PHOENIX — Every week many Arizona foster parents receive an email from either the Director of Child Services or foster care providers asking if they have room for one more child.
Arizona is facing a critical shortage of foster parents and once again the state is confronted with housing children in a state office building until DCS can find them a place to live.
At one point this week, 30 children were being kept in what DCS calls its placement center. It's located in a downtown Phoenix high-rise office building. A spokesman for DCS said the number was an aberration. DCS says it happened in part because nine sibling groups entered into the foster care system at the same time. DCS says it was able to place most of the children by Friday.
"On Thursday, we experienced a large influx of children at our Maricopa County Placement Center, mostly due to a high number of sibling groups requiring placement at the same time. Despite the surge of children, our placement center staff located homes for most of the children by Friday," DCS said in a statement. (That full statement can be seen at the end of this article).
"It's hard to say no when the need is still there."
To say Anika Robinson is an advocate for foster children doesn't quite fully capture her commitment. Robinson and her husband have eight children in total, four of which they fostered and then adopted. Robinson has been involved in the Arizona foster care system for 15 years. She now serves on three non-profits dedicated to helping foster families.
"In a world where there will always be abuse, neglect, and abandonment and you have good, kindhearted people willing to step up and do hard work [...] you have to treat these families like gold."
While this week's numbers are alarming, it used to be a lot worse. In 2015, more than 18,000 children were in the state's foster care system. Hundreds were kept in emergency shelters until they could be placed with foster parents. Today, there are far fewer children in foster care. The Department of Child Services says as of July there are 11,551 children from newborn to age 17 in foster care.
The DCS semi-annual report released in July provides some clues why child placement remains challenging. During the state's 2017 fiscal year there were 4,875 foster homes. Today there are just 2,835. During the same time period, the number of beds dropped from 11,046 in 2017 to 6,303 today.
Anika Robinson says foster parents are leaving the system for many reasons. Robinson says many feel they are not adequately trained, for example. And when they need to get a hold of a DCS specialist, she says no one answers the phone.
"They care about how they're treated. Receiving timely responses and if there is an allegation, having the ability to go thru a process that's fair and feeling supported. Appreciated," Robinson said.
Robinson and her husband continue to foster children, including one foster child who lives with the family now.
If you are interested in being a foster parent, the Department of Child Services has a list of foster care licensing agencies that can help you. Click here to find out more.
DCS released the following statement regarding this week's rise in children needing a foster home:
"On Thursday, we experienced a large influx of children at our Maricopa County Placement Center, mostly due to a high number of sibling groups requiring placement at the same time. Despite the surge of children, our placement center staff located homes for most of the children by Friday.
Being removed from their family can be traumatic for children. That is why we created and designed our placement center to be a welcoming place for children and youth who have experienced abuse or neglect. The placement center has beds, a kitchen, television, movies, recreational activities, video games, on-site behavioral health supports, and more to make the children feel as comfortable as possible.
While we had an increase in children needing placement this week, we routinely send communications directly to foster families raising awareness of specific needs to match children with caregivers. Despite the number of kids in care declining from over 18,400 children to under 11,600 children, we are always in need of existing and new foster families to serve children who do not have kin who can support them. We especially need homes for older children and teenagers. We encourage anyone who is interested in becoming a licensed foster parent to visit our website at dcs.az.gov/foster for more information."