Unless you’re an adoptive parent of a child through the DFACS Agency, you probably have no idea about how our system works in GA. The fact of the matter is, there are untold numbers of children who are in the state foster care system who are in loving homes and well cared for by childless families who are eager to love and care for a child through adoption. There are also untold numbers of families who foster as a means of income. We all know it happens. That system is abused just as others considered social services.
We also know that the vast majority of children who are in foster care homes come from mothers who have abused drugs, alcohol, have been sexually abused or have untreated mental conditions. DFACS is overwhelmed with the need of foster homes and there are certainly some very dedicated and loving foster parents. They’re desperate for permanent homes to place children who have no place to go. They are severely understaffed to handle their workloads. The state’s budget has not adequately funded the cost of taking care of the thousands of children who come into their charge on a regular basis. Some of these children have noticeable mental or emotional conditions when they come. Some are born into the system with no visible evidence of mental or physical handicaps until school age.
Here are some facts. A foster parent is required to take training and be approved by DFACS before a child is placed in the home. It isn’t meant to be a permanent home. They may take several children through the course of a year. If their goal is to adopt, they may or may not find that a child they foster is the one they would like to adopt. They might ask for a certain age child, but most of those who intend to adopt, want or hope for a newborn or infant or a certain age limit.
The foster parents are paid a monthly stipend for each individual child’s care. The child receives Medicaid insurance for their health care. They receive free day care for working parents. They may be eligible for other services depending on the age of the child or the financial needs of the family.
Parents who hope to adopt usually have to wait about two years and go through an enormous amount of government red tape, and go to court to obtain their adoption decree.
After adoption, if there are siblings and one of them has a documented special need, the state pays a monthly amount to the parents for each sibling. Usually, they remain on Medicaid until they are eighteen, possibly longer.
Finding a facility in the state of Georgia for anyone who has psychological, behavioral, or emotional needs is challenging to say the least. At one time, the state had an independent company who determined the need for a child from the system to be eligible for Medicaid payment in treatment facilities! That may have changed. Some of these facilities are for short term care and some are residential. There are only a few facilities equipped to handle certain psychological and emotional related illness. Some are more directed towards treatment of addiction or delinquency. To qualify for Medicaid to pay for residential treatment is next to impossible. That assumes you can actually find a facility that actually meets the needs of the child, and/or has a vacancy. You cannot begin to imagine the red tape and governmental bureaucracies causing frustration, despair, and loss of work for parents who are simply trying to get the best treatment for their adoptive child or children without success. They have no place to turn.
It is unconscionable that an adoptive family is unable to get treatment for a special needs child they have loved and cared for year after year with little if any help from school systems. Many of the better facilities with specialized personnel will not accept Medicaid insurance. There are only six in the state who will, and they usually have a waiting list for beds.
Children who have special needs should not have to wait. In some cases, adoptive parents’ lives are being destroyed by constant turmoil, anger, discipline problems, truancy, and violence in the home. Many times, these children wind up on the streets, engaging in sex, drugs, gangs, theft, and thereby continue the cycle of violence or dysfunctional families they came from before being in the system, and so it becomes a cycle. When our tax dollars are being spent on grants and/or projects that benefit a few and neglect the needs of our greatest assets, then we have a problem, but the biggest problem of all is complacency.
