Columnist Jamala Rogers
It seemed almost ironic that Nebraska’s Safe Haven Law would be put under the spotlight during National Adoption Month. The Safe Haven Law exists now in all 50 states and encourages parents to drop off their babies to a designated safe place (not dumpsters) without penalty. The law was intended to eliminate any physical harm or unsafe abandonment, but parental rights are terminated with the abandonment. Nebraska got an eye-popping experience when its law didn’t specify an age limitation.
Nebraska was the only state that didn’t include an age cap in the law that went into effect in July of this year. Since then, 35 children were left at state hospitals and none n I repeat. NONE n was an infant. The oldest was 17-years-old, meaning that most of them knew at some point they were being given away. A couple of them even dashed from the car when their parent drove up to the hospital. Knowing that you are being given away is a heartbreaking trauma for any child to endure.
The Nebraska Legislature moved quickly to close the gap in the law, but Pandora’s Box was already open. The lack of mental health and social services for older youth is now receiving some national attention, even if it may be temporary. Too often, by the time those cute little ones get to be adolescents, we don’t want to be bothered.
Because Safe Haven kids become wards of the state, this also illuminates the need for us as a civilized society to make sure those who are in the foster care system really are supposed to be there, and if they are, that those children and youth are getting all the services they need to become happy, healthy, independent adults.
The foster care system, like many other systems in this country, is where race and money collide. African-American children disproportionately end up in foster care. Statistics show they remain there longer than white children and are more often placed in multiple foster homes. They receive fewer services, such as home-based counseling and therapy, and are more frequently placed in locked facilities. It’s no surprising revelation that black children are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system than white foster children.
The challenges facing youth who age out of the system is just as grim. One in four will be incarcerated within two years of leaving foster care, one in five will become homeless, only half will graduate from high school, and less than three percent receive college degrees.
It’s no coincidence that the number of children in foster care grew as federal funds for foster care increased starting in the 1970s. A study by the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care cites that, since that time, the number of foster children nationally has tripled to more than 574,000 in 2002. More than 41 percent of the children were black, despite the fact that African Americans only make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population.
This is where public policy unfairly hits black families when no one is watching. What essentially happened is that there was a huge cash flow to the foster care system and away from general child welfare. In other words, when states understood where the money was going, the numbers of black children being dumped into that system exploded. The irony is that just because they were there didn’t mean that those children and their families received the services that they so desperately needed. The exact opposite happened.
The Nebraska Safe Haven Law exposed the crucial need for services for families wrestling (sometimes literally) with children fraught with mental, emotional and behavioral issues. National Adoption Month can be a jumping off point to bring a fresh look at how to provide services for families before they reach the crisis point, and to terminate parental rights when it is only absolutely necessary. In the long run, it will minimize the erosion of families, particularly black families, as well as target the scarce tax dollars where they can do the most good. Our duty is to create and maintain safe havens for children at home, at school and everywhere in between.