I am finally listening to a book that my colleague Dr. Don Mathews has been recommending – “Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World” by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey for a number of years. The book is very long, and according to my Kindle, I’m only 17% excited about it.
In an early chapter, McCloskey argues that ethics are more important than institutions to make a country or community successful. The most obvious example she gives is a legal system. Laws and institutions of the judiciary only function if social norms value compliance with these laws.
This discussion by McCloskey reminds me of one of the most inefficient schemes I have ever participated in – the Georgia child welfare system. I have been a licensed foster parent for over three years. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of this system. Let me start by saying that there are really many good things. I have worked with clerks, attorneys, judges and other attorneys who have an extraordinary heart for children and who work hard every day to achieve happy, healthy and safe lives for our children.
Unfortunately, there is also a lot to improve on the system.
I have thought many times about using Atlanta lawmakers to make better laws to protect Georgia’s children. But the more I observe, the more I realize that in many cases the inefficiencies are not due to poorly designed laws or policies. Most of the inefficiencies I’ve experienced are due to a lack of knowledge of the rules or, shockingly often, to unnecessary lugging around with excuses for not following the rules.
In my experience, it is the tugging of the feet that does the most damage, both to humans and to economic damage.
If a child has been in a foster family for 15 months and their birth parents have not made significant progress in creating a safe environment for the child to return to, Georgia law requires the DFCS to begin the Parental Rights Ending Process (TPR) kick off. so that the child can be adopted into a stable and stable family – often either another biological relative of the child or the foster family with which the child is fostered for most or all of the time.
Despite this law, Georgia DFCS ‘own annual progress report for 2021 states that TPR was filed with reasonable timeliness in only 27% of applicable cases, and they cite departmental failures as the top cause of delays.
These delays are worrying because of the trauma they cause to children and families, but they are also worrying because of the enormous financial cost to the state of foster care. In 2018, DFCS said it spent an average of over $ 16,500 on each child in foster care. Children in care also receive other state benefits such as Medicaid, the WIC food program, and state-funded day care services.
It gets worse. If a child has been in a foster family for more than two years, they are entitled to what is known as the adoption allowance. Adoption assistance is associated with government-paid adoption fees. And until the child turns 18, they are eligible for Medicaid and a monthly grant of at least $ 400 regardless of the adoptive family’s income. Starting July 1 of this year, the same children will also receive free college education from any public college or university in Georgia.
From a moral point of view, I have no problem with granting these privileges to our children who have experienced the trauma of a foster family. In fact, I sometimes advocate extending some of these services to all ex-foster children, not just those who have been in care the longest.
However, under current law, this is unnecessary government spending. My son’s story is his to tell, not mine, but I’ll tell you so much – he has been in care for much longer than he should have been. He and I both experienced significant trauma because DFCS ignored the 15 month law. Through this trauma, he has earned the adoption aid that he is now receiving. But if the state hadn’t let him down, he would have been spared the trauma and taxpayers spared the cost.
We owe it to our children and ourselves to re-create a child welfare system that embodies a cultural ethic that follows established laws and guidelines. Then we can work to improve these guidelines.
