This is Kathey and Rob Raskin of Las Vegas, and today on our blog StopDHR Corruption we’d like to discuss the exorbitant cost of emergency placement foster care through DSHS in the State of Washington. Once again, child protective organizations are at it, thinking of new ways to profit from wrenching families apart. With hotel placements costing approximately $2,100 per night, over the past two years the State of Washington has spent $3.6M housing foster kids in hotels in just the last two years, which is much more expensive than the $600 per night that is needed to pay for “exceptional cost placement.” When you consider the fact that many of these children may not have needed to be removed from their homes in the first place, the amount of wastefulness in this situation is staggering.

A Better Alternative

We, Kathey and Rob Raskin, can think of much better ways this money could have been spent, and the first thing that comes to mind is spending it on resources to keep families together rather than paying foster parents who may just be in it for the money to warehouse these children, who are already so vulnerable. In just four homes in Washington in 2006, foster parents received $412K for these emergency placements. Many of the families whose children have been removed simply need more resources and help, but when you consider the greed and corruption of child protective agencies, it is not surprising that the state is electing to distribute the money to the system instead of to families in crisis.