Casey Journalism Center shares scary (and discouraging) news about child development

Love's limited in helping foster kids
By Leanne Kleinmann

It's been a couple of weeks since I saw the pictures, and they're still burned into my mind.
I was at a conference in Maryland sponsored by the Casey Journalism Center to learn about the latest research and trends on children and families. The first presenter was a Harvard pediatrician who'd done fascinating research on brain development in babies and small children. His pictures showed a fetus' brain at various stages of development.

At 25 weeks, the brain was smooth as an egg. Just two weeks later, at 27 weeks, the distinctive folds and crinkles of higher-level development were clear, even to my untrained eyes.

It wasn't too hard to imagine what might happen to a fetus -- and later a child -- whose brain was bathed in alcohol, cocaine or other drugs during that critical stage of brain development. Or whose mom was not sleeping, not eating well, fending off physical abuse, depression or worse. Judgment, impulse control, higher level thinking and decision-making; all are developing around that time.

Next up was a social worker and psychologist whose work focused on children in the foster care system, some of the most at-risk children in the country, not only because of their unstable original families, but because of the sometimes deplorable foster care conditions they face in their early lives. But what really caught my attention was that she vetted parents for potential foster care adoptions, and had adopted two foster children of her own.

Even this nationally recognized expert was struggling with the challenges her two kids presented her. What shocked me most, though, was how clear she was about the limits of the progress that kids who have had so many early problems can make. Brain deficiencies can be finite, and their results devastating.

She was also quite blunt about how difficult it is to adopt these kids, and how unwilling some families, especially affluent families, are to acknowledge the limits of their resources and efforts.

"Love is not enough," she kept saying, over and over.

What a sad fact to have to acknowledge. But what a clear mandate it proposes: That we strengthen the support, both public and private, for every pregnant mom. Prenatal care, nutrition counseling and substance abuse treatment, the promise of quality child care. All of these factors might -- might -- help during those critical brain development times.

Because love is not enough.

State of Tennessee is accountable for the care it provides to its foster children

Our Opinion: Foster care needs a fix
Children in system harmed by too frequent moves from home to home
Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, March 10, 2007.

A group that monitors Tennessee's foster-care program has found the state's program improving, but it's not at the place it should be yet. Too many children are being moved around too much.

Children's Rights, an advocacy group that filed a class-action lawsuit against DCS, has checked for the last six years on the foster-care program as a result of the court-ordered settlement. Specifically, it's looking at how children are treated during the first six months in the state system. Most of these youngsters find themselves in state care due to abuse and neglect.

Of those, more than 50 percent had been moved at least twice during that initial six-month period. Another 18 percent found themselves in three or more homes during that time frame.

Children's Rights says that number of moves is not acceptable. Tennesseans should concur with that assessment.

These children already have been through the wringer. They don't need a high level of instability once they are removed from abusive homes and placed in foster care.

The report also said the program came up short in required visits by their caseworkers in the children's first eight weeks in state custody.

On the plus side, conditions for foster children have improved since 2001, according to the group. DCS has moved children out of places that were very similar to outdated orphanages and into foster families. A greater effort also is being made in keeping siblings together, which keeps important family ties intact.

Many adults have overcome horrendous childhoods to have happy and productive lives. If the state of Tennessee can intervene on behalf of its citizens and help to make childhoods a little easier for those children in foster care, it has an obligation to try to do so.

Grand opening of New Creations foster care center -- um, it's just a group home

New Creations Foster Care Center Has Grand Opening
The Chattanoogan, March 6, 2007.

New Creations held a grand opening ceremony this week at 2404 Navajo Road.

The mission of New Creations is to provide a clean, safe family oriented living environment, where the child is nurtured, encouraged, and supported as he works toward reunification and independence, officials said.

Special program guests included Suzanne Bailey, Hamilton County juvenile court judge, Rev. Frank Scott, president of New Creations, Tupelo, Miss., and Rev. Bernie Miller, New Covenant Fellowship Church.

