Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad is an Iraq War veteran, a Marine, and a no-nonsense political consultant who works to elect Republicans. And his voice cracks when he talks about the little boy he came to call Bonus Baby.
He and his wife, Jennifer, and their two young children took Bonus Baby into their Woodland home as a foster child when he was a newborn. The county had deemed the infant’s young mother unable to care for him.
For the next two years, Rexroad proudly posted Bonus Baby’s cute exploits on Facebook, and traced his growth into Bonus Toddler, never mentioning his name, knowing that would violate foster care rules.
The Rexroads understood foster care, or thought they did. They knew social workers would reunify the little guy with his mom if she turned her life around, and they supported the notion.
But as the reunification process unfolded, the Rexroads came to fear for the baby’s well-being. Unable to persuade county social workers to reconsider, they hired a lawyer, and pleaded their case in court, and lost.
The court proceedings were closed. The judge’s reasoning is sealed. Rexroad, an attorney, cannot discuss the case in any detail. All I know is that the young boy has been with his biological mother for a few weeks. Her name, like everything else in this area of law, is confidential.
Boards of supervisors are responsible for overseeing child welfare services. But in Rexroad’s nine years on the Yolo County board, there had never been any detailed discussion of the department, in no small part because of the confidentiality that surrounds the system. That changed at the Yolo County board meeting on Tuesday.
“We’re not doing a good job on behalf of children of Yolo County,” he told the other four supervisors.
To continue reading this article by Dan Morain, go to: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/...article67908397.html
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