Child advocate columns, Nov. 12, 2008

Office of the Child Advocate
3312 Northside Drive, Suite D-250 Macon, Georgia 31210
478-757-2661 or 1-800-254-2064 www.gachildadvocate.org
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Lessons from Nebraska
By: Tom C. Rawlings, Director
Many of us have watched uncomfortably as Nebraska has become a dumping ground for "tween and teen" children whose families cannot manage them or will not care for them. Earlier this year, Nebraska became the last state in the nation to adopt a "baby Moses" law designed to allow overwhelmed parents to safely abandon infants at a hospital without fear of prosecution. These laws have a good intent: preventing scared women from leaving babies to die in dumpsters.
Unlike every other state, however, Nebraska adopted a statute that did not limit its protection to parents who abandon infants. So over the past two months, parents from all over the country have abandoned 29 children at Nebraska hospitals and police stations. Of those, 11 were between 15 and 17 years of age, and only 5 were below the age of 11. The state legislature is now scrambling into special session to "fix" the law. What most folks are saying is that we need to hold parents accountable and make them fulfill their responsibilities they shouldn't just be allowed to foist their difficult children on the state.
The Nebraska situation has exposed some interesting fault lines in the ongoing debate over the role of government intervention in the lives of troubled families and children. Nebraska legislators and the state human services agency say the law is being misused. "It's important to recognize the potential trauma abandonment can cause for children of all ages," said Nebraska human services Commissioner Tom Landry in a press release. "For the benefit of the child, it's important that [this law] only be used when the child is in immediate danger of being harmed."
Others, including a Nebraska state senator who helped broaden the law to apply to all children, said parents should be able to take advantage of the law no matter the age of the child. "All children deserve our protection," Sen. Tom White told the Associated Press. "If we save one child from being abused, it's well, well worth it." It's worth noting that he made that statement in August, before parents bearing children began descending on his state in September.
The unstated question in this discussion is a complex one: where do we as a society draw the line between the parent's responsibility to care for a child and the government's obligation to help children become responsible, productive, tax-paying citizens? Here in Georgia, our Department of Human Resources states its position on that issue in a fairly succinct mission statement: government should be "a resource for families, not a substitute."
But while positions may be clear, real life often isn't. For overlooked in the discussion about these "safe haven" laws is the fact that every year thousands of families across the country are required to surrender custody of their mentally ill and behaviorally disturbed children to the state to obtain needed therapy. While 29 difficult children may have been abandoned recently in Nebraska, the federal government found that in 2001 there were at least 12,700 children placed in the custody of state child welfare and juvenile justice systems just so they could access needed mental health services. In those situations, according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, parents wanted to provide help for their children but no services were available outside those provided to children in state custody.
Georgia families whose children need residential therapeutic care for a behavioral health issue should never be required to place their children in state custody to receive help. The state division of Mental Health (MHDDAD) has a program that will pay for residential placements for children who are in parental custody but don't have insurance or the ability to pay. KidsNet and other system of care models we are building are designed to address the behavioral health needs of children and adolescents. Children who are eligible for Medicaid have the right to receive a broad range of therapies under federal law. Congress recently passed as part of the federal financial bailout provisions that will require private health insurers to provide mental health coverage on par with that for physical conditions. And a bill currently in Congress, the "Keeping Families Together Act," would increase federal financing of child and adolescent residential mental health placements. The legislation, which president-elect Obama has said he supports, would enable parents to obtain this assistance without having to turn their children over to state custody.
But, as with many issues, we in Georgia have to ensure that our practice matches what we profess. In this time of tight budgets, it would be easy to reduce the funds available to assist families with obtaining therapy for their children. But to do so would essentially drive those families, and the courts that deal with them, to place children in foster care or juvenile justice custody to ensure they receive services. We don't want to let parents give up on their parental responsibilities, but at the same time we don't want to drive them to surrendering their children to state custody because no help is available.
The role of our policymakers is to maintain that proper balance between holding families accountable and supporting them adequately. When the system is out of balance, the result is a mess. That's the lesson of Nebraska.
For more information about safe haven laws, visit http://nationalsafehavenalliance.org/ For more on the new mental health parity law, visit: http://selfhelpmagazine.com/article/mental-health-parity The proposed "Keeping Families Together" Act is available at: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-687
Tom Rawlings, Georgia's Child Advocate for the Protection of Children, was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to assure quality and efficiency in Georgia's child protective systems. The Office of the Child Advocate is a resource for those interested in the welfare of our state's neglected and abused children. Tom can be reached through the OCA website at www.gachildadvocate.org