How the foster care system is handling the pandemic

NORWALK — One of the “golden rules” of COVID prevention is to avoid seeing people outside your household.

But what about when a foster child needs a home?

Like so many other systems, foster care was made even more complex when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. But despite health officials’ warnings, Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families said families have still been willing to open their homes to foster children.

Tina Jefferson, bureau chief of child welfare for DCF, said their department hasn’t lost any foster families during COVID and still have seen families interested in fostering.

“I’ve seen that commitment and compassion (from foster families) shine through,” Jefferson said. “You see families step up for them. I can’t say enough about the families we work with that open their homes and hearts for children.”

That’s not to say fostering during a pandemic is without its complications. DCF Foster Care Program Director Natalia Liriano said when COVID hit in March and schools went remote, many foster parents also became IT and teachers for their virtual learners.

“We had to do major adjustments,” she said. “March was March madness. Our parents are troopers. We did not have many disruptions. Our families stepped up. They accepted children into their homes. Our caregivers are probably the best in the nation. They really aligned themselves with us, even considering the pandemic in March.”

“It’s been difficult with schools opening and closing, doing hybrid and doing virtual learning,” said Emily Churchill, Willimantic area liaison for Connecticut Alliance of Foster & Adoptive Families, a nonprofit which assists foster, kinship and adoptive families. “A lot of families might have biological families or have more than one placement and that’s multiple schools with different schedules. It’s been a lot more of a puzzle to figure out. Even the routine of physically going to school or an after school program has changed. Early on, we were saying it was like the longest summer ever.”

Groups like the Connecticut Alliance of Foster & Adoptive Families have tried to step up their own support for foster families, sending them free virtual programs, organizing meal help or setting up socially distanced events.

When COVID started getting serious, Liriano said DCF first did a “role call” of all foster parents to see what needs they had that could be impacted by COVID and set up communication plans where they were in regular contact with families to make sure they had what they needed for their child as the world shut down. They also compiled lists of families who’d be open to taking in a COVID-exposed child and set up a process to make sure kids could stay in contact with their families of origin.

If a child needs to be removed from their home and into DCF custody, the first thing the agency does is go through a CDC checklist and see if the child needs a rapid test. Then they contact families to see who will take them in, opting to try and place the child with another relative first (which is a standard DCF procedure).

DCF reports over 300 caregivers and 200 foster children have tested positive for COVID-19. Four foster parents have died of COVID. And there have been fewer adoptions finalized because of courts being closed: 264 adoptions were finalized during the pandemic compared to 533 the year before. Department officials said children waiting on finalization are in their permanent homes, just waiting on the official process, though.

“It’s not like (children) had to wait in a bad situation to move to another situation,” Churchill said. “I’m sure having to wait wasn’t their favorite... that feeling of finalization is a big deal and the celebration is something to look forward to. For some, it affected them more than others.”

For Zina Jones, it also means struggling with the foster care system a little longer. Jones was living in New York City when she began the process of adopting her brother, now 3 years old. Jones moved to Bridgeport last summer, but is still dealing with the system in New York. While she’s dealing with a different system, the pain of not being able to finalize her adoption is the same.

“I don’t want to deal with them at all at this point,” she said. “We always have to check in with them and send paperwork and medical work. They want so much from me but... I wouldn’t have to answer to them anymore (if the adoption was finalized).”

There’s also the complications of virtual schooling, programs and visits with family members. Waterbury resident Laritta Barnes is currently fostering a relative’s children and has been since early last year. When COVID struck, programs the children were attending were closed and the kids missed out on the socialization they needed.

“There are challenges with COVID especially when you have children with special needs,” Barnes said. “You cannot downplay the supports and programs out there. You need those outside services for kids to be successful for going through these transitions.”