“It is always a tragedy when a child dies and in the case of Jazzmin Davis, it is also unfortunate that she apparently suffered for a long time while in the care of her aunt. This case, along with the countless others, reiterates the need for us to examine the way in which we are tracking youth in our Foster Care System including those who are in relative care. We cannot continue to polarize these distressing issues only when a child dies. It is our responsibility to make sure our children are safe at all times. We need to develop solutions that will help us reform the system with the main goal of protecting foster youth. These are our children and they cannot afford to have us continue to take a band aid approach when addressing the gaps in the Foster Care System. We have to invest in overall reform if we are really committed to better outcomes for our foster youth.”
Foster care reform has been one of Speaker Bass’ primary issues since talking office in 2004. She led the efforts to secure more than $82 million dollars in the most significant new investment in foster care in a decade, and led a bipartisan effort to enact a host of new laws to help improve the state’s Foster Care System, the largest in the country with more than 80,000 youth.