I read this yesterday and it made me sick.
I think a big part of the problem is that they don't have anywhere to put these kids so these families that take on 18 of them aren't stopped. It's not exactly easy to find foster families for disabled children. While I'm not as familiar as the system as it relates to physically disabled children, I'm quite familiar with how things are going in the mental health system in Michigan. So many facilities for mentally ill children have been closed that there is no where for them to go.
In fact, here is an article from the Detroit Free Press on 7/7/04
Thousands of children sit needlessly in the nation's juvenile-detention facilities because they need mental health services, costing those facilities more than $100 million a year, according to a survey commissioned by two lawmakers to be released todayin Washington.
read the rest
My gut instinct is that it is no easier to find placements for physically disabled kids than it is to find placements for the kids in that article.
Sad state of affairs for these kids... (and part of what makes me a liberal).
Dee