Greitens announces reform for foster youth

Submitted photo 
In a Thursday morning ceremony at the Central Missouri Foster Care & Adoption Association’s office in Jefferson City, Gov. Eric Greitens signed the Foster Care Bill of Rights into law, which makes changes to the state’s child protection laws.
Submitted photo In a Thursday morning ceremony at the Central Missouri Foster Care & Adoption Association’s office in Jefferson City, Gov. Eric Greitens signed the Foster Care Bill of Rights into law, which makes changes to the state’s child protection laws.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens says the state no longer will make children in foster care pay a $15 fee to get copies of their birth certificates.

Greitens in a Friday statement said the change is aimed at making it easier for teenagers in foster care to get records needed to apply for a driver's license and jobs.

"To get a driver's license or to fill out employment paperwork, you need a birth certificate; and if you're a foster child you probably don't have your birth certificate," Greitens said in a news release. "No one in your life knows where it is. You could request it, but the state - your legal parent - will make you pay for it. And that's tough because you may not have the cash. You may not even have your own bank account."

First Lady Sheena Greitens suggested the change after youths in foster care complained to her about fees. She says the change will lower barriers for kids in foster care and help them develop life skills.

The new governor and first lady have said helping foster care children is a priority for them.

"Foster kids don't have teams of lobbyists," Greitens said in Friday's news release. "They don't know insiders or the special interests. And in the past, that meant that they were - like too many Missourians-forgotten."

Greitens' spokesman Parker Briden says costs to the state will be minimal but didn't provide an estimated price tag.

"Having a free birth certificate helps me because in order to get a job I needed mine,"State Youth Advisory Board Chairperson Edie Hammet said in the governor's news release. "I wasn't able to get a copy from my caseworker, so my foster parents had to cover the cost. Not every youth is that lucky. So this change helps provides independence skills for youth in care to be able to get a job, a license, and any number of things that other young people their age are getting."