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There was a response to the article that I wrote about in this blog in the Wisconsin State Journal. It essentially said that foster parents are paid an adequate sum to care for their foster children.
After reading the article and the proposed allotments that are quoted in a companion article, I just about had to be pulled off the ceiling. If we stuck to the amounts and allotments that are recommend, our kids would never have enough.
Here is an example of one that shows that reality is not being considered at all.
Wisconsin says you should allot $53.89-$95.10 of the base rate paid for infants and toddlers to food. They’re kidding, right? Show me an infant or toddler that you can feed on those amounts and I’ll show you a malnourished child. It’s been a while since I had to buy infant formula, so I did some price checking. The average can of formula (powdered form) costs about $15 and makes 15 eight ounce bottles. Mackenzie was a light eater because she was just over six and a half pounds when she was born. We would go through a can of formula about every three days. That would have us going through about ten cans a month, which would be about $150 per month. A far cry from the amount it says I should be allotting for food.
Then we get into clothing. This is still in the infant/toddler area. Set aside your $19.02 a month for clothing. WHAT???? That’s for a full month? That’s one outfit if you’re lucky. If you shop the thrift stores you might get a couple of outfits. Kids grow like weeds in this age range and you can not possibly outfit a child’s growing body on that measly amount.
And lastly was the shelter and housing category. $152.16-$183.86 per month. This is to cover additional heat, hot water bills for baths and additional laundry, and other expenses in maintaining a home.
None of this takes into account things like oh, I don’t know, diapers maybe. I can’t imagine that an infant or toddler would need diapers. We all know that those are nearly free and that a child only goes through one or two of those a day. (Heavy sarcasm here in case you’re not sure). What about bottles, toys, gas money for getting to and from doctor appointments, social worker visits, birth family visits, and so on? Does that money magically appear out of air?
The disparity in rates doesn’t get much better as the children get older. For teenagers the amounts are $135.63 per month for food, $53.43 per month for clothing, and $147.96 per month for housing. I don’t know which teenager they’re talking about, but my teenager can easily go through $135 a month in food.
My kids have always gotten what they needed. If it was needed, it came out of my own pocket, regardless of what it was. Sometimes this meant pinching pennies, taking hand-me-downs, shopping thrift stores, or whatever else was necessary, but they got what they needed.
I didn’t go into this for money, but I do think that politicians need to get real about what times we are living in. These amounts might have been fine in the 1950s, but last time I checked, this was 2007 and prices have gone up. A year or two ago foster parents in Wisconsin got a monthly 5% rate increase. With a base rate of $300, that amounts to a whopping $15 increase per month.
Don’t spend it all in one place.
