Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Foster parent pay low in N.D.

Foster parent pay low in N.D.

Oct 13, 2007 - 07:49:37 CDT

By BRIAN SKAR
Berthold

Recently, the Associated Press published a story reporting that pay for foster parents to reimburse them for expenses incurred in the care of foster children is woefully below the actual expenses. Such expenses include food, clothing, school supplies, sports and activity fees, toys, recreation and wear and tear on property.

According to the report, to meet such expenses, the foster parents of a 2-year-old in North Dakota would require $584 rather than the current rate of $370, $669 rather than $418 for a 9-year-old and $734 rather than $545 for a 16-year-old.

Foster parents do not take on that task in order to make a lot of money, but they should not have to lose money, either.

I can't think of any program from which the taxpayers get more bang for their buck than foster care. Foster parents take care of children, many of whom have special needs, for less than $15 per day, a dollar per hour if they get to sleep all night, which often is not the case.

A handful of states - Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, and the District of Columbia - come close to or exceed the required amount. North Dakota is among the 28 states that fall at least 50 percent short of the mark.

North Dakota is short of foster parents. That our Legislature refuses to reimburse them sufficiently has to be at least a part of the reason. I cannot believe that the people of North Dakota would want to continue to underfund such a vital program for our children.

As we enter the political season, voters need to ask the legislative and gubernatorial candidates if they intend to substantially raise the reimbursement rate for foster parents.

News > Opinion

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Comments

Da Truth wrote on Oct 13, 2007 9:27 PM:

" And for years State workers always looked down on Tribal workers. Typical. "

kk wrote on Oct 13, 2007 10:25 AM:

" Money, money, money. If we think about this, if those parents and single parents would receive $15 more per child and would have to show where this money is going to, what would that do the family unit. Why do we have so many programs for the problems of life and no money to prevent those problems. "

ND Transplant wrote on Oct 13, 2007 10:16 AM:

" Last year the monthly rate for a 16 year old foster child, reimbursed to the North Dakota Department of Human Services was almost $5500.00 per month. Why, does the state pay 10% of that money to foster parents while DHS and the county social services agencies pocket the rest for "administrative" fees? As the writer notes, we have a shortage of foster parents in our state. What many readers may not know is the shortage is so severe that DHS has quitely gotten the legislative Council to allow it to pass regulations, (see Administrative Code 75-03-14-04) that allow them to pay "bad" foster parents to keep some of our foster children in "deprived" homes (see NDCC 27-20-02 (8 g) ). Wouldn't it be a better idea to reimburse the truly loving foster parents that take these children into thier homes and increase the monthly reimbursement costs so that more loving and healthy homes are available to these children rather than make laws that keep some of these children in "deprived" homes, that taxpayers are footing the bill for, and use the vast amount of federal funds DHS receives for these children to truly provide them with a chance for a future? It is unconsiousable that DHS and County Social Service Agencies use these monies, earmarked for the children, for operating expenses of thier agencies. This is just another example of Hoevenomics, using the taxpayer dollars to fund his freespending agendas. "

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