ARIZONA, USA — On a single day this past week, 38 kids came into foster care in Arizona. Many of them, the Department of Child Safety said, were in large sibling groups.
DCS is now expecting with school starting up; they’ll see more reports and more kids who will need foster care.
"There’s so many kids that just need your love"
For the past eight months since the little girl was two weeks old, Hope Kopp and her family have had a temporary addition.
“There’s so many kids that just need your love,” Kopp said.
The baby girl is the latest foster child Kopp has cared for.
“I’ve had about 32 foster placements,” Kopp said. “Sometimes they stay a week, and then they find kinship or go home. Sometimes they stay a couple of years. I had somebody for 22 months.” Kopp has even adopted four children of her own over the past 15 years as a foster parent.
“It's changed my whole life. I mean, it wasn't the path that I thought that it was going down. But it's changed my whole life,” Kopp said.
The first child she adopted was the first placed in her home.
“It's been an amazing journey. It's very rewarding. I mean, you think you're helping out these kids, but the love that they need and that you're giving them it's so rewarding, it's beneficial to both sides,” Kopp said.
But last Wednesday, Kopp saw an email from DCS detailing 38 kids needing a foster placement in a single day.
“It’s gut-wrenching. When you see kids that were just removed from what they’re used to, and then they’re in a holding pattern until they get to a foster home,” Kopp said. “And you just want to, you just want to go tell all your friends, you need to be foster parents, you need to open up your home to these kids, they need a safe place to go.”
Foster parents needed
It’s unclear what led to the 38 kids needing care last Wednesday, but Mollie Mesaros, Foster Supports Manager at DCS’ Office of Licensing and Regulation, said most kids have been placed into foster homes.
“We saw an unusual amount of children and young adults who came into care. A lot of large sibling groups, which is a constant need,” Mesaros said.
There’s a constant need too for foster parents.
According to DCS reports, bed space in licensed foster homes is at a five-year low.
The latest data shows only about 6,329 beds are available.
While the number of kids in out-of-home care is also at the lowest in at least five years, DCS records show there are still 11,722 kids in out-of-home care.
“When we don't have enough foster caregivers, we utilize congregate care group home settings,” Mesaros said.
Mesaros said there are 1,800 kids in group home settings that could be placed in foster homes if available.
“There's constantly new kids coming into the system. So just encouraging other families to if they have the means to open up their homes,” Kopp said.
Kopp encourages those considering becoming foster parents at all to just take the first step.
“Even if you're helping one child, for the time that you need to be there for them, it's so rewarding, makes a difference,” Kopp said.
DCS said the process to get licensed takes about four to six months but is self-driven. More information about what it takes to become a foster parent can be found here.
School year increases
Both Kopp and Mesaros said with the school year starting back up; usually, more kids need foster care.
That’s partly because mandatory reporters, like teachers, have more eyes on kids during school, which can lead to more calls into the hotline and kids needing care.
“None of these children are in care because of anything that they did. They're not bad kids. They are in care because of something that happened to them,” Mesaros said. “And all that they need is a loving supportive home, to help them get through what they're going through.”
DCS's latest stats show more than 2,700 cases haven’t had case notes done in two months. That’s almost three times the benchmark the state set in 2016.
“Our inactive case numbers have been inflated recently by a combination of staffing challenges and data issues after we implemented our new operating system. We have reached stability on both of those issues and expect the number to clear over the next three to six months,” a spokesperson told 12News in an email.
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