Ohio鈥檚 foster care system has seen a significant increase in the number of children in protective custody. It鈥檚 one of the ripple effects of the opioid crisis. Last year, for example, The child and the child's 9-year-old sibling were removed from the home and placed in the custody of Summit County Children's Services.
Summit County reports a 28 percent increase in the number of kids in protective custody in the last five years. Last year, nearly half of the removals were due to parental drug use. And of those cases, 44 percent involved opioids.
In Cuyahoga County, the number of children in foster care doubled in four years, to 1,400 kids last year.
Statewide, estimates that if the opioid epidemic continues at its current pace, 20,000 children will be in foster care by 2020, a 33 percent increase from today鈥檚 numbers.
In an effort to keep up, the state is piloting a program in nine counties, including Cuyahoga, Summit, and Stark, to find the relatives of a child entering protective custody and recruit them to take the child in. The $1 million program, announced in 2017, is being managed by formerly called The Waiting Child Fund.
鈥淵es, we鈥檝e known for some time kinship care has better outcomes and is better for the children," said Kinnect's executive director Mike Kenney. 鈥淗owever, the truth of the matter is many counties struggle to find more than 4, 5 6 family members because they鈥檙e operating out of crisis mode and looking for a placement."
The pilot program is called . It was developed seven years ago in St. Louis, Missouri.
Kenney says its goal is to get a child placed with a relative within 30 days of entering the foster care system, or at the very least, connected to relatives who can provide support. 鈥淭he natural supports, transportation to school, meals, cash assistance, just the things we rely on in our own network,鈥� he said.
Robert Myers, deputy director of Stark County鈥檚 Children Services Division, said it鈥檚 an approach that is challenging the quick placement crisis mindset of child welfare work.
鈥淔or foster care it鈥檚 a mindset change, for staff. And just, for the whole child welfare system. Because it鈥檚 more than just saying I want to find somebody to place this kid with. It鈥檚, 鈥榃e wanna do the best possible job at doing that.鈥欌��
Myers said the 30 Days program promotes a new way of thinking about the search for a relative with whom to place a child in crisis.
鈥淵ou have to be willing to look at families that sometimes have been through some of the same thing as the families you鈥檙e working with. Not everybody agrees that family鈥檚 the best thing. Because you have trained foster parents who are sometimes seen as the better option.鈥�
The result is that most child entering foster care still get placed with foster families 鈥� 45 percent in 2016, 鈥� while 32 percent are placed with relatives. Stark County鈥檚 child welfare division has long had a goal to get better at family placement. Supervisor Rosalind Nenastil said the 30 Days to Family grant is allowing her to dedicate two caseworkers solely to family engagement.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e not having to worry about those case management things like getting the child to the doctor or working on mom鈥檚 case plan or putting out fires,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ll you鈥檙e doing is looking for family, talking to family.鈥�
Stark County caseworker Jamie Horey said that kind of focus transformed a recent case involving five children.
鈥淪tarting out, I knew at the beginning of the case who mom was, who mom鈥檚 mother was, obviously the five children I was working with and who three of those five children鈥檚 fathers were,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd then at the end of the case鈥︹��
She unrolled a long scroll of paper onto the conference room table.
鈥淭his is 145 relatives on a genogram. That鈥檚 what we were able to search and do. As a primary worker, I would not have been able to find all of these people and explore all of these options.鈥�
This family鈥檚 genogram, or family tree, now included great-grandparents, great uncles and great aunts. Horey located them using Facebook, public records and online search tools like 411.com.
鈥淭he one child over here,鈥� said Horey, stretching across the scroll to point to a child on the genogram, 鈥淚 was able to find an obituary for a relative which then listed generations of other relatives that I was able to search and find.鈥�
Of the 25 children served so far through Stark County鈥檚 30 Days to Family initiative, just four have been placed with relatives.
It doesn鈥檛 sound like much when the need is so great. It鈥檚 a 16 percent placement rate. The goal for 30 Days to Family cases is 70 percent.
Mike Kenney with Kinnect says the Stark County team took on tough cases, including a sibling group of eight whose relatives don鈥檛 live in Ohio.
鈥淚 think the fact that they have, with these initial cases, have identified over 1,000 kin is incredible. The fact that they are seeing hope with cases that otherwise may have been seen as having no hope whatsoever," he said.
Kenney referred to by the group, , that found children engaged in the 30 Days to Family program spent 91 fewer days in foster care, saving taxpayers $10,000 per child. They were less likely to be bounced from home to home to home, and were more likely to be reunified with their parents and have good relationships with their fathers.
鈥淚 am very confident when we look at the roughly 500, 550 cases that we anticipate serving over the next 18 months with this pilot program that we will see comparable if not better outcomes, 鈥� said Kenney.
Meanwhile, as the 30 Days to Family pilot proceeds, so do efforts to recruit more foster families. A foster care advisory group is to make its recommendations by May 1.
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