catholic charities to drop foster care

[dreamer]

Here is the start of text from the article. --
"Catholic Charities dropping foster care
Insurance coverage lost after settlement

By Ofelia Casillas and Manya A. Brachear
Tribune staff reporters
Published April 17, 2007
The foster care program run by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the oldest and largest such programs in the state, is shutting down after 90 years, a move that is sending shock waves through the child welfare system.

Catholic Charities and state officials confirmed that the program, responsible for more than 900 children in Cook and Lake Counties, will close June 30 after a $12 million lawsuit payout prompted the agency's insurer to drop its coverage."

 

[Suz]

We have Catholic Charities foster programs here, too. It sounds like this only pertains to the branch in Chicago.

Suz

 

[rejectedmom]

That is sad. -RM

 

[dreamer]

Me and this library cxomputer are NOT getting along, and I could not access more of the text from this article..but, I think it maybe the state of IL? I am not sure, now.........but the url I posted above takes you to the article, and maybe your computer would access the article better than me and this computer. I heard about it on the TV news this morning.

 

[GoingNorth]

It's the Chicago Archdiocese at this point. Honestly, with the increasingly frequent multimillion dollar payouts I cannot blame the ins cos for refusing to renew coverage for these agencies.

Sad though it is, it comes down to a business decision. Remember too that various Archdioceses nationwide have been hit with huge lawsuits regarding abuse by clergy, let alone foster homes.

 

[DDD]

I provided a home for unwed mothers back in the late 60's and
early 70's in Miami. Even then Catholic Charities was "the"
lead social service agency. What a complex world we live in
when even the most dedicated can no longer afford to help kids in
need. So sad. DDD

 

[judi]

I live in downstate IL (near Peoria). I worked in the ER here for 10 years and came in contact with many kids in Catholic Charities care. The biggie for me was the lack of ability to reach someone who had the authority to authorize treatment. The office only ran Mon-Fri 0800-1600 and no one was on call. When you called DCFS, they would say that the child was actually in Catholic Charities' custody so they couldn't authorize treatment either. It was ridiculous. We did of course treat these kids. However, when a death or serious injury was involved, we always tried to reach the birth parents (if they had any involvement at all).

I'm sorry, but the entire DCFS and foster care system in IL is in big trouble.

 

[JJJ]

I actually was hopeful when I saw that CC was getting out of foster care. But it's only the Chicago office, I do not have experience with them. The office by our home NEEDS to go out of business. They have some of the most incompetent staff I have ever seen. We stopped doing foster care because the staff would lie about the foster parents to (1) cover their own butts and/or (2) push a personal agenda. They lost 10+ homes in a two-month span because we all filed complaints about the same worker -- all accusing her of lying and the agency sided with their worker, even though many of the foster parents had never met each other (so no conspiracy here). We ended up getting DCFS involved and they ordered CC to fix our files to reflect only "accurate information" and DCFS put a letter in our files supporting our concerns but CC refused to fire the worker. While a couple of the families transferred their license to another agency, we left completely because the worker implied she'd continue to make problems for us (she'd already hotlined us once but DCFS laughed at her) since we were the ones to make her look ad in front of DCFS. We wouldn't risk our children to her vendetta.