Senate OKs Foster Care Reform Bill, Bush to get Bill

By Robin Erb  |  Free Press
September 24, 2008

Michigan's foster children may get three more years of help from the federal government -- to age 21 -- and aunts, uncles, grandparents and other relative caregivers may be in line, too, for some financial aid.

Federal legislation passed by the Senate on Monday and by the House earlier would reshape federal funding of child welfare, help states cover staggering costs of caring for children in foster care and move children to permanent homes quicker, advocates said.

President George W. Bush still must sign the measure.

"It's a huge day for us," said Bill Frenzel, a former congressman who co-chaired the Pew Commission, a group that lobbied to change foster care. The commission's goal is to put foster children in permanent families.

Congress, Frenzel said, "didn't do everything we asked them to do, but ... we feel awfully good."
As it stands now, Michigan and many states generally end foster care at 18 -- an age when youths are too young to be cut loose from the system, said Jack Kresnak, a former Free Press reporter and now president of Michigan's Children, an advocacy group.

He said the measures are "a great help" to the state's foster care children and to those who provide for them -- often with little or no financial assistance. Many relatives care for children who would otherwise be in foster care, and they receive little, if any, financial help.

They would be eligible for federal funds if they choose to become legal guardians to those youths. That would move the children closer to permanency and remove cases from the state's foster care caseload, lowering state administrative costs.

The measure also improves adoption incentives and makes it easier for American Indians to receive child welfare funds.

The cost savings by moving foster care children toward permanent families will help offset costs, backers have said.

Contact ROBIN ERB at 313-222-2708 or rerb@freepress.com.