There was no vocal opposition to the bill, but there were some concerns over the penalties associated with violations of the new regulations. The Chronicle of Social Change reports:

“The California bill would make some punishments more severe, charging foster parents with misdemeanors for breaking the law, or ‘willfully or repeatedly’ violating parts of the law. Misdemeanor charges, though, would likely not be the first course of action. Lopez said that if a parent is not complying with the regulation, social workers ‘aren’t going to take the children away. They will work with the parents to find a solution.’”

As of last week the bill has passed, and it is yet to be seen how the new amendment health and safety code effects foster care in California. Other states, like Washington, with similar legislation have not had much trouble, and there was no significant effect in the number of foster homes available as a result of the new laws.

To read The Chronicle of Social Change article on the topic click here. And to learn more about the new bill click here to read the fact sheet.

“We need to start by treating child abuse and neglect like the preventable public health menace that it is. We can demand that politicians support programs aimed at reducing domestic violence and poverty. We can tell them we want funding for counseling, childcare and parenting training for struggling families. We can reach out to caregivers we know who are overwhelmed. We can advocate for child victims through organizations such as National CASA, or become foster or adoptive parents ourselves. And we can report suspected abuse and neglect with a confidential call to 866-363-4276.”

Piraino wants everyone to be involved. So that the problem of child abuse can be effectively addressed. In Piraino’s words, “The good you can do for a child in your community will last a lifetime — yours and the child’s.”

Programs, such as FosterEd, an initiative by the The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) in Oakland, California,  aim to reverse the somber outcome statistics by doing more to help children in foster care succeed in school.  NCYL is piloting the FosterEd program in Santa Cruz, California, as well as in Arizona and Indiana, with plans to keep the program growing. FosterEd will  recruit specially trained “educational champions” to serve as sources of academic support for children in foster care and to keep the children on track academically. Parents may be the “educational champions” if family reunification is possible. Otherwise, a qualified individual who can provide a long-term commitment is found. FosterEd will also develop software that will connect schools to social service agencies to ensure that  children and youth in foster care do not get overlooked.

For more information visit the FosterEd website at  http://www.foster-ed.org/ and to read it in the news click here.

Since the passage of CAPTA, Congress, at the urging of its constituents, has undertaken efforts to promote the identification, treatment and mitigation of child abuse in the United States. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives marked the week of June 6-12, 1982, as the first National Abuse Prevention Week.  In 1983, April was selected as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Office on Child Abuse and Neglect within the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, uses the month of April to  rally attention and action for the cause at the national level. Further, the Blue Ribbon Campaign raises awareness by honoring deceased victims of child abuse and neglect.  Similarly, Pinwheels for Prevention uses pinwheels to symbolize children affected by abuse and neglect.

The 2013 Child Abuse Prevention Initiative endeavors to promote the critical need for comprehensive child and family safety and well-being. For more information please visit https://www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth/. 24-hour time-sensitive support for parents and caregivers in San Francisco is available through the TALK Line of the Family Support Center by calling (415) 441-KIDS.

The first time I visited her, she didn’t know what to make of the place, but it wasn’t long before she had made friends and created bonds with her foster parents. They fell in love with her, and her foster mother spoke with me about long-term plans … to teach her how to drive, help her get through high school, buy her a car, send her to trade school. Her foster parents expected her to take responsibility for chores, follow rules, succeed in school, and keep them apprised of her social life. She did all of this, willingly, and I was proud to see her making positive change in her life. She was eager to show off her good grades on her report card, and when she passed the CAHSEE, she called me excitedly to report it. But despite the positive environment, my teen was bored by the place she lived, and didn’t see these people as her forever family. She said when she was with them, she felt she had to act like someone else, and couldn’t be herself.

We began exploring the idea of her living with a relative out-of-state, and I pushed hard for a visit to assess the fit. Some on the case resisted this idea, and warned it might “backfire” if my teen decided she didn’t want to live there anymore. To me, this possibility was exactly the reason she needed to visit – the success of the placement would depend largely on whether she wanted to be there. Knowing that she had a tendency to take off when things aren’t going her way, I feared that she might attempt this far from the Bay Area, in a place where she lacked public transportation and endless options of places to stay on the run.

Ultimately, with her attorney echoing the need, the department sent her on a visit with her relative and during a school break. When she returned, I called her, eager to hear how it went. She told me that she felt like she was able to be herself and enjoyed spending time with her relative. In the end, though, she returned dead-set against moving there. She offered a dozen different reasons, but the one she kept coming back to was, “it’s too far away.” “From what?” I asked. “Everything,” she answered, “it’s too far from the city – I’m not going there.”

Distance was an issue with her foster home as well. “I need to get placed closer to the city,” she would tell me, but then other times, it seemed she was willing to stick around. She talked of transferring to a better high school in the area, and even had taken the initiative to ask her teachers about it. This new leaf of a focus on school and a disinterest in parties, combined with a clearly growing bond with her foster parents, made me very wary of advocating for her to be moved. “You’re doing so well,” I would say. And she would respond, “It has nothing to do with this place or these people. I made these changes because I wanted to.” I believed her; she had taken initiative and developed discipline, and it was important to celebrate her efforts. But while giving her due credit, I also reminded her that the rules, expectations, and support didn’t hurt – in fact, they helped tremendously.

Two weeks ago, she called me incredibly worked up. She had been getting into conflicts with a new teen in the house. Her relationship with the new girl was strained at school, and the new girl was threatening to physically fight her. My teen was fed up with all of this, and ready to throw fists or run away. “I need to get out of here, or else you won’t be seeing me,” she told me. I assured her we would make something happen fast, but until then, to take the high road and resist the urge to get in a fight.

