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May 14, 2000Foster care -- IntroductionChild welfare officials take it case-by-case Home not always a haven for children Agencies impose strict criteria Changes put onus on biological parents Pilot program making progress with Indian children Binsfeld laws aim at stabilityBy CARI NOGARecord-Eagle staff writer Last week, a northwestern Michigan mother voluntarily surrendered her parental rights to her four children, who already have been living in foster care for about 14 months. Their father, who is serving a prison term for abusing at least one of the children, surrendered his parental rights in February. The four children, all under 10, are developmentally delayed. The two youngest didn't even talk and communicated by screaming. Though the beginning of this story is not happy, the fact that parental rights have been terminated rapidly at least takes the children out of foster care limbo. An adoptive family will be sought, and the children will now have the chance at a better life. They entered the foster care system in February 1999, when they were placed about 40 miles from their hometown, in the Wexford County foster home of Linda and John Smith. Their names have been changed to preserve the children's anonymity. It was then that the state's clock started ticking toward the "permanency planning hearing" the Binsfeld laws say must take place within a year. In March 1999, the children were moved after a foster family was found in their hometown. "There were a lot of strong ties the children had to their hometown area," said Denise Habedank, the family's foster care worker at Child and Family Services. CFS is the largest foster care placement agency in northwestern Michigan. It has about 175 children in care in 13 counties. Then, those second foster parents chose to start their own family and decided they could no longer foster children. In June 1999, the foursome went back to the Smiths. At that early stage, reunification of the family was still a goal. The children saw both parents in twice-weekly supervised visits, Habedank said. By November, though, it was becoming obvious that the parents wouldn't be ready to take their children back when the year was up. The oldest child had already had one go-around with the foster system. At age 3, pre-Binsfeld, he was placed for a month and then went home. Had Binsfeld existed then, Habedank believes he wouldn't have returned home. Between that first removal of the 3-year-old and the February 1999 removal of all four children, "a lot" of services were provided to the family through the schools, the state Family Independence Agency and other social services, said Habedank and foster mother Linda Smith. "I was amazed at how many people were in contact with this family throughout this time," Smith said. "I think there were 30 different services there at one time involved in helping this family try and get it together. They had an opportunity to change." Because services provided to families in an attempt to stave off removal are fairly intense, the cases that do make their way to foster care are harder to resolve, said Jim Scherrer, director of Child and Family Services. By November, the frequency of the children's visits with their parents was reduced. By December, visits with the father were over. He surrendered his parental rights in February of this year, when he went to prison. Their mother, facing the possibility of her parental rights being taken by the court, instead surrendered them last week. She has 21 days to rescind her decision. After that, she will be allowed a good-bye visit and the children will become available for adoption. Preliminary discussions have been started, but without the mother's release of rights, nothing could move forward. It all will take about 15 months, a little longer than it should have, per the Binsfeld laws. While the system was "right on task," Smith wishes both biological parents would have terminated their rights simultaneously, which could have speeded the process. Even after 15 months, the children still are fairly young, which she believes increases their chances for success later in life. "They have a better chance of breaking the cycle when you get them young," Smith said. |
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