Article: Foster care standards questioned DSS tells of `desperate need' for parents

Forty-one percent of Massachusetts foster homes -- including the Springfield house where a baby was scalded and died Saturday -- are run by single parents, responsible for raising the state's troubled and abused children alone.

In addition, many foster homes -- including single-parent households -- care for several children at once.

These facts prompted legislators who keep tabs on foster care to question the system yesterday, given that foster children often have been abused and neglected and need extra attention.

Officials with the state Department of Social Services have said they are sometimes forced to lower standards in approving foster homes and load up homes with several children ...

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