This is a great example of a State sanctioned fairytale being regurgitated by MSM. It is typical of the "Tape recorder" style of reporting done by the media, the STate tells it what to say, and they print it as Gospel.
Well, here's the way I interpret what the State says when they try so sell me a wagonload of horseshit.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 8:38 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011
When Donna Loden was placed in foster care at age 5, she was shipped from her family's Lubbock home more than 450 miles across the state to Houston.
It might as well have been Mars.
Separated from her younger sister, she traded a trailer park in the middle of nowhere for an urban home in a city that seemed as big as the entire world.
"It's traumatic enough to be taken away from home, but when you add more distance and strange people and you have no idea where you are, it just adds more trauma," said Loden, now 29 and an employee of a Goldthwaite residential treatment center for foster children.
(This explains why Logan is part of the State's story, she is now one of the system sucks suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.)
"I became emotionally blocked off as a child because of that."
(Party line allows the old way to be purged, there's a new and better way to make money off these brats.)
Years after Loden left the foster care system, the state is still routinely placing children far from home. Nearly 60 percent of Texas' 16,500 foster children were living outside their home county as of late November, according to state data.
(Corrie darling, according to State statistics, there are over 57,000 children currently in the State's Foster Care system. Do you always print what they tell you too without verifying?)
That's largely a function of the way Texas contracts for foster care, a system that dates back at least 20 years and that child welfare officials are hoping state lawmakers will change.
(WRONG! Nobody tell's CPS where to place children. They do this on their own, and NOT ONCE have they EVER gone to Austin and asked for "The system" to be changed.)
Now, child placing agencies and residential treatment centers anywhere in Texas can contract with the state if they meet certain criteria. That has led to, among other things, half of the state's residential treatment centers being located in Houston.
(Which COMPLETELY explains why Houston pedals 47% of it's product (Children) to other markets in the State right?)
"Right now, we have a system that does not incentivize keeping kids close to home, placed with siblings," said Audrey Deckinga , assistant commissioner for Child Protective Services at the Department of Family and Protective Services.
"So many things could be improved if we could do that."
(Since it is your "System", then change it honey.)
State Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound , has filed a bill that calls for revamping foster care contracting.
(Another "Bill" for CPS and CASA to ignore.)
Under the legislation, a primary contractor in each area of the state would subcontract with other providers to place children in foster homes and treatment centers in that area. Instead of contracting with more than 300 providers, the state would only contract directly with one in each area of the state .
(Which stops the shuffle boarding how?)
"This bill expands our efforts to ensure that safe, loving foster homes are available and to help children remain in their home communities where they have access to valuable support networks," said Nelson, who is chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services .
(Rather than be killed, raped or abused in foster homes far away from home.)
CPS prefers for children to be placed close to home, but sometimes, there is no room where it's needed, Deckinga said.
(There WOULD BE if they stopped sending and receiving each others kids. Houston send 47% of it's foster kids out of the area. It could keep their own kids if they didn't have all those kids from San Antonio, Lubbock and Dallas.)
Keeping children in the same school district, she said, would likely help their educational attainment, and keeping them close enough to parents that they could have frequent visitation should speed up reunification of families.
(Which historically are the LAST people on earth CPS and CASA considers for the child.)
The proposal would also change the way providers are paid. Now, the more needs a child has, the more money a contractor receives. For example, child placing agencies, which in turn pay foster families, receive $39.52 a day for a child with basic needs and $175.66 a day for a child who has intense needs, such as extremely aggressive behavior or a critical medical condition.
(Like the ones DAYSTAR murders for fun and profit?)
Under the proposal, payment would be linked to performance measures such as getting children to a permanent living arrangement more quickly and improving their well-being.
(Like giving them to "Blue Panel Member", ARROW Children and Families to put on the adoption market? Arrow is in the adoption business, how does this help with "Reunification"?)
Primary contractors would be paid the same rate for each child, no matter his or her needs, and any savings would have to be re-invested into services for children and families.
(When they speak of "Families", they aren't talking about the childrens families, they are talking about their own.)
It's unclear how or whether rates to individual foster families could change.
(It won't. In order to change, an agency would have to pay the foster families more out of the funds they receive. That AIN"T gonna happen!)
"The current model does not reward good outcomes and in fact provides financial disincentive as children improve," said a December report by a 25-member panel that advised CPS on changes to foster care.
(This is the famous "Blue Ribbon" panel made up of corporations and business who make money off of foster care and adoption. Groups like Arrow. You remember Arrow right? They were the group who fired off a nasty 3 page letter to the hairball for not handing over 465 Mormon children to them to sell on the adoption block.)
