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Texas Foster-Care System Mushrooming

2008-07-08 11:29:42

by Donald Richter

 

 
The number of children in foster care is increasing faster in Texas than in any other state except California. Statistics published by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Texas DFPS show the growth between 1999 and 2004:
                                                 Children                                            Children
            Year                          in Foster Care                            Awaiting Adoption
            1999                                18,626                                                6,592
            2000                                20,900                                                7,190
            2001                                22,670                                                7,887
            2002                                24,515                                                8,440
            2003                                26,133                                                8,625
            2004                                32,474                                                9,913
            2005                                                                                         10,768
            2006                                                                                         12,191
 
According to the Brownville Herald of June 7, 2008, the overall increase since 2000 in number of children in foster care has been about 60 percent, although some counties have shown much more rapid growth. Hidalgo County and Starr County both have increased about 250 percent during this period, although the population of Hidalgo County has increased by only about 30 percent and the number of children in Starr County has actually declined.
 
CPS spokesman John Lennan suggests that the increase may be due to greater awareness of abuse and also to improved training of investigators and more collaboration with local law enforcement. Certainly the collaboration with law enforcement and also with the courts helped facilitate the process, but the generous funding from both the federal and state government, coupled with the federal incentives for adoption, was likely the major motivation behind taking additional children into foster care.
 
The report of the Comptroller placed the total funding for CPS in Texas from all sources in 2004-05 at $1.5 billion dollars. This would work out to $46,100 for each child in the system that year. More recent figures have placed the yearly total for each child at $66,775.
 
Considering the Gestapo-type tactics employed by CPS, not just among the FLDS people but all across the nation, every American citizen should be deeply concerned with the monster we have allowed to develop under the guise of “protecting the children.”
 


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