{"id":1364,"date":"2021-06-29T15:43:35","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T19:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/dome\/?p=1364"},"modified":"2021-06-29T15:47:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T19:47:13","slug":"should-foster-parents-unionize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/dome\/2021\/06\/29\/should-foster-parents-unionize\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Foster Parents Unionize?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foster care reform rarely makes it into dinner-table discussions of hot political happenings, but Massachusetts State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier of the Berkshires may change that with two bills she introduced this session: one creates a Foster Parent Bill of Rights<\/a>, and the other allows foster parents to collectively bargain<\/a>\u2013 raising the specter of a foster parent union.<\/p>\n

The legislation addresses widespread problems in how the Department of Children and Families (DCF) deals with foster parents. \u201cIf there was a totem pole of regard and respect, when in the child welfare agency, [foster parents] are at the very bottom of that totem pole,\u201d explained Representative Farley-Bouvier<\/a>. The most egregious area of concern is DCF\u2019s failure to communicate essential information like reimbursement rates, court dates, behavioral issues and even a child\u2019s allergies and medications, a potentially dangerous omission that Farley-Bouvier says \u201chappens more often than you would imagine.\u201d Consider the alarming experience of one parent, Rachel, who told DCF she could not manage a child with severe behavioral problems. DCF nevertheless placed a child with her<\/a> who had a history of a \u201cviolent temper,\u201d including throwing chairs at school and threatening other children. DCF had concealed these behavioral issues from Rachel, flagging only that the child had hygiene issues. While \u201cit\u2019s true that in the months [the child] lived in Rachel\u2019s home she smeared feces on the wall, that was one of the less frightening incidents.\u201d In another troubling case<\/a>, DCF failed to share with a parent that a twelve-year-old boy placed with her had a history of sexual predation; he abused her four-year-old daughter.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Foster Parent Bill of Rights aims to address communication failures and other issues, and while DCF did not publicly comment<\/a> on the legislation it \u201ccollaborated with the legislature on and supports\u201d it. Under the bill<\/a> DCF must:<\/p>\n