The federal government has issued new guidance that will help states stop the controversial practice of placing foster children in debt. This, according to an NPR investigation from 2021, is a practice that leaves poor families in debt.
Foster care is a place where children are placed in care. Parents often find a surprise when they receive a bill from the county or state for child support. This will help them to pay for the care of their child.
However, these parents are often poor and have difficulty paying. NPR’s investigation revealed that children placed in foster care can last for several months, and the added expense can then be borne by already struggling families, often for many years.
The Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has now issued new guidance for state and county child welfare officers that will allow them to stop sending bills home to parents if they so choose.
Daisy Hohman, a Minnesota mom who received a bill of over $19,000 after her children spent 20 months in foster homes, says that this will be a big help to single parents. Hohman was the subject of an NPR investigation. Her county then garnished her tax refunds. “This is my money to live on for myself and my children.”
Parents are charged in every state for foster care costs even though they may not be able to pay. NPR’s investigation revealed that the state child enforcement agencies lose money because their staff spend their time looking for these parents and collecting.
The majority of collections are made through garnishing the wages and tax refunds of fathers and mothers. According to federal statistics, almost $96 million was taken from these parents in 2021 and returned to the U.S. Treasury. States retain at least the same amount. The federal government received $113 million in the largest return, while the state governments received the stimulus checks intended to aid parents affected by the pandemic.
Bree, a Washington parent, stated that the bill for foster-care weakened her family just as she was looking for help to make it stronger.
Bree aEUR” NPR granted her request to use her first name. Bree and her husband were from a state where their low incomes didn’t allow them to afford rent or other expenses. Their son and their husband moved to Washington State, purchased a travel trailer that could be tow behind their pickup truck aged 20 years, and lived in a trailer park halfway between Tacoma, Washington and Seattle.
She says, “Obviously we were poor.” “We tried to increase our wages.”
Her husband and she found low-paying jobs to help them get by.
Things were improving. In 2019, her husband was arrested for assaulting their son. Bree and her husband refuted it. The boy, now almost 4, was placed in foster care.
All charges against the husband were eventually dropped. Their son returned home 13 months later.
Bree and her husband were then charged $8,000 for foster care.
They were paid out of their paychecks. Bree received approximately $1,400 per month.
It was scary when she saw her first paycheck with money garnished.
She told the judge in court that the bill for child support was too high. “We came out of poverty,” she said to the judge. We are barely making ends meet. We’re working to pay off all of our debts so that we can afford housing for our son. You’re making us return to poverty.
Her monthly payment was reduced by the judge. The $8,000 balance remained aEUR” which meant that it continued to come out of their paychecks, and tax refunds.
Things are looking up today. Bree completed her associate’s degree. In September, Bree had her second child. The family now lives in a house after moving out of the travel trailer.
They still have to pay the foster care debt of around $300.
Aysha Schomburg who heads the federal agency that released the new guidelines, says that when a state child support agency takes the child’s funds, it makes it more difficult for the parent to pay gas, bus fare, or get to work. “This is not what we want.”
Schomburg, an associate commissioner of Children’s Bureau aEUR”, the federal agency that provides federal funding for state and county child welfare agencies, stated in a statement to NPR, that states should “find innovative ways support families” and that they “should stop charging parents as their default position.”
Many county and state child welfare agency staff were happy to receive the new guidance.
“We were thrilled, we felt relieved, and we were excited to see the updated federal guidance,” Allison Krutsinger, director of community engagement and government affairs for Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, says.
Her department had earlier this year asked for parents to be exempt from the charges. The federal government refused to pay a EUR and said it had to first go through complex steps and then consider each family individually.
They can now act more broadly and cease charging under the new rules.
Krutsinger believes that this will make families stronger. Krutsinger says that this will help families avoid financial hardships while they work to get their family back.
Until they are completely paid off, families that are poor continue to be billed. Washington state has parents who are still being charged for years after reuniting with their children. Krutsinger says that this financial burden can last for decades or even years.
Washington’s new policy aEUR” to not charge parents aEUR”, will only apply to parents who are enrolled in the system right now. Bree and other owe-paying parents will not be affected.
Jill Duerr Berrick is a professor at Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. She says that not all states will cease charging. She says, “With the new rules we’re going see a checkerboard.” “We’ll have some states that will be more generous than others. That’s American living: location, location and location.
State Rep. Isaac Bryan in California has introduced legislation to end the practice that parents are charged for their services.
A federal 1984 law requires that child welfare agencies in the state and counties be able to collect money from the U.S. Treasury when it is “appropriate”. This will allow the Treasury to reimburse the federal government for paying a large portion of foster care.
The Senate and House Democrats have now prepared a new bill aEUR”, and are seeking Republican co-sponsors. aEUR” This takes the practice of sending foster parents bills for their care.
