A new law in California, effective this year, is reducing the number of groups home and congregate care facilities. This law is part of a larger framework called the Continuum of Care Reform (Assembly Bill 403). This editorial by Lois Henry sheds light on the plans of one California community, Bakersfield, to reduce group-care and increase the number of foster homes. Including efforts to level the playing field for relative caregivers and streamline the permanent plan of adoption.Zachary Martin’s story of growing up in the Texas foster care system is awful.
It’s also virtually textbook for foster systems everywhere, including California.
Taken from his family at the age of 3, he and his two brothers bounced through a variety of homes and “residential treatment facilities” (basically holding tanks for kids without adoption prospects and who are too difficult for foster families) then more homes and centers until he aged out of the system.
Along the way, he lost track of one brother and the other was sent back to Texas where he’s young enough to still qualify for help in that state....
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