In some states in the US, parents can permanently lose their children if they fail to pay the cost of their foster care.
According to an NPR survey, there are 12 states in America where fathers and mothers can easily lose their rights to parent their kids for the rest of their lives if they are unable to pay foster care, which is described by NPR also as "a little-known and controversial debt to the government."
These 12 states are North Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
This "debt" is said to be controversial as it is being "under attack" throughout the country. The federal law requires the states to bill parents for the expenses made when their children were placed into foster care. However, the problem lies in the fact that the families who are eligible for foster care welfare are the poorest families in the US. And, the bill can cost hundreds of dollars monthly.
Government's responsibility
An NPR investigation two years ago revealed that these bills keep parents who are already struggling sink lower in debt. Much worse, they wait a lot longer to be reunited with their kids or are unable to be reunited with them at all because of non-payment.
In 2022, a new guidance to states was issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommending the states to stop billing and collecting money from poor parents and families that had children went into foster care.
However, despite the said new instruction from the federal government, the new NPR survey found that the courts of the mentioned 12 states above can still terminate parents' rights to their child if they failed to pay the bill for foster care.
Read Also: Illinois Should Stop Charging Parents for Foster Care, Says Jeffery Leving
North Carolina
Sylvia and Brandon Cunningham of North Carolina lost their son for non-payment of a foster care bill in 2021.
The couple went to jail for months due to drug charges. When they got out, their priority was to get back all their four kids that were placed into foster care. They were given instructions by a judge and they followed through. They got sober, stayed sober, attended parenting classes and therapy, got jobs, and never missed the weekly visits with the kids.
Eventually, a judge ruled that they could be good parents and that their "tidy trailer at the end of a dirt road" was safe for their children to live on. Unfortunately, only three of their four kids got back home.
The Supreme Court of North Carolina in 2021 resolved that one of their kids, their 5-year-old son then, be properly placed for adoption on the grounds that the parents failed to reimburse the state for some of the cost of their son's foster care. Just like that, they permanently lost their son.
Slyvia expressed that the law is just "crazy."
"I don't understand how we get three of our kids back and that one child is just gone," Brandon declared.
There are also other parents from other states that experienced permanent termination of parental rights to their own children due to unpaid bills.
A mother, who is a victim of domestic violence, reported her abusive partner to the authorities, resulting in her five kids being placed into foster care. She failed to pay the foster care bills because no one informed her of the need to pay, according to the court filings. Further, she was unfamiliar with the laws of America as she was from another country and speaks limited English.
A father said that he was being penalized even when he was in prison, with the court stating that he should have set aside some of the money he made from a prison job.
A 15-year-old's daughter got taken away from her for non-payment of the foster care bill even if both of them were in foster care.
Related Article: Surviving Life In Foster Care: Why Children In Foster Care Are Vulnerable To Depression, Learning Disabilities, Obesity & Asthma
