The state suffers a severe shortage of foster parents everywhere but Northwest Arkansas, a recent study showed. Having just enough, however, doesn't guarantee a home for all the children who need one.
"You have to ask yourself every time, 'Is this a good fit?'" said Jeddi Thompson, interim manager for the state Division of Children and Family Services in Northwest Arkansas. "Not every family is trained to handle a special-needs child. Not every family would be appropriate to take in someone who would suddenly be the oldest boy in the family. Not every child is going to do well in every home, and not every family is going to do well with any child."
Arkansas had two foster home beds for every three children who needed them July 1, according to a recent review by the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group of Montgomery, Ala.
The Family Services Division divides the state into 10 areas. Thompson oversees Area 1, which consists of Benton, Washington, Carroll and Madison counties. Area 1 had 1.01 beds per child for its 417 foster children on July 1. The next closest area has 0.86 beds per child in need. Four of the 10 areas do not come up to the state average of two beds for every three children.
The most severe shortage suffered by the Family Services Division is in caseworkers, according to the Alabama group's study. The state had an average of 29 foster children per caseworker overseeing them, almost twice the national average of 15. Gov. Asa Hutchinson promised immediate action on that issue, at an estimated cost of $8 million and plans for more if the Legislature approves.
The shortage of foster parents compounds the division's problems, the study found. The already overworked staff members "spend an inordinate amount of time driving children to distant placements, visiting them, and in some cases, taking them to visits with family members."
The study found Northwest Arkansas lagged in the number of investigations of child abuse and neglect that were thoroughly completed to state standards. This was mainly because caseworkers in the region have a higher caseload than the Arkansas average, according to Kate Luck.
Luck is spokesman for the state Human Services Department, which oversees Family Services. For the same reason, the number of in-home visits by caseworkers in this area trails the state average, she said.
The need to match a foster child with a suitable family is the leading reason 41.2 percent of foster children from Northwest Arkansas didn't go to a foster home in the same county, Thompson said.
Another factor is the nature of this community. Moving from Rogers in Benton County to Springdale in Washington County, for instance, isn't as disruptive to a child as a move to more distantly separated communities within a county.
"I'm changing someone's life every time we place a foster child," Thompson said. "Not just the life of the child is changed, but the lives of the people taking that child in -- that family, including their children."
"I hated summer as a foster program supervisor," Thompson said. "Kids are out of school and people take vacations. And foster parents have a right to go on vacation. You want them to go and take their foster kids with them. You want that family and those kids to have that, and you don't want your foster families to burn out. But those are the days when you're likely to have a child spend the night in the office because there's no one to take him in."
Foster parents are volunteers. Their reimbursements are only meant to cover expenses. Asked why the region is more successful than others in finding people willing to do that, Thompson replied: "The Call."
Laura Kellams, regional director for the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, also brought up "The Call" when asked the same question. Paul Vincent, director of the Child Welfare Policy Group, also mentioned "The Call" as "very successful in the areas where it operates" in a telephone interview from Montgomery.
The Call is a nonprofit, faith-based organization started in central Arkansas in 2007. Its goal is to get churches and all the Christian faithful involved in helping foster children -- directly and indirectly -- by helping families who provide foster care. It has affiliates in 34 Arkansas counties and plans to expand into two more by the end of the year.
"Northwest Arkansas doesn't do that much better than the other parts of the state in recruiting foster families. The difference is retention," said Ann Meythaler, Benton County coordinator for The Call.
The Meythaler family took in their first foster children in 2008, she said.
"We felt very alone. There wasn't anyone to tell us what it's like the first time you take a kid to court, or anything like that. I started looking for something like that and found The Call."
Hutchinson commissioned the Alabama group's study after news reports that Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork, had sent two foster children he adopted to live with an employee at his day care center, Eric Cameron Francis of Bella Vista. Francis sexually abused the older girl and later pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault. He is now serving a 40-year prison sentence.
Thompson, Kellams and Vincent, who wrote the study, all agreed the single step that would do the most to relieve the foster parent shortage would be to make it easier for relatives of children in need to become foster parents.
Training and monitoring would be required, but the definition of "relative" should include responsible adults who have formed close bonds with a child in need, they said.
Arkansas' rate of allowing relatives to care for their child kin is very low, the study found.
"There are some reasons why that's so that are complex," Vincent said. "There are other reasons that are not complex that, frankly, I don't understand why they're still a problem."
Hutchinson will host a faith-based summit Tuesday and Wednesday at the Little Rock Marriott downtown. The gathering of religious leaders from around the state will address both foster-care issues and attempts to provide opportunities to adults with criminal records in order to reduce the prison population.
Metro on 08/24/2015