Foster care placements on rise in Triad Foster care placements rising in Triad; parental opioid addiction contributing to upswing

Adoption requirements:

Must be at least age 18;Individuals can adopt if single, married, divorced or widowed; own or rent; have parenting experience or none at all; already have children in your home or not;Adoptive applicants will be fingerprinted and have a criminal record check completed;While state law does not specify the number of training hours to become an adoptive parent, most adoption agencies provide training to those who want to be foster or adoptive parents;

Foster care requirements:

Minimum age to become a foster parent is 21.Individuals can foster if you are single, married, divorced or widowed; own or rent; have parenting experience or none at all; already have children in your home or not;Applicants will be fingerprinted and have a criminal record check completed;To be licensed as a foster parent, individuals will need to attend 30 hours of preparatory training called "Trauma-Informed Partnering for Safety and Permanence/Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting."

Source: AdoptUSKids.org

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Forsyth County has the lowest total of children in foster care among the state's eight urban counties.

However, the local count has been rising in pace with a statewide trend linked to increased opioid addiction among parents, according to lawmakers and county Department of Social Services directors.

"Between 75 percent and 80 percent of our foster care intakes are related to substance abuse, with the majority opioids," said John Blevins, DSS director for Wilkes County.

The latest total for Wilkes is 242 children in foster care as of May 31, up from 214 in May 2016 and nearly double the recent low of 125 in June 2012.

"It's really across all parental ages, and it's really reached the epidemic stage," Blevins said.

The latest count in Forsyth is 168 children - 92 boys and 76 girls - receiving foster care assistance, whether in a group home or with foster parents, according to UNC Chapel Hill Jordan Institute for Families. The largest group is in the infant to age 5 category at 69.

Going back to January 2000, the latest Forsyth count represents a 56.5 percent reduction from a high of 387 in January and February 2000.

However, the May total is up from 153 a year ago, as well as 57 percent above the low for the 17-year period of 107 in October 2012.

Among the eight urban counties (Buncombe, Cumberland, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg, New Hanover and Wake), the next lowest is Durham at 286. Cumberland has the highest at 879.

The increase in children in foster care comes as the state and legislators have increased programs to serve older youths up to age 21. Legislators were told in 2016 that as many as 350 individuals between ages 18 and 20 could opt to stay in foster care longer.

Debra Donahue, DSS director for Forsyth, said the opioid crisis with families and parents cuts "across all socioeconomic groups of parents, including race and gender: "It is definitely not a poor-person's issue only."

Donahue said Forsyth DSS has not experienced a foster care case in which the child has become addicted to opioids beyond his or her parent's ability to manage and control.

Blevins said substance abuse by parents tends to destabilize the household in terms of contributing to unemployment, loss of housing and domestic abuse.

"It's been hard to try to place children back into their homes when the substance abuse is not being corrected," Blevins said.

"We're constantly asking ourselves how we can contribute to resolving the opioid addiction problem in order to keep families together."

Even though the Wilkes unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in May - below the 5 percent level that most economists consider as full employment - Blevins said a lack of middle-class jobs continues to haunt the county's labor force.

Full employment typically is defined as everyone who wants a job has one, employers have the skilled workers they need and there is limited inflationary pressure on wages.

"When there is a sense of lost opportunities and hopelessness, some people tend to turn to other sources to cope," Blevins said.

11,000 in care statewide

Statewide, the number of children in foster care surpassed 11,000 in May - the highest level in 10 years and a nearly 28 percent increase since mid-2012, according to the Children's Home Society of N.C.

Nationally, there are more than 402,000 children in foster care, of which 84 percent are in family placement and 16 percent in non-family placement, such as group homes, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

There are 14 states, including North Carolina, where the number of foster kids has climbed more than 25 percent between 2011 and 2015, with most placements also triggered by the opioid crisis, according to Mother Jones.

The highest foster care total among the 14 counties in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina is Guilford at 560.

Donahue said a difference between the Forsyth and Guilford foster-care totals is that Forsyth tends to have more relatives "willing to step up and step in for the child in terms of giving them a safe environment outside foster care."

Donahue said the recent Forsyth increase is related in part to a 2015 decision by the county commissioners and manager Dudley Watts to fund two DSS work staff teams dedicated to in-home services.

Donahue said the goal whenever possible is keeping children with their family, whether parents or close relatives.

Donahue said the work staff teams have been effective in providing a realistic perspective on what parents and relatives have to do to keep children in a safe and healthy home environment.

"Those benchmarks have helped in many instances with a successful reunification, as well as helping parents determine realistically whether they are capable or willing to meet the benchmarks," she said.

Donahue said DSS staff is doing a better job at investigating neglect and substance abuse issues within an entire household, "thus enabling us to make better determinations ... and in some cases more placements."

DHHS official Cobey Culton said the total number of children in foster care is influenced by a variety of factors, including larger societal issues.

