Foster Care Children are Worse Off than Children in Bad Homes – The Child Trafficking Business

[Terry1]

Fostering Profits

A BuzzFeed News investigation identified deaths, sex abuse, and blunders in screening, training, and overseeing foster parents at the nation’s largest for-profit foster care company.

Aram Roston
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Jeremy Singer-Vine
BuzzFeed News Data Editor

In the summer of 2004, a 15-year-old boy, needy and eager for attention, was driven down a road that stretched through the endless flatlands of Maryland’s eastern shore. The boy, known in court records as R.R., arrived at a dirt driveway, where a sign on top of a wooden post announced Last Chance Farm.

Four separate couples lived at Last Chance Farm. All were related to one another and all earned money taking care of troubled children who had been placed in foster care, including R.R.

But R.R.’s new guardians weren’t directly supervised or paid by the government. They had been signed up as foster parents by a giant corporation called National Mentor Holdings, which, over the last three decades, has turned the field of foster care into a cash cow. At any one time the company has an average of 3,800 children and teenagers in its foster homes in 15 states around the country.

Continued...

Okay, so I guess you're trying to say that the foster care system has failed because #1--it's federally funded to a degree and that there's too much abuse in foster care. So far this is what I've got from these posts. I agree that it shouldn't be federally funded--I have no argument there at all.

Now the broad brushing is happening here with reported cases of abuse of the foster care system. I agree that these huge corps should not be able to farm kids out into living situations which put them at risk. This takes even more government regulation just the same to prevent what happened in your post above. So that's not taking government out of the mix--this is adding more to it as I see it.

So then we're not talking about government funding or regulation being the problem here then--we're talking about a practice by a private business that isn't being monitored by the government as the problem. In this case the argument against government funding and intervention seems rather a moot point.

Another thing to consider is that every day in the U.S. there are on the average 4 child deaths a day and 80 percent is attributed to at least one parent being the perp. Stats are here. https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/

The problem I'm seeing is that when you have this many child deaths a day and 80 percent attributed to the parents--yes--we indeed do have a problem here when the government is trying regulate that through state agencies and programs to help prevent it. Dare I play the devil's advocate to some degree with any justification? Heaven forbid some of these armchair generals who've never seen both sides of the street judge the side they've never walked on themselves as *unfit* and *useless* and needs to be totally annihilated.

[jllundqu]

If the federal funding were eliminated, along with all the kangaroo courts called "juvenile" or "family" courts that do everything in the cloak of secrecy, then local law enforcement would take over and deal with suspected criminals, incarcerating them with due process of law like any other criminals, in CIVIL court.

Then we could have cops showing up, killing the dogs AND THE PARENTS! Maybe the kids, too, just for troubling them with the call....

[donnay]

Now the broad brushing is happening here with reported cases of abuse of the foster care system.

It is a two-way street, Terry1. This is exactly what is happening to good families whose children are being ripped from them as well. I have witnessed this, with my own two eyes. I know how government operates and I know what a money-maker it is to sell children in the black market.

No one is questioning your decency and kindness to care for another human being. So please stop taking this as a personal affront to you, personally.

[Terry1]

It is a two-way street, Terry1. This is exactly what is happening to good families whose children are being ripped from them as well. I have witnessed this, with my own two eyes. I know how government operates and I know what a money-maker it is to sell children in the black market.

No one is questioning your decency and kindness to care for another human being. So please stop taking this as a personal affront to you, personally.

Gee donnay--why would I take something personal like his comment about me worried about losing my government job while at the same time implying that I'm pro big government. Uh--yeah--I did take that personal and you would have too had he said that about you. I'm not totally anti-government either, but I'm for as little government needed to get by with--same as Ron Paul.

[Created4]

Then we could have cops showing up, killing the dogs AND THE PARENTS! Maybe the kids, too, just for troubling them with the call....

Totally agree, but then it is a different problem. Our grassroots efforts right now are focused on educating County Sheriffs, since they are elected officials. If we can get out of the federal system and into a local system, it is a smaller problem to tackle. There is more accountability at the local level, while NONE at the federal level.

[donnay]

Gee donnay--why would I take something personal like his comment about me worried about losing my government job while at the same time implying that I'm pro big government. Uh--yeah--I did take that personal and you would have too had he said that about you. I'm not totally anti-government either, but I'm for as little government needed to get by with--same as Ron Paul.

