NEW YORK: The number of U.S. children in foster care is climbing after a sustained decline, but just five states account for nearly two-thirds of the recent increase. Reasons range from creation of a new child abuse hotline to widespread outrage over the deaths of children who’d been repeatedly abused. Addictions among parents are another major factor.
The most dramatic increase has been in Georgia, where the foster care population skyrocketed from about 7,600 in September 2013 to 13,266 last month. The state is struggling to provide enough foster homes for these children and keep caseloads at a manageable level for child-protection workers.
Along with Georgia, the states with big increases are Arizona, Florida, Indiana and Minnesota. According to new federal figures, the nationwide foster care population went up from 401,213 to 427,910 between September 2013 and September 2015, and these five states accounted for 65 percent of that rise.
In all five, a common factor driving the increase has been a surge of substance abuse by parents.
In Florida, for example, officials said that a crackdown on abuse of prescription drugs has prompted more parents to turn to heroin and other illegal opioids, leading to the removal of their children from home. Florida’s foster care population increased by 24 percent between 2013 and 2015; nationally the increase was less than 7 percent.
In Georgia, parental substance abuse now accounts for about 38 percent of foster care entries.
Georgia child welfare officials cite two factors beyond drugs. One is a centralized statewide child abuse hotline, created in 2013 to replace the 159 different hotline numbers that were used in Georgia’s counties. Since then, abuse reports have increased by 30 percent to more than 110,000 per year. Another factor has been public outrage after some cases in which children died from severe abuse even though caseworkers had prior indications they were at risk.
According to the new federal figures, Indiana had the second biggest surge in foster children after Georgia — rising by 37 percent from 12,382 in 2013 to 17,023 in 2015.
“The increase in heroin, meth, cocaine and prescription medication abuse, compounded by mental health issues, has brought many more children into our system,” James Wide of Indiana’s Department of Child Services said in an email.