KELO Radio reports that the United States is getting better at placing foster children in permanent homes. South Dakota is contributing to that improvement, but as we worship fetuses, we apparently aren’t quite as good as the rest of the nation at loving real live children:
The Annie E. Casey Foundation tracked progress on how well child-welfare systems did across the country with foster care placement over a 10-year period. It found that care systems placed 86% of foster children in families in 2017, up from 81% in 2007.
Carole Cochran, program director with the South Dakota Kids Count program says the state is slightly below the national average but achieved a four-percentage-point drop over 10 years.
“For South Dakota, 83% of foster children were placed in families in 2017, compared to 79% in 2007,” says Cochran. “I think that’s very positive” [“S.D. Makes Inroads on Placing Foster Kids in Families,” KELO Radio, 2019.04.05].
Positive, yes, but you’d think our exceptional South Dakota family values would have us leading the nation, not trailing the national average or most of our neighboring states in foster-child family-placement rates:
- Iowa: 88%
- Minnesota: 87%
- Montana: 92%
- Nebraska: 93%
- North Dakota: 87%
- Wyoming: 81%
Perhaps Governor Kristi Noem can call a day of prayer for those foster kids waiting for permanent homes.
The struggles that South Dakota has with placing foster children in permanent homes might due to the high number of Native American children in foster care and ICWA. According to research by PEW Charitable Trust study from 2017, 52.2% of children in the South Dakota foster care system are Native American, and Native American children make up 15% of the general child population, much higher than the surrounding states. ICWA is well meaning, but so restrictive that it, along with the tribal court system, that in my opinion, doesn’t terminate parental rights often or quickly enough, puts children into perpetual foster care until they age out or are emancipated.
Out West, are you involved in this as a social worker perhaps? Wondering if you have expertise.
I have read different articles that claim that children are removed from tribal homes much too quickly for much too little cause. The articles say the children are placed in white foster homes when there are relatives or licensed Indian foster families who are willing and wanting to take them.
It’s been a couple months since the last time I read about the problem, but sources were reputable news outlets. Your thoughts on this?
Hi Debbo, My wife and I are former foster and adoptive parents. I am a former CASA volunteer.
I’m not commenting on the article, but Cory’s comment about “trailing the national average”.
To answer your questions about children being removed. When we were foster parents, we did not have access to all the cases, however, every case we were involved with native, white or Hispanic, it wasn’t a question, the children should have been removed. We also heard of other cases where the child was reunited with tragic endings, including death of a child.
The need for foster homes is so great and the number of foster families is not enough. When we were involved licensed Indian foster families were an extreme asset that were utilized to the maximum number of children the licenses allowed, or the maximum number of children the foster parents were willing to take.
I feel the real problem is that when the best course of action for an enrolled child is termination of parental rights, the tribal courts do not terminate. The excuse was frequently ICWA.
One of my CASA cases, the child was born to an alcoholic mother that lived on the street, this would have been her sixth child, none of which she was raised. The father was another street person. Mom never showed up for any court hearings, didn’t seek to be reunited with any of her children. Dad was out of the picture as well and his whereabouts unknown for years. The child had severe fetal alcohol syndrome and needed special 24 hour care. Despite several attempts, there was no termination of parental rights from the tribal courts.
So, bottom line, children like the one mentioned above are sentenced to a life in foster care. Not all foster families have the desire to adopt so in a way, children in this no end situation take beds that would be available for other children in foster care making it even more difficult to find places for children to be safe and well cared for.
Thanks for answering Out West. That’s a tragic story. In cases like that I can support court-ordered tubal ligations and vasectomies for involved parties.
I understand that there is a lot of history and present prejudice Indians are responding to, but still . . . 😕