Substance abuse among families is a significant problem in the community, and another factor in removals is state guidance to classify referrals as abuse when mothers give birth to children who test positive for illegal drugs.
“The most important thing for child welfare is child safety,” said Craig Rickett, associate director of children services with the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services. “If a child or children cannot safely remain in their home, then, in order to assure that safety, we must remove them from the environment in which their safety is compromised.”
Some local programs offer treatment and other services to drug-addicted mothers that can help them avoid losing custody of their children.
The numbers
Child removal is the initial legal authorization of a public children services agency to place a child in substitute care when there are active safety threats that cannot be removed or controlled, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Law enforcement can remove children from their homes and place them into the emergency custody of the local child welfare agency if officers determine that a child is at imminent risk of abuse or neglect, local officials said.
Kids also can be removed via a court order when the child welfare agency files a motion or complaint with the local juvenile court requesting emergency custody, officials said.
Children are removed for abuse, neglect or dependency.
Last year, child welfare professionals across Ohio removed 1,964 children from their homes because of abuse, which was a 9% increase from 2020, according to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
Statewide removals due to abuse, however, were down 13% compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In 2019, there were 2,261 abuse removals and 4,439 neglect removals,” said Dasia Clemente, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “There were over 3,000 fewer removals in both 2020 and 2021 than in 2019.”
But in Montgomery County, removals linked to abuse shot up 47% last year, which was much higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Factors behind increase
Montgomery County has been criticized as too aggressive at removing children from their parents.
A group of protesters picketed outside the Montgomery County Juvenile Justice Center last year protesting the removal of two children from their family.
“We’re here to raise awareness of the illegal kidnapping of children by Montgomery County Children Services,” said protester Amanda Wallace.
Rickett said the agency changed how it screens referrals after a review ordered by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in response to the agency’s handling of cases that ultimately ended in the deaths of local children. The agency faced immense scrutiny and pressure to change after the death of 10-year-old Takoda Collins.
Rickett said other factors contributed to the increase as well.
“As the nation began opening back up from COVID-19, our children were once again around many other individuals, including professionals who are required by Ohio Revised Code to report their suspicions of abuse and/or neglect,” he said.
Other area counties are mostly down from 2019 and up slightly, if at all, from 2020. Butler County had the second-highest numbers in the region: 19 removals due to alleged abuse last year, up from 16 in 2020 and down from 48 in 2019.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Cuyahoga County had the most removals in the state — 238, or nine more than Montgomery County.
But Cuyahoga County (population 1.2 million) is much larger than Montgomery County (535,840).
Franklin County, with 1.3 million residents, had 167 removals; Hamilton County (population 830,640) had 134; and Summit County (population 540,430) had 199.
Montgomery County also saw a sizable recent increase in children being removed from their homes due to neglect, but the count was down slightly from 2019.
Cases of abuse
Ohio children services agencies assess and investigate reports of child abuse, neglect, or dependency, and reports often come from workers at hospitals, daycares and schools. The Dayton Daily News reviewed court records from recent years to illustrate how this process works.
In 2016, staff at a local daycare contacted authorities when they discovered that a young boy had a severe burn on his leg that officials did not believe was caused by a sunburn, as his family claimed, according to records from the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Second Appellate District.
Montgomery County Children Services took emergency custody of the boy, who officials also learned recently had suffered an injury, since he had a large bruise on the base of his skull.
Juvenile court adjudicated him as an abused, neglected and dependent child, and children services eventually was awarded permanent custody of the boy, who was placed into foster care. The boy’s foster mom said he had significant medical and emotional issues and developmental delays that required occupational, speech, physical and behavioral therapy.
Credit: Lisa Powell
Credit: Lisa Powell
Montgomery County Children Services makes reasonable efforts to return children whom it removes to their parents and custodians, said Rickett, and the agency last year successfully returned nearly 40% of children that were taken into its custody.
While home removals and placement into foster care can be very stressful and traumatizing for children, officials say reunification is not in the best interest of a child if the homes they would return to aren’t safe.
“Ohio Administrative Code is clear in that all (public children service agencies) must make every effort to place children in the least restrictive environment, including kinship and non-kinship (family friends),” Rickett said. “If efforts are unsuccessful in placing children with kinship or non-kinship providers, then foster care options become available.”
Montgomery County works collaboratively with partner agencies to provide prevention services and resources to families to try to prevent living situations from becoming dangerous, he said.
But the county has seen an increase in substance abuse-related family issues, Rickett said, and removals for abuse likely have increased because they include mothers who give birth to babies who test positive for narcotics.
Born on opiates
Montgomery County Children Services a few years ago removed a newborn from his mother’s care after the boy tested positive for opiates at birth, according to appellate court records.
A trial court adjudicated the boy as an abused and dependent child, and children services was granted temporary custody and put him into foster care.
Children services created a case plan that sought to reunite the boy with his parents, but it was awarded permanent custody after the parents failed to complete the plan.
The mother failed to seek drug and alcohol follow-up treatment, refused drug testing and was arrested and jailed for drug offenses.
In another case, the agency took custody of a girl who tested positive for drugs and whose weight and body temperature were dangerously low, court records show. The child had a long hospital stay, and the mother left the hospital against medical advice the day she was born.
The girl was adjudicated by juvenile court as abused and dependent, and children services received permanent custody and put her into foster care.
Credit: contributed photo
Credit: contributed photo
The mother had previously tested positive for opiates when she gave birth to a child six years earlier, and that child, who also tested positive for drugs, was adjudicated as abused and dependent and placed into the care of the father.
The child was later placed into children services’ custody, following a law enforcement removal.
Available help
Some states criminalize drug use during pregnancy, prosecute expecting mothers who take narcotics and consider drug use during pregnancy as child abuse.
But some medical experts say such policies are unproductive and harmful.
Dr. Chris Croom, medical director of Promise to Hope, says addiction is a disease, and stigma about drug and alcohol use during pregnancy keeps women from getting vital treatment and prenatal care.
“We have poorly controlled diabetic patients ... the consequences of poorly controlled diabetes is much worse than the consequences of using opiates during the pregnancy — but none of them get locked up,” Croom said.
Promise to Hope, which is funded by the Miami Valley Hospital Foundation, was established at the peak of the opioid crisis and offers treatment and care to mothers who use drugs and alcohol and their babies.
About 700 mothers have participated in the program since it launched in 2013, Croom said, and about 95% of the women who stayed with the program were able to take their babies home, the newborns went home with a family member or they had a safety plan.
Less than 5% of children whose mothers stayed in the program ended up in foster care, he said.
Other local resources include Brigid’s Path, a newborn recovery center in Kettering.
The center cares for babies who were exposed to addictive substances as their mothers go through treatment and work toward building a stable life.
The center provides safe housing that helps prevent babies from ending up in foster care, and moms can room with and care for their babies at the facility.
Child removals for abuse, neglect in Montgomery County
2021: 229 for abuse, 220 for neglect
2020: 156 for abuse, 177 for neglect
2019: 159 for abuse, 224 for neglect
2018: 158 for abuse, 264 for neglect
2017: 109 for abuse, 181 for neglect
Source: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
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