A ‘Critical Shortage’ for a Growing Void: Number of Foster Homes Diminishing in Lewis County, State
By Dameon Pesanti, The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
At 23 years old, she was barely 105 pounds because her drug addiction suppressed her appetite and she kept finding herself in relationships with violent, abusive men. She loved her son dearly; she couldn't see through the fog to realize that she was failing him.
"Initially I felt like the victim. I couldn't believe this was happening," she said. "But then I realized I wasn't the victim
MacDonald said she believes a lot of parents who have their children taken from them feel they're being victimized, but now she thinks, "There's a very good cause to why they're taken away."
CPS allowed her supervised visits with
and
MacDonald said she knew she had to change, but she couldn't break the cycle.
For her, the entire situation was all too familiar, and that's what made it so awful.
"The building I visited my son in was the same building I used to visit my mom in when I was young," she said.
Some of her earliest memories are her biological mother taking her and her two younger brothers to a strip club where her mother worked, or leaving them at houses she now realizes were drug dens.
Then she and her two brothers wound up in foster care.
MacDonald said she was "scared to death" for
The three were bounced through multiple foster homes. One set of foster parents, she said, kept her and her brothers in separate rooms and wouldn't allow them to see each other. That was particularly traumatic because the two boys suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and she felt she had to look after them.
"My biological mom expected me to take care of them. I played mommy," she said. "I got a copy of what they had left of my file when I turned 21 and in it she blatantly stated I was taking care of her and my brothers."
The three of them were adopted by a foster family when she was almost 8-years-old, but by then the damage was already done, and after a while, the adopted parents "threw their hands up."
She got pregnant at 17, had
"I kept telling him I was trying my best to get him home, but really it wasn't accurate, and (Clarinda) called me out on it in the parking lot after a CPS visit," MacDonald said.
"Ashley was coming out of the building and I was coming in and I stopped her and I just told her she needed to get her head out of her butt and get her son back," Hanson said. "She looked at me in total shock, but a week later she called and said he wanted get clean."
Hanson told her that if she was true to her word she'd stick with her the whole way, and that's what happened.
MacDonald entered a drug rehab program and went to HOPE court (a court program that helps parents who have lost their children due to drug problems) and completed the program without sanctions despite complications from an extremely difficult and unplanned pregnancy.
She regained custody of her son at end of May in 2012.
While she was getting back on track, Hoyt and Hanson worked with
MacDonald is now 26 and taking business classes at a community college in
She's become very close to Hoyt and Hanson over the years. She calls them mom and dad. Her son calls them grandma and grandpa.
"I saw the work that Clarinda and Duane he blossomed." MacDonald said. "When I was using drugs and didn't' notice all these things about him and he just grew and I realized not every foster home was bad."
MacDonald and her son were fortunate he was placed in a home that was close to his community.
Other children in the state are often not so fortunate.
According to foster care advocates and officials at the
"Imagine being taken out of your home, by the police; now imagine being a child that can't go to the school you went to, can't see your friends anymore, can't go to the church you went to," said
"(Seventy) is a very small number. There should be three and a half homes for each child," she said. "It's important we have multiple homes for each child that's placed so we can match the child's needs best, because some people only take babies or teens or what have you."
When a child is taken from their biological parents, they become wards of the state even after they are placed with a foster family.
Social workers try to place children with family members or foster homes in their community to try and minimize impact; but that's often not possible and the children are sent to available foster or group homes, which can be hours away.
Recruiting foster families can be difficult, she said, because at least one adult has to be available to care for the child when they're at home. Also in short supply are respite homes, places where children can stay if their foster parents have to leave town or be away for a while.
The shortage, McKeown said, can be explained for a couple reasons.
Partially to blame is the steady increase of dual income houses where both parents work into the evening. Then, the years following the financial crisis of 2008 saw a significant spike in the number of children entering the foster system.
Also to blame is a push by the state to get independent children out of the foster system and into permanent housing. Oftentimes, children are adopted by the families that fostered them. While such developments are encouraging, one of the unintended consequences was that many of those homes were no longer able to accept foster children.
"We have a kid whose parents couldn't have them and they have a foster parent and they're doing well there and the foster parent expresses interest, so that's a natural thing right? But it also decreased our numbers." McKeown said. "We don't want kids to age out of foster care. They don't have good outcomes. We want to focus on (permanent placement)."
The state is working actively to try and recruit more foster homes. It has even contracted with a number of organizations to assist in outreach.
Favela works as the foster parent liaison for Fostering Together, a program created by a partnership between the state of
She entered the foster care system at the age of 12, pregnant, diseased and very angry. The family she stayed with for the next six years helped her radically turn her life around.
As an adult, she left a six-figure income position with insurance company
She believes there are many misconceptions around the foster system that cast it negatively in society.
"There's a lot of stigma around foster children -- they're dirty, misbehaved, criminal, they'll steal from me, they'll break things," she said. "(And) there's a misconception parents do it for the money, or they get to clean, they're getting a house keeper."
She said that children who are taken from their homes have been through trauma, and they may have some behavioral issues, but she said they can be overcome in a good home. According to Favela, foster parents usually earn about
"People do this because they fundamentally want to help a child heal and be loved and be safe," Favela said.
Helping those children sometimes can be a lot of work. Foster parents often have to shuttle children to occupational or speech therapy appointments, doctor visits and dental exams on top of school functions and parental visiting sessions.
Hanson said fostering isn't for everyone, but it's a very rewarding experience. In 13 years, she and Hoyt have housed over 40 children. She also helped create the
One foster girl she and Hoyt took in had cerebral palsy so badly she couldn't hold a fork. So in addition to her physical therapy classes, Hanson took her outside for three months and taught her to pick flowers.
"To see the joy in that child's face," Hanson said. "It makes you think, if you can help one, you can help another."
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