afterfostercare

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This is a very common mis-understanding. Kids go into foster care or temporary housing for many reasons. Most of them are not there as a result of their own behavior. They are apprehended from school by social workers employed by the Children's Aid Societies as the result of reports by school staff, or others in the community who report that a child is either being abused, physically or sexually, living in poverty and are not being kept up to the standard of cleanliness that the rest of society deems acceptable, or as a result of witnessing their parents fighting. There are of course many more issues that kids end up in foster care because of, but mostly it has nothing to do with the actions of the child themselves. Please give my life story a listen at http://www.afterfostercare.ca/subway.html to hear what kids in foster care experience quite often. On average, as quoted by the Minister of Children and Youth Services herself, kids move through different foster homes and schools approximately once every two years or less. This is emotionally devastating to kids in care who are in care or temporary housing. Thanks for listening.

Kids in foster care and homeless shelters should be able to attend their same school without paying fees or having to transfer schools because they have moved as a result of adult decisions.(new foster home/shelter in other part of town) Bill 133 will allow them to stay in their original school as long as they are within 30km of it, and until either the end of the school year, or until they get permanent housing, which ever comes first. Visit http://www.ontla.on.ca under Bills Index to see 133. Call your MPP and tell them you support the bill if you do to help it get passed. Thanks

Ok, I get you now. I simply can leave the Board members Bio's blank and just provide their names and numbers without implying in any way that they are or are not parents, foster parents, or children in care. Is that right? (this part added later) I can as you said, remove the requirement that members of the Board be any of those listed in the publication ban provision of the Act and leave it up to the decision of the Board and the corporations members to vote on whether they be elected as Board members. It could be an unwritten rule or something like that. Yes, consulting a lawyer would be helpful

I appreciate your quick response. Actually those who are members of the Board are parents (natural or birth) of children in care. This is the nature of the organization. So I understand what you are saying there, to make it so that the Board of Directors is not made up of people who are any of those covered in ss. 45(8) CFSA, but that I am afraid would defeat the entire purpose of the organization. I guess it is more a matter of which legislation has priority. The legislation which would make it mandatory for names to be made public, or the CFSA. It would make an interesting case law any how. Once again, thank-you for your quick response. PS: Former foster children are not banned from publication under that section of the Act. But I know what you were getting at. Basically try to avoid it.

The Foster Care Council of Canada is an unregistered non-profit organization. Its Board of Directors is made up of people who have lived in foster care, as well as people who have children in foster care. The issue I am faced with is basically explained by the following provision of a provincial Act listed below; According to Sub-Section 45(8) of the Child and Family Services Act (Ontario); My question is this. Is a registered non-profit corporation required to make the names of the Board of Directors publicly available? If so, this would be in Direct violation of the ss. 45(8) of the Child and Family Services Act. How does one deal with this?

When the summer "break" starts and the Legislature is on recess for the summer, what do the MPP's do? Are there committee meetings? Do they work on legislation or does that type of work wait until the next legislature starts in the fall.

I am interested to see if people are interested in starting a Municipal Politics forum here as well as the Federal and Provincial forums.

Bill 210 passed in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and still awaits regulations to be created by the Ministry regarding accountability and other issues which are reported to be released in November of 2006. Specifically section 68 of the Child and Family Services Act (the Act) of which Bill 210 will change. Section 68 of the Child and Family Services Act (the Act) deals with the complaints procedure of a Children's Aid Society (CAS). Currently it is only a rough guide to all of the Societies allowing them to create their own policy regarding complaints. Unfortunately this has not worked well for thousands of complainants, (like the police monitoring the police) so the Ministry is working on a new regulation which will standardize all 53 CAS's complaint procedures. When Bill 210 was first read in the Assembly, Section 68 was worded in such a way as to reduce accountability and caused a huge public out cry. Many members of the public presented at the Social Policy's committee hearings to submit their stories and suggestions and complaints about child welfare matters including the Ombudsman of Ontario who stated that he wanted his office to have jurisdiction over CAS's. The government refused to involve the Ombudsman. He is still fighting to get oversight into the decisions that CAS's make without success. Advocates and community members are fighting as well to get the Ombudsman to have jurisdiction over CAS's through petitions. Andrea Horwath of the NDP has created Bill 88, a bill to give the Ombudsman to have jurisdiction over CAS's and the Foster Care Council of Canada is attempting to get access to the Regulations making procedure in order to give a stakeholders voice in the process. As an example of CAS's keeping accountability to a minimum, read this letter where a CAS is refusing to give memberships to people who would like to get involved in the process of holding them to account. More to come soon...