Embracing the Children

In an overburdened system, AFSCME members help foster children find hope.

David was just 13 hours old when his mother handed him over to public health nurse Dolores Goldberg.

"Holding David in my arms for the first time changed my life forever," says Goldberg, a member of Local 436 (DC 37). "I decided right then and there that this tiny, fragile child with no one in the world would be welcomed in my home."

Goldberg, 52, took the infant into her home as a foster child and formally adopted him a year later.

"Having another son in my family was an answer to my prayers," says Goldberg.

When circumstances force children to be taken from their families, it is often AFSCME members who are there to help save their young lives. Throughout the nation, AFSCME members serve the foster care system as intake workers, counselors and monitors. Forced to take care of more and more kids with less and less money, these workers are fighting an uphill battle.

AFSCME members who are not professional child care workers are helping, too, by becoming foster parents or by adopting a child. Few people are as brave as Goldberg, however. In addition to two natural children and one grandchild, the Goldberg household now includes six adopted children under the age of 10.

FLOODING THE SYSTEM. "With drug and alcohol problems still infiltrating families, children are coming into the system in droves," says George Wilbur, a social services intake/crisis prevention worker for the past three years with the Washington, D.C., Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS). Nationally, the foster care caseload grew from 340,000 cases in 1988 to 460,000 cases in 1996, an increase of almost 40 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

But even this growth in foster care placements has not kept pace with the need. The federal government estimates that the number of abused and neglected children more than doubled from 1.4 million in 1986 to over 2.9 million in 1995.

Wilbur, a member of AFSCME Local 2401 (Council 20), has been responsible for placing many children in foster care. "Sometimes the children have been living without food, heat, air conditioning or with parents who are borderline mentally ill, mentally retarded or addicted," says Wilbur who has also worked over 20 years in the mental health field.

In Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, these children in crisis are placed in a variety of foster care settings, includ-ing traditional foster homes, kinship care and group homes for older children. When special needs or emergency circumstances dictate, children may be placed in more intensive institutional settings.

Children remain in the foster care system only as long as it takes for their family to become stable. Reunification with the family — whether with parents or another relative — remains the primary goal.

"The best-case scenario is where a mother gets treatment, the kids are in good foster care, healthy and learning in school, and the family is reunified," Wilbur explains. "I've had several of the kids come in to my office and say, 'Mr. Wilbur, look at me now!' That kid looks better and has self-esteem. That's when we know we've done our part in helping to save kids' lives."

FIGHTING FOR KIDS. Welfare reform — which has cut aid and requires parents to find work — has placed additional pressure on families, says Sylvester Judge, branch chief of Foster Care/Adoption Resources for DCFS.

Judge reports that while the demand for services has risen, staff positions go unfilled due to a hiring freeze. Although a federal court order limits social workers to 20 cases each, "the DCFS caseload per social worker is now well over those standards." Retaining social workers under these high-pressure, high-burnout conditions has become difficult.

But Judge praises social workers like Jean Wyche and Carolina Daccarett, members of AFSCME Local 2401 (Council 20), for "performing outstanding jobs with few resources for our most vulnerable families."

Wyche's job is to find the special caliber of individual willing and able to become a foster parent. Applicants must have such basic qualifications as experience in working with children, a steady job, the ability to work with child welfare agencies and attendance at a training program.

Daccarett explains that with the increased demand for foster parents, agencies are making inroads among communities which have not previously shown great interest in becoming foster parents, including African Americans, Latinos, gays and lesbians. In D.C. and elsewhere, foster parents typically receive reimbursement for expenses depending on the age and needs of the child.

ADOPTION AN OPTION. Child advocates remain committed to reunifying children with their families, whether it is with their parents or another relative. But when a family cannot be stabilized — when mom or dad can't kick an addiction or dad can't stay out of trouble — the children remain stuck in foster care. Today, one in 10 children remains in the system for more than seven years.

Judge says that staying in the foster care system can have a devastating effect on children. "They often develop emotional and mental illness," he says. "We know that relationships with birth parents and significant others in early childhood are the foundation for their future."

In an effort to reduce the amount of time children spend in the foster care system, social workers are rethinking the goal of family reunification. Throughout the country, child advocates are calling on governments to make foster children eligible for adoption sooner rather than later. Today, 53,000 children are eligible for adoption out of a national foster child population of nearly 500,000. Late last year, President Clinton pledged to double the number of adoptions from foster care by the year 2002.

TAX HELP. Last summer, the House of Representatives passed legislation calling for a $5,000 tax credit for adoptive parents. This past April, the House approved a bill that would reduce the adoption-hearing process from 18 months to 12 and pay states $4,000 for each foster child adopted. The Senate is slated to consider similar legislation soon.

With these incentives, states are searching for compassionate people like Dolores Goldberg of New York to adopt foster children.

Goldberg, who is single, supports her large family on her salary as a public health nurse. When asked how she manages to keep a job and raise a large family by herself, she says that it all comes down to scheduling and teamwork. She employs a babysitter to watch the children when they get home from school and all of the children have chores: "The kids make their beds, set the table, fix breakfast, prepare lunch and wash and iron their clothes."

But how about a little fun for mom?

"As far as having any time to myself, it really does not matter, my children are my life and my joy," she says. "It really does not get any better than this!"

By Venida RaMar Marshall