I would like to comment on the articles in the Wednesday edition of the DE. My husband and I are licensed foster parents in Illinois. While it is unfortunate that graduate assistants and the assessment program here at SIUC would be affected, the cuts are much more serious and widespread than our campus. The cuts that are being proposed for Department of Children and Family Services and the private child welfare agencies would greatly affect the abused and neglected children of the state of Illinois.
First, the proposed cuts would eliminate many of the vital services that are available to help heal these children of the effects of their abuse and/or neglect. Many caseworker positions, the eyes, ears and heart of the child welfare system, would be eliminated. The remaining caseworkers would see a major increase in their workload, which includes not only person-to-person contact with the children, the birth parents, and the foster families, but also the mandated administrative and reporting duties.
Caregiver (foster parent) training may also be eliminated. Before becoming licensed foster parents, we had an extensive six-week, 40-plus hour training and certification program. Because many of the children in the system have one, and sometimes a combination, of physical, mental, social and educational special needs, the training demonstrated ways that we can help them with their specific challenges. For us, the training opened our eyes to the complexity, fragility and life-altering turmoil of children in foster care.
Finally, the cuts will directly affect foster parents. The small monthly stipend (about $10 a day) that goes toward a foster child’s clothing, spending allowance, and additional foster-family household costs may be cut in half. Working foster parents, like us, will lose our daycare subsidy. Let me emphasize that you can’t make money as a foster parent. These stipends are designed to help with the basic needs of the foster children. Already dealing with a shortage of foster parents, reducing the monetary assistance would drive many current and potential foster parents out of the system. My husband and I and our other children are committed to our foster daughter, and will not abandon her, but we will struggle to make ends meet if these cuts happen.
We were informed of these possible cuts last week in a letter from the director of DCFS and we could use your help. If you care about the long-term well being of the innocent children in the state’s child welfare system, please contact your state representatives and senators to urge them to pass the tax increase and then the FY2010 state budget so these kids can receive the help and care that they desperately need and deserve. Shame on us if nothing is done for the abused, the neglected and the indigent people in our society.
Schultheis is accountant III for WSIU Public Broadcasting.
