Sen. Grassley looking to reform the foster care system

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CBS2/FOX28) — Right now the family first prevention services act of 2016 is sitting in the u-s senate, waiting for lawmakers to return from vacation next month.

The bill focuses on keeping families together rather than placing children in foster care.

If approved, it would allow children to choose whether to stay with a parent, or go to a relative before using foster care.

The House unanimously passed the bill in June.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is leading the effort to pass the bill.

“The family support you have is very important to make sure when they [kids] become adults, they’re productive citizens instead of going wayward,” says Sen. Grassley.

Celia Vanmeter,19, spent more than five years in foster care. She says she wished she had family to go to when she entered into the system, “That probably would have been a lot easier instead of going to a stranger’s house every couple months.”

Celia was one of several people who spoke with Sen. Grassley Friday at a round table event at Four Oaks in Cedar Rapids.

Foster Care Youth, birth parents, foster parents and service workers were all present and spoke.

After hearing from the people directly involved in Iowa’s foster care system, Sen. Grassley says he’s chosen the next break in the system he wants to fix: ‘aging out.’

It doesn’t happen while the children are in foster care, it’s what happens when they turn 18.

Tiara Mosley and Celia Vanmeter both shared their aging out stories with Sen. Grassley.

They’re both now 19 and in college.

They both entered foster care around the age of 13.

Mosley says, “When you turn 18 they (foster parenst) pack all your stuff in a bag and are like, ‘O.K., go.’ Sometimes they don’t even care if you have somewhere to go.”

This happened to Vanmeter in the middle of her senior year of high school.

She says, she was on the streets until a friend’s family took her in.

Vanmeter says her case worker refused to see her and ignored all her calls and pleas for help.

“It was just hard and i didn't know what to do,” she says. “We need workers who work with us before we turn 18 so that we have a plan and we aren't thrown to the wolves.”

Vanmeter suspects her case worker just had too many cases to give her any further attention.

Mosley says she had a similar experience but tried to prepare by working ahead with Iowa AfterCare before she turned 18.

Still, she says it was a hard transition.

“You have people your whole life tell you to ‘do this’ and ‘do that, this is your schedule you have to do this.’ They’re holding you accountable. When you age out, you're kind of on your own,” says Mosley.

Sen. Grassley says when he started getting involved with the foster system, over 700k kids in America lived in foster homes. He says he’s proud that that number is now down to roughly 425k.

“But of that 425k, about 25k age out every year and only about 2-3% go to college,” says Sen. Grassley. “There’s something wrong with the system since more people in it don’t know that education is the pathway to a better future.”

When Sen. Grassley asked the people at the roundtable what’s wrong, Tiara and Celia said support is missing.

“We need a support system,” says Mosley. “Those people to help you get an apartment and get ready for college so you don’t feel so alone.”

Vanmeter agrees.”It’s just really hard when you don't have people there for you 100% of the time.”

Mosley hopes to bring that support to the next generation of foster kids.

“I want kids to know they're not worthless; they’re not alone. I’ll tell them, you’ve been told this your whole life: You’re nothing. I want to change their minds so their self-confidence is built so that when they get older they can go out in the world and do what they want,” she says. “If I had those couple people who told me, ‘No, you’re not worthless. You’re precious. You can do this.’ It would make a huge difference because if you have self-confidence, you have everything.

Vanmeter is already working on business plans to open a group home for kids kicked out of foster homes.

“We are going to start working with people who are 25 and don’t have anywhere to go and just out of college or just need help.”

She says later they’ll open up to ‘problem children’ who act out in their foster homes.

“It will be like their last resort before they have to go to treatment or lock up. We will work with them individually and figure out what they need to do to get better and what they need to accomplish their goals. Basically, we will be that person of support they need.”

When it comes to the changes that Sen. Grassley is trying to make right now, Vanmeter says she loves his ideas and she can’t wait to see what he does next.

Mosley says, “The fact he’s reaching out to ask us what we want is huge because we don’t get that a lot. Not a lot of people care what we want.”

Sen. Grassley says he cares and he’s listening. “We haven’t done enough yet and we want to do more.”

Sen. Grassley says he’s considering all sorts of implementations to help with aging out including college counselling, mentoring before the age of 18, more financial assistance and longer Medicaid coverage.

Right now, foster kids in Iowa who will soon age out or already have and need help, can contact Iowa AfterCare.