I am for limited government. Let the communities help each other, and stop the Federal carrot and stick approach. Ron Paul is also against the welfare state, as I am.

[Created4]

I know exactly what he's sayin--I got it.

No, I don't think you did at all. You are trying to argue a point that everyone in this thread has already conceded to you: that there are good people in the system. That fact does not disprove the studies and overall statistics that the Foster care system is a $20 billion business that is corrupt, and hurting children and abusing parental rights.

You are basically saying that there are good people in the system that should excuse the bad things happening, while we are saying the whole system should be scraped to take away the corruption, and that the good people will survive in a new system - the ones that truly care about the children.

And that is what this is all about. All of us, including the ones you are cussing out, are here spending time on this issue because we are concerned about families and children.

The fact that a couple of hours ago you did not even know that the whole foster care system was funded by federal mandates and taxpayer funds should at least make you think you do not yet know everything there is to know about this topic, and that you could learn from others here who have been studying this issue for a long time.

[Created4]

Fostering Profits

A BuzzFeed News investigation identified deaths, sex abuse, and blunders in screening, training, and overseeing foster parents at the nation’s largest for-profit foster care company.

Aram Roston
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Jeremy Singer-Vine
BuzzFeed News Data Editor

In the summer of 2004, a 15-year-old boy, needy and eager for attention, was driven down a road that stretched through the endless flatlands of Maryland’s eastern shore. The boy, known in court records as R.R., arrived at a dirt driveway, where a sign on top of a wooden post announced Last Chance Farm.

Four separate couples lived at Last Chance Farm. All were related to one another and all earned money taking care of troubled children who had been placed in foster care, including R.R.

But R.R.’s new guardians weren’t directly supervised or paid by the government. They had been signed up as foster parents by a giant corporation called National Mentor Holdings, which, over the last three decades, has turned the field of foster care into a cash cow. At any one time the company has an average of 3,800 children and teenagers in its foster homes in 15 states around the country.

Continued...

Donnay,

This Buzzfeed piece did a great job exposing the problem. However, it is now being used by the government to attack for-profit businesses as the problem in foster care, and new legislation will probably come out of this giving the government even more control over foster care federal funding.

The problem is that this company is not operating in a true free market, but is contracted out by the government with taxpayer funding, and so oversight and accountability is the responsibility of the vendor (government here) to make sure the contracted services are performed correctly.

So I have a lot of mixed feelings about this, because it will probably result in even more government funding, just like the recent child sex trafficking bill which only gave more taxpayer funding to CPS to deal with the problem, not recognizing that CPS is a big cause of the problem to begin with.

Abolish the system. No more federal funding. Let children stay with their families as much as possible, and let local communities deal with the really tough cases. With federal funding, CPS, and juvenile/family courts all out of the way, not only will the good people truly helping the children survive in a new system, it will allow more people to participate in the system who truly want to help, but now cannot due to so many federal and state regulations. (Like this one in Washington State where they required all Foster families to vaccinate not only their foster children, but their biological children as well, as a condition for remaining foster parents in the system, with the result that 400 foster parents said "no thanks." More than 400 Washington foster parents object to flu shots. - Foster parents also generally have no say over what drugs are prescribed to foster children - Foster Care Abuse: Drugging Children Against Their Will)

[Terry1]

No, I don't think you did at all. You are trying to argue a point that everyone in this thread has already conceded to you: that there are good people in the system. That fact does not disprove the studies and overall statistics that the Foster care system is a $20 billion business that is corrupt, and hurting children and abusing parental rights.

You are basically saying that there are good people in the system that should excuse the bad things happening, while we are saying the whole system should be scraped to take away the corruption, and that the good people will survive in a new system - the ones that truly care about the children.

And that is what this is all about. All of us, including the ones you are cussing out, are here spending time on this issue because we are concerned about families and children.

The fact that a couple of hours ago you did not even know that the whole foster care system was funded by federal mandates and taxpayer funds should at least make you think you do not yet know everything there is to know about this topic, and that you could learn from others here who have been studying this issue for a long time.

Let me tell you something you smart ass know-it-all-- Implying that I was worried about my government paid job was just too funny ya know. If you knew what I do get paid--you'd laugh at that too. And if I did do anything for the need of more money--it sure as hell wouldn't be what I'm doing now. I do what I do because I love helping other people who can't help themselves--it makes me feel good and I sleep at night real well--how about you?

I run into armchair general know-it-all jerks like you once in while and the one thing that never changes is that there's always another one to take your place once and if ever you get a clue. I'm not holding my breath in your case either, because I have a feeling it'll be quite a long wait.

[Terry1]

I am for limited government. Let the communities help each other, and stop the Federal carrot and stick approach. Ron Paul is also against the welfare state, as I am.

Ron Paul isn't totally anti-welfare either---same as me too. I do believe that there are some very worthy welfare causes in cases of the disabled, elderly and children at risk.

Ron Paul:
Voted YES on providing $70 million for Section 8 Housing vouchers.

[donnay]

Donnay,

This Buzzfeed piece did a great job exposing the problem. However, it is now being used by the government to attack for-profit businesses as the problem in foster care, and new legislation will probably come out of this giving the government even more control over foster care federal funding.

The problem is that this company is not operating in a true free market, but is contracted out by the government with taxpayer funding, and so oversight and accountability is the responsibility of the vendor (government here) to make sure the contracted services are performed correctly.

So I have a lot of mixed feelings about this, because it will probably result in even more government funding, just like the recent child sex trafficking bill which only gave more taxpayer funding to CPS to deal with the problem, not recognizing that CPS is a big cause of the problem to begin with.

Abolish the system. No more federal funding. Let children stay with their families as much as possible, and let local communities deal with the really tough cases. With federal funding, CPS, and juvenile/family courts all out of the way, not only will the good people truly helping the children survive in a new system, it will allow more people to participate in the system who truly want to help, but now cannot due to so many federal and state regulations. (Like this one in Washington State where they required all Foster families to vaccinate not only their foster children, but their biological children as well, as a condition for remaining foster parents in the system, with the result that 400 foster parents said "no thanks." More than 400 Washington foster parents object to flu shots. - Foster parents also generally have no say over what drugs are prescribed to foster children - Foster Care Abuse: Drugging Children Against Their Will)

You're right. It could promote more government involvement and not solve the problem which is government in the first place.

[Terry1]

Donnay,

This Buzzfeed piece did a great job exposing the problem. However, it is now being used by the government to attack for-profit businesses as the problem in foster care, and new legislation will probably come out of this giving the government even more control over foster care federal funding.

The problem is that this company is not operating in a true free market, but is contracted out by the government with taxpayer funding, and so oversight and accountability is the responsibility of the vendor (government here) to make sure the contracted services are performed correctly.

So I have a lot of mixed feelings about this, because it will probably result in even more government funding, just like the recent child sex trafficking bill which only gave more taxpayer funding to CPS to deal with the problem, not recognizing that CPS is a big cause of the problem to begin with.

Abolish the system. No more federal funding. Let children stay with their families as much as possible, and let local communities deal with the really tough cases. With federal funding, CPS, and juvenile/family courts all out of the way, not only will the good people truly helping the children survive in a new system, it will allow more people to participate in the system who truly want to help, but now cannot due to so many federal and state regulations. (Like this one in Washington State where they required all Foster families to vaccinate not only their foster children, but their biological children as well, as a condition for remaining foster parents in the system, with the result that 400 foster parents said "no thanks." More than 400 Washington foster parents object to flu shots. - Foster parents also generally have no say over what drugs are prescribed to foster children - Foster Care Abuse: Drugging Children Against Their Will)

For crying out loud! "Drugging children against their will"---did you write this? It seems like something you would write given the history of this thread on total.

Heaven forbid that kids are given drugs against their own will---LMAO How stupid is that statement alone. You're blaming the foster care system as a whole for something that's prescribed by pediatricians--not social workers, nurses or even the foster parents. The doctors are the ones calling the shots--no pun intended. How can you blame the foster care system for requiring children to be seen by their pediatricians and probably something their bio parents didn't do in the first place.

People don't have to vaccinate their children if they don't choose to either, but if they're in healthcare or in the field of working with children--who get sick on a regular basis then it's required for a reason. You're taking this way beyond what's rational IMO.


