Senate should take some big steps for boosting foster care

Lawmakers should adopt all three bills passing through the Legislature related to foster care.
HB 4094 establishes the duties and powers of the Foster Care Ombudsman.
HB 4101 lays out court action regarding reunification between foster child and biological parents.
Finally, HB 4092 creates the Foster Children’s Bill of Rights and the Foster Parents’ and Kinship Bill of Rights, among other odds and ends that carve into legislative stone what many private child placing agencies already do.
All three bills have advanced to the state Senate by overwhelming margins.
But buried in HB 4092 is a paragraph that will have a massive impact on the entire foster care system.
It ensures foster families will receive around $30 per day per child placed with them. Department of Health and Human Resources licensed kinship placements will receive at least $900 per month per foster child. This legislation makes sure foster families and kinship placements receive roughly the same funds regardless of who licenses them: The DHHR or a private company.
For those unfamiliar with per diems, this is an increase over the previous daily rate. And a necessary one. We all know raising kids isn’t cheap. Or easy.
Taking care of foster kids can be even harder.
It takes a special person to welcome a child who isn’t theirs into their home. A child who has survived everything from living with drug-addicted parents to severe abuse and/or neglect.
The per diem rate increase tells current and potential foster parents that lawmakers are aware of their struggles and offers them some assistance. It takes one of the many worries off a foster parent’s plate so he or she can dedicate the energy otherwise spent fretting over finances to the kids who need them.
Hopefully, the increase will also encourage foster parents to take in older children, who otherwise end up in shelters or group homes.
We know raising kids is expensive. Caring for teenagers, more so. Their clothes cost more; they have mind-boggling appetites; and their social events cost an arm and a leg. And some people may not find them as cute as infants.
However, older kids are already potty-trained; they’re less likely to throw temper tantrums in stores; and they are more self-sufficient.
But they need as much care and kindness as a baby.
We’re not seeing a downside here, except perhaps the greater cost.
Many foster families only want infants, but older children are in desperate need of safe and stable homes, too. That’s why this per diem increase is so important. Hopefully, easing the financial burden of taking in a child — of any age — will encourage people to open their homes to even one of the 7,000 kids waiting for a place to call their own.