TV REVIEWS : KTLA Profile of the Foster Care Crisis

Do we really care about our children? Tune in Sunday to KTLA’s stunning dissection of the foster care crisis in Southern California before you answer.

“What Are We Doing to Our Children?,” hosted by Susan Dey (“L.A. Law”) at 8 p.m. on Channel 5, offers a stunning indictment of a grossly unwieldy bureaucratic system that often victimizes victims, joining the abuse cycle.

Viewers go with police officers in investigations of child abuse. A 7-month-old infant with apparent cigarette burns is brought to the hospital, but there’s “not enough hard evidence” to take the child into protective custody.

Older children are heard from, many of whom have trouble with the law after disorienting stays in 20, 30 or even 70 foster homes. They wonder why they were removed from their home, when the rest of the family, even the abuser, was free. They feel punished and worthless.

Multiply them by thousands of troubled children. A recent congressional report says there are 500,000 children in “out-of-home placement,” a figure expected to increase “dramatically” in the next five years.

“Who’s going to adopt these children?” asks one angry official. “Are there long lines of people waiting to adopt (them)?”

“We are creating a generation . . . who are going to turn on all of us, because life and human beings don’t have any meaning to them,” predicts Helen Kleinberg of the Children’s Services Commission.

Blame is laid on lack of funding and unsuitable use of existing funds. A few therapeutic programs seem to be making a difference, but they can accommodate only a fraction of those in need.

It’s not just the system that needs changing, says this explicit Moses/Buckhantz production. We must question the attitudes that feed that system. One challenging conclusion: “Our society does not value children.”