Jul. 26—The average number of days a child remains in foster care is over 618.
According to the Alabama Department of Human Resources, there are more than 5,800 kids in the foster care system in Alabama, a number that could soon increase with the potential for more births after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. This compares to a few more than 2,300 foster homes available.
The Department of Human Resources
More than 780 children were adopted in 2021 through Alabama DHR, more than 160 of which were adopted by foster parents. More than 460 children are currently available for adoption through DHR.
Sommer Adams, a pro-life advocate and volunteer for an organization that supports pregnant women financially and emotionally, said her parents fostered other children when she was growing up.
"We kept a lot of foster kids. My brother was adopted from the foster care system," she said. She says that, for women who would choose to give up a baby after birth, those children would not go into the system, they should be placed with one of the millions of families who are waiting on adoption.
"DHR provides child protective services, foster care, and adoption services for newborns who are surrendered in accordance with Alabama's Safe Haven Law," said DHR Director of Communications Dominic Binkley.
When asked how DHR anticipates the Dobbs abortion decision impacting the department's caseload, Binkley said, "we cannot speculate on any potential impact of the Supreme Court's ruling."
Chief quality officer for Duke Health, Richard Shannon, spoke to Axios recently for a story about post-Roe changes.
Axios wrote that Shannon said the foster care system is "a vital social service, it is in desperate need of further improvement and will only be stressed by an increase in pregnancies and live births among moms who can't take care of their kids."
"Throughout its history, the Alabama Department of Human Resources has adapted to meet the evolving needs of children and families across the state. We will continue to adjust our services as needed to fulfill our obligations to the children and families in Alabama," Binkley said.
Shannon also said to Axios, "when those children are raised in unstable circumstances and have to be cared for in foster care, the outcomes there are really sobering."
DHR, like many other agencies, has experienced issues recruiting and retaining workers in recent years.
"DHR, and our counterparts nationwide, have experienced challenges recruiting and retaining social workers. To address this need, we have expanded our recruitment efforts statewide, while working closely with the State of Alabama Personnel Department to remain competitive and to increase our candidate pool for these important positions," said Binkley.
Support outside the system
Adams volunteers with an organization, Let Them Live, which provides financial assistance for mothers who would choose life but had considered adoption due to the financial burden of having a child. She said organizations could help alleviate the struggles mothers face.
"We will not only take care of their immediate bills and their immediate needs ... five years down the road, we want them to be stable and happy and successful. We'll show them how to find a job that will sustain where they're living, how to keep budget, and fill in the gaps where we can wherever funding is needed," Adams said. "I think a lot of the women who would otherwise have given their baby up for adoption or otherwise would've chosen abortion are going to feel empowered now when before they didn't."
The Limestone County Foster & Adoptive Parent Association is a non-profit organization run by a Board of volunteers whose passion in life is helping children in need. The News Courier spoke with the president of the LCFAPA Maria Tyler. Though she did not want to speak on the Dobbs ruling, her work with the system brings an additional perspective after the decision.
Tyler is a resident of Athens and, with her husband, has been a foster and adoptive parent for 11 years in Limestone County and has experienced all three types of care: foster, adoption, and kinship care. Tyler and her husband have nine children, six adopted and three fostered.
The LCFAPA supports families that care for children through mediation with DHR, court hearings, individualized service plan meetings, and other situations where they could lend a hand. Tyler says, though they are separate from DHR, they work with them to benefit children and their families. They also host trainings that help maintain foster licenses.
"If you are an adoptive or kinship family, you are not required to participate in trainings; however, many find these sessions very helpful in raising their adoptive children as well. Both foster and adopted children share many of the same challenges in life. Our trainings help parents and children to deal with and overcome these challenges."
Tyler reminds readers that kids in foster care carry trauma with them and foster parents need to be prepared to meet kids where they are in that trauma.
"All kids that come into foster care come from some sort of trauma ... and some kids deal with it fine on their own. Some kids need to go through counseling. Some kids just need people to talk to, and a lot of kids just have behaviors, and that's probably the most challenging thing is trying to figure out what you can do to help the children with those behaviors so that they're not hurting themselves or others," said Tyler.
Often, foster families have the opportunity to continue a relationship with their foster children once they are reunited with their biological family.
"Our main goal is to get the kids back home to (the parents), and when that happens, you have another relationship, you know. You're friends, you're a support system to them. You can help babysit those kids; they can come back and spend the night, or you can get together for events. So that's what we tried to do with all of our kids," Tyler said.
"Now, I will say that there are situations where that can't happen and, you know, we have to stand back, and we're not allowed to have that contact with them or be a support system like we would like. But I would say in most situations our families are able to reach out to them and have a strong connection with them and a relationship and support," said Tyler.
Michael Smith, the Chief Operations Officer of Alabama Baptist Children's Homes & Family Ministries, told The News Courier their efforts are focused on reunification whenever possible but did not answer questions about the Dobbs decision's effects on the organization.
"The mission of the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes & Family Ministries is to protect, nurture, and restore children and families through Christ-centered services. Our primary focus is on reunification with the family of origin for children in foster care."
He says they are involved with adoptions of foster children when efforts to reunify the family have not worked.
"We do not offer adoption services to the general public, as we are not an adoption agency. We provide traditional foster homes and campus foster homes for children who are in care," Smith said.
Adoption red tape
Chair of the Alabama Republican Party John Wahl told The News Courier the ALGOP is making an effort to remove bureaucratic red tape in the adoption process.
"We want to lower the cost or get it to where it could be free for the individuals participating in the adoption. So, we're looking into ways where we could streamline the process and bring the cost down, and hopefully bring that cost to zero," said Wahl.
He said it goes back to caring about people.
"And we care about not only the rights and the freedoms of adults but also children and the unborn, and we really have a concern for adoptive parents and mothers who are facing a terrible situation. So, really streamlining the adoption process is our goal."
When asked if the GOP has a plan for aiding expectant mothers experiencing unwanted pregnancies manage medical expenses and accessing prenatal care Wahl said, "we are looking into that. I know there have been some calls from the Democratic Party to expand Medicare or Medicaid. I would like to see something that's more targeted, that would help the mothers in this position immediately and more directly. Let's not just expand another government program. Let's actually look into ways we can help these people in need directly."
"When it comes to the mothers who are in need I think there should be more assistance for them. Whether it's reducing the amount of money it costs to have a baby, which is absolutely obscene when you look at hospital bills," Adams said. "Or when it comes to programs like WIC, financial aid for those who are below certain income levels, I think that should all definitely be improved upon."
Wahl went on to say, "I think one way is immediately to look at families who are considering adoptions and allowing them to help with expenses; and possibly in the short term, the government helping with expenses where that could then be something that would help people, and I think these are all areas that we need to look into, and I want to look at what other states have done. What is possible, what legislation it would take and not make any hasty decisions."
