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ASK-Y Meeting Minutes: 4/23/07
Present:
- Columbia Legal Services: Casey Trupin
- Friends of Youth: Sarah Gullette, Kendra Roberts
- Lutheran Community Services: Karen Danz
- Mockingbird Society: Jim Theofelis, Lauren Frederick, Zahra Abasheikh
- NWNY: Gary Hammons
- YMCA: Sean Walsh
- YouthCare: Joanna Ward, Johnny Ohta
Welcome/Introductions
- Jim welcomed the group and members introduced themselves.
Legislative Review (Samuel Martin & Jim Theofelis)
- Mockingbird Youth Representative Sam Martin and Jim Theofelis reviewed the legislation that was passed this session. Bills that improve the lives of foster youth include HB 1201 Extending Medicaid for Foster Youth, HB 1922 Creating an Independent Youth Housing Program, and HB 1131 Creating the Passport to College Program. Other important bills included 1472, the Reducing Racial Disproportionality bill; 1088, the mental health bill; and legislation related to kinship care.
- Jim talked about how CTED (the Washington State Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development) will be involved in the implementation of HB 1922. This will give housing vouchers to foster youth aging out of care until age 23.
- Jim thanked the group, particularly the youth, for all their work participating in Youth Advocacy Day and for helping pass these bills.
- The next steps for these bills are for the Governor to sign them. Then they become law, and implementation committees are set up to put the bills into action as necessary.
- Casey said that as soon as the law is effective, from that date forward HB 1201 would take effect for young people who had not yet aged out or were legal dependents of the state (so youth on the run would be eligible). The only thing that needs to happen is for the state to do an address check on the eligible youth. Then they are automatically enrolled, which is something that we fought hard for.
- Lauren will send out a budget comparison that shows which bills were funded in the state’s final budget.
Braam Update (Casey Trupin)
- This budget does not support the Braam settlement. None of the items that supported kids in foster care were included in the final budget. The budget did include money to pay for more social workers, but not as many as are needed. From Casey’s perspective, the budget is shocking and disappointing.
- This budget is a good one for youth who are transitioning out of care, but it is not a good budget for youth who are still in care or are facing many years in care. Jim again stated that we would not have this positive result for youth aging out of care without the efforts of ASK-Y.
- Najja asked if we can focus on bills that support other ages of youth in care (for younger children). Jim stated that this is something Mockingbird Society would like to do, and we are looking for interns or other advocacy support so we can increase our capacity to respond to the many requests to support additional bills and advocacy efforts. We are not able to respond to all the requests that we receive at this time. Jim stated that MBS strategically decided to focus on older youth in the system.
- Casey stated that Braam is at a crisis point. The Governor, the legislature, and certain parts of the legislature are not behind this effort.
- Casey gave a brief overview of the Braam settlement. The data indicates that in 15 different areas, youth are not doing well. Of the 12 areas that the department was supposed to address in 2005 and 2006, none of the benchmarks were addressed. Failures included siblings still being separated, mental health screenings not being provided, mental health services not being received, youth running away, etc. In one instance the numbers actually went backward (sibling separations). Also, more kids are coming into care with 3 or more placements, and there are still fewer beds for more children. The results will be more runaways, more sibling separation, and more foster parent burn out. This information is all online at Braamkids.org.
- Because the budget does not address many issues related to Braam, the Braam settlement may end up back in court. The next data will be out in November. Advocates feel very unsupported by the Governor and the Senate because of the lack of funds in the final budget related to Braam.
- Jim asked Casey to create a “cheat sheet” that would show, at a glance, what is going on with Braam so we can educate others about the problems.
Right to Counsel for Kids in Foster Care
- Kids in care need effective attorneys. This week, Washington state will be getting an F on the report card that is coming from the national level. This is in terms of older youth having an attorney to help them.
- Mockingbird youth talked about their experiences with attorneys at a local ABA function.
- One of our youth present at the meeting stated that she had 9 placements in a couple of months; she definitely feels that youth are experiencing more (and worse) placements over the past year.
- Jim again asked the agencies here to decide what it would take to take our coalition statewide and involve more youth from our agencies. We need a core group of youth who can run more of the advocacy efforts in our state.
- Sam proposed a law that youth in foster care need to be represented by an attorney, as in other state. Washington state is the only state that does not provide attorneys for youth in care.
Continuing/Future Advocacy Efforts
- Joanna Ward is now working with girls in juvenile detention who are being sexually exploited. She is working on a bill 5718 (sponsored by Senator Hargrove) that would give more severe charges to pimps who exploit minors. However, the girls that are being picked up as prostitutes (who are minors) are receiving the harsher treatment and they are not treated as victims, but as prostitutes. They are being sent to juvenile for up to a year, instead of to Spruce Street or other options. This bill would allow them to be treated as minors who are being exploited, rather than as adult offenders.
- Gary said that in some states, underage girls are being charged as adults for engaging in prostitution. In many states, the law does not recognize that they have pimps and are being victimized.
- Misty suggested healthcare for the homeless for next year’s advocacy agenda.
- Casey said that California is working on a bill that requires that youth in care age 14 and up need access to their credit history. Relatives of kids in care often ruin the credit reports of youth in their families, and the youth cannot access their credit reports to fix the errors and fraud. Another proposed bill would verify whether someone who is applying for credit is actually over 18 before they receive credit.
- Another agenda item for next year could be reversing the Becca bill, so that young people will not be arrested for running away, and feel safe going to shelters. Now, shelters must report the runaway to the state and/or police after 8 hours. ASK-Y’s first bill asked (two years in a row) was for the Becca bill reporting requirements to be extended. This passed through the House unanimously but it did not even get a hearing in the Senate. Another issue is that there are not enough shelters for youth.
- Gary suggested that we look at what the rest of the county is doing in regards to this. In the off-session, we can look at a number of Becca bill issues. How can we as a service industry find out if there is a healthy adult in the youth’s life that can be contacted?
Future Participation in ASK-Y
- At the next meeting, we will talk about how we can get youth involved in ASK-Y. We need to talk about our vision.
- Jim asked all who are at the table to consider how and if they want to be involved in ASK-Y in the future.
Next Meeting:
- Monday, May 16th, 2007, at 3:30 PM in the 2100 Building
