For foster parents and kids, two bipartisan bills propose big changes in NC
Gaile Osborne would like to take her foster kids on impromptu weekend trips to the beach, just like any other family might treat their children.
But seemingly normal things like that can sometimes be next to impossible for North Carolina foster families because of the way the foster-care system is set up.
Advance notice and consultations with social workers can be required even for small trips out of town, Osborne said. And for people like her with multiple foster kids at home, that can also mean juggling several different — and sometimes conflicting — sets of rules for what is or isn’t allowed, not just for vacations or field trips but in day-to-day life.
“I get kids from all over Western North Carolina,” said Osborne, who lives outside Asheville. “And no two counties have the same rules.”
So earlier this month, as the president of the Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina, she traveled with other advocates to Raleigh to vouch for a “foster parents’ bill of rights” at the General Assembly.
That bill, House Bill 769, later passed the N.C. House of Representatives unanimously and is now in the Senate for debate. Meanwhile, a different-but-similar bill, Senate Bill 693, passed the Senate, also unanimously.
Most states follow the same types of rules North Carolina does now, with the rules able to change from county to county based on what the local Department of Social Services decides.
But sometimes county DSS leaders abuse that power.
Last week, a federal jury awarded a father and daughter in Western North Carolina $4.6 million due to “illegal documents Cherokee County DSS used” to take the daughter away from her dad’s custody, Carolina Public Press reported.
More kids in foster care
Nationwide, 17 states have some type of “bill of rights” for foster parents, like what North Carolina is now considering, and 15 have one for foster kids, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The details vary from state to state but the general idea is to create a uniform set of rules that applies to everyone.
Advocates and politicians in North Carolina say change is needed, not just to support existing foster parents but also to convince more people to become a foster parent. The number of kids in foster care has skyrocketed in recent years due to North Carolina’s growing population and the opioid epidemic.
“We’re having such significant issues right now that there are some children who are sleeping in DSS offices because we don’t have enough families willing to take them,” said Sen. Sydney Batch, a Democratic lawmaker from Wake County who is also a family law attorney.
Yet the legislature has not increased the rates that foster parents are paid in a decade, WSOC in Charlotte reported last year, despite the cost of living continuing to rise. Osborne said the least lawmakers could do is pass new, statewide rules to make life a little easier on them.
“We need more foster parents,” she said. “Especially for teenagers.”
What the bills would do
The main goal of the House bill is stability and new guarantees for foster parents. If they have more support and certainty, supporters say, then they will do a better job with their foster children.
It also originally had some guarantees for foster kids, too — among them, that their foster parents had to respect their culture, religion, sexuality, gender identity or other characteristics. It also said the government couldn’t discriminate against foster parents for similar reasons. However, lawmakers deleted all that language before passing the bill in the House. It now says more vaguely that foster parents should be treated with respect and “will also honor children placed in their homes.”
The bill that survived committee hearings would require foster parents to be notified of any expenses they might be able to get reimbursed, and give them more ability to be involved in decision-making meetings for the child’s future, among other guarantees.
Osborne said foster parents are sometimes criticized for wanting to be more involved, or are largely shut out of the legal process.
“It’s about us being able to advocate without being reprimanded, and if there’s a meeting, to be notified so we can be there,” she said.
The bill isn’t without critics, who fear that giving more power to foster parents will hurt birth parents trying to get their kids back.
Zalonda Woods, a Guilford County mom, attended a committee hearing for the bill this month and said she or others like her might sue the state if the bill becomes law. Woods told lawmakers she already had to go to court once, and won, to get her kids back after they were taken from her from 2016 to 2018.
“It’s more than what meets the eye,” she said.
But Rep. David Willis, a Union County Republican who sponsored the bill, told fellow lawmakers that the bill wouldn’t take away any rights of birth parents or of children in the foster system.
The bill’s goal is “hopefully reuniting them with their families,” Willis said.
As for the Senate bill, the main goal is speeding up the foster process to get to the end — either reunification or adoption — so that the child isn’t left in limbo for longer than necessary.
Right now DSS officials can take up to a year to come up with the details of the plan that parents will have to follow if they want custody back. The Senate bill would shorten that to three months. Details of those plans vary but they can include things like getting substance-abuse treatment or leaving an abusive relationship.
It would also expand the types of people who could be awarded temporary custody of a kid taken by DSS. Right now the child can go to a family member, or into foster care with a stranger. But the Senate bill would acknowledge that close friends can take care of kids just like family can.
“Whether that’s someone who goes to church with them, or their best friend’s brother — whoever it is, we want to do everything we can to reduce trauma for that child,” Batch said.
Small Medicaid expansion?
Batch isn’t a co-sponsor of the Senate’s big foster care bill but is a co-sponsor of a different bill, Senate Bill 530, that would enact a small, targeted type of Medicaid expansion aimed at new mothers.
Republicans in the House have proposed larger versions of Medicaid expansion in recent years, which is also strongly supported by Democrats, but Republicans in the Senate have not gone along. However, this more targeted bill’s three main sponsors are all Republicans, including Sen. Joyce Krawiec of Forsyth County, who is also one of the sponsors of the Senate foster-care bill.
Right now, women who almost qualify for Medicaid can at least qualify while they’re pregnant. But this bill would extend that coverage to 12 months after the birth. It would apply to all new moms in those financial circumstances, not just those who have a run-in with DSS. But Batch said it would be an especially big change for those who do end up in the system.
If a mom has her new baby taken away because of drugs or mental-health problems, Batch said, she would be ordered to go to treatment before she could get her baby back — which requires health insurance.
“If you don’t have health care, and you don’t have access to Medicaid, how are you supposed to get substance abuse treatment?” Batch said.
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