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| I am in my Provocatively Pretty Pungent Pundit Hat |
This is taken from U.S. Speaker of the House, Representative Paul Ryan's page.
Even though he is not the author, I find the timing of its publication to be extremely suspect.
Why, you may ask? Well, (this is the part where I get really comfortable and put on my provocatively pretty pungent pundit hat.)
This piece comes across as a dismantling tool to the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and we all know who was behind it.
Oh, you do not?
Allow me to refresh your memories and enjoy the show called Election 2016 because it looks like Mr Ryan has joined the fun!
It’s time to rethink our foster care system.
Every year, an estimated 265,000 children are removed from their homes by welfare officials, thrown into a foster care system that often isn’t prepared to welcome them. Every one of those 265,000 children represents a family torn apart: parents who won’t raise them; siblings who won’t grow up together.
It’s a severe—and often unnecessary—measure to take when there are other solutions available. Enter the Family First Prevention Services Act, introduced by Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida.
This bill would allow states to use federal foster care dollars to pay for family services, preventing the need for foster care for some and keeping more families together.
It would provide funding for evidence-based services to prevent child abuse and neglect—in other words, make sure there are real, substantive reasons for a child to be removed.
And, when foster care is the best option, this bill would ensure foster children are placed in appropriate, family settings—not group homes or communal facilities.
By providing evidence-based prevention services, we can work to keep children out of foster care who don’t have to be. We can reduce the number of inappropriate group housing placements—meaning more family-friendly, pre-vetted homes, ready to welcome their foster children with open arms. And most importantly, we can reduce the risks of substance abuse and homelessness and ensure America’s children grow up in safe, healthy environments.
That’s why, this month, the bill passed both the Ways and Means Committee and the House on a bipartisan basis, to the satisfaction of dozens of organizations across the country:
The Children’s Defense Fund said this bill “takes historic and long overdue steps to direct federal child welfare dollars to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families.”
Generations United applauded that it “offers relatives the support they need to keep children out of foster care and help them strive.”
It “expand[s] the availability of such services and reflects the reality that many families, including adoptive families, need targeted, effective services to meet their children’s needs and prevent foster care entry,” said the North American Council on Adoptable Children.
As Rep. Buchanan said, breaking up families should be a last resort—and this bill will help make it so.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
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