Increase in foster child deaths prompts safety plan

Week #8

Article #2

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/increase-in-foster-child-deaths-prompts-safety-pla/nbYXd/

1.     Category of problem: Security

2.     Level of problem: National

3.     This article concerns: New safety plan for foster children

4.     Importance/effect on families/individuals: With this new safety plan discussed in this article, foster care children will be more protected from their foster parents in case they are being neglected or abused and also for those children that have medical conditions. Therefore it impacts all families with foster children and all foster children in our country.

My input: In this article, new rules for foster care children and parents were created to protect children that have been abused or neglected by their parents. These new rules were encouraged after a couple of foster care deaths that happened in the summer and in the last months. Therefore these new rules that also affect CPS and child placing agencies include increasing the number of unannounced visits to homes, interviewing all adult children before issuing a license, training the staff for adoption and CPS, and other rules. In my opinion, these changes are good because even though some foster care parents might appear to be nice and in good conditions to take care of foster children, they might be actually not fit enough to take care of these children or they might be abusing them without anyone knowing about it. Therefore if we protect these children more, fewer cases like the deaths that occurred in the couple last months will be happening.