Posted on 03/10/2009 12:32:41 AM PDT by calcowgirl
A bevy of bipartisan California legislators vowed Monday to be better parents to the state's foster youth, pledging to extend their life-sustaining benefits through age 21 rather than casting them off as teenagers.
Currently, most youth "aging out" of foster care are bounced off state support at 18, a tender age for a vulnerable population that often has nowhere to go and no one to rely on. But an assembly bill written by Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, would draw on newly available federal funds to support relative caregivers and transitional living programs through age 21.
(snip)
AB 12 appears to be drawing widespread support. Monday, Bass and Beall were joined in a news conference by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento; Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency Kim Belshé and state Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno.
Republican legislators also voiced support, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lauded the benefits extension that could begin October 2010.
"I am committed to working with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on a bipartisan solution that ensures our children and youth in foster care are provided with the tools needed to succeed at life," Schwarzenegger said in a prepared statement.
Beall said the state had a "moral" duty to help the foster kids. "They're our responsibility and if we're going to be responsible parents, we shouldn't send them out on the streets at age 18 because literally they'll be on the streets."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Totally whacked!
We are all going to be in foster care.
http://www.sacbee.com/latest/story/1684956.html
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a statement Monday supporting the concept, saying he is committed to a bipartisan solution that ensures foster youth are “provided with the tools needed to succeed at life.”
AB 12 is an attempt to boost services by making the state eligible for about $70 million in new federal funds for foster programs.
The legislation is being fine-tuned and no public hearing has been held. The goal is to offer housing subsidies and other assistance for the 4,500 foster teens who leave the system each year in their late teens.
No formal opposition to AB 12 has surfaced, Beall said. Republican Assemblymen Danny Gilmore of Hanford and Hanford and Nathan Fletcher of San Diego attended the news conference.
Give them a dollar and they will find 20 new things to spend it on.
They’re worse than crack whores.
This is only the beginning; soon enough we’ll all be wards of the state.
I disagree. If they are going to basically ‘house’ these young people in stranger homes then they need to transition them to work and new home. They have no ‘family’ home they need a support system to keep them in school or job training instead of dumping them on the street.
The state creates a lot of these problems by replacing the family, so the state becomes the family. Otherwise they need to stay the heck out of family problems and leave the kids with blood relations.
This is a problem generated by the meddling of the State in other problems. If the kids are taken from drug homes, then even more the reason they should be transitioned to job and creating a home for themselves. I would more willingly help this type of young person than the generational welfare Moms.
The problem I do have would be the State putting an age range on this. The help should come in the form of six to twelve months of placement assistance in a job, school and residence. Throw in a mentor program partnering with private business for tax breaks and I think we have a program that will truly help to impact a young person’s life.
I like your idea much better than I suspect theirs is. You way sounds perfect.
Hell...
Why not 25? or 30?
In fact, why not take care of them THE REST OF THIER LIVES?
It changed back in 1972. (March 4, 1972 to be exact).
Before that, 21 was the “Age of Majority”
Morgana, I like this idea of yours, but I have one question:
Why can’t the children stay with the foster parents after 18 even after they’ve aged out of the system? Is there a law that says they CAN’T stay with them?
Or are we just talking about money here? The foster parents won’t want them unless they get paid?
Also..now that the child is 18 and no longer subject to his birth parents’ wishes on the matter, perhaps he’d like to be adopted by his foster parents. Doesn’t this ever happen?
OK, that was more than one question. Have pity on me; it’s 4:30 in the morning.
Regards,
My bet it is all about money.
By 16, I was in the Navy training to be an officer. I was commissioned at nineteen and by all normal standards was an adult. But I was still a teenager and I still needed the emotional support a lot of teens need at times. People kept an eye on me in some ways until I was at least twenty one, though they left me to do what I needed as well.
Lots of kids aren't quite ready at 18 to be complete adults, whatever the law says. Kids who are in foster care didn't do anything to deserve to have harder lives and just washing your hands of them at that point as I saw happen to so many other kids who weren't as lucky as me is heaping more problems on them.
Yes, to an extent, it is about money - but even when foster parents want to continue given their former foster child support, and are willing to do that without money, a lot of the kids themselves have a real problem being a drain on their foster families - even if the parents don't worry, the kids do. How would you feel knowing you're a financial drain on people who've already given you so much? A lot of these kids already have a lowered sense of self worth - they need help and they need to know those people helping them are being helped.
So now they'll be literally out on the streets at age 21 with no more idea of how live than they did at 18. It's like the unemployed person who doesn't even start looking for a job until the unemployment checks run out.
Nanny State Farm League!
Wow, we keep Johnny in government control for over 25% of his expected natural life...
Of course Dems favor this, more tax money spend on dependents = VOTES.
The feigned “compassion” is merely a way of creating dependence and a voting block that votes for their own personal upkeep vs. who wil govern least.
Marx would be proud. This is insanity.
They need a support system - not necessarily financial support. Dems love to throw money at everything. Sometimes what is needed can’t be bought.
Kids like this need mentors. Someone they can go to when they need advice or just someone to talk to. I have no problem with them being with a foster parent while in school or training, but there needs to be another element. That’s why I think partnering with small business is a great idea. Provide opportunity and contacts - then that young person can really go far.
You want a mentor program? Establish a mentor program in the military for these kids. They will learn how to take care of themselves in short order.
Not everyone is military material. Why should foster kids be dumped onto the military?
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