Nah--I'm not buying that your gripe with the foster care system is because of the government or their partial funding of it. Because of the bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, and other special favorable treatment on private corporations and selected corporations are a much bigger problem than whatever the foster care system is getting as a whole. If you really want to discuss abuse of taxpayers money--let's go there instead. I mean at best here you could possibly blame crooked doctors in the governments pockets, but not the foster care system.

I have a distinct feeling that there's something else lurking behind this gripe you have with foster care--maybe even something more personal. Let me know if I'm hot or cold on that one, but I'm feelin sort of warm and fuzzy here. LOL

[Terry1]

I just got done watching your video in this link. http://medicalkidnap.com/2015/01/05/...st-their-will/

And it's all bull$#@!--every bit of it. You're attacking the foster care system for something the doctors are entirely responsible for. That's who you need to be attacking if anyone. And I'm sure in some cases maybe even in most where these kids have endured traumatizing abuse at the hands of their own families probably needed anti depressants or some kind of medication to help them cope with the mental torment. Most of these kids are totally messed up--angry, frustrated and mentally unstable because of the abuse they've endured and they're not easy to take on. In fact I have seen first hand what some of these kids are capable of because they're full of hatred and mistrust for everyone and justifiably so!

Yeah--you're nothing more than some judgmental armchair general without a clue here as to what you're talking about.

[Terry1]

My knowledge of why people foster children is because they want children in their lives to raise, nurture and be a family. What many unsuspecting potential foster parents don't realize is the whole package that they're getting with these horribly abused and resentful kids they take into their homes. Foster kids are 10 times harder to raise than your own kids and for many reasons and many times these relationships fail because of this. It's all trial and error in the beginning. There's no money to be had doig this either. Most of the money that foster parents get goes straight for the kids with a small stipend to the foster parents. None that I know of foster for money at all. Most of the time it's because they just want children in their lives and a family atmosphere and to help these kids.

This nasty rap created4 is giving the foster care system and their care providers has really made me angry because I do know a heck of a lot because both me and my husband have been through the MAPP training--met foster and adoptive parents and we have seen first hand many-many cases where these kids that do make it in the foster home have been entirely transformed with a loving family that they eventually learned to trust and love themselves.

There's been a lot of foster parents that have been attacked and plotted against by these kids they've taken in because these kids totally reject discipline all together most of the time and they resent it and many times will fight back with threats and many times carry out those threats against their foster parents as well. If anything needs to be said about foster parents for the most part is that they are compassionate and brave to know what they're taking on and still work with these kids the best they can being just plain old every day people wanting to have a family life and help these kids at the same time.

I am so sick and tired of these judgmental $#@!s reading and writing about something they have never once had to deal with on a personal level.

[moostraks]

The mental health community is going where the money is and gives the claims of abuse legitimacy. Social services brings the doctor information which steers the diagnosis because they use the "investigation" as part of the information for basing the prescriptions. Social services in turn rewards the medical community that plays ball correctly with a steady stream of patients. It is an incestuous relationship based upon greed of both parties.

Many foster parents foster children because they cannot have children on their own. The drive for being a parent, imo from what I have witnessed, seems to create a certain amount of compartmentalization and the attitude that follows is the system has the children for a reason (ie the biological parents are at fault or the system never would have been involved). The foster parents don't want to know about the funding causing the atrocious abuse of power because then they would be aware of their participation in an organization which destroys many families rather than believing themselves to be these selfless caretakers of only the downtrodden. Ignorance is bliss.

So you will find some foster caretakers when confronted with the ugly truth of what type of damage results from the organization will drown you in feel good stories, descriptions of what selfless people they are so how dare you question their motives, and threats about how atrocious life would be were it not for their organization. The defeatists will not be reached through dialogue and provide the manpower that enables the system to continue its pattern of destruction. The defeatists are reaping some benefit whether financial or personal and no number of stories of children harmed can outweigh the benefits they will claim exist.

[Created4]

The mental health community is going where the money is and gives the claims of abuse legitimacy. Social services brings the doctor information which steers the diagnosis because they use the "investigation" as part of the information for basing the prescriptions. Social services in turn rewards the medical community that plays ball correctly with a steady stream of patients. It is an incestuous relationship based upon greed of both parties.