"On a case-by-case basis, the factors most closely associated with involvement in the foster-care system are poverty, family violence, parental history of abuse or neglect, and substance use, including opioids," Culton said.

"DHHS will continue to support services that strengthen families, prevent abuse and neglect, and reduce the need for foster care placements. DHHS will also continue to work with county DSS and private child placing agencies to ensure the availability of out-of-home services for children in need."

The opioid factor

State health officials disclosed May 18 that North Carolina has had a 73 percent jump in opioid-related deaths from 2005 to 2015. There were more than 13,000 opioid-overdose deaths in the state during the 10-year period.

That includes an increase from 13 to 53 in Forsyth. Overall, the 14-county region climbed from 130 to 235, representing 21.2 percent of the state's 1,110 opioid-related deaths in 2015.

On June 29, Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law the bipartisan STOP Act, which puts new restrictions on medical providers who prescribe and dispense opioid drugs, and required electronic prescription filing.

The bill would limit the public supply of opioids, as well as clarify funding for syringe exchange programs. The bill includes $20 million over two years for local substance-abuse treatment and recovery services.

On May 21, North Carolina received a two-year, $31 million federal grant for opioid prevention, treatment and recovery initiatives from the 21st Century Cures Act as part of state-targeted responses. Eighty percent of the federal funding must target outreach, engagement, treatment and recovery services.

"The state Department of Health and Human Services tracks several factors that influence swings in foster care," said Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange and Democratic minority whip.

"One that has increased is drug use driven by opioid addiction, thus we are having to expand our foster care program.

"I'm grateful for the many excellent foster care families in the system; but the best option for any child is to grow up in a stable, loving two-parent home," Insko said.

Initiatives

The increase in children in foster care comes as the state and legislators have increased programs to serve older youths up to age 21.

The 2017-18 and 2018-19 state budgets contain $1.38 million in Social Services block grants for foster care services.

In 2015, the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a bill that extended services of foster care to age 21 under specific conditions. A legislative update from March 2016 determined that at least 350 individuals age 18 to 20 would choose to receive the assistance.

The law requires beneficiaries to either be enrolled in post-secondary or vocational education, a job- or skills-training program, working at least 80 hours a month, or be physically disabled and not able to fulfill the educational or employment requirement.

The law permits a beneficiary to live outside the foster home to attend college or a university. The students are required to either stay in a dorm or other "semi-supervised housing arrangement" approved by the appropriate county Social Services department.

It also permits beneficiaries to opt out and opt in for services. The law allows foster parents to receive monthly payments until the youth turns 21 if the youth was adopted at age 16 or 17.

A separate initiative, Youth Villages Transitional Living Model, has been tracking the progress of more than 7,000 foster-care participants in categories that include housing stability, wages, economic hardship, mental health and intimate partner violence. Funding comes from a 50-50 private-public partnership.

In July 2015, the General Assembly passed the "Foster Care Family Act," which allows a foster parent, without having to obtain previous approval from the county Department of Social Services, to give permission to the foster child to participate in extracurricular and social activities that include overnight stays of up to 72 hours without the presence of the foster parent.

Other provisions include revising the juvenile code to deal with abuse, neglect and chemical dependency; being able to obtain optional liability insurance for foster parents; and making it easier for foster children, as well as those in the custody of the state DHHS, to obtain a driver's license and automobile insurance.

During the 2017 session, the General Assembly passed House Bill 630, known as Rylan's law from the death of a child after being returned from foster care to his parents.

The law, which went into effect July 1, features a two-year pilot program in which DHHS reimburses the cost - on a first-come, first-served basis - for a foster care youth and foster parents associated with the fees of getting a driver's license, including insurance.

The law includes another pilot program that allows foster parents to be waived of employment requirements if they are serving foster children in the intensive alternative family training program.

Youths in the program typically have experienced suspension or been expelled from school, and require multiple weekly therapy sessions and medication management, and individual education assistance.

Adoptions

Children's Home Society, which has facilities in Winston-Salem, is responding to the rise in foster care placements by initiating a four-year plan that will double the number of completed adoptions.

The Duke Endowment recently announced it will provide the agency with a $3.7-million, four-year grant to expand foster care, early intervention and prevention services in the state.

Children's Home Society plans to triple the number of children served by child-specific recruitment, which is designed to find permanent homes for children who have been in foster care the longest.

Two members of the Children's Home Society senior leadership team are being promoted to assume added responsibilities "as the agency undergoes this significant growth."

"Children's Home Society has more than 100 years of experience in responding to the greatest needs of children and families, and we are poised to do more to help the growing number of children in crisis today," said Brian Maness, the group's president and chief executive.

"The need is great for permanent, safe and loving families for children at risk in North Carolina.

"Last year, we were able to place only 12 percent of the children referred to us," Maness said.

"We need to increase public awareness of the foster care crisis and expand our capacity of adoptive and foster homes for children."

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Source: AdoptUSKids.orgrcraver@wsjournal.com 336-727-7376 @rcraverWSJ