“Don’t lower yourself down to her level,” I told her, to which she responded, “I’ll go down there and then I’ll get right back up!” Clever girl. Despite myself, I laughed at her quick wit. “You’re so funny,” I said. “You can’t run away; you make me laugh, and I’ll miss that too much. It’s not fair to me and the other people in your life who care about you to just disappear.” Though she always has a retort, she was silent, and I knew that my words had sunk in.

“Let’s figure out what each of us can do to address this,” I told her. I knew that she wanted to do things the right way – she didn’t want to run away – but if she didn’t see progress, she would make good on her threat. Together, we made a plan for where she wanted to go and how together we could get her there. I would call her social worker and attorney to let them know of the urgent need to set up a Team Decision Meeting about a placement change. After speaking about where she would like to live, we narrowed in on an uncle in the Bay Area, with whom my teen felt close. Plus, placing her with him would bring her closer to her family, friends, old high school, and the city she calls home. We decided that my CASA teen would be in charge of getting in touch with other family members to get the contact information for her uncle. After our conversation, she seemed calm, and we were both determined to make this placement change happen.

Everyone on the case came together and acted quickly to address the issue. With my encouragement and her social worker’s, my teen agreed to stay in her current placement for the next five days, until the date of her TDM. For once, I felt that she would have a smooth transition between placements, and unlike her last two placements, this time it was with family, and in the Bay Area. The department was responsive to the need to meet as soon as possible and talk about options, and her uncle was happy for her to come live there. At the TDM, everyone was in agreement – her mother, social workers, and me. The only issue was that the department needed to approve her uncle’s house for placement, and until that was done, my teen needed somewhere else to go.

The social worker from her Foster Family Agency found a placement in a town nearby where she had been placed before, which would have allowed her to continue schooling, something I was proud to see was a priority for her. But leaving the Bay Area yet again was a non-starter. “I’m not going back there,” she said. “I don’t care; I’m not going back there.” The only other option was for her to go to the Child Protection Center (CPC), where she could stay for 23 hours, and then would be placed in whatever home was available, wherever it was in California. “If you are concerned about school,” I urged, “wouldn’t the first option be better? And wouldn’t you rather know where you’re going, than being completely uncertain?” Despite all of our efforts, she chose CPC.

As the 23 hours ticked away, I worked as hard as I could to encourage the department to expedite the process of approving the placement. I researched and learned that there was a quicker process for approving relative placements: instead of requiring all adult members of the household to get fingerprinted, the social worker could assess criminal history over the phone, and then check it with the information the government has on file. And if the placement unit could assess the home within the 23 hours, we would not need a stopgap placement. I thought I’d found the key to a smooth transition, but the department reserved this process for “emergency” situations and other issues arose that made it impossible to speed up the process.

So the inevitable happened. CPC identified a placement far from the Bay Area, and close to where she had been placed before. She called me upset, saying she would not go there – that she would run away instead. I tried the tactics I had used the week before, asking her what her goal was in doing so, and reinforcing that this was only short-term and soon she would be placed where she wanted. But she wasn’t willing to go, and shortly after speaking with me, walked out of CPC and let San Francisco swallow her up.

When my teen and I first began talking about her desire to be back in the city, I was skeptical. She had so many opportunities to get into trouble here, while in her placement, she had structure that was helping her shine and excel. Everyone on the case – her mother, social worker, CASA – knew what temptations the city held, and wanted to keep her far from them. But the city isn’t only a teenage party playground, it’s also where the bulk of her family lives. It’s where she has grown up, and it’s where her best friends in the whole world live.

We talk about “permanency” as being connected to network of people for life, and her “lifers” are here. Yes, not all of her friends are good influences, but they are the people she feels closest to, and for a teenager, staying connected to your peers is everything. Yes, not all of her family members are equipped to be her caregivers, but she has deep relationships with them that are simply too difficult to maintain from hours away. And then there is the city itself. “Home” can be all sorts of things – many of us think about it as a house you live in with those you love, but it can also be a group of people you are connected to, or a geographic place that you know like the back of your hand. Right now, the Bay Area and her peers are everything to her, and even though I am nervous about what temptations both might bring, I ultimately would rather empower her to make the right decisions at “home” than keep her from everything that is important to her. Her last placement gave her so much of what she needed – structure, support, and high expectations – but the truth of the matter is, it kept her from her network, from her home, and she didn’t feel a sense of belonging there.

This story doesn’t really have an ending. My CASA teen has been on the run since leaving CPC, and though we were in touch at first, I haven’t heard from her for days. I keep trying, because I want to let her know I will never give up on her. I only hope that she is safe, that her uncle is understanding, and that soon she will be in a stable placement with people she loves. Until that happens, I will do everything in my power to bring it about.

In promoting the act Sen. Franken had this to say:

“Addressing the mental and emotional needs of our kids is just as important as keeping them safe from physical injury and illness,” said Sen. Franken. “Healthy kids grow into healthy adults, and if we’re able to catch and address mental health issues early, we can help kids become productive members of society. My Mental Health in Schools Act will help make sure that kids in need get access to the mental health treatment they deserve.”

The act would also provide resources for schools to collaborate and to partner with law enforcement and community-based organizations. This in turn will provide health services and comprehensive training to school staff and the community in order to make spotting and addressing issues an easier task, which will allow for faster and more  effective aid for those that need it.

To read more about Sen. Franken’s act click here. And to read the actual act click here.