Inside the foster care system: A bleak last stop for lost youths.

[mimi85]

I found this so horrendous. And I don't know the answer. If there is one.
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<snip>

Her entrance caused a stir. A 15-year-old girl with appraising eyes and a gruff, resonant voice, she radiated bridled ambition in a room filled with children who were mostly slumped and lost.

She was dressed as if heading to a party, the red of her cropped jacket a pop of bright color against the black and white geometry of her dress. But the bandages on her arms told a different story.

A social worker and two guards drew close for the daily inspection as she crouched to the floor to unload a bag holding her only belongings: deodorant, a package of Cup Noodles, hand cream, underwear, a brush and nail polish.

"That's contraband. You can't have the nail polish," said the social worker, a clipboard pulled tightly to her chest. She was enforcing a policy aimed to prevent foster youths from using a shard of glass to harm themselves or others.

<snip>

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-adv-foster-overflow-20150301-story.html#page=1

[Wella]

1. There were some interesting comments at the end of this article by a native American woman

I can't vouch for their veracity:

Camel Flatmouth
Rank 3535

L.A. County has a 300 per week quota in removing children. Perhaps they should lower it and focus on removing children from abusive homes instead of asking out mothers on dates (re:Gabriel Fernandez) when they go to investigate. In this case a little negligence here and there pays social services in the long run. It's the only business that gets a raise for it's own incompetence. In this case LA is riding on the back of it's own failures. Now the press can scream that the ss workers aren't getting paid enough and all the supervisors and ARA's will get a raise. L.A. County has thousands of children that are removed needlessly from homes and these children are six times more likely to be abused in care than in their own original homes... but the county doesn't care, they are taking children and lining their pockets. Children are being removed for a "possible future risk of abuse". You can be sure they will be abused in the LA County foster care system.

70% of adults in California prisons are former foster children, la county is raising prisoners. Children's court is more corrupt than the mafia, judges and referees violate children and parents continuously with the help of county lawyers on the payola who ensure that families receive no trial. Children's lawyers sign off to drug children and children/families are not afforded required hearings when medicating/drugging children. Social workers are lazy and refer the children to the psychiatrists who drug them. They don't want to answer the phone or deal with the problems children have, so they just drug them, without hearings too.

This article didn't fool us. We are not surprised or shocked at anything la county does to children. It's intentional and it's all for greed. Overwhelm yourselves and come crying for money.

Ya sign up foster parents! You'll get $548-$700 per month per child while the county collects over $4500 per month and you get to do all the work and if you're real lucky DCF won't attack you when they want one of the kids for themselves. DCF workers generally treat foster families like crud and the children much worse. I know, my children are american indians, I am an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe and my children were told they are not american indians by their russian born ss worker. Nice!

[ND-Dem]

2. this sounds like it could be true except -- from whom could the county collect $4500 a month

for a child in foster care?

from the feds? I highly doubt it. yet who else could it be?

[Wella]

3. I thought it was the Feds, too.

Considering the police have quotas for tickets (though they say they don't) I wouldn't be surprised if CPS also had them.

[ND-Dem]

4. i don't believe these days the feds are paying $4500 a month to keep a kid in foster care.

that's above US median household income.

[Wella]

5. They may be paying CPS, not the families

I really don't know the entire story. It's worth looking into though.

[ND-Dem]

6. I don't believe it based on this:

http://www.americanhumane.org/assets/pdfs/children/federal-funding-for-child.pdf