MARION — Local children services hopes a new website aimed at attracting more foster parents gives them a boost, with not enough foster parents available to fill the need.

Last month, the state rolled out a new website that provides a central location for prospective foster parents to go to get more information about becoming a foster parent and become linked with a local agency to begin the process.

“Any help we can get is amazing from the state … in recruiting foster parents because the need is so real in Ohio,” said Bryant Brown, community education coordinator for Marion County Children Services.

The number of foster parents has not kept pace with the number of children in foster care, which statewide has risen by 24 percent since 2013, in part due to the opioid epidemic, according to a May 2018 report by an Ohio advisory group on foster care.

In Marion County, the number of children in custody has more than doubled over the last six years. There were 75 children in the custody of Marion County Children Services on Feb. 1, compared to 33 children in custody on the same day in 2013, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

But as of Feb. 1, there are only 31 foster care families licensed through Marion County Children Services, according to the state agency.

Some of those families aren’t accepting children at the moment, Brown said, which may force children services to turn to private agencies that place children with foster families, which comes at a higher cost to the county.

“Most of the time now, we can’t even really call Delaware or Crawford County because they’re just as inundated as we are,” he said.

Among the private agencies that Marion County Children Services often turns to is The Buckeye Ranch, Kids Count Too and The Village Network, Brown said.

Of the 75 children in Marion County Children Services’ custody, 42 were in foster care families licensed through children services, according to the state’s JFS. The other 33 went to other foster care families or homes, for example, ones licensed through private agencies.

The state website, fosterandadopt.jfs.ohio.gov, was developed out of recommendations made by the state’s foster care advisory group.

“Enhancing the state’s capacity to recruit and retain more foster caregivers is critical to ensuring that children can remain in their communities and schools in stable placements and are not placed unnecessarily in group homes or other congregate care settings because foster caregivers are not available,” the group’s recommendations read.

It’s parents like Devin and Crystal Durain that the county and state want to keep on as foster parents.

The Marion County couple initially wanted to adopt. But they decided to become foster parents after they realized that they would have a much wider impact through foster parenting, where they could not only give children a home, but also be a support system for the parents.

“It’s kind of a tag-team situation, instead of just, okay, we’re going to try and adopt you and hope your parents do okay on their own,” Devin Durain said.

In the four years they have been foster parents, they have had 15 children stay in their home, with the longest stay lasting a year and a half and the shortest stay for a night, he said.

What seems to hold some families back from becoming foster parents, Durain said, is the fear of disrupting what’s normal.

“It always comes up of, ‘Man, I want to become foster parents. I’ve talked to my spouse about it. We’re so interested in in, but we’re so unsure of what it’s going to do to our daily lives, how busy it’s going to make us, what it’s going to do to our kids,'” Durain said. “So I think that’s the mold that we have to try and help people get out of.”

Durain said he thinks there could be more support for foster parents, whether that be through tight support groups of foster parents or through children services.

“I think the biggest thing that could be focused on more is … not being afraid to reach out for help,” he said.

In addition to the state website and public awareness campaign, the state’s advisory group also recommended:

• Specialized training for foster families caring for drug-impacted children or children of parents who abuse substances
• Developing best practices and guidance for local children services on foster caregiver retention
• Dreating specialized paid mentoring opportunities for foster caregivers caring for drug-impacted children
• Acknowledging and supporting experienced foster caregivers

svolpenhei@gannett.com

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