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Advocacy

Hitting the MARC: Establishing Foster Care Minimum Adequate Rates for Children was released in 2007 and widely disseminated. Recipients included:

• Every state and county public child welfare agency across the country
• Thousands of private child welfare service providers across the country
• Tens of thousands of foster parents via the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) and state and local foster parent associations
• Members of Congress
• State legislators
• Thousands of media outlets, which produced coverage reaching millions of Americans

The report has been presented at multiple conferences, including those of the Child Welfare League of America, NFPA, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, and the Foster Family Treatment Association.

Advocacy Support to States

Children’s Rights and NFPA are supporting states in their advocacy and also working on advocacy at the federal level with members of Congress and the Administration, along with other partners such as Child Welfare League of America, the Alliance for Children and Families, and Voices for America’s Children.

In addition to making technical assistance available to all states, NFPA provided small grants to five states to support local advocacy efforts: Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, and Massachusetts.

Selected examples of advocacy follow-up from the report include (but are not limited to) the following:

California

• On October 3, 2007, the day that Hitting the MARC was released, California advocates filed a lawsuit against the state citing the report and seeking adequate rates. On October 21, 2008, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that California’s low payments to foster parents violate federal law and requiring the state to establish a system for determining the actual costs of foster care. (A PDF of the court’s decision can be found here, and an LA Times article on the ruling is available here.)

Illinois

• The Child Care Association of Illinois and the Illinois Foster and Adoptive Parent Association advocated with legislators via hearings, press conferences and in-person visits for a rate increase.
• After a contentious budget session, $5 million for a one-time three-percent “cost-of-doing business” adjustment for foster parents was put in the final legislative budget. The governor has since vetoed this increase; the Senate now has the option of considering a veto override.
• Lawmakers also introduced a bill calling for Illinois to either adopt the MARC methodology for setting rates or develop an alternative method for doing so.

Maryland

• On July 1, 2008, Maryland implemented a $100 monthly rate increase. This is the last of three rate increases over 2007-2008.

Massachusetts

• The Massachusetts Alliance for Families and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children organized a Foster Family Day at the State House, meeting with legislators on pending legislation that would link the cost of caring for a foster child to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates of the costs of caring for children. (The MARC rates used the USDA estimates as a base and made adjustments to them.) This bill was signed into law on July 8, 2008. An appropriation in the state budget is being sought to fund the increase. In addition, the legislation also requires the Office of the Child Advocate to develop an annual adjustment to the rates so they will keep pace with increases in the cost of caring for foster children.

Mississippi

• The state agreed to implement the MARC rates as part of the settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by Children’s Rights seeking the comprehensive reform of Mississippi’s child welfare system.

Missouri

• After significant advocacy by the Missouri Coalition of Children’s Agencies, the Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association and the St. Louis Foster & Adoptive Coalition, on June 27, 2008, the governor signed a bill into law increasing funding for foster care reimbursement by $1 million. This will raise rates by $7 – $9 per month.

North Carolina

• The North Carolina legislature passed in July 2008 an $8.2 million increase for foster care rates in the state budget for 2009. This will raise monthly rates by 22 percent for children under age six (from $390 to $475), by 32 percent for children ages 6-12 (from $440 to $581), and by 29 percent for children age 13 and over (from $490 to $634). It is the largest reimbursement rate increase since the program’s inception.

Virginia

• The Virginia House of Delegates and Senate reached a compromise that will raise rates by 15 percent in July 2008 and eight percent in July 2009.

Wisconsin

• Foster families in Milwaukee County received a five-percent raise in their reimbursement rate this year and can expect another increase next year.

In addition, in Ohio, during a celebration of National Foster Care Month on May 1, 2008, the Ohio Foster Care Association (OFCA) and the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies distributed Hitting the MARC and related materials to legislators. Other states, including Maine, Oregon, Vermont and Rhode Island, are using the MARC report in upcoming advocacy activities.

Children’s Rights, the NFPA, and others will continue to support advocacy at the state level for increased rates and at the national level for appropriate minimum standards. Check back frequently for updates.