Many foster parents foster children because they cannot have children on their own. The drive for being a parent, imo from what I have witnessed, seems to create a certain amount of compartmentalization and the attitude that follows is the system has the children for a reason (ie the biological parents are at fault or the system never would have been involved). The foster parents don't want to know about the funding causing the atrocious abuse of power because then they would be aware of their participation in an organization which destroys many families rather than believing themselves to be these selfless caretakers of only the downtrodden. Ignorance is bliss.

So you will find some foster caretakers when confronted with the ugly truth of what type of damage results from the organization will drown you in feel good stories, descriptions of what selfless people they are so how dare you question their motives, and threats about how atrocious life would be were it not for their organization. The defeatists will not be reached through dialogue and provide the manpower that enables the system to continue its pattern of destruction. The defeatists are reaping some benefit whether financial or personal and no number of stories of children harmed can outweigh the benefits they will claim exist.

Well said.

And I will add that based on our experience in publishing the truth of this evil and corrupt system, that the opposition is starting to get organized, much like the "astro-turfing" that is going on in the vaccine safety movement. Tens of thousands of government employees whose jobs are at stake, and hundreds of thousands of foster parents who cannot have children on their own.

We deal with this organized resistance in social media and our blogs by blocking them, but the moderators of RPF, if they want these kinds of stories to continue here, will need to decide how to deal with them (if and when they come here.)

[euphemia]

I think the problem is that we are seeing a trend toward overzealous government actually taking children from homes where they are well loved and cared for because the family espouses a nontraditional lifestyle. Recently the Arkansas and Kentucky cases show that the government showed up and took healthy, happy children. In the Ohio case, the children were never returned, even though the parents did everything they were asked to do. Those children are now adopted by other families.

There will always be a need for foster parents, and I'm glad those people have the heart and available resources to do it.

I just think there should be a very strict standard before government can go into a home and take children away.

[Created4]

I just think there should be a very strict standard before government can go into a home and take children away.

But why should they ever take the child away? This child is the alleged victim. Why not take the alleged abuser? That is like a battered woman calling the cops on a thug who is beating her, and they show up and throw her in jail instead of the thug. Incarcerating victims to just supposedly "protect" them makes no sense. Protect them by removing the threat, following due process of law.

Does the State Ever Have a “Right” to Remove Children from a Home?

[euphemia]

I guess that's a better way of putting it. Unless the children are in a situation where both parents (if there are two parents) are removed from the home, I'm not sure what else to say. I just don't think the government should remove healthy, happy children from their homes.

[Terry1]

The mental health community is going where the money is and gives the claims of abuse legitimacy. Social services brings the doctor information which steers the diagnosis because they use the "investigation" as part of the information for basing the prescriptions. Social services in turn rewards the medical community that plays ball correctly with a steady stream of patients. It is an incestuous relationship based upon greed of both parties.

Many foster parents foster children because they cannot have children on their own. The drive for being a parent, imo from what I have witnessed, seems to create a certain amount of compartmentalization and the attitude that follows is the system has the children for a reason (ie the biological parents are at fault or the system never would have been involved). The foster parents don't want to know about the funding causing the atrocious abuse of power because then they would be aware of their participation in an organization which destroys many families rather than believing themselves to be these selfless caretakers of only the downtrodden. Ignorance is bliss.

So you will find some foster caretakers when confronted with the ugly truth of what type of damage results from the organization will drown you in feel good stories, descriptions of what selfless people they are so how dare you question their motives, and threats about how atrocious life would be were it not for their organization. The defeatists will not be reached through dialogue and provide the manpower that enables the system to continue its pattern of destruction. The defeatists are reaping some benefit whether financial or personal and no number of stories of children harmed can outweigh the benefits they will claim exist.

Lies, suppositions, inferences and asinine assumptions here with no facts.

[Terry1]

But why should they ever take the child away? This child is the alleged victim. Why not take the alleged abuser? That is like a battered woman calling the cops on a thug who is beating her, and they show up and throw her in jail instead of the thug. Incarcerating victims to just supposedly "protect" them makes no sense. Protect them by removing the threat, following due process of law.

Does the State Ever Have a “Right” to Remove Children from a Home?

