Increase in kids in foster care tied to opioid issue

Substance abuse cited in one-third of removals

NEW YORK — The number of children in the U.S. foster care system has increased for the fourth year in a row, with substance abuse by parents a major factor, according to new federal data released Thursday.

The annual report from the Department of Health and Human Services counted 437,500 children in foster care as of Sept. 30, 2016, up from about 427,400 a year earlier.

The peak was 524,000 children in foster care in 2002. The number dropped steadily to about 397,000 in 2012 before rising again as the opioid epidemic and other forms of drug abuse began to worsen across the U.S.

Health and Human Services said substance abuse was a factor in 34 percent of the 2016 cases in which a child was removed from home, up from 32 percent a year earlier. About 92,000 children were removed from home because at least one parent had a drug abuse issue.

Among the states with the biggest one-year increases were Indiana, Georgia and West Virginia, each grappling with extensive substance abuse problems. Indiana reported serving 29,315 children in its foster care system in fiscal 2016, up from 24,935 in 2015.

Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform contends that some states are highlighting the drug abuse epidemic as a way of deflecting attention from shortcomings in their child welfare systems.

“Where opioid abuse really is a problem, make high-quality drug treatment, not foster care, the firstchoice response,” Wexler wrote in a recent blog post.

“Take another look at all those other cases that don’t involve drug addiction, such as the ones in which poverty is confused with ‘neglect,’ and stop taking away children in those cases.”