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More foster homes needed in Yavapai County

Brenda and Curt Heuer recently adopted the five children they have been fostering since February 2015. More families are needed to help Yavapai County’s foster children.

Brenda and Curt Heuer recently adopted the five children they have been fostering since February 2015. More families are needed to help Yavapai County’s foster children.

YAVAPAI COUNTY, Ariz. — Arizona is one of five key states driving the nationwide increase in foster children.

According to the report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the nationwide foster-care population jumped from 401,213 to 427,910 between Sept. 2013 and Sept. 2015.

In Arizona, the number of kids in foster care has been rising steadily for six years. In March, the latest month for which numbers are available, there were 6,457 children in foster homes in the state.

The state Department of Child Safety also places at-risk kids with relatives or family friends, and there were 8,506 kids in that category in March.

Together, and including a few other smaller categories (those in group homes, residential treatment, or runaways), the number of Arizona children in “out of home care” has risen from 14,111 in September 2012 to 18,906 in March 2016.

Most are between 1 and 5 years old.

The community outreach specialist for CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) in Phoenix, Allison Hurtado, said, one of the major reasons for the growth of kids in out-of-home care is that “there is a huge opioid epidemic nationwide, and that drug and substance abuse is definitely contributing to a lot of these cases.”

She also attributed the increase to the fact that “preventative services were cut with the economic downturn.”

Hurtado said that about 70 percent of the cases in which children are removed from homes are classified as neglect, and the remaining 30 percent are caused by abuse.

But “I would say, when people take a closer look at these cases, 90 percent have something to do with substance abuse.”

In Yavapai County, there are about 400 children in foster care, said Jennifer Whittemore, president of the Yavapai CASA for Kids Foundation.

That’s led to a shortage of foster homes, she said.

“The major issue is, not enough homes in Yavapai County. The kids are having to be placed outside out Yavapai County,” Whittemore said.

Although it’s rewarding, Whittemore – a former foster parent with her husband – said fostering can be time-consuming and potential foster parents need to know that.

“It’s a huge time commitment, because you have court (appearances), you have monthly meetings, you have case-workers coming over, you have CASA workers coming over, you have lawyers coming over. You’re taking the child to go on visits, you’re taking the child to therapy.”

And when homes with families aren’t available for them, older kids, especially between 15 and 18, they may be placed in group-home settings. Hurtado says that’s not the best environment for children.

“The kids don’t get a lot of learning experiences because they’re in a place with 10 to 15 other kids … and so they miss out on those normal experiences they need to grow up and become successful members of society,” she said.

That leads to higher numbers ending up in the criminal justice system, or repeating the abuse cycle that results in foster care.

Whittmore said, “They (DCS) really do try to place these kids with family members or somebody they know … but they’re not always able to do that.

On a statewide level, the future looks brighter, Hurtado said.

“(DCS is) getting rid of that backlog of cases, the numbers of removals (of children from parents) are going down. That’s helping the courts handle the overload of cases.

“Things are improving, but it’s still going to take a lot of time.”

Repeated attempts by the Daily Courier to contact the DCS were not acknowledged.


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