$21M to care for their children

[RB TexLa]

Texas estimates cost of caring for polygamist sect's children at $21M

05:15 PM CDT on Monday, May 19, 2008

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

AUSTIN – It will cost taxpayers $21 million to care for a polygamist sect's children over the next year, the Health and Human Services Commission estimated today.

Foster care payments for more than 450 youngsters removed because of possible child abuse at the group's Eldorado ranch will cost nearly $1 million a month, commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said.

Other monthly costs will include health care, provided under the Medicaid program, $325,500; and an additional 70 protective services workers, $425,000 – as soon as they're hired, Ms. Goodman said.

The estimates come on the eve of a special Senate Finance Committee hearing to examine the costs of the raid, the largest child protection sweep in U.S. history.

"The focus has always been on what you do for the children and how do you protect the children," Ms. Goodman said. "Obviously, we have to take care of the costs as well. … We have to look at that going forward. I think we'll get a lot of good guidance tomorrow from Senate Finance."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052008dntexyfzkids.ca2959d.html

[Saydrah]

1. How do you protect the children?

How about confirm that they were abused before removing them from families?

[Fleshdancer]

4. pregnant kids is the confirmation

For other abusive homes, you wouldn't take just the one child that showed signs of abuse, you would remove all the kids from the home. This is what happened in this case too. Just because a family consists of 400+ people doesn't mean they get special treatment.

[Saydrah]

8. Not really confirmed

The "16 year old pregnant girl" was actually an adult from Colorado Springs who called to make the raid happen.

[Fleshdancer]

9. 31 out of the 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are either pregnant or are mothers already

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1735760,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-topics

A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either have children or are pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. Two of those are pregnant now, he said; it was unclear whether either of those two already have children.

"It shows you a pretty distinct pattern, that it was pretty pervasive," he said.

State officials took custody of all 463 children at the ranch controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying a pattern of teen girls forced into underage "spiritual" marriages and sex with much older men created an unsafe environment for the sect's children.

Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but none of these girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Uh, because that would put the children in danger.

How about they get probable cause and warrants before taking away the kids, and then confirming it.

Oh wait, they did.

[Ian David]

2. That's like Paris Hilton's walking-around money. n/t

[madeline_con]

3. How many were removed?

Is this an outrageously high amount of $$?

[RB TexLa]

6. None of the parents of those children have incomes?

[rainbow4321]

13. Heard on the local news that one of the stipulations for the parents

put forth by a judge to get their children back is that the parent seeking custody (i.e mothers) have to go and find employment.

No doubt because these are women are physically capable of working but have been living off the state forever. Now how possible THAT will be for some of them given that they have no job skills and have never interacted with the outside world their whole lives, who knows?
Perhaps if they are showing some sort of attempt in learning skills and getting (at first) simple, lower skill jobs they will get their kids back? They may still need some state assist but they won't be ONLY living on state assist.

[Earth_First]

5. 46,666 per child per year. n/t

[madeline_con]

10. Wow! My kid lives in poverty by comparison.

Why not open a compound to house them all together? :shrug:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

7. It was probably costing nearly that much for them before

Those polygamous cults suck an amazing amount of welfare and social service dollars because there are so many children and the average family income is so low. Meanwhile, the "patriarchs" ride around in nice vehicles and have their own planes. Personally, I'd rather spend the money on them OUTSIDE of the cult.

[Holly_Hobby]

12. I'd like to know how they qualify for welfare without birth certs. n/t

[mrreowwr_kittty]

14. They manage to.

I'm sorry to say but the welfare offices probably don't check for them, since the kids are white. :grr: