Foster Parents Need a Raise

The story of Ruth and Ron DeVries, who have been foster parents to a stunning tally of 196 children over three decades, is instructive for what it means to assume that role in Orange County. The DeVrieses, who live in Brea, have a friend who once calculated that to break even, the couple would need $200 more a month than the county was paying them for feeding, clothing and sheltering the children.

The basic pay today is $350 per child, with extra provided depending on the child’s age and medical condition. County officials have been trying to get the state to raise the payments. One family’s deep digging to respond to a county’s underserved need shows why that increase is warranted. It could help ease the shortage of foster parents, people willing to take a child into their homes for up to two years. These community servants then somehow must break the attachment and watch the child be adopted by someone else.

Orange County officials say they have more than 600 foster homes now and are trying to add 200. Years ago, the process was fairly straightforward, with children being placed because their parents had died or become too ill to care for them. Today’s foster children often need intense care and supervision. Born drug-addicted or abused at an early age, they require physical and emotional therapy in addition to parenting. That’s a strain on even the most dedicated foster parents.

One of the two daughters that the DeVrieses have gone on to adopt stops breathing roughly every hour when she sleeps because of a permanent brain injury. That means getting a machine to monitor the breathing and having to jump up frequently in the middle of the night to assist.

The county has recognized the increased burdens on foster parents, setting aside about $700,000 this year to help them pay for transportation and day care to give them an occasional break. But in addition to coming up with more money, the county must ensure it does not ease off on recruiting. Child care experts say children are better off in small, private settings like foster homes than in group homes.

Providing assistance for foster parents helps retention. Not all couples will be able to be as generous as the DeVrieses, but the county owes a debt to those willing to become foster parents. It has to keep the ones it has and enlist as many new ones as possible. Foster parents shouldn’t have to go broke doing good.