Michigan Bill Admitting Its Foster Care System Does Not Work

It seems Michigan is beginning to realize it cannot keep chugging along its usual path in child welfare.

Under federal law, the process of termination of parental rights begins early on in the 48 month period.  The terms 'abuse and 'neglect' are so ambiguous the state and its contracted child placing agencies will advance the clock with its unattainable concurrent plans.

What this means is if a parent is incarcerated or will be during the 24 month period of placement proceedings, the state would make the assumption of the adoption placement as the only option.  This opens up federal adoption assistance payments and adoption subsidies, relieving the state of its portion of payment obligation.

Child support is a good example.

If a parent cannot pay child support, there is typically incarceration somewhere in the penalty equation. There are instances where the state will charge a parent for child support while the child is being billed for Title IV-E placement.  Mind you, if the parent pays the state, the state does not reimburse the feds.

Then during the placement proceedings the judge may trigger the Friend of the Court to proceed in prosecution of other child support cases.  Now the parent is in prison for not being able to pay for not having a job, who now has a felony child support conviction and cannot find a job because of it.

The state is stuck with a kid it is not fit to support because Michigan Children's Institute is an artificial edifice specifically reanimated for the sole purposes of maximizing federal revenue through a multitude of fraud schemes.  The child is not adoptable because of bitterness of what the state did to take them away.  Trauma of foster care manifests mental illness for which the state does not properly treat.  There is little to no hope of graduating from high school because the state does not educate the kid.  Including unusual sexual experiences by other foster kids at a young age, the kid is prepared to age out the system to a life of drugs and prostitution, all because the state would not give a poor parent a chance.


It's cheaper to keep the family together.

Senate Bill 1303: Revise parental rights termination detail
Introduced by Sen. Tom Casperson (R) on September 20, 2012, to give the state Department of Human Services more discretion in choosing whether to provide services to help reunify a child under court jurisdiction for neglect or abuse with his or her parent in situations involving a parent who is or will be imprisoned for two or more years. 
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=149967

Now, what about some reinstatement legislation and getting rid of that useless waste of state funded strawman called Michigan Children's Institute.  Here are some Michigan reinstatement legislative actions along with my 2 cents.

Here is reinstatement of parental rights law from the State of Maine.Reinstatement of Parental Rights Presentation -Maine DHHS Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©