Second Time Foster Child

In a juvenile courtroom, the judge reprimanded the caseworkers, the attorneys, and CASA for responding to a no-fault dependency case as an abuse case, “There is nobody bad here!“ There were no criminals. There was no crime. Then why were we sitting in the accused chairs? As an infant, Daniel entered the foster care system as a result of severe neglect, which manifested in violence and aggression later in his childhood. Desperate to get their adoptive son, Daniel, into a residential treatment center and keep their other children safe, the state of Illinois left Jim and Toni Hoy with two options. If they brought their son home from the psychiatric hospital for the 11th time in 2 years, the Department of Children and Family Services threatened to charge them with child endangerment for failure to protect their other children. Mental health professionals recommended abandoning him at the hospital after the state denied all viable sources of funding for his treatment. Making that choice would trigger a child abuse investigation and subsequent neglect charges. Daniel re-entered the foster care system for no other reason than he was mentally ill. A year later, Daniel’s mother discovered that his treatment was covered by a funding source that he was awarded as part of his special needs adoption. The EPSDT provision of Medicaid. How could they get the state government to understand the federal law and re-gain custody of their son? “Second Time Foster Child” is the story of parents who never gave up on their son, despite being prosecuted and persecuted in exchange for his medically necessary treatment.

Author Biography

oni Hoy, a long time foster-adoptive parent, lives in the Chicago area. As a leading child mental health advocate, she has made presentations before state departments and legislators. She was interviewed on WORT’s radio program, “Healthwriter” and has authored articles for the Family Defense Center newsletter and Rise Magazine as a free-lance writer. She chairs the Children’s Advocacy Committee for NAMI Barrington Area affiliate, where she serves as a board member. In addition, she authors a regular column for the NAMI Barrington Area newsletter called “In the Trench” and facilitates a family support group. She earned a B.A. in Communications from Thomas Edison State College and was a recipient of the Arnold Fletcher Award for academic excellence. She is married and has four children.