Though some providers worry the changes will put them out of business, the proposal has the backing of the advisory group, which was made up of state CPS officials, judges and representatives of treatment centers and child placing agencies who worked for a year on the recommendations.
(See any hint of parent advocates on that list?)
The department envisions that the change, which would be implemented gradually, would not cost any additional state money.
(No change, just shovel the money into different pockets.)
That — and the support of Nelson, a key committee chairwoman — bodes well for the bill's success at a time when the state is facing a revenue shortfall.
(More free lunch)
Nelson said that by changing the foster payment structure to reward performance, "we can make every dollar count and help children grow up to become healthy, responsible adults."
(By giving them to Arrow to sell?)
Though private agencies would be doing some work now done by state employees — fewer state workers would manage contracts, for example — the proposal is essentially redesigning how the state contracts services that it's already contracting, Deckinga said.
(The Primary Goal of Texas is to get out of the baby selling business so that when some kid gets killed, raped or abused in that system, the State can wash it's hands of the brat and blame the contractor's. Too many folks are getting pissed at all these dead kids in Houston, and it's fucking up the hairballs chances to change his burned out shack in Austin for the White House.)
Proposals in recent years to turn more of the foster care system over to private entities have drawn criticism. But Scott McCown , executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities and a member of the advisory group, said that this proposal's key difference is that it maintains state employees as caseworkers.
(It's comforting to know that when a kid gets killed, raped or murdered, a Krista Rodriquez is on the payroll watching.)
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin , said he appreciates the goal of improved outcomes for children, but he's concerned that for-profit agencies will be eligible for state foster care contracts.
(Like he was so concerned about DAYSTAR and it's millionaire owner Clay Dean Hill?)
For-profit entities are already eligible for state contracts, but the vast majority of providers are nonprofits.
"This may work out to be exactly what it's intended to accomplish," Naishtat said, "but I continue to be suspicious of efforts to privatize when there are for-profit agencies involved."
(Please explain the difference between Daystar and Arrow Ministries. You don't think for one moment that Arrow adopts these kids out for free do you?)
Meanwhile, some private agencies are worried they'll go out of business as a result of the changes, said Michael Redden , executive director of Abilene-based New Horizons, a nonprofit child placing agency that also has residential treatment centers.
In English folks, "New Horizons" gets its product free from the State and sells it's services back to the "Clients" while billing the State. It's the same thing Daystar does with a little more smoke and mirrors involved.)
Redden was co-chair, with Deckinga, of the advisory group. Loden, the former foster child, works at New Horizons.
(That explains how she got a voice.)
"This is about the kids," Redden said, "not what's best for individual providers."
(Nice to know that Mr. Redden. By the way, what's your salary? what is the value of the perks you receive like the house you live in?)
Foster children placed out of home counties
The majority of Texas children in foster care are placed out of their home county under the current contracting system.
(Actually, nobody tells CPS where to place a child, it's totally up to them and has NOTHING to do with the Legislature or any "Rules" they have to follow.)
Foster children Outside placement
(The game is called "Get these brats as far away from their family and support as possible. You send me your kids, and I'll send you mine.")
Lubbock/Panhandle 1,106 69%
Ft. Worth/Abilene 576 75%
Dallas/Arlington 2,980 59%
Tyler/Northeast Texas 906 84%
Beaumont/Port Arthur 497 77%
Houston area 3,680 47%
Austin/Central Texas 1,719 67%
San Antonio area 2,614 48%
Midland/Odessa 620 85%
* El Paso area 333 11%
Harlingen/Laredo/Edinburg 1,430 51%
Total 16,461 58%
Source: Department of Family and Protective Services. November 2010 data.
(Texas doesn't have 16,000 kids in foster care, it has 57,000 So where is the rest of the "Data" Ricky?)
* According to the "Data", El Paso took in 333 children and farmed out 11% of them.
That's a fairly incredible piece of "Data" for Corrie to swallow in one sitting.
Consider these figures:
El Paso Pop. 563,662 (2000 Census) 333 11%
Midland 94,996 620 85%
Tyler 83,650 906 84%
The 5th largest population in Texas has the LEAST amount of kids taken to sell, and even then, only 11% are sold to other markets. Why would that be?
Folks, either El Paso has the most Saints living in it than any other major city in the United States, or these figures demonstrate the reality of Texas CPS and CASA knowing the value of a good product to sell.
The FACT is, a minority child could have both feet in the grave before CPS or CASA will move to "Protect" it, and if little Janie or little Johnnie in Lubbock has so much as a band-aid on crooked, they're on the selling block.
CPS and CASA are a money making business, and THAT is the real story here.
