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Dreyfus on foster parents

• Published June 26, 2009

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We ran out an excerpt of an interview with DSHS Secretary Susan N. Dreyfus this morning. Not in the printed version was her response to a question from a reader who responded to by request for queries.

If I get a chance I'd like to post some of Dreyfus' other remarks, including her response on another reader question. But here’s a question from a foster father, paraphrased, and Dreyfus' answer.

DSHS did not notify my and wife and I that our foster child had been born with crack in his system until after he was placed with us. What policies will you put in place that will require foster parents to be told of special conditions before placement?

DREYFUS: While I will be passionate and I will be a great advocate for all the services in this department, you all know child welfare is clearly my background as the administrator of child welfare in the state of Wisconsin for almost seven years. So I have a strong affinity for child welfare and I’ve seen just he incredible impact that the child welfare system has on so many children and their families.

So when I think of foster parents, they are critical partners in our ability to get this job done, just as relatives are, just as birth parents are. It takes all of us. When a child is not save in their own home, it is the worst of time in any community in this country.

Foster parents … they are not paid, they are simply reimbursed, and that is not a full reimbursement for what their full costs are for taking an unrelated child into their home. They need to have the information they need to have to do the best job they can.

One of the things we’re working on, and it’s part of the Braam settlement work, is we have to make sure children are getting those critical health screens in their first days of coming into care, there is a medical passport, that follows with that child as they move into a foster home or change foster home. We wan to make sure that information goes with them.

Foster parents are a critical part of the team. So, I look forward to working with them in greater partnership to make sure they have the resources they need to be a successful partner with us. Because ultimately a child comes into the system, we want to make sure it is for as short a time as possible and foster parents are an important part of the reunification and permanency team.

So I apologize to this foster parent. I’m sorry he didn’t get that information. You want to them to have that information. But a lot of times when you get into these cases, you realize they’re pretty complex. And it may have been without intention that information was not shared and made as apparent as it might have been. But we can do better.