Foster Parents Struggling to Meet Complex Needs of Foster Children
New Study Links Difficulties to Frequent Placement Moves

Chicago, IL, March 23, 2006 - A major new investigation of why children in the child welfare system experience frequent moves from one placement to another indicates that foster parents' challenges in meeting the emotional and developmental needs of foster children, often without adequate resources, is helping drive the frequent movements of children from one foster home to another. According to caseworkers surveyed for the study, 75 percent attributed children's most recent move to foster parents' inability or unwillingness to continue as their child's foster parents.

The study, conducted by Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, examined the placement histories of 200,000 children in substitute care in Illinois between 1990 and 2004 and surveyed 1,192 caseworkers from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. It was commissioned by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

According to the study, more than a quarter of caseworkers cited parent's inability to tolerate children's behavioral or emotional problems when asked to explain the reason for a child's most recent placement move. In half of the cases studied, caseworkers recommended mental health services to stabilize children's current placements.

More than half of school age children in the Illinois child welfare system suffered from a mental illness or behavior problem that made fostering them very difficult, the study showed. Several diagnoses, including conduct disorders, were associated with increased placement instability.

A number of factors, including placement with relatives and in treatment foster homes appeared to reduce the likelihood of a subsequent move for a child placed in out-of-home care. Once placed with a relative, a child's likelihood of moving declined by almost 50 percent. Children in treatment foster homes, which provide a range of services including respite care, therapeutic services, and more frequent visits by caseworkers, were also significantly less likely to move than children in traditional, non-relative homes.

Caseworkers frequently indicated that increased support for foster parents, whether or not their children had mental health needs, was necessary to maintain placements. Almost half (47 percent) of caseworkers recommended recreational or after-school programming, and approximately a quarter recommended respite care (25 percent) and transportation assistance (23 percent) to maintain children's placements.

"The proportion of moves attributed to foster parents - whether motivated by children's behavioral issues, the day-to-day demands of caretaking, or by foster home life events - underscores that foster homes are ground zero when it comes to preventing placement instability." said Andrew Zinn, the study's lead author said.

About a third of foster families in the study were headed by a single adult, and in over half of the foster families both parents - or, in single-parent homes, the single parent - hold jobs outside the home. Over half have their own children living at home, according to the study. About a third relies on full-time daycare for their foster children.

Despite the needs identified by caseworks, substantial proportions of children were not receiving services that caseworkers had recommended to stabilize children's placements. Caseworkers reported that, in nearly 45 percent of cases where mental health services had been recommended, children were not receiving recommended services. Over 40 percent of children for whom after-school programming was recommend and a third of foster parents for whom respite care was recommended were not receiving these services.

A little more than a quarter cited no other explanation for the non-receipt of services other than a failure to make the needed referral. A slightly smaller number reported that either the children or their foster parents failed to participate when services were offered.

It showed that the number of placement changes experienced by children in Illinois within the first year after entry to care has increased 23 percent since the early 1990s. By the end of 2004, children entering the child welfare system and remaining in care for a year made 2.1 moves during their first year in the system, up from a low of 1.7 for children entering care in 1992.

Copies of all Chapin Hall studies can be found on the Chapin Hall web site at http://www.chapinhall.org. To arrange an interview with the study's lead author, Andrew Zinn, please contact Ms. Flora Lazar, public affairs director, at 773-256-5212 or flazar@chapinhall.org.

Chapin Hall Center for Children is a nonpartisan policy research center dedicated to bringing rigorous research and innovative ideas to policymakers, service providers, and funders working to improve the well-being of children. Located at the University of Chicago, Chapin Hall now celebrates twenty years as a leading source of research and expertise about the needs of children and the service systems designed to meet those needs.