“There’s a need for foster homes,” said Montgomery County Children Services associate director Craig Rickett. “We’ve seen the number level off, and we’ve seen the number of our older youth remain pretty consistent in foster care.
In Greene County, Children Services administrator Lana Penney said 75 children are currently in agency custody. Her county is also working with a smaller pool of foster caregivers, with only 31 people licensed to care for children.
“One of our biggest challenges is finding foster children for those older youth,” Penney said. “But overall, we have a strong need for more caregivers.”
Licensed foster parents few
Montgomery County has the sixth largest number of children in custody in the state.
Several years ago, Montgomery County saw a drop in the number of in-county caregivers. Since then, the number of caregivers has leveled off, while the number of children in custody remains high, Rickett said.
COVID-19 impacted some families’ decision to close their homes to foster children in Montgomery County and beyond.
“It was kind of an unintended consequence of the pandemic for a myriad of reasons,” Rickett said. “People were fearful of the unknown.”
In recent years, other foster caregivers have moved out of the county or have asked for no more placements because they have chosen to adopt the children in their care.
Still other times, caregivers choose to close their home because they entered into a busy season in life and fear they don’t have time for the commitment, Rickett said.
“I think everybody’s reasons are different,” Rickett said. “And I think it can be scary. But we’ve got some absolutely wonderful foster parents.”
‘Trying to reduce trauma’
When a child is removed from his or her home and comes into the care of Montgomery County Children Services, the agency first looks to place the child with a nearby relative who has played a role in the child’s life, Rickett said.
“Being removed from the home is a traumatic situation for a child,” he said. “We’re trying to reduce that trauma.”
In recent years, this kinship network has been more difficult to tap into, as children coming into Children Services are lacking relatives who can or will take them in, Rickett said.
Children can benefit greatly from being placed with a foster family as opposed to a group home or other care center, as foster families can dedicate more specialized time and attention to the children in their household, Rickett said.
Regional children service agencies increasingly have to look out of their counties to place children who come into their custody.
In Ohio in 2022, more than 2,000 children were placed into residential care or another placement setting other than kinship care or a foster parent, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Out-of-county placements costly
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reports a point-in-time count for children in custody in all 88 counties annually.
In January of 2023, roughly 141 Montgomery County children were placed in group homes, while another 49 were placed in a residential facility. More than 150 children were also living in treatment foster homes for exceptional needs or special needs. These children require specialized health care.
The length of stay in foster care can vary wildly for every case that comes before Children Services. In Montgomery County, the median length of stay has averaged around nine months.
Additional costs are associated with these placements, Penney said.
Contract foster homes or other residential facilities are significantly more expensive than in-county placements. Each placement is dependent upon the provider, the level of care and services involved.
In Greene County, the cost can range from $20.25 per day for a standard foster family to $1,000 per day for a child with a higher level of care needs at a residential treatment location.
Added to that bill are costs associated with travel, Penney said.
Greater still is the impact on the child. Removing a young person from all their familiarity can have a negative impact, Penney said.
“Their neighbors are here, their friends are here, they go to school here,” Penney said. “They have connections to this community.”
‘Fantastic’ experience
People open their homes to foster children for an assortment of reasons. For Clayton couple Michelle Tedford and Kevin Anderson, they chose to become foster parents because of the need for caregivers for teens.
“These older kids tend to get forgotten,” Anderson said. “And they need help, too. They need places to stay, just like everybody else.”
Tedford and Anderson have been licensed as foster parents in Montgomery County since 2016. They were placed with a teenage girl as their first child a few months after getting their license.
The initial weeks of that placement were filled with excitement and adjustment. Tedford and Anderson said they were learning along with their foster daughter about what her food preferences were, what television shows she liked and more.
Tedford said hesitancy over teen placements can come from a variety of sources: wanting to experience the “firsts” in a child’s life, not feeling equipped to care for the needs of a child in that age range, feeling discomfort over the possible trauma an older child may have experienced and more.
But during their time with their first daughter, they witnessed the young teen discover new parts of life.
“(She) was from a household where she never got to celebrate birthdays,” Tedford said. “We took her trick-or-treating for the first time. We introduced her to travel, and she got to experience things in life and figure out what she loved.”
Since that first placement, the couple has seen several children come into their care. Tedford and Anderson adopted a 15-year-old that originally came into their lives through foster care, and a 17-year-old is also currently in their household through foster care.
“With every placement we’ve had, we’ve had all of these amazing opportunities to grow with the children who have been placed with us,” Tedford said. “And that has just been fantastic.”
Learn more about being a foster or adoptive parent
Montgomery County Children Services has brought back its in-person, informational meetings for prospective foster or adoptive parents. These information sessions are free. The county needs homes for all ages, especially for older children ages 12-17.
Location: Haines Children Center, 3304 North Main Street, Dayton
Dates/times:
Tuesday, July 11, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 8, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 14, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 13, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 11, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Fore more information: Call 937-224-KIDS (5437) to learn about becoming a foster caregiver in Montgomery County.
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