Foster Care Mothers Speak of Experience

We are six Orange County foster moms who want to speak up for foster care in our county. With over 56 years of experience with 276 children whom we have loved and cared for, we feel a great concern about the publicity regarding the deaths of Billy Barr Huffman and Frankie Balistreri Huffman, who lived in a home that was formerly a foster home. Our deepest sympathies are with all of those who cared for them.

Because of the tragedy, we are very concerned about adverse publicity on foster care and some serious misconceptions that may result from it. We speak from our personal experiences.

None of us had to be specially qualified by an agency and had to spend many hours of study to become parents of our birth children. However, when we became foster parents, we were required to take four orientation classes, be in good health, be tested for TB, be financially responsible, have our fingerprints screened by the state for criminal acts, take first-aid classes and have social workers check to make sure our homes were safe. New foster parents now must also take eight classes after becoming licensed if they wish to take additional children. In 1989, we must be CPR-certified. This is in addition to the many hours we spend in classes every year updating our education on drug babies, high risk infants and sexual abuse of children.

As foster parents in Orange County, we take great pride in the professional quality of care foster children receive and feel that both we and Social Services work very hard to reunite children with their parents.

RUTH HANNING

LINDA SMITH

Yorba Linda

CAROLYN GRIFFETH

Irvine

LINDA STILES

Orange

EVA MARMONT

Brea

TAMI WATSON

Laguna Niguel