Foster family stories shared

Richard D. Brown spent the better part of his teen years living out of six duffel bags and moving from one foster placement to another.

Most of the time, he felt like a paycheck, not a child. The only reason Brown believed people took him in was to collect the extra income that came with him.

"I'm a product of the foster care system of Clark County," the 21-year-old told state lawmakers Thursday. "Between 2000 and 2005, I had six placements."

Brown and teenagers still in foster care testified before the legislative committee charged with studying Nevada's foster care system and identifying ways to improve it.

Lawmakers received a flow chart from state officials that mapped out a child's journey through the child welfare system, from the first abuse report to case closure. The stories told by the young people let lawmakers know how painful that journey is.

Brown described how he tried not to complain about bad placements. Complaining might have led to starting over, changing schools and losing the few friends he'd been able to make.

But keeping quiet didn't always help.

"You move in, blink, and you're back to packed," said Brown, who now is a youth support worker for the Clark County Department of Family Services.

Chelsea, 13, the oldest of three sisters, explained how they also have been moved from home to home. Sometimes it was because one of her sisters was acting up. Sometimes they moved because of personality clashes with the foster family.

Chelsea blamed herself for the failure of the last placement with a prospective adoptive family in Colorado.

"That was my fault, my putting a barrier up," the soft-spoken girl told lawmakers from her seat at the speaker's table.

Saida, 16, has lived in a series of group homes. She used to cut herself. She has overdosed on medication. She has lived with others who assumed she wasn't normal.

At one point, she was told that if she couldn't make it in a group home, she faced nine months to a year of hospitalization in a mental health facility.

"Am I crazy?" Saida asked. "I'm in all honors classes. I'm in orchestra. I kind of do everything. Why wouldn't my mother love me?"

The testimony elicited the sympathy of lawmakers, who assured the young speakers that their stories would make a difference.

"What you shared today is going to help other young people in the foster care system," said Sen. Steve Horsford, D-Las Vegas.

Thursday marked the second meeting of the committee, which is gathering information and recommendations for its study. Representatives from the National Conference of State Legislatures and the not-for-profit Casey Family Programs presented a variety of strategies for reducing the number of children in foster care.

Many of them are ideas Nevada already embraces: keeping siblings together, offering frequent visitation to parents of young children in the system, placing children with relatives whenever possible.

Others require a financial commitment for programs that are currently subject to potential state budget cuts, such as mental health services and substance abuse programs.

Steve Christian, program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said in his report that such support services help stabilize families and reduce the risk of having to return children to foster care.

Director of Clark County Family Services Tom Morton agrees that such things make a positive difference. But the recommendations are coming at a time when those types of services in Nevada are being dialed back.

Although child welfare is being exempted in the latest round of state budget cuts mandated by a shortfall in projected tax revenues, mental health services and substance abuse programs are not.

"It's a real dilemma," Morton said, adding that a significant part of child welfare's success depends on what's in other department budgets.

Brown touched on the issue of funding when he spoke to lawmakers.

"You can cut budgets all day, but you're only hurting youth in the end," he said.

Contact reporter Lisa Kim Bach at lbach@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0287.