Letters: Cleaning up foster care

Re “Foster children put at risk,” Dec. 18

Many of the horrible examples of child abuse, lax oversight and unqualified foster parents reported in some private foster family agencies could have been prevented had the state or county required that foster family agencies meet standards for national accreditation.

The California Alliance of Child and Family Services and the Assn. of Community Human Services Agencies in Los Angeles have both called for national accreditation as a requirement of licensure for group homes and foster family agencies.

Would you send your child to an unaccredited college? Would you have your sick child treated at an unaccredited hospital? Of course not. Why, then, do we allow foster children to be placed with unaccredited foster family agencies?

Accreditation, along with measures of performance outcome and child and family satisfaction, could significantly improve the quality of foster care in Los Angeles and throughout the state and help keep foster children safe.

Carroll Schroeder

Sacramento

The writer is the executive director of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services.

Most foster children have lived in horrible conditions since birth. Once reported and “helped” by our social service agencies, the children are frequently placed in poor circumstances. Then we insult them again by our lack of supervision over these new living situations.

Are they safe? Have we helped these children?

I work as a court-appointed special advocate volunteer and add another watchful eye to the system, often offering the first true help these children will receive. Even if I help only one child out of the 28,000 L.A. County children in foster care, I will have made a valuable contribution.

Linda Levine

Santa Monica

The Times highlights an ongoing issue with the state licensing of private foster family agencies: ineffective and insufficient monitoring of the homes, parents and staff entrusted with the care of foster children.

This is a critical need that continues to be unmet by the state and its Community Care Licensing division. At its next meeting, the Board of Supervisors will consider my motion that asks the state to enhance its monitoring of foster family agencies and homes or contract with counties to conduct this oversight.

Additionally, we will seek access to a database of all criminal waivers that have been issued on behalf of foster family agencies and parents so that the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services can make better assessments of the agencies and homes where our most vulnerable children are placed.

Michael D. Antonovich

Los Angeles

The writer is a Los Angeles County supervisor.

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