An insurance shakeup in California threatens to uproot foster families
An insurance shakeup in California threatens to uproot foster families
Adriana Mancilla made a promise she would help kids after her daughter recovered from leukemia almost three decades ago. She didn’t know exactly how, but years later, the answer came in the mail.
“I looked at a magazine, a penny saver, that came here to the house, and it said, ‘If you want to help kids, they’re in foster care.’ And I was like, ‘Huh, let me call and see what this is all about,’” she said.
She made the call, got certified and began fostering kids in her Southern California home. She had originally thought she would foster for a couple of years — but that was more than two decades ago. Her three-bedroom house has since expanded to six.
Mancilla’s cared for about 150 children over the years, including five who were with her long term, like from when they were 8 years old to 21.
“They come here for Christmas and birthdays, and they call me Mom,” she said. “They’re my kids.”
Mancilla’s been able to provide this care because of a close-working relationship with a foster family agency. These organizations contract with counties to recruit, certify and support foster parents. But recently, Mancilla was worried the organization she fosters through would have to close.
That’s because the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California, which provides liability coverage to roughly 90% of the market for foster family agencies in the state, announced it was pulling out of the market, starting this month. These foster agencies have liability insurance in case of lawsuits and need it to operate foster homes.
Pamela Davis, president and CEO of the alliance, said recent trends in litigation became too costly. “That became unsustainable,” she said.
The insurance alliance has been seeing similar issues in other states, Davis said, but California stood out.
Last year, a jury awarded $25 million to three kids in Northern California who were sexually abused by their foster father. The foster family has to pay some of the damages, but the foster family agency is responsible for about 60% of those costs.
“It was kind of the match that lit this whole pile of kindling,” Davis said.
Without insurance, foster family agencies have to find new coverage or transfer families to another agency that’s insured.
Debbie Manners, president and CEO of Sycamores, a mental health agency that also runs foster family services, said the agency’s insurance is expiring in November. They’ve been scrambling to find new insurance, but haven’t had any luck so far. As a result, they decided to close the foster family services portion of the agency.
“We’re still looking, but it was clear to us that we wouldn’t find a company that would insure us if we didn’t close. So we made the very, very painful, difficult decision to do that,” Manners said.
Sycamores is now in the process of transferring families to other agencies and to the county.
“They’re devastated. We have some families we’ve had since 1998. It’s just very hard, it’s very painful,” she said.
There are around 9,000 children under the care of foster families who work with these kinds of agencies in California. And in many cases, counties have limited capacity to take on the work coordinating with and supporting foster families.
For foster parent Adriana Mancilla, she’s appreciated the support her agency has given her over the years. She can call social workers around the clock if she needs any help. She’s currently caring for two boys, one who’s been with her family for the last six years.
“It’s already hard enough for them to be apart from their families. So, it’s like, try to give them the comfort that they need when they’re going through those hard times,” she said.
She was relieved when she found out the agency she works with was able to secure another insurer, but the cost is about 30% higher — and that’s just for the next year.
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