A new report shows living in a dysfunctional family is better for kids than living in foster care. The report links foster care to criminal activity, teen pregnancy, even kids dropping out of school.  The information could end foster care as we know it.

Already, in just a few months, the state’s foster care system has made some big changes.  The new philosophy, basically-to do everything possible to keep a child with their family.  So instead of just focusing on a child, the system tries to help a parent. 

The problem is clear.

“The foster care system is broken.  It’s not just broken in Florida, it’s broken across the United States,” said Jim Adams of Family Support Services. So broken that a study says kids who stay with so-called bad parents do better in life than the children that are put into the foster care system.  News that has DCF and Family Support Services changing the system from the ground up.  Instead of taking children out of the home, a life coach will work with the parents, helping them get education, daycare, even paying the rent in the case of a mother of five who was about to lose her kids. 

“She was about to be evicted. It wasn’t physical abuse, it wasn’t substance abuse, but basically economic, driving these five children into foster care,” said Adams. 

This neighborhood center on Cassat Avenue is just one part of the new approach they are taking.  Here, families can come and can find out about resources in the community.  Resources that could help keep the family together.   

A Gateway volunteer is here for hours every day helping folks with drug and alcohol issues get help. FCCJ comes to help with educational opportunities.  Anything to try to maintain the family unit.

“We know whatever it takes to strengthen that family, to build safety around the child while in the home is critical to the success of ending foster care,” said Adams.

There are situations, of course, where a child just cannot stay in the home. If there is severe abuse, the plan is to aggressively work to terminate parental rights sooner rather than later so that the child have be adopted into a stable home.

And the plan is to open three more neighborhood centers across Jacksonville.  The goal is to put them in high-risk neighborhoods so they’re easily accessible.

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  First Coast News-WTLV (NBC) and WJXX (ABC)-March 16, 2008

 Interview With Nancy Dreicer
(Northeast Regional Director Nancy Dreicer was interviewed by First Coast News in Jacksonville regarding the Department’s upcoming reform of the foster care system.  A transcript of the three-minute interview follows below.)

Ashley Coleman, anchor:  It’s a difficult decision to make, but the Department of Children and Families does it everyday.  Hundreds of children are removed from their homes in cases of abuse.  Now the DCF is launching a new program here in Jacksonville that will change the way things are done. Joining me this morning is Nancy Dreicer, the director at DCF. Thanks for being with us this morning, Nancy.

Nancy Dreicer:  My pleasure.

Coleman: When you think of abuse, a lot of people think, take the kids out of the home right away.  But this new program you are launching this month….instead of taking children out of the home, you’re actually going in and trying to make a positive change.  Talk to me about this program and why you think it will work.

Dreicer: I think everybody realizes that kids are better off with their families.  Think about the trauma of the day when there’s been abuse.  Police come to your house. Investigators come to your house.  You’re going to be wrenched out of your home.  That’s a pretty traumatic decision..p.robably the most serious decision of a child’s life.  What we want to do is to be able to say, how can we work with this family as a unit and bring strength to the family and keep the child at home?  Now, as you said, we can’t do that in cases of egregious abuse. Safety has to be first here.

Coleman:  So how will you go and do that?  Will you go into the home and work with the families one on one?  How does it work?  

Dreicer: Starting tomorrow, we’re going to have prevention specialists from our community-based partner, Family Support Services, and they’ll be available to the investigators to go into the home.  They know all the prevention services.  That’s what they specialize in. They’ll take an analysis of the family, how cooperative the family is, what are the strengths of the family, and how we can we work with that family to make life better for that child and the family.

Coleman: A most recent case in Florida that a lot of people are familiar with is that mom in Orlando who sprayed her child at the car wash.  She was charged with abuse, but the child was not taken from the home.  In cases like that, is that an example of how you would actually go into the home and help them?

Dreicer: I think it is a good example.  Every case is a little bit different. As I recall in that case, the mom came forward, she was cooperative.  What she did was absolutely wrong.  But is it an isolated incident?  Can we work with the family?  Can we give them some parenting courses, some anger management courses, and make that family successful instead of taking that child, who I think was loved in that home, and wrenching them out?

Coleman: Do you think there’s going to be any opposition to this program?

Dreicer: I guess there’s always opposition. And there are probably people who are worried, are they going to keep that kid safe, are they going to make a bad decision?  I worry about that too. There could be some opposition there.  But most of the time, everybody I’ve talked to in the community is pretty excited about it because, intuitively, as I said, you know that families should be left together.  The other thing we’re doing is increasing our searches for relatives.  So if we can’t keep the child in a family, rather than putting them in a foster home, put them in a relative’s home where they know somebody, where they have some familiarity and some family history.  So that’s what we’re going to do. Some people have said the foster parents will object. But I’ve talked to them, and they know the kids should be in the home, and they’re going to have a strong role in this program.

Coleman: I guess the most important thing is having those children be in a familiar place and getting them in a safe environment where they can be helped, a safe environment inside the home.   Nancy, thank you for being with us this morning.

Dreicer: Thank you, Ashley.