Officials say many parents sign over children they can no longer get along with. But that taxes the system.

DHS has become dumping ground

Four words from the front-desk clerk at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services send a social worker scurrying to the lobby.

We have a walk-in.

The worker knows that a walk-in is often code for a drop-off. A parent and teen, one often lugging a bag full of the child's clothes, will be standing in the lobby after deciding they can no longer live under the same roof. He won't go to school, the parent will tell the worker. He talks back. He misses curfew. I'm sick of it. You take him. "These aren't abuse and neglect cases. They just want to sign the child over," said Carol Guinther, a 19-year DHS veteran who routinely handles these cases. "They think that's what we do here. But the worst thing is being removed from home. "Placement out of home is not the answer. It reinforces the child's feelings that 'I am not wanted here.' "

DHS, the agency responsible for protecting abused and neglected children, has become the stressed-out parent's solution for teens with behavioral and mental-health problems. Although DHS does not keep statistics on the number of teen walk-ins, weeks can go by without one, followed by three in a row, Guinther said. Voluntary placements have become so pervasive that the agency is urging parents to give the child another chance.

Teens - age 12 and over - now account for 57 percent of the 6,300 DHS children in foster care, but this figure includes teenagers who have been in the agency's care for many years and those teens who have been abused or neglected. DHS officials acknowledge that they have historically kept teenagers until they became adults, focusing instead on permanent homes for younger children. Nationwide, 50 percent of children in foster care were age 11 or older, according to the 2003 data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, the most recent information available. There have always been parents who use the foster-care system for unruly teenagers. For example, New York has PINS, person in need of supervision, and Massachusetts has CHINS, child in need of supervision. These are cases that include minors who are truant, run away from home, or choose not to obey their parents.

Fatima Williams was voluntarily placed in DHS custody at age 16, returned home a year later, and within two weeks was looking for another place to live. Williams said she and her mother fought about several issues, but all of it was based on a lack of trust. "I thought it would be easy to go through the system and I'd have more freedom and go to college, but that definitely was not the case," she said. Williams said she believes that if her family had been offered counseling or mediation, she may have been able to stay at home or leave foster care sooner. She attended two semesters of Philadelphia Community College but has had to work full time to afford an apartment. "I think a lot of times when you enter foster care and you're a teenager they assume you're the one who's wrong and you're the problem," Williams, now 21, said. "I felt I was a good kid and getting good grades, but they made me feel like I was a delinquent. You need a good social worker to assess the situation." Williams said that she and her mother worked on their issues and that they now have a "great" relationship.

Many child-welfare agencies, including DHS, now have intervention programs to keep teenagers like Williams at home. DHS offers counseling, parenting classes specifically for caretakers with troubled teens, and other support. When that fails, the agency tries to find another relative to take the child. "We're talking about parents who tend to be poor, unemployed and already have high stress factors," said Cheryl Ranson-Garner, DHS commissioner. "They may have other children they are trying to deal with. They need to be supported." Although some child advocates question DHS' motives - the cost of caring for teens can be more than double the cost for a younger child - they applaud the agency's efforts. The average cost of foster care for a teenager living in a group home is about $118 a day. Unruly behavior tends to follow a child into foster care and may intensify, creating even more problems and multiple placements. Guinther, the DHS social worker, estimates that as many as 80 percent of the phone calls she receives are parents complaining about unruly teenagers. Parents complain about girls as often as boys.

Many times the teenagers are reacting to events in the home or community, she said. Loss of a loved one, domestic violence, youth violence and boredom at school can trigger outbursts and troubling behavior. Other times, parents resume raising a child after being absent for years because of drug abuse. The parent may overcompensate for their absence by being lenient about rules. They have trouble establishing structure and discipline. "You have to sort through the initial anger to see the true picture of what's really going on," Guinther said. "Once you tell them placement is not an answer, it gets the parent thinking and talking." Most parents are receptive to receiving services or finding a relative who will care for the child, DHS officials said. "But you still have to work with the family if the child moves out," said Jenny Pokempner, staff attorney at Juvenile Law Center, a nonprofit legal organization in Philadelphia. "And there has to be a level of understanding that it's natural for teens to want to rebel and test limits. A key component needs to include giving youth several chances and not kicking them out while they learn that there are consequences for their behavior."

Kera Ritter
9 May 2006

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/14525530.htm

home / Previous feature