DCF ‘AT CAPACITY’
Child advocate says agency bursting at seams
The state child welfare agency is being pushed to the limit, juggling nearly 9,500 kids placed in foster homes and other settings — a 10 percent spike since Gov. Charlie Baker took office.
The soaring numbers are being fueled, in part, by the state’s opiate epidemic and an urgency to not repeat mistakes of the past, child advocates say.
Since the last day of 2014 — eight days before Baker assumed the Corner Office — the number of children the state has placed in foster homes, group homes and other settings, has jumped from roughly 8,723 to 9,547, according to a Herald analysis.
Simultaneously, the state Department of Children and Families has sought custody of more children. In fiscal year 2016, which ended in June, the department had filed 3,855 petitions in juvenile court, the most at any point since 2002, the earliest year court data was made available. It marks a 46 percent jump from 2011.
“I would venture that, in any given evening, there is probably not a spare place to put a child,” said Maria Mossaides, the state’s child advocate. “Because of the large numbers, it’s fair to say the (state’s) entire child welfare system is at capacity. And that situation has probably been growing over the last two years.”
The rise comes at a tenuous time for DCF, which, following a string of high-profile cases of child abuse and deaths, began last year with Baker publicly leading the charge to overhaul its core policies, while integrating waves of new social workers.
That transition has started to take root, officials and department watchers say. But it also hasn’t slowed an unbending influx of at-risk children under 18 years old.
In the wake of high-profile child homicide cases — from Jeremiah Oliver in 2013 and Bella Bond two years later — the department has emphasized child protection as its mission, driving a more aggressive push to pull children from at-risk homes.
The state’s opioid crisis has also wreaked havoc, though the extent of its direct ties to families involved with DCF is still unclear. DCF began tracking the connection this year, but it has yet to release the data, despite a public records request to do so by the Herald.
As of mid-August, DCF said that 3,950 of its 4,900 available foster homes were considered “filled,” though determining the exact number of available homes is constantly fluctuating.
Mary McGeown, president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said the state is in dire need of new foster homes.
“We’re at a critical moment,” she said. “We need more people to step up and become foster parents. We need to break the cycle of abuse and neglect.
“Those children deserve a safe place to call home,” she added. “It’s a system that is at its limitations right now. They’re trying to adapt with the realities of today.”
DCF officials noted that not every petition for custody is granted, and that it’s added two foster home recruiters in the last year.
“Protecting children is the Department’s first priority, and if the courts determine that there is an immediate safety risk for a child, they are placed into DCF custody for their well-being,” spokeswoman Andrea Grossman said in a statement.
“DCF continues to institute systematic reforms addressing numerous factors, including substance use disorders and family instability that cause an increase in the need for foster care. We remain vigilant in our efforts to do what is best for children and urge public support in increasing our supply of caring foster homes.”