FINDING FAMILIES
Ongoing pandemic affecting fostering, adoptions
When Mick and Jenn O’Neil of Lenhartsville decided to adopt, the complications created by the COVID-19 pandemic never made them question their choice.
They learned one of Jenn’s students at Kutztown Middle School, Matthew, 14, was entering the foster care system for the second time in his young life. The couple committed to making him part of their family.
Though months of delays were stressful, his adoption was finalized in November after a nearly two-year process, and the O’Neils are thrilled to call Matthew their son.
But while the pandemic never derailed their decision to adopt, local agencies say it has forced some families to drop the idea of becoming foster or adoptive parents, at least temporarily.
There was already a shortage of foster parents before the arrival of the virus late last winter, and that need will grow as more families decide not to bring a new child into their homes for various pandemic-related reasons, said state Department of Human Services officials.
The effects aren’t yet being fully realized because the COVID-related shutdown of schools and so many other facets of society has led to a decrease in children being removed from homes due to abuse and neglect, officials said. Children have more lim
"It’s a difficult time for people to enter into something as complicated as foster parenting or adoption. They’d tell me that their family didn’t feel safe, and they had to look out for them first.”
— Debra Schoener, director of programs for Children’s Home of Reading
ited access to teachers, guidance counselors, coaches, doctors and others who typically notice and report that mistreatment.
So as things gradually open up and an expected influx of new cases means more children need to be relocated, the shortage of available foster families is going to be an increasing dilemma, said Jennie Pettet, director of the Bureau of Child and Family Services within DHS’s Office of Children, Youth and Families.
Local agencies say they’re aware of what’s likely to come.
“It’s a real problem,” said Debra Schoener, director of programs for Children’s Home of Reading, a residential facility that provides care to at-risk youth. “We need to find families.”
‘Difficult time’
There were slightly over 1,000 children in Berks in foster homes or awaiting
placement in 2018, according to the most recent numbers available from Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
Berks Children and Youth Services Administrator Brandy Neider said new families continue to come to the attention of public and private foster care agencies, but she did not have data to show whether children are staying in out-of-home care longer. She said her office’s partnership with Berks orphans court, though, has adoptions being finalized in a timely manner.
Statewide, however, county child care agencies say they’re seeing potential foster care and adoptive families drop out of the process due to COVID, according to Pettet, and local adoption agencies report seeing the same trend.
Diakon Adoption and Foster Care in Topton is doing well, with about 230 children in the custody of about 10 Pennsylvania counties — including Berks — placed in their foster homes. Another 30 families are available for additional placements, said
Joyce Riche, director of permanency services.
But Diakon knows there are likely a few families who have decided against entering the foster care process locally since they’re worried about a new person bringing the virus into their home, even though the agency’s COVID case totals have actually been low, she said.
“A few kids tested positive, and a few families did, too, but overall we’ve been very lucky,” she said. “Our families in general have been taking it seriously and taking precautions. We talk to them about it all the time.”
There have been some families, though, that found the pandemic provided them more free time and opted to try foster parenting as a result, Riche said.
Schoener, too, knows of families who were considering foster parenting but pulled out due to fears of the virus entering their homes.
“It’s a difficult time for people to enter into something as complicated as foster parenting or adoption,”
Schoener said. “They’d tell me that their family didn’t feel safe, and they had to look out for them first.”
She has seen families opt out of foster parenting because they could no longer afford it after recently losing jobs or income, as the federal reimbursement they receive for doing so does not meet the cost of raising a child, she said.
The fact that child care has also been tougher to arrange during the pandemic, and even visits by grandparents and other family members looking to help are now more risky, is another hurdle for some potential foster families.
The thought of helping another child school remotely from home was also too daunting for some of the Children’s Home’s clients, and some found their work schedules wouldn’t allow them to be home to guide a child through that process, Schoener said.
Some said they were already struggling to help their own children learn from home, and others who don’t have children didn’t think they could handle
home education, she said.
“They said, ‘I don’t know how we’d do it,’ “she said.
Many of the children in need of homes are diagnosed as having special needs when it comes to education, which made virtual schooling even more difficult, she said.
The Children’s Home is trying to problem-solve by providing educational support to those families, but in some cases it still wasn’t feasible, she said.
Hardest to locate in new homes are children who’ve suffered the most serious trauma and may have the most serious issues, she said.
“By this fall we may need a lot of special houses for these kids,” she said.
The Children’s Home has actually seen an increase in adoptions over the last year, including 20 last year, which has reduced the number of children living there to 25, or about half of normal.
Schoener said it’s great that so many children are finding permanent homes, but the downside is that those adoptive families are
no longer fostering children, which increases that need.
Being there
The pandemic has also brought new obstacles to key processes of foster care and adoption.
The important meetings between families and the children they’re looking to take in have often been virtual, but Zoom meetings aren’t as effective as faceto-face gatherings during what can be an emotional time, Riche said.
“Virtual visits aren’t the greatest for getting to know someone, and connect with them,” she said.
Also disrupted were the meetings between foster children and their birth families that state law requires to help keep those relationships as strong as possible, she said. Many of those have also been held virtually during the pandemic.
For younger children the virtual meetings are more difficult as their attention can waver and they often have a tougher time com