Help for abused kids

A bill to end the state's prohibition of emergency kinship placement for abused children received unanimous approval Monday despite the likelihood the state will give up federal funding.

The emotional toll being taken on children and families who are no longer allowed temporary placement isn't worth the $400,000 to $500,000 in federal funding jeopardized by allowing it, members of the Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel concluded.

Emergency placement was stopped as a "better safe than sorry" response to federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which requires FBI criminal background checks on all adoptive and foster families — including relatives. If they are placed in unscreened care, funding is withheld until the background checks are completed.

In order to keep children in the safest possible environment and protect the flow of federal funding to pay for care, the state opted to keep children in foster care, not with families, while the background screens are being conducted.

Although the state has placed most children with relatives in a matter of days, most are in shelters several days to several weeks. A grandmother in Kaysville told the Deseret Morning News her grandson has been in a shelter for nearly eight weeks. Another grandparent in Ogden has been waiting for clearance for her grandchildren since July. Both say they believe the children have been harmed not only by neglectful parents but by the child protection system that has frightened and emotionally scarred them.

Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, sponsor of the legislation to modify the new law, said judgments about a relative can be made within 10 or 15 minutes by caseworkers with "a good feel" for a situation. "The question is, do we want to have multiple placements with relatives or in shelters, and can we do without the funding in the meantime as the background checks are done?"

DCFS Director Duane Betournay said the state is in compliance and doing more strenuous background checks. It is also working to speed up the screenings and limit the use of emergency shelters.

Of the 2,193 children removed from their homes for neglect or abuse in the 2006-07 fiscal year ending June 30, 80 percent had documented inquiries for kinship placement. The 2000 Census identified 42,000 children in Utah being raised by a relative.

A support group for relatives offers lawmakers a word of caution: Although there are significant numbers of relatives who would be willing to take children, lawmakers should keep in mind a significant number of them really don't know what they're signing up for, representatives of the state's oldest child services association said Monday.