Earlier I joked that I thought that my wife and daughter were trying to save the world one child at a time. I was wrong, they are trying to save the world one child at a time. Most commercial day care centers only accept a few kids (~10%) on state assistance (DSHS). The state typically pays about 80% of the going rate for care, they pay in arrears, you have to care for the kids for the month, invoice the state and wait for the check. When we started, we needed the revenue, so we accepted DSHS. Now, we run close to 40% on assistance, including kids placed with the support and encouragement of Child Protective Services (CPS). We work with parents to keep their assistance, remind them when they have to reapply and all. We've carried more than a few families while their benefits are being reestablished. And we've certainly kept a few private pay families on board while a parent was on a layoff.
We're no stranger to family dramas, custody agreements, restraining orders and the like. So we know that some of our children have difficult histories. They might be developmentally behind, have difficult family lives, fostered, we've accepted them all.
So what makes me think we've gone beyond that?
Read on beyond the orange squiggle to find out.
Sorry, I have to explain a lot of this in broad generalities, names have been changed to protect the innocent.
As a day care, we're mandatory reporters. That means if we any signs of abuse or neglect, we must report it to DSHS/CPS. Failure to do so could result in us losing our license, and the reporter could be banned from caring for children. Obviously that gets taken seriously, and the least sign gets reported.
About two months ago we reported signs of neglect / abuse on one of our charges. It apparently was not the first time this kid and his siblings had come to CPS's attention. CPS pulled their plan together, and while mom was in court, they leaped into action. Two CPS workers and a police officer swarmed into our center and seized the kids. Seized is a legal term here, they didn't have a court order, they were acting to assure the safety of the kids. The impact on our staff was devastating. Three kids, an infant, toddler and preschooler were entering the system in an emergency situation. The odds were that they'd be split up and sent to separate homes. Several of the teachers were offering to take in one of kids so that at least they could be together at school. My daughter worked out that it might be possible that we could take in all 3.
She managed to get the arrangement set up as "family". It would be a streamlined process compared to a standard foster situation. The mom had to agree to the placement, we all had to have updated background checks and the house would have to be inspected for suitability, and it could only be for a limited time. Mind you, I have a slightly larger than average house, but there are already 8 of us living here. Unsurprisingly, we were cleared and gained 3 new kids in our home. They're settling in, they're getting used to some level of order and consistency in their lives. The littlest one is warming up and will actually smile at me now. The other two are always glad to see me, but they've all had their issues with men.
Part of the arrangement is supervised visits for mom. A couple of these have occurred at the center, but the last few have been at a CPS location. The visit last week included a conversation with a harried social worker. She'd been at the hospital overnight with 5 kids. Mom had melted down and taken drastic action. It was only the quick thinking of the oldest child, 11, who knew to call 911, that mom is still alive. Obviously a call like this includes police officers, who quickly called CPS. The five kids, ages 2 - 11, were taken by CPS, but now what? The social workers were scrambling. The mom had family back east that had been planning on moving west, but they weren't going to get here for at least a week. They knew that my daughter had just taken in 3, could she handle 5 more?????
We ended up caring for the 5 kids in the new center during the day. Neither the hospital waiting rooms or the state offices they'd been kept at were good places to care for kids. We at least had toys and books they could play with, mats to stretch out on for a nap. The two oldest, 11 and 10, are wise beyond their years. They've been responsible for the little ones for a while. They touched our staff deeply during the few hours that they were with us.
My daughter asked the social worker how they handled cases like these. It's not pretty. In emergency cases like this with so many kids, they'd have to break them up overnight and maybe for a couple of days. At their most vulnerable time, the only support system they have is broken up. And it may not get better from there, if this was a permanent placement, they would most likely be sent to different homes.
The state doesn't have any type of facility to care for kids in emergency situations like this. The social worker just has to call every foster family and registered family till they can place them while the system sorts out the situation. My daughter said she wished that she could do something, like open some sort of shelter for kids like this. Some sort of emergency, short term care where the kids could find a caring, accepting environment in their darkest hours. But she noted, that that would take money, lots of money and she didn't have any.
The social worker said money wasn't the issue. The money was available, grants, foundations and the state would put money into this type of facility. What she needed was a plan; a proposal and a budget. The social worker could work with the sources of funds. I'm sure it made an impact, cause last night my daughter starting writing up a mission statement and outline of services to be performed.
I wonder how long it will be before I have to start preparing budgets and build out plans?