NPR Investigates: How States Charge Poor Parents For Their Own Kids' Foster Care
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 December 2021
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
It's a bill many cannot afford to pay, which in turn makes it even more difficult for parents to get their lives back on track and reunite with their children. On top of that, research shows government actually loses money when it tries to collect on foster care bills.
NPR investigative correspondent Joseph Shapiro reports, in collaboration with Teresa Wiltz of POLITICO.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | After Daisy Homan separated from her husband, she moved from place to place, stayed with family, |
| 0:06.0 | some friends. They moved in with the guy that had a few bedrooms open for rent, |
| 0:11.2 | and that moving in with him 15 days later, there was supposedly a raid at the house. |
| 0:16.2 | It was a drug raid. Now this was exactly four years ago in Minnesota. |
| 0:20.8 | Homan was not the target. She wasn't even home when the police came, but her kids were. |
| 0:25.4 | Case records show Homan had a history of drug and alcohol use, and child protective services |
| 0:31.9 | had been called to check on her kids before. In this case, authorities said she had left her kids |
| 0:37.0 | in an unsafe place. So, after the raid, her three kids were placed in foster care. Homan got |
| 0:43.2 | them back 20 months later. She also got something that is surprisingly common, and states across |
| 0:49.7 | the country, a bill for her kids foster care. It was for $19,530 and seven cents. The bill |
| 0:59.0 | it hovers over me all the time. Consider this. The best thing for most kids in foster care is to be |
| 1:06.0 | reunited with their parents, but it is not uncommon for those same parents to get a bill |
| 1:11.4 | that many of them cannot afford to pay, which in turn makes it even harder to get their lives back |
| 1:17.0 | on track. This is a special report from NPR's Investigations team. I'm Mary the Wies Kelly. It's |
| 1:25.2 | Monday, December 27th. It's considered this from NPR. Child welfare agencies aren't just supposed |
| 1:34.6 | to help children in their care. They're supposed to help the parents of those children help them |
| 1:39.1 | find stability and reunite with their kids, while that is happening foster care cost money. |
| 1:45.5 | And in every state in the country, parents can be sent bills for some of that cost. That is what |
| 1:51.0 | happened to Daisy Homan, who you heard earlier. She spoke to NPR Investigative Correspondent Joseph |
| 1:56.6 | Shapiro, who, working with Teresa Wiltz of Politico, looked at just how difficult those foster care |
| 2:03.6 | bills can make things, and why not all parents seem to get them. I first met Homan and her family |
| 2:11.4 | two years ago. Since her kids came home, Homan has worked steadily and kept her family together. |
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