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Releases & Statements
Public
Advocate Betsy Gotbaum today revealed that 1 in 6 young women
in foster care are either mothers or pregnant and charged that
the Bloomberg administration is not doing nearly enough to provide
them with needed services. Gotbaum's office surveyed foster care
agencies contracted by the City and determined that 82% of young
mothers (ages 13-21) were caring for their own children. Despite
these alarming statistics, the majority of foster care agencies
do not offer mother/baby programs or specific training to prepare
foster parents to help young mothers.
"There
are a huge number of young mothers in foster care, and the administration
is just shutting its eyes and hoping the problem goes away," Gotbaum
said. "The status quo is unacceptable. My office has determined
that children growing up in the child welfare system are more
likely to fatally abuse or neglect their own children. State law
requires ACS to provide money and services to all young mothers
in its care, not just a lucky few."
Gotbaum,
who was joined by advocates and young mothers in foster care,
called on the Administration for Children's Services ( ACS ) to
expand training programs and to strengthen sex education in an
effort to reduce the pregnancy rate among young women in the foster
care system. She said she would introduce legislation in the City
Council to ensure that the needed reforms take place.
The
survey was conducted between January 7, 2005 and February 16,
2005 . Thirty of the 46 foster care agencies contracted by the
City responded, representing at least 10,677 children, or 54%
of all children in foster care. The survey yielded the following
results:
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87%
of the agencies reported serving young parents.
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333
(1 in 8) of the young women in the care of these agencies
are mothers; an additional 104 (1 in 26) are pregnant.
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80%
of the agencies receive no funding for comprehensive mother/baby
programs or maternity residence.
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Over
50% of the agencies do not have specific training to prepare
foster parents to care for young mothers and protect their
children from hazards such as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
(SIDS), improper sleeping position, and co-sleeping.
The
Office of the Public Advocate made the following recommendations
for improving services for young parents in foster care and preventing
future child deaths:
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Strengthen
sex education programs for all adolescents in the foster care
system in an effort to reduce the pregnancy rate.
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Expand
mother/baby foster care programs and maternity residence programs
to meet the need in the foster care system .
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Report
annually the number of pregnancies and young mothers in the
care of ACS , as well as the total number of children of young
mothers in the child welfare system.
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Report
annually the number of slots available in mother/baby programs,
maternity residences, and other key services for pregnant
or parenting foster youth.
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Standardize
training and services for all youth in foster care who have
children or become pregnant and for their foster parents.
The content of the training should include, but not be limited
to: proper sleeping position, preventing child fatalities
and injuries, pre- and post-natal care, and SIDS.
"These
measures will save children's lives, plain and simple," Gotbaum
said. "There's no excuse for not taking immediate action to protect
these fragile families."
The
legislation that Gotbaum plans to introduce in the City Council
would require ACS to follow the above recommendations. An additional
resolution would call on the State Assembly to increase ACS funding
for support services aimed at pregnant and parenting youth and
their children. Gotbaum's office undertook its investigation in
response to the November 2004 death of three-week-old Cristian
Liz, who died as a result of co-sleeping with his mother, a teenage
foster child. Last month, Mayor Bloomberg signed Gotbaum's legislation
calling for signs stressing proper infant sleeping position and
the dangers of "co-sleeping" to be posted in City homeless shelters.
Dale
S. Margolin, Staff Attorney/Skadden Fellow at the Legal Aid Society,
Juvenile Rights Division, said, "pregnant and parenting teenagers
in foster care are in dire need of better care and services by
ACS and contract agencies. These young women were the victims
of abuse or neglect in the past and now find themselves subject
to further mistreatment by the system. Furthermore, they are frequently
released from the system without adequate housing and employment.
Unfortunately, all of this can lead to a cycle in which their
own children are at risk of being placed in foster care."
Youth
At Risk Executive Director Claudette C'Faison said, "The young
girls that we work with from the foster care system come to us
with a host of emotional strains due to a lack of consistent City
services. These young moms are not only dealing with the stress
of a new baby, but often are stressed by unstable living situations.
These moms find themselves afraid that their babies may be taken
away from them while in the system. Also they're asking themselves,
'Do I matter?' or "Do I belong?" What Youth at Risk does is get
to the core of these emotional strains and doubts and help them
deal powerfully with the future they see for themselves and child.
Youth At Risk breaks the cycle of their chaotic lives and the
often the life they've inherited from generations past."
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