NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Health and Welfare is boosting its tracking efforts to better understand why children end up in foster care. Data from June 30 shows that on that day, almost half of Idaho’s foster care placements were there because of a parent’s drug use, preliminary data shows.
Officials nationwide have reported an increase in children going into foster care due to parents using drugs. Some of that increase was believed to stemmed from the opioid crisis, though data proving that theory is lacking.
Idaho is reportedly seeing the same increase in children coming into foster care because of parental drug use, though which drugs might be causing that increase is still unclear, the Idaho Press reported.
From 2000 to 2017, the number of children being placed in foster care doubled nationwide, according to an NPR report, citing research in JAMA Pediatrics. For 1.2 million of these children, out of the roughly 5 million total, parental drug use was the primary reason they entered foster care.
Researchers saw a steady rise in foster care placements attributable to parental drug use — from around 15% in 2000 to 36% in 2017, according to the report.
According to point-in-time data from June 30, 828 of the 1,799 children in foster care in Idaho — or 46% — were placed there due to a parent’s drug use. This is based off a new tracking system, which the state launched in June.
“Usually there’s a constellation of factors, and controlled substance use is often one,” said Miren Unsworth, administrator of Idaho Health and Welfare’s Division of Family and Community Services.
Other factors could be domestic violence or mental health, she said.
In fiscal year 2019, 3,100 Idaho children were placed in foster care, an increase of 600 children in five years, Unsworth said. The number of children in foster care grew by 24% in those five years, while the state’s general population only grew by 7.5%.
In 2016, Congress passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a drug-initiative aimed at addressing the opioid crisis with a focus on prevention and treatment. Part of that legislation included the child welfare system and connecting parents with community resources to beat addictions.
The law coincided well with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s launch of a new tracking system in June. Previously, data on why children were entering foster care was tracked by categories such as sexual abuse, neglect or physical abuse, but the data around parental drug use was inconsistent, Unsworth said.
Now, if a child is placed in foster care because of a parent’s drug use, the new system, implemented in June, will be able to differentiate which type of drugs were used, along with other factors.
That new system will be able to tell the department exactly what is placing children in the care of foster homes. Having that information will help the department understand what resources are needed for parents.
So far, since the system launched in June, 828 cases have been due to parents’ drug use. It’s too soon to confidently say what is causing the increase, though, because the tracking is in the early stages.
Unsworth reported that the department saw an increase of children in foster care in the mid-2000s when it reached the 3,000 mark, which was reportedly due to methamphetamine use.
Although the substance may change, the issues surrounding drug abuse are still impacting children, she said.
For instance, over 32% of foster care placements in the 3rd Judicial District in fiscal year 2019 were due to drug use, said Christina Walker, executive director of 3rd District Guardian ad Litem. The district covers Adams, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette and Washington counties.
However, that number likely does not reflect the absolute picture of drug use separating families. And, anecdotally, Walker said her office notices that meth use is still the leading drug separating families in Canyon County.
Of the 419 children served in fiscal year 2019 by Family Advocates’ CASA program for the 4th Judicial District, 217 of those children were served for alleged drug use by their parents. Thirteen cases were due to opioid use as a secondary reason, according to a report from CASA program.
Another aspect that has been discussed frequently nationwide is overdose deaths. That’s another outcome of the nationwide opioid crisis, which can be hard to track, as previously reported by the Idaho Press.
Though only noted anecdotally, Unsworth said, she noticed the critical incidents she reviews are more commonly due to a parent who has overdosed and died.
By this coming June, Unsworth hopes the new tracking system will contain a better data set to understand how much of a role controlled substances, or any other issue, is playing in children entering foster care.
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Information from: Idaho Press, http://www.idahopress.com