Foster care is not the villain here that you're attempting to make it out to be. All they are is a placement agency. They are not the government either. Foster care is run by state agencies and not the federal government, even if they do get partial funding from the feds. Most state run agencies do get federal funding and that also includes nursing homes as well that are all connected with Medicare benefits as well.

You're blaming foster care for something that CPS is doing alone and by themselves, which is all together different from Foster Care. While they must work with the foster care agencies to place the kids that have been removed from their own families for whatever reason--foster care simply places them with other families until the matters of neglect or abuse are resolved.

You're also blaming foster care for something the doctors are prescribing children and not anyone affiliated with foster care at all. Foster care has no hold over any doctors because the doctors are not chosen by the foster care agencies at all. Whoever was the child's physician before they were ever taken from their homes remain their physicians. You are telling lies and making $#@! up because you have your own agenda here linked to some personal gripe you have with the foster care system.

[Terry1]

I guess that's a better way of putting it. Unless the children are in a situation where both parents (if there are two parents) are removed from the home, I'm not sure what else to say. I just don't think the government should remove healthy, happy children from their homes.

They don't plain and simple. While there have been some cases where CPS has royally screwed up removing kids from their families unjustifiably--the foster care system has absolutely nothing to do with what CPS does. All foster care does is provide placement until the matters of accusation of neglect and abuse are resolved. I've been through the MAPP training and I do know all about this process. CPS are the ones to blame if anything at all here and not the foster care programs that are nothing more than a place for these kids to go until CPS does their investigation into the matter.

All foster homes are not equal either, some are better than others and it doesn't always work out with certain kids in certain homes because these kids are not easy to deal with because of the emotional and physical trauma they've been through and experienced. So this is why so many kids get shuffled around from foster home to foster home because it didn't work out with the family they were placed with. These kids are very angry and frustrated and they will test anyone who they are placed with, so it's not easy for the kids or the foster families many times, but there is not better solution because most of these kids have been sexually and physically abused and the only other solution is either to leave them in that abusive home or move them into institutions where it will cost the state and the fed far more than it's costing the taxpayers through the foster care programs.

[Lindsey]

I'll take non-interventionism for the win.

[Terry1]

Unfortunately--sometimes we have to choose the lessor of two evils in some cases. I can guarantee you now that foster care is definitely the lessor of two evils in this case too, because if they abolish foster care--you can safely bet that something far more detrimental to the children and the taxpayers as well will take it's place. Because something has to replace it without a doubt--

Cases of sexually abused children is not something that's assumed or guessed at. They are medically checked out and confirmed. If you don't believe me--check and the stats to see just what the percentage is of sexually abused children by their own families or close relatives. Last time I was informed that it was almost 100 percent of the little girls and some boys currently in the system for abused children--which is horrifically sad.

You want non-intervention? Then you also know what that means to these kids who will have no hope of deliverance in any shape or form too. What's the lessor of two evils here in anyones opinion then? Sometimes you have to choose whether you like it or not.

[presence]

For the very few remaining children who have had their parents incarcerated and have no relatives, local communities can develop their own programs without federal funding, which would include adoption to parents who can afford to take care of children without the aid of federal funds.

Adoption is part of the whole scam. $50,000 per kid.

[Terry1]

Well said.

And I will add that based on our experience in publishing the truth of this evil and corrupt system, that the opposition is starting to get organized, much like the "astro-turfing" that is going on in the vaccine safety movement. Tens of thousands of government employees whose jobs are at stake, and hundreds of thousands of foster parents who cannot have children on their own.

We deal with this organized resistance in social media and our blogs by blocking them, but the moderators of RPF, if they want these kinds of stories to continue here, will need to decide how to deal with them (if and when they come here.)

Your gripe with government employees extends to many members here RPF as well. I hope you realize that some people who work for the government support Ron and Rand Paul as well.

Your hypocritical rigid attitude towards anyone who's remotely affiliated with a company that's receiving federal funding also extends and applies to many members of this forum as well. Not to mention how many members are collecting unemployment, SS and disability from the government as well and some who probably don't even need it are collecting. They won't tell you who they are either because they want to say they believe in something while living opposite that belief. I totally understand your hypocrisy. And unless you're extremely independently wealthy--you too will end up on the government dole as a result of that as well.

