Comments about ‘Funding cuts may reduce ranks of Utah foster parents’

This is just sad.

Thank you for bringing this issue to the attention of others. It's a real tragedy. Children in foster care have already struggled so much and the best place for them is a supportive, stable home.

We were kinship foster parents for an extended period of time and ended up adopting our granddaughter. The entire situation was extremely difficult. We received support from the Utah Foster Care Foundation and DCFS, but the GAL and the Assistant Attorney General were worthless. In our experience and that of the psychologist we worked with, the court system keeps these children in chaos and causes them additional trauma.

After our adoption was completed, we sent out a letter sharing our experience. Some listened, the GAL's office said they have a huge caseload. The Attorney General's office didn't respond other than to say they'd discuss the issues with their attorneys.

There are big problems with the foster care system and they need to be looked at. Again, thanks for bringing up a piece of the foster care dilemma.

By definition, a 16-year-old girl having unprotected sex is irresponsible. However, when that 16-year-old becomes pregnant, our law says that she has miraculously developed the insight and knowledge to make decisions that will affect her life and the life of the unborn child. We pay for these decisions every day as a disproportionate number of these children end up being placed in foster care or having multiple, non-parental care givers. As a society we need to allow our children to be children, and not force them into adulthood because of teen pregnancy. As an adoptive mother of three, two of whom were adopted from Utah foster care, I deal daily with the affects of abuse and neglect caused by a mother who was not ready to be a mother. Perhaps an answer to funding problems is found in reducing the number of children coming into the system, by making sure children have parents who are ready to be parents. Perhaps it's time to review laws and policies that put life-changing decisions in the hands of irresponsible children.

Our legislators are too busy wasting our money on court battles to fund things like foster care.
Do find it interesting also that they feel the need to give themselves the same benefits that go to teachers, fireman, policeman, and state workers.
Do part time legislators really deserve retirement and medical and dental benefits funded by the state government?
Foster homes are the best deal there is.
Without sufficient homes the foster kids will be placed in more expensive placements which will cost 2-25 times more.
At least pay the going day care rates for kids.
Why would anyone be a foster parent when day care pays more?
Also the state will just get sued again, and we will have to pay lawyers from San Francisco millions of dollars to monitor our compliance with a lawsuit settlement.
It happened before and it will happen again.

It's a strange strange world that we live in. We pay millions to sports personalities to dribble balls down a court or score a touch down and pay very little to people where it matters most...in the home. If the family is sacred, why do we devalue it so much? Why don't we want the very best for children in out of home alternative care. Go figure

Having been a foster parent I can say that they people that do it are not in it for the money.
We were given ten dollars a day ($300/month) to feed, cloth, house, drive, and take care of a 9th grader. (1996 standards) You can not take care of a teenage child for only 10 dollars a day.Yes they also gave as a very small clothing allotment, but that was not near what it takes to cloth a teenage girl. Wife and will never do it again. Way to much hassel with all levels of the establishment

The state should NEVER pay families to take in foster children. That leaves too many opportunities for "selling children". I personally know one family that took in a child because of the money it brought in. If a family wants to adopt or become foster parents, they should be required to pay for all expenses for the children on their own without government help. The medicaid the child received paid off the deductible on their insurance. The wife even lied to the husband about collecting money for the child. They had agreed they wouldn't do that, but she did it anyway, and when I mentioned it in conversation, she adamantly denied it even though I have government paperwork saying she collected it. It was a disgusting display of a greedy woman using a child to get government money.