Adoption Surge: DCFS Policy Spells Pressure for Black Families

By: Sarah KarpEvette Henderson has spent six years trying to heal the wounds left by the physical and emotional abuse her sister’s three children suffered as toddlers. As their foster mother and aunt, she desperately wants to continue to care for them. Hers is the only safe home they’ve known, she said.
Yet on Sept. 14 she spent six hours in Cook County Juvenile Court, Henderson said, haggling over the children’s fate. Caseworkers had warned her she may lose the children, ages 7, 8 and 9—but not because she is unfit to care for them.

In fact, the caseworkers and the court want Henderson to adopt the children. But she refuses to unless the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services promises to continue paying for the children’s psychiatrist, day care and other services—which could cost about $4,000 a month. The children have a history of mental health problems, and one has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, Henderson said.

While DCFS Executive Deputy Director Mary Sue Morsch would not comment on specific cases, she acknowledged that the state provides more financial assistance to foster children than adopted children. But in all cases, “we try to work with the family,” she said.Still, Henderson noted, DCFS “knew I wasn’t married, they knew I didn’t have a second income to depend on. I can’t do it alone,” said Henderson, 44, who lives in northwest suburban Des Plaines. “I feel like they are trying to railroad me into adopting.”

In recent weeks, even DCFS’ harshest critics have lauded the agency for placing 7,315 children into adoptive homes in fiscal year 1999—more adoptions than in the last two years combined, the agency’s records show. And DCFS Director Jess McDonald notes that Illinois completed more adoptions in fiscal 1999, which ended June 30, than any other state.

“Before, the system was in chaos,” said Ben Wolf, an attorney and director of the institutionalized person’s project for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. Wolf represented Illinois foster children in a 1988 class-action lawsuit that forced DCFS to find them permanent homes more quickly and improve safeguards. “In 1995, Illinois had the highest number of children per capita in substitute care. We needed to do something about that.”

But Illinois’ adoption policy also has drawbacks, an investigation by The Chicago Reporter shows. An analysis of state and federal records and interviews with dozens of child welfare experts, caseworkers and families reveals that:
Relatives like Evette Henderson say they are being pressured by social service agencies and the courts to adopt family members, despite financial restraints and other doubts. Relatives accounted for 57 percent of Illinois adoptions in fiscal 1999, McDonald said. The national average was 14 percent in fiscal 1997, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The surge in Illinois adoptions is most dramatic among African Americans. A survey of 1,389 caregivers commissioned by DCFS and conducted between May 1998 and May 1999 shows that statewide, 80 percent are black. Seventy-seven percent of the caregivers reported an annual household income of less than $40,000; 44 percent made less than $20,000. Their median age was 50. And while the agency does not track demographic trends on families, more African Americans are adopting now than 10 years ago and the age of caregivers is rising, DCFS Research Director Mark Testa said.
DCFS’ new incentive-based payment system pressures private child welfare agencies to push some ill-equipped or reluctant families to adopt, parents and child advocates say. Those agencies manage 77 percent of Illinois’ child welfare caseload.
Half of Cook County’s 14,624 foster parents who are relatives are not licensed, meaning they may not meet the space, safety and character standards set by DCFS. Unlicensed foster parents receive a smaller subsidy for the children in their care.
Once foster parents adopt, they still receive state financial assistance, but may no longer be eligible for other subsidies, such as day care, books, clothing and counseling.
After allowing children to languish in the system for years, DCFS now errs to the other extreme, said Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy. Relatives—particularly African Americans—are being coerced into adopting children, he said. “We would not put white children in the same conditions as we put black children.”

McDonald emphatically denies that charge, arguing children are better off with relatives and close to home. “What critics are saying is that there are not enough black children in really good white homes,” McDonald said. “That would be discriminatory.”

And he has harsh words for social service agencies that say the system pressures them to push relative adoptions. “They are lying,” McDonald said. “They only can make decisions in the best interest of a child. If they are telling you differently, they are misrepresenting what they are doing.”

DCFS officials point to the survey of caregivers who had not yet taken permanent custody of their foster children showed 61 percent planned to either adopt the child or seek legal guardianship. The remaining families said they didn’t want to take permanent custody or hadn’t decided.

Rapid Growth
Illinois law requires that reports of child abuse or neglect go to DCFS. Once the department confirms the report, a police officer, a caseworker from DCFS or from a private agency can remove the child from the home. The Cook County Juvenile Court oversees the case and must approve decisions about the child’s future.

What happens next has changed dramatically in recent years. Before 1996, children could stay in a system that left them lingering in foster care too long, advocates and lawmakers said. In 1995, there were 47,673 children in foster care—a 10-year high. That year, DCFS had a $1.16 billion budget and paid private agencies $355 per child per month for child welfare services. The system rewarded agencies for keeping children in their care, McDonald said.

Only 4,709 children were placed in permanent homes in 1995, according to DCFS.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Family Act. It mandated that states begin the process of terminating parental rights after a child has been in custody for 12 months and if the natural parent has not made progress toward correcting abusive behavior. The law also established a timetable for decisions about the child’s future.

That same year, Illinois legislators went a step further with the Permanency Initiative, which shortened the time frame to nine months in Illinois.

In response, McDonald distributed an internal memo that detailed his plan to “right size” the system. “Performance-based contracting” would tie the fortunes of social service agencies to the number of children they could reunite with their biological parents, or permanently place in adoptive homes or with legal guardians.

