Relates to referrals for child support enforcement for foster care maintenance payments.
Relates to liability to support a child pursuant to an approved application for foster care maintenance; provides that such liability shall not be imposed if it will adversely affect the health, safety or welfare of the child on whose behalf such payments are to be made or other persons in the child’s household or will adversely affect the length of the child’s placement or impair the ability of the child to return home when discharged from foster care.
The Cost of Family Reunification: Hidden Fees Keep Families Apart
Parents whose children are in foster care face an uphill battle as they work to bring their children home – practically, emotionally and financially. For the past 40 years, federal law has encouraged child welfare and child support enforcement agencies to work together to recover the cost of foster care from children’s parents. That could change for New York families if legislators act now.
Parents whose children are placed in foster care are blindsided by these bills. The charges they are required to pay can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars in monthly fees. Research shows that there is little relationship between a parent’s annual income and the monthly charges they incur. The unforeseen financial burden endangers the family’s ability to afford essentials such as food or housing, adversely impacting the family’s financial stability, and plummeting them deeper into poverty.
In addition to destabilizing the family’s financial situation, research shows that these monthly payments delay reunification. The child’s ability to return home is jeopardized, extending their stay in foster care by an average of over six months. One out of five children will never return home to their families, and the effects for Black families are four times worse.
What happens when parents are unable to make their monthly payments? Their debt rapidly balloons. New York has one of the highest interest rates on child support arrears in the country at 9% per year. And New York spends at least three times more in administrative expenses than they recover from parents. New York collects approximately $2.3 million a year while likely spending over $6 million on collection efforts.
Substantial reforms have been made in child welfare over the past decade. As a start, New York has seen its foster care caseload decline by almost 50%. Efforts to re-examine practices to ensure they help rather than punish families are a central aspect of child welfare reform. New York City has already adjusted its policy to restrict child support payments for parents whose children are placed in care, but the rest of the state needs to follow.
The legislature has an opportunity to support reform. Recent guidance from the Biden administration is designed to reduce the number of parents referred to child support following a foster care placement. The recommendation encourages states to develop new policies that limit child support collections only in “very rare circumstances.”
New York state has pending legislation, (A4027 (Kim) and S7054 (Hoylman-Sigal), that should be supported by all those who support reducing the harm and further traumas brought on children due to unneeded and prolong family separations.
Child welfare policies and practices should align with their stated goals: to protect children and support families.
Democracy is not a spectator sport! Please help support this important legislation, message your state representative on this issue. Look up state Senator or Assemblymember and make a quick phone call, asking them to support it. It’s so very important that they hear directly from constituents. Please do consider sending a message to families and others in the community you’re connected to asking for their support.