So don't come in here blowing smoke up my ass or anyone else's with your BS about people who actually work for a living, but happen to be employed by some government agency or one that might be partially funded by the feds. I have no idea who you are or who you work for or if you even have job at all. Check your own affiliates if you do have a job and I'm sure if you dig deep enough into your own crap that you'll find their hands in the governments pockets as well.

I know for a fact that most people like you who do the most bitching and whining about the government are probably living off it yourself--am I hot or cold on that one? I'll bet I'm on fire with that one too. Truth hurts don't it--LOL

I work-- and my husband works six days a week. At least I'm doing something to enrich the lives of two people who otherwise would have been abandoned by their own families and left to rot in a state nursing home to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollar more than I get paid for 24/7 care of them. Not to mention your entire argument against foster care in general is misguided, flawed and misdirected at the wrong agency and people. This can only happen for one reason and one alone is that you've had some sort of personal experience that's left you bitter towards the foster care effort.

We can't eliminate government at this stage in history--all we can do at this point is chip away to weed out what's redundant and unnecessary as far as entitlement programs are concerned and the abuse of welfare by people who don't need it and can work. This includes people collecting SS and disability payments that can work, but choose not because they can collect. You'd be surprised how many are right here amongst the RPF fans. LOL

[euphemia]

All of the foster parents I know are awesome people. I wish they were my parents. Terry, I appreciate what you are doing. We are not equipped to do it, and I applaud what you do.

Foster parents can be awesome, but the system is horrible. There is a financial incentive to keep kids in the system. Unfortunately, a lot of the kids in the system have baggage, and not everyone can, or should, take into their homes.

I wish the government would detach from trying to break up happy, healthy, intact two-parent families and offer the support to those children who are truly abused and help them find homes where they will be loved. Stray dogs are treated better than a lot of children. It's sad.

[Terry1]

All of the foster parents I know are awesome people. I wish they were my parents. Terry, I appreciate what you are doing. We are not equipped to do it, and I applaud what you do.

Foster parents can be awesome, but the system is horrible. There is a financial incentive to keep kids in the system. Unfortunately, a lot of the kids in the system have baggage, and not everyone can, or should, take into their homes.

I wish the government would detach from trying to break up happy, healthy, intact two-parent families and offer the support to those children who are truly abused and help them find homes where they will be loved. Stray dogs are treated better than a lot of children. It's sad.

Thanks tobismom for the compliments. It's not foster care that takes these children out of the homes--it's the CPS (child protective services) that do, but most of the time the children that are taken out of the homes are taken for good reasons. I'm not saying that they don't screw up like they have in the past, but most of these kids are horribly abused. I don't do child foster care, I'm enrolled and licensed in the adult foster care program, but they both work pretty much the same.

Unfortunately when the CPS does screw up--it casts a dark shadow over most of the cases that are legit cases of sexual and physical abuse or neglect. I also know that unless the case of neglect is extreme--they don't remove children from their families. They give the parents time to clean up their act and warnings that if they don't they will lose their kids. I also know that they're not as eager to remove these children from their homes and families as some in this thread have indicated. Truth is just the truth. They are capitalizing on those cases where kids were wrongfully removed. And Create4 is way off base with his/her accusations of foster care. Foster care does not choose doctors, they don't have anything to do with CPS or the removal of anyone from their homes--all foster care does is provide placement---that is it! Create4 is attempting to make foster care the main villain evil source.

If you watch that video he/she provided, you'll see what I'm saying--they're claiming that the foster care is drugging the kids--which is all BS. They have absolutely nothing to do with who or how those kids are medicated other than making sure they get the meds they've been instructed to give the kids by their own pediatricians. This entire thread is BS.

[Terry1]

It's also very easy for created4 to demonize these agencies when they're only getting one side of the story and that is from the people or families that were accused of abuse. The agencies are not at liberty to disclose what they found for legal reasons.

Created4 has other agenda here all together. There's two sides to every story and all created4 is able to provide is one side and I hope everyone keeps that in mind before they swallow this load of crap hook line and sinker too.

I'm of the opinion here the created4 is some freelance writer getting paid 5 bucks an article for all of the dirt he can dig up on said agenda while living on some government subsidy for total lifestyle support.

[euphemia]

I know Tennessee has its problems with the foster care system.