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Date: Thursday, April 17, 1997 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michael Kharfen (202)401-9215
"I applaud Maryland's commitment to designing more effective approaches to assuring safety, permanency, and well-being for children who need child welfare services," said Secretary Shalala. "The more than 12,000 children in foster care in Maryland deserve what every child in America deserves -- loving parents and a healthy, stable home. Maryland's program will increase their opportunity for both."
The program will demonstrate the use of subsidized guardianship arrangements, with an emphasis on kinship care, for children who have been in foster care for six months or more and in the current home for at least that long. The children must meet criteria which indicate that neither return to the parent(s) nor adoption is likely. Each guardianship will be established by court order.
Moving children more quickly from foster care to permanent homes is one of the primary goals of the Clinton administration's Adoption 2002 initiative. By providing financial incentives for foster caregivers to become private guardians, Maryland hopes to encourage permanence for children in foster care, reduce the time children spend in long-term foster care, reduce the number of disrupted placements, and produce more positive outcomes for children and families.
"Foster care is not a place for children to grow up," said Carol W. Williams, Associate Commissioner for the Children's Bureau. "This is an enormously exciting project that offers real hope for Maryland's children in foster care to move into appropriate permanent placements quicker."
Maryland will use federal funds to support the care of children in private guardianship. Previously, these funds could be used primarily to pay for the room and board of children in foster care only.
The emphasis on relatives as foster parents is intended to address the chronic shortage of licensed foster homes, particularly in large urban centers. It also reflects the knowledge that placement with relatives eases separation trauma. By creating formal, subsidized guardianship arrangements, Maryland expects that such placements will improve service delivery and enhance permanency for children and families.
The project, which must be cost neutral with regard to federal funds, will last for no more than five years and will include a rigorous third-party evaluation.