Critics differ on role of foster care in families

Saturday, Nov. 29, 1997 | 3:59 a.m.

The goal of local child protective efforts is to preserve the family, as established by the federal Adoption Promotion and Child Welfare Act of 1980.

But critics, locally and nationally, differ on the extent child welfare agencies should preserve families.

Some say children linger in foster care too long as authorities try to straighten out dysfunctional families. They fear that when the children are returned home they'll be abused or neglected again.

Others say some children should never have been taken from their families. They argue that child welfare agencies are motivated by money to keep kids under protective custody, a charge state officials deny.

The latter critics include parents who have lost children to the system. When the system takes a child, the parent loses the welfare benefits or child support for that youngster. The welfare benefits are returned to the state. The state also tries to collect child support for kids in its custody but often doesn't succeed.

Meanwhile, federal dollars match state funds to house local foster children who come from families receiving public assistance. When a youngster comes from a family that isn't on welfare, the state will ask the court to order the parents to help pay for the child's care. The state covers any unfunded costs.

But Stuart Fredlund, Las Vegas district office manager, and Christa Peterson, deputy administrator for the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services, say the state doesn't profit from the federal funds or from the money collected from parents.

"I can't see any incentives for having large caseloads because we simply have more costs," Peterson says.

President Clinton recently signed the Adoption Promotion Act of 1997, which encourages speedier adoptions by rewarding states with $4,000 in federal funds for every adoption above their previous year's total. The incentive increases to $6,000 for the adoption of special-needs children.

It's too early to tell how the act would affect the state. But Clark County Family Court has begun terminating parental rights within 12 months of a child being taken into protective custody. That's six months sooner than required by federal law, and should speed up adoptions.

That's one of the few significant changes authorities have made to the local system in recent years. Others include establishment by Clark County Family & Youth Services of a specialized caseworker team for children 3 and under, and the state's fast-track method of quickly identifying kids obviously headed for adoption.

Peterson says the child protective system will never become truly effective unless other government agencies help with less-intrusive services.

"If our only response is to investigate or police, we're using a shotgun when we can do with much less," she says. "The idea is to balance a child's safety with family support and preservation. When the balance gets out of whack, you have real problems."