DCYF goal: permanent homes for foster children

DCYF goal: permanent homes for foster children (As long as the homes aren't with relatives) There's more money to be made in non-relative placements!

By NANCY WEST
New Hampshire Sunday News
Sunday, Jun. 15, 2008


CONCORD – Gabriel and Luke and Christin and Nick and Gaston and Heather and Michael all have something in common this Father's Day: the kind of aching heart that most children who live with their parents and brothers and sisters never know.

They are seven of the youngsters known as New Hampshire's "waiting children," foster children who are eligible for adoption through the state Division of Children, Youth and Families. What they're waiting for are families to give them permanent, adoptive homes.

Most waiting children are older. Many have special needs.

The seven children mentioned are the current stars of the Heart Gallery Project, an exhibit of portraits of children in the New Hampshire foster care system, and some are in "Everyone Needs a Home," a slide show created by DCYF in hopes of finding adoptive families.

The number and identities of children featured in the Heart Gallery -- and on display at Jordan's Furniture in Nashua -- change as adoptions take place and new children become eligible for adoption.

Importance of family
Maggie Bishop, director of the Division for Children, Youth and Families, said the state becomes involved in families when a child-abuse or neglect complaint is filed. DCYF investigates about 7,000 complaints a year and between 9 and 11 percent warrant opening a case, Bishop said.

Even when abuse or neglect complaints are founded, Bishop said, keeping families together is a priority, with DCYF providing services aimed at keeping the child in the home. When it's determined children can't be safe at home, they enter the foster care system. But even then, Bishop said, the goal remains to correct the behavior that led to the abuse or neglect complaint and reunify the family.

For children who can never go home safely, state law requires the division to work quickly to reach agreements with parents or work through the courts to terminate parental rights and find the children permanent homes, Bishop said.

"We don't want children growing up in the child welfare system," she said. "They deserve to have families and commitment."

Finding parents
About 1,000 New Hampshire children are in foster placement at any given time. Most will go home, but about a quarter of them will be adopted, Bishop said. The average foster care stay is 2.4 years, but that is decreasing all the time, she added.

Currently there are 35 to 40 children at some stage of recruitment for adopted homes; some will appear in the Heart Gallery, Bishop said.

Bishop said the division has shifted staff and resources to help locate adoptive parents, create more partnerships in the community, and make adoptions easier.

DCYF now actively looks for family members,(Who is she trying to kid?) foster parents or other caregivers who might be interested in becoming adoptive parents. The state provides post-adoption services to help parents after the adoption is finalized and also provides subsidies for adopted children who need special services, as many do.

The efforts are paying off, Bishop said. Finalized adoptions from foster care have increased dramatically in a decade, from 45 in 1998 to 143 last year.

Raymond attorney Jorel Booker, a former DCYF social worker and longtime division watchdog, said he has noticed a dramatic shift under Bishop's leadership.

"It's a breath of fresh air. Members of the old guard are phasing out by attrition and more new people are coming in," Booker said.

Booker, who often represents parents who are fighting DCYF in court to retain their parental rights, said permanency planning when he was a social worker was often just an afterthought.

"Some workers feathered their own nests and left kids in-system for years and years and years, and let them age out," he said. "They are doing a better job now." But, he said, more reform is needed to cut down on state bureaucracy.

Types of adoptions
Bishop said there are different types of adoptions: the more common model in which birth parents have no contact with the child; and voluntary mediated adoptions in which birth parents meet with adoptive parents and a court-appointed mediator to work out a plan for contact with the child after the adoption.

Some of the latter may involve visits, while others may be limited to a letter and photo every year, based on what the mediator determines to be in the best interest of the child.

Bishop said DCYF is changing and she hopes its image changes, as well, so that someday people having trouble parenting will call the division to help prevent child abuse and neglect. While the division's job is to protect children, she said, the process of providing family services could be less adversarial.(Considerind services are NEVER provided before a child is stolen.)

"The key is to be open to better ways of doing things," she said. "The real experts are the parents and families themselves. They know what they need. We need to be open to what families need."

Past and future
The division has been criticized in the past for being too quick to remove children from their parents. It has also been criticized for acting too late, as in the case of Kassidy Bortner, a 21-month-old Rochester girl who was beaten to death by her mother's live-in boyfriend. At trial, the public learned that DCYF had been notified of alleged abuse more than a week before the girl died, on Nov. 9, 2000.(They still just take the child and run)

Chad Evans, the Rochester man convicted of repeatedly abusing and finally killing Kassidy was sentenced to 43 years to life in prison. Kassidy's mother, Amanda Bortner, was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of failing to protect her.

Lawmakers ultimately passed the Bortner Law, which requires DCYF to make public more information on abuse cases that result in death or near death.

Bishop said the division has made many changes over the years, including reducing caseloads for social workers.(By terminating every parents rights faster)

"All we want is for kids to be safe," she said. "If they are, we'll walk away."
(Is that why she asked me why my daughter isn't dead?) Walk away my a--!

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