10 year old boy dies in foster care

[Gemmie]

DBM

 

[Cryptic]

This poor child. Why wasn't he placed with a biological relative or at least an experienced foster home? This woman was clearly not a qualified quality foster placement.

That is an excellent question- and hoping that question generates some reforms.

One possible explanation is that in an effort to attract foster parents, many counties allow foster parents to set near unlimited conditions on which children they do, or do not, accept. This can lead to "cherry picking" children. It also leaves some children being very difficult, or near impossible to place.

I cant get "preachy" about cherry picking children. I have been an unofficial foster parent when my wife and I decided to open our home to local "at risk" types (rough area / schools) as needed.

We, however, cherry picked our "crew": Behavior problems had to be relatively mild. And for older ones, not sexually active, err....at least not openly so. Ditto for marijuana. We also had a preference for girls to better match our children.

If "cherry picking" led to the placement of the victim with an inexperienced foster care parent....

Maybe..... offer bonus stipend money to foster parents willing to take difficult children? Ideally, the bonus then attracts more willing foster care parents. Then, the county can be more selective about the need for experience and /or two parent household?

 

[LoveyG]

What is wrong with this woman? And 5 years with one suspended???

She smothered him under 340 lbs! Would it have been seen differently if she'd put a piano on top of him, or a refrigerator, or a washing machine and squashed the life out of him? If she put a refrigerator on top of him and killed him for being bad, would that have been a 5 year crime?

 

[imstilla.grandma]