kind of support.
It’s unfair that the governor has chosen to abdicate this responsibility for the children we’re raising collectively.
Orphaned by war, disaster: World’s refugee children seeking more foster homes in the US
Posted on 23. Feb, 2010 by admin in National
HOLLISTON, Mass. (AP) — Hiding from merciless militiamen and trekking through unforgiving mountainous terrain, Madhel Majok escaped the mass slayings and genocide of the Sudan that killed his parents. The 9-year-old orphan fled to neighboring Kenya, where he then survived vigilante shellings on his crowded refugee camp.
Majok remained in limbo for eight years while waiting for any country to grant him refuge.
Now 17, Majok has found safety in a small New England enclave 30 miles west of Boston. He’s a star soccer player at Holliston High School, listens to Tupac and Biggie at his leisure and lives comfortably in a foster home, thanks to a federal program that matches refugee minors with American families.
“I like it. It’s peaceful… quiet,” said Majok, who wears American urban-style clothes and stays in a home with four other refugee Asian and African children. “Took me a long time to get here.”
The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, which has 700 refugee children in foster care, has asked states to prepare to foster…{more}
Teens aging out of the foster care system receive gifts of generosity at the holidays
Posted on 08. Jan, 2010 by jvallejo in National
South Florida Today featured a segment that many people are unaware of. Teens that are aging out of the foster care system can face many obstacles and challenges. With the struggling economy…(read more)