New Creations is a home for boys’ between the ages of 13-18.

“This is a unique approach to foster care” said Jim Stubbs, executive director of American Family Institute, the agency that oversees New Creations.

Collins Lord, board chairman of American Family Institute, said, “This home has full-time live house parents with case management support staff. It’s a creative approach to foster care for the juvenile justice transitional adolescent.”

One-third of Tennessee child-welfare cases are poorly documented

New report takes critical look at Tennessee's foster care system
Granju, Katie Allison. WBIR-TV, March 7, 2007.

Children are being shuffled from one foster home to another. Caseworkers aren't visiting the kids enough. And about a third of child-welfare cases "contained significant gaps in documentation."

But the state, through the Department of Children's Services, has made great strides with foster children in other areas.

Those findings by a group that monitors Tennessee's foster-care program were filed in a federal court in Nashville on Tuesday. Since 2001, Tennessee's foster-care system has been under a court order to reform its treatment of some of the state's most vulnerable children.

The report looked at how children are treated in the first six months after they come into the foster-care system in Tennessee. Most had been taken from their families because of abuse and neglect.

It found that more than half had moved at least twice during the six months, and 18 percent had been placed in three or more homes during that time.

"That level of multiple moves is just unacceptable," said Ira Lustbader, an attorney for Children's Rights, a New-York based advocacy group that initiated a class-action lawsuit against DCS that was settled with the court order.

"We've got to see more stability for these children."

DCS agrees.

"Some of the challenges we've got are with placement stability," DCS spokesman Rob Johnson said. "One of the things we're working hard to do is limit the number of times a child moves when a child comes into custody."

The department is working to get more foster parents, which would help limit the number of times a child has to move.

The report also faulted DCS because only a little more than half of the children in foster care received required visits by caseworkers during their first eight weeks in custody. Seventy-six percent received the required visits after eight weeks.

The report found that DCS had made conditions better for children, including moving kids out of orphanage-like institutions and into foster families and keeping more kids together with their siblings.

The number of children in state custody also has significantly decreased. There were 10,600 kids in DCS custody in early 2004. There are now roughly 8,700 in the system.

Too many placement changes and not enough visits from social workers

DCS Seeks To Create More Stability For Foster Children
WKRN-TV, March 7, 2007.

Despite improvements to Tennessee’s foster care program, case workers are not visiting foster children enough and those youngsters are being moved around too much. Those were the findings of a children's rights group's report.

A small study found over a 6-month period that 52% of children were moved twice, and 18% moved three or more times in that time period. A children’s rights attorney says that is unacceptable.

A 150-page progress report, resulting from a federal court order to improve foster care, focused concern on the amount of times youngsters are moved around.

Kathy Jack has been a foster mother......in Rutherford County for three years, caring for young ones in her home. The court monitors’ new report says youngsters in foster care need stability. Jack agrees. “Without it, they don’t feel like they belong anymore,” she says.

While the new report shows foster children moving to different homes much too frequently, Jack says that's not been her experience. “They (the state) work very hard at creating stable environments and getting good foster parents,” she says.

DCS is trying to find more foster parents, which would limit the number of times a child is moved around. Jack agrees with that.

“Fostercare is what gives those kids that have been in care a long time a taste of being a normal kid,” she says.

DCS commissioner Viola Miller says the agency has some important challenges. “We've got to do a better job of finding relatives,” she says. “All of the research indicates that if you place children with relatives, they are less likely to move than children who are placed with strangers.”

Miller wants even more visits to homes by caseworkers. “We’re at about 67% of our children who are seen two or more times per month, and we want that number to go up to about 80%.”

The DCS commissioner says 98% of children in foster care are now seen at least once a month by their care workers. The report does cite improvements in a number of areas: conditions at foster care homes, and keeping family members together.

Tennessee has some 5,000 foster parents to care for some 8,000 children now in the system. The good news is the number of children in state custody has dropped dramatically. In 2004, about 10,000 children were in DCS custody, compared with only 8,700 today.