In listening to Melissa Carter’s presentation, one thing which surprised me is in spite of the recent tragedies regarding children’s deaths, the number of children removed from their homes has actually declined. It also surprised me to see Georgia was one of the states in the United States wit the lowest amount of children in foster care.
I was a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children and continue to work closely with DFCS so I am no stranger to child welfare services. What never ceases to amaze me is the state has still not hired any more CPS workers! I believe Melissa said she estimated it to be about 20 cases per worker. How is it possible to do a thorough job with so many loads?
In the previous legislative session, I believe the process of social policy creation had been formed but remained stagnant. I believe there is a political stream with the National Mood being one of wanting justice for these children who recently died. It seems, however, that political forces can’t seem to get organized enough for the government to negotiate on a way to make changes to the current policy. I am unsure why this is.
As far as improving the creation of social policy in the area of child welfare, one would think this year in particular where there were at least 2 high profile cases of children who died at the hands of their parents and a CPS oversight, more social policy aimed at the protection of children would have passed. But, as we learned in class, the only thing that has to be passed is the budget which makes it appear as if legislation regarding child welfare either dies or gets another bill tagged onto it. This makes me uncertain as to what exactly we can do to improve social policy. Is it even possible?
I think one of Melissa’s important points is that the children who died were used in much more of an exploitative way than in a way to really make a difference in the system. There have been changes in the system – that your own experience or Melissa’s data should tell you. There are fewer kids returning to care because of maltreatment, there are fewer kids in the foster care system and there are changes being made in the training of workers.
But I do not believe that there is no way to continue to improve and change the child welfare system. Melissa was telling us how it is important that we don’t react with emotion and fear (as we did in the past by pulling kids out of their homes), but rather on the basis of good data and good interviewing.
She also made the point that until we begin to see this work with respect and treat those who do it as professional, we will have troubles. Keep watching because there is an increase in hiring in DFACS. There is an increase in training. These things have come about through advocacy and good old fashioned social work.