The number of children placed in foster care statewide has jumped in recent years. While abuse and neglect are primary reasons, so is parental drug addiction.
Bartholomew County is experiencing the same trends.
According to Indiana Youth Institute data:
Statewide, the number of children in foster care increased 58 percent from 2011-2015, from 10,779 children to 17,023.
Bartholomew County’s child abuse/neglect rate for children under 18 increased from 7 percent in 2012 to 17.1 percent in 2016.
The number of children in need of services in Bartholomew County, as identified by the Department of Child Services (DCS), increased 46 percent from 2012 to 2016, from 163 to 238.
Drug addiction by parents is playing a big role in the increased need for foster care. The statewide percentage of children removed from home because of parental drug and/or alcohol abuse increased from 31.7 percent in 2013 to 52.2 percent in 2016, according to DCS data.
According to Advocates for Children, an agency that provides volunteers to look out for the best interests of children who have been removed from their homes and are in the court system, 84 percent of the 456 children it served in Bartholomew County in 2017 came from homes where substance abuse was a factor in the removal.
Drugs are the No. 1 reason kids are removed from their parents in the three counties — Bartholomew, Jennings and Decatur — that Advocates for Children serves, said John Nickoll, program manager for Advocates for Children.
When a child needs to be placed in a foster home, DCS will locate a home depending on the needs of a child and find the best fit to ensure a safe and stable environment. The home could be one either through DCS or a private provider, said Erin Murphy, DCS spokeswoman.
However, the need for foster care is greater than what can be provided.
“We get placement calls all days and all nights from all over the state,” said Cathy Martoccia, regional manager for National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP), a private foster care agency that serves Bartholomew, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson and Shelby counties in DCS’s Region 14, and has an office in Columbus.
Many of those requests can’t be filled, Martoccia said, because of an insufficient number of foster homes or ones that match the child’s needs, such as with disabilities.
“We can’t keep up with getting new (foster) homes and licensing them as kids coming into care,” said Brandy Pollock, program supervisor for foster care at NYAP.
In fact, DCS often has to turn to foster homes in other counties in order to find placements for Bartholomew County children, Martoccia said.
DCS statistics regarding placement of Bartholomew County in foster care with all providers reflects that. Of the 206 children placed in foster care in March, 96 of them, or 46.6 percent, had to be placed in a foster home in another county.
Separating children from their communities and schools through out-of-county placements, on top of removing them from their families, adds to the trauma the children experience, Nickoll said. Sometimes, siblings have to be divided among foster homes because of space limitations.
In Bartholomew County, there are 24 foster homes through DCS and 42 through private providers, and Region 14 is served by 260 foster homes total, Murphy said.
NYAP has more than 50 foster homes it works with, but not every home is able to fill a request. Some foster homes prefer children of certain ages or with specific needs, and sometimes they are at capacity with children currently receiving care, Martoccia said. Also, finding placements for teenage boys is more challenging because they are considered to be more difficult, Pollock said.
Foster challenges
The Columbus NYAP office receives calls daily from people interested in becoming foster parents, Martoccia said, but not all inquiries result in new foster homes.
Prospective foster parents with NYAP must undergo 30 hours of initial training, and undergo backgrounds checks and home reviews before they can be licensed.
However, several challenges sometimes cause prospects to change their mind. One is the state’s per diem rate for foster families, which varies based on a child’s age and level of need. It falls short of covering the actual costs for day care, food, clothing, travel and other expenses, Martoccia said.
“Nobody comes out ahead,” she said.
Prospective foster parents also learn how hard the role can be. The sexual, physical or emotional trauma the children have experienced can make providing care substantially more difficult, Martoccia said.
Also, some learn that NYAP is a licensed therapeutic foster care provider whose goal is for the child to be reunified with the biological parents. Adoption is viewed as a measure only when reunification is not possible, Martoccia said.
Solutions
Foster care providers say the shortage of foster homes necessitates more people becoming licensed to provide such care.
“What we need is unlimited (foster homes) because the need in the state is so great,” Martoccia said.
“Every region is in need of families to step up to become foster families to meet the need of our children,” Murphy said.
However, more foster families alone won’t take care of the situation, Martoccia said. What’s needed are more drug treatment programs and facilities to help with parents get clean so they can reunify with their children, she said.
Having more workplaces willing to hire people with felony drug convictions also would help the parents, Martoccia said.
Nickoll agreed with the need for more treatment help for parents because the pace of kids being removed from homes makes it unlikely that the pace of licensing new foster parents can catch up.
The new Family Recovery Court in Bartholomew County is a positive step in that direction, Nickoll added. The goal of the problem-solving court is to reunify recovering drug addicts with their children.
In the court program, parents with addictions are first provided a support network of holistic, strength-based services that focus on abilities and potential. Participating parents are held accountable through frequent monitoring, evaluations and reviews.
“I think the crux of the issue is getting treatment for parents quicker and more efficiently,” Nickoll said.
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To learn more about foster care and being a foster parent:
Go online to the Department of Child Services’ website at in.gov/dcs/fostercare.htm
Go online to National Youth Advocate Program’s website at nyap.org
Contact NYAP’s regional manager, Cathy Martoccia, at [email protected] or 812-342-4220
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