HAVEN FOR THE CHILDREN

Parental alcohol and drug abuse is producing a population explosion of
battered and neglected children, overwhelming the nation's child welfare
and family court systems and shattering the traditional disposition to keep
children with their natural parents.

From 1986 to 1997, the number of abused and neglected children jumped from
1.4 million to 3 million, a 114 percent increase, more than eight times
greater than the 14 percent increase in the children's population.

At least seven -- some professionals say nine -- of 10 cases of child abuse
and neglect are caused or exacerbated by alcohol and drug abuse and
addiction. Children whose parents abuse alcohol and drugs are almost three
times likelier to be abused and more than four times likelier to be neglected.

Alcohol is the prime culprit. In a recent survey by the National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 89 percent of child
welfare professionals, family court judges and child advocates named
alcohol alone and in combination with illegal or prescription drugs as the
number one drug abused by parents who abuse and neglect their children.

Each year 500,000 babies are born prenatally exposed to illicit drugs and
usually alcohol and tobacco as well. These children are up to three times
likelier to be abused and neglected. Each year 20,000 infants of drug- and
alcohol-abusing mothers are abandoned at birth or kept in the hospital for
their own protection because no foster care is available.

Caseloads are impossible. Caseworkers in some areas are responsible for 50
cases at once, and some judges confront 50 child welfare cases a day. Few
child welfare professionals have been trained to identify substance abuse
and addiction, much less know what to do when they spot it, and virtually
all judges learn on the job. Two-thirds of reported cases of child abuse
and neglect are not investigated.

As the need for home services for parents and children in the child welfare
system has soared, the number of families receiving such help has plummeted
from 1.2 million to 500,000 over the past two decades. Most parents who
need treatment don't get it, and the treatment given those who do is often
inappropriate. These parents are predominantly women, often themselves
victims of violence and abandoned by fathers who have walked out on their
responsibilities. They need therapy attentive to their problems, combined
with literacy and job and parenting training. Most available treatment is
geared toward men.

Child welfare workers have long viewed terminating parental rights as a
failure. But abuse of alcohol, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana
- -- the drugs professionals most frequently encounter in child abuse cases
- -- has shattered this time-honored precept. Where drug- and alcohol-abusing
parents are concerned, the failure often rests in perpetuating such rights
at the expense of the child's development.

In early childhood, the rapid pace of intellectual, physical, emotional and
spiritual development is in head-on collision with the months, sometimes
years, often marked by relapses, that drug- and alcohol-addicted parents
may need to get the monkey off their back. The time that parents require to
conquer their addiction can pose a serious threat to their children, who
may suffer permanent damage during a period of development in which weeks
are windows of opportunity that can never be reopened.

For some parents, concern about children can provide the motivation to seek
treatment. But for many, the most insidious aspect of substance abuse and
addiction is its power to destroy the natural parental instinct to love and
care for their children. Eighty-six percent of professionals surveyed cited
lack of motivation as the top barrier to getting such parents into treatment.

The cruelest dimension of the tragedy is this: Even if parental rights are
timely terminated when abusive parents refuse to enter treatment or cannot
overcome their addiction, there is no assurance of a safe haven for their
children. Only one in four children available for adoption is adopted, and
children of substance-abusing parents are at the end of the line. Foster
care, while far better than being abused, rarely offers the lasting and
secure environment that nourishes healthy cognitive development. And
appropriate foster care is in short supply.

What to do? Train caseworkers and family court judges to deal with drug and
alcohol abuse and addiction and greatly increase their numbers. Provide
timely treatment and training to parents. Increase incentives for foster
care and adoption.

Do we have the money to do this? In a society that last year spent more
money on cosmetic surgery, hairpieces and makeup for men than on child
welfare services for children of substance-abusing parents, the answer is a
resounding yes. I nominate these children and their parents for first dibs
on the burgeoning federal budget surplus and the money that the states get
from the tobacco settlement.

This is a far better investment than adding felonies to the federal
criminal code and throwing more parents in prison, as some in Congress and
the administration suggest. Criminalizing a child welfare system that
should be driven by compassion and health care may be responsive to the
polls, but it does little to help children of drug- and alcohol-abusing
parents. They need stable and secure homes now to give them a chance for
productive (and taxpaying) lives in the future.