DEMAND RISING FOR FOSTER PARENTS

Drug Use And Looming Federal Deadlines Put Pressure On State

LOUISVILLE - Drug abuse by parents is fueling a growing demand for
foster and adoptive homes in Kentucky that is outpacing the supply,
state officials say.

The state also is under a two-year federal deadline to improve its
care of children removed from homes. It could lose federal money if
improvements aren't made.

As a result, state child welfare officials are trying to meet
immediate needs at the same time they are working to attract, train
and certify more people to take abused or neglected children into
their homes.

Parents' drug abuse is a key reason for the increased number of
children coming into the system, said Mary Ellen Nold, who oversees
the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' program to care for
children in state care.

"It's just really, really sad," she told The Courier-Journal of
Louisville. "A lot of times the parents are in jail. Who's going to
take care of the child?"

Five years ago, the cabinet had about 5,560 children in foster care or
awaiting adoption. It now has 6,471 -- an increase of more than 900
while available homes increased by about 360, Nold said.

Child welfare workers say they increasingly are being called to
hospitals where drug-addicted mothers have given birth to babies also
addicted. Often, social workers take the baby from the hospital, said
Kathy Gay, a supervisor for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services
in Eastern Kentucky.

Other children are placed in state care because of neglect when
drug-addicted parents have stopped caring for them.

"The parents, they're so hooked on drugs they don't even realize what
they're doing to themselves or their children," said Gay, who is based
in Breathitt County and supervises workers in eight counties.

Kentucky's child welfare officials are under orders from the federal
government to expand the number of foster and adoptive homes and
improve the children's lives by reducing disruption and getting them
into permanent homes faster. A big part of that effort is recruiting
and training more people to become foster and adoptive parents, so the
state has launched recruiting drives in each of the 16 regions it
serves, Nold said.

The state says about 800 children are waiting for adoptive homes.