U of Ideas of General Interest -- March 2000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contact: Craig Chamberlain, News Editor, (217) 333-2894; [email protected]
CHILD WELFARE
Research plays a key role in turning tide of foster-care crisis
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For years the common wisdom in child welfare circles was that relatives of foster children generally won't adopt them, even when acting as their caretakers.
It was a belief that persisted through the late 1980s and early 1990s as child welfare caseloads exploded in Illinois and other states, partly as a result of families broken by the increasing use of crack cocaine. By 1995, the number of foster children in the care of relatives in Illinois had increased sevenfold in a decade, and they made up more than half of the children in the child-welfare system.
In recent years, however, the Illinois caseload is down dramatically, many more children are finding permanent homes with relatives, and the state is being recognized with awards for its efforts.
One key reason, says Mark Testa, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois and research director for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), is research showing a little education and the right options and supports can turn the common wisdom on its head.
In pilot studies, and then in a statewide demonstration project, relatives caring for foster children were urged to consider a new guardianship option along with the option of adoption. Caseworkers were trained to discuss myths about adopting, as well as new state financial supports covering both choices.
"We discovered that relatives were willing to adopt in record numbers," Testa said. "Not only did our permanency rates rise because of this new guardianship option, but the implementation of guardianship also boosted the number of adoptions. We discovered that having a second option, having a choice, between guardianship or adoption, really opened up the possibility for discussion."
Testa presented his findings in a keynote talk on Feb. 15 at the Fourth Annual Child Welfare Demonstration Projects Meeting in Washington, D.C. His research also earned him an Adoption 2002 Excellence Award in November from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the first such award presented for research.
Several factors, and not all apparent at the time, played a part in the dramatic increase in foster care cases in Illinois, Testa noted. A major factor was the structure of the state's child-welfare system. Through earlier research by Testa and others, it became clear that the only reason many children became part of the system was not because they were ill-treated, but because relatives caring for them lacked adequate funds or the legal authority to enroll children in school or obtain medical care. Only by becoming foster parents could relatives receive the greater financial assistance that the system provided and get the courts to give DCFS the legal authority necessary to act on a child's behalf.
With input from Testa and DCFS, state legislation was passed in 1995 excluding these children from the system and instead providing the needed family support services. "That turned out to be the major solution to the runaway growth in new cases," Testa said. With new legal guardianship and adoption programs, Illinois' foster care cases have dropped from 51,000 to 34,000 since June 1997.
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