The increase coincides with new and enhanced permanency-planning efforts that focus on older foster children and those who face other barriers to adoption, said Craig Rickett, Montgomery County Children Services adoption manager. Also, some larger sibling groups have found permanent homes.
Children who end up in the substitute care system tend to come from chaotic and unhealthy living situations, oftentimes involving substance abuse, mental illness, physical abuse and neglect, official said.
Some children have behavior or emotional issues. Some are born with drugs in their systems
But kids are resilient, and even the toughest cases can have happy endings, officials said. Youngsters flourish in stable, supportive and loving household environments.
“It is very rewarding to be a parent, and people don’t know what they’re missing,” said Viola Cullen, 59, of Clayton, who is the mother of eight adopted children, including two who were born addicted to drugs.
Last year, 90 children in the county’s foster care system found permanent homes. That compares to 72 children in 2013 and 63 in 2011. The numbers do not include private adoptions.
Older adoptions
It was the most adoptions in seven years. In 2007, 110 foster youth found permanent homes, and 91 did the prior year.
Children Services has stepped up efforts to find permanent homes for older children. Almost 45 percent of the 660 foster children in the county are 12 and older, agency data show.
The agency hosts recruitment events in which licensed adoptive and foster parents can interact with children — including many teens — in a comfortable and laid-back setting. Foster children and adults can play board games together. Past events have been held at bowling alleys.
Montgomery County Children Services also works with the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program, which is a part of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
The program for years has provided the county with two recruiters who focus on helping children considered “hard to place,” because they are older, part of sibling groups or have emotional and developmental challenges.
In late 2013, Children Services applied for and received a grant to fund a third recruiter. That addition has helped with the caseload.
The adoption totals last year received a boost because two sibling groups of four children each were adopted, and several groups of two siblings found permanent homes, Rickett said.
Children Services last year also partnered with several agencies to participate in a pilot program called “Permanency Roundtables.” The project focuses on foster children 12 and older who have been in substitute care for 17 months or longer.
Case workers, supervisors and child-welfare experts take part in structured meetings to determine the needs and barriers to adoption or other types of permanency for each individual child. Panel members also develop an action plan to find the children a permanent home. Children meet with the panel to provide feedback about their needs.
“It reviews the youth, their situation and what we as a community need to do to get these kids some permanency so they are not languishing in substitute care,” Rickett said.
About 191 youth were selected for the program last year, and more have been chosen for a second round, Rickett said.
Rickett said it is too early to say what impact the project has on adoption numbers. But he said the early evidence is promising.
He said Children Services officials are already discussing how to expand key elements of the program once the pilot period concludes.
Creating an extended family
Foster children need permanent homes because “life doesn’t end at the age at 18,” when they age out of the foster care system, Rickett said.
When youth become adults, they will need parents and loved ones they can turn to and rely on for support and guidance, he said.
“We constantly throughout the course of our lives — even as adults — reach out to our parents, our adult siblings, our aunts, our uncles, our grandparents,” he said. “Family is broad — how we define it — it does not have to be a blood relation.”
There are still many youth in the county who need foster or adoptive parents. Many of these children have been removed from dangerous and unhealthy living situations. Their experiences have been traumatic.
There were 3,450 children services investigations in the county 2014, with most involving neglect, physical abuse and emotional maltreatment. Not all investigations, however, result in children being placed in foster care.
Mark Ryan Cullen, 2, was born with opiates in his system, and he could not remain with his biological mother.
Withdrawal caused him pain, disrupting his sleep and he moaned constantly. Medical staff had to treat the child with methadone to wean him off opiates.
But the baby was adopted last year by Viola Cullen and her husband, Mark Cullen. He is doing quite well.
The Cullens have adopted eight children. They are MaKayla and Micah Joanne, both 15; Cheyanna, 11; Katelynn, 7; Karah and Tarah, 6; and Mia and Mark, 2.
Mark and Mia were born addicted to drugs. MaKayla and Micah Joanne are twins. So are Karah, Tarah, who also are the biological siblings of Katelynn and Mia. Cheyanna has a rare disease. Multiple children have medical issues or learning disabilities.
The children have complex needs, more so than many other foster children.
But the Cullens fostered the kids and fell in love and could not give them up when they learned reunification with blood relatives was not possible.
“We wanted to give them a loving home and an environment where they’ll thrive,” Viola Cullen said.
Cullen said she and her husband are religious and feel compelled to help these children, who she describes as a blessing.
Cullen and she wishes more people would become foster parents and more foster parents would choose adopt, because that would make a big difference in some child’s life.
“If more foster parents adopted, these children would not have problems later in life,” she said.
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