In fiscal 1992, DCFS handled nearly half of all child welfare cases; by fiscal 1999, private agencies carried 77 percent of the cases.

In performance-based contracting, DCFS pays private agencies $103,280 a year for each caseworker to handle 43 foster children: 25 in the first quarter of the year and 18 more over the next nine months. Every three months, the caseworker is expected to move at least six children to permanent homes and take on another six cases. At any given time, caseworkers should be managing no more than 25 children.

Agencies that can move children to permanent homes quickly will have more money to spend on fewer children. Those whose caseloads exceed 30 children per caseworker risk losing their contracts.

Under the new system, the DCFS caseload dropped from 51,000 children in fiscal year 1997 to 37,000 in 1999. Of the 13,604 children placed in permanent homes in fiscal 1999, 7,315 were adopted and 4,090 were reunited with their natural parents. Another 2,199 were placed with subsidized guardians, an arrangement that grants guardianship to relatives without terminating parental rights.

For the first time in at least a decade, DCFS spending on foster care and family reunification declined, from $1.04 billion in fiscal 1998 to $1.03 billion in 1999, according to the state Bureau of the Budget. Illinois has allocated $50 million less for the program for fiscal 2000.

For each adopted child, DCFS saves about $6,000 in caseworker salaries and other services, said Martha Allen, DCFS’ director of external affairs.

“I see a lot of what the department is doing is saving money,” said Diane Redleaf, an attorney with 15 years experience in child welfare law. “They are simply deflecting people out of the system.”

The new policy means caseworkers know the clock is ticking, a worry they didn’t have before, said Anne Barclay, director of a DCFS-contracted foster care and adoption program at the Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois, a non-profit at 1279 N. Milwaukee Ave.

“It is good in the sense that far too many children stayed in foster care for way too long,” Barclay said. “But it is bad because we often have to push families to adopt.”

Hattie Miles, who raised nine children, is feeling the pressure. She said a caseworker with Catholic Charities told her she will probably lose custody of Jordan Miles, her 3-year-old grandson, if she doesn’t adopt him.

“If I were a relative, I might feel pressure too,” said Sylvia Flory, director of relative foster care for Catholic Charities, 651 W. Lake St. But, she added, caseworkers need to explain that the court might take children away.

But the 54-year-old Miles, who has severe arthritis, fears she can’t afford to take care of her grandson on the $360 a month DCFS is offering her. Miles lives on Social Security and rental income from her West Garfield Park three-flat apartment building. She’s worried the boy, who was born with heroin in his system, will need medical help as he grows older, and that DCFS won’t cover those expenses.

Once a child is adopted, caseworkers stop checking on a child’s well-being. And adoptive parents get financial help for services only if they can prove they can’t afford to pay, or if the child has “special needs,” as defined by DCFS—children who are emotionally or physically disabled.

Miles echoes the sentiments of Lillie Petty, 54, coordinator of Acorn Foster Parents Inc., an advocacy and support group partly funded by DCFS.

“I feel like I’m being pressured … by everybody,” said Petty, who doesn’t know if she will adopt her three grandchildren, who’ve spent the past nine years in her care. The children are getting the best of care, and she doesn’t see why that has to change. “I just don’t feel the need to adopt.”

But Petty said she realizes that if she doesn’t adopt the children, the state can take them away. If she got an ultimatum, she would “probably” adopt. “I don’t want them anyplace else.”

DCFS may be more concerned with bringing down the numbers than directing more dollars, counseling and other aid to foster parents, said state Rep. Mary E. Flowers, a Chicago Democrat whose district includes the Chatham, Englewood and Gresham neighborhoods on the South Side.“It’s almost as if the grandparents are being forced to take on this responsibility,” said Flowers, one of 20 co-sponsors of the Permanency Initiative.

The system should be more flexible, said state Rep. Constance Howard, another South Side Democrat and chairwoman of the Illinois House Subcommittee on DCFS Reforms. Private child welfare directors that serve minority families have told her they worry about surviving under performance-based contracting, she said.

“We should not herd children into families when they are not ready,” Howard said. “There should be some review process in place so that if the agency has not met the goal, they have an opportunity to explain why.”

Morsch of DCFS said there is no formal appeal process, but she talks with each agency that fails to meet performance goals. DCFS will not send it new cases and it will get less money, she added.

Howard said her subcommittee will send a report with proposed policy and legislative reforms to the full General Assembly by May 2000.

Numbers Game
Private agencies are caught “in a numbers game,” said Mal Williams, executive director of Azusa Family Services, 3333 W. Arthington St., which specializes in relative foster care. “Agencies might sacrifice the best interest [of children] for survival.”

Williams said he has seen families pushed to adopt, only to pull out at the last minute. “What could be more devastating for a child than for a prospective parent to pull back from an adoption?” he asked.

He told his caseworkers not to pressure families that weren’t ready. As a result, his caseload declined. In fiscal 1997, his agency handled about 340 foster children on a DCFS grant of $2.2 million. In 1999, he handled 225 children with a $1.3 million grant.

And while Williams acknowledges that the old system had to change, he worries that when adoptions don’t work out, the children will return more damaged than before. “I want to be sure that we are not bragging today and weeping tomorrow,” he said.

Since performance-based contracting began, the number of adoptions jumped each June, the last month of the fiscal year. For example, 23 percent of the adoptions in fiscal 1999 were finalized in June. Wolf of the ACLU said the spike shows the system is finding children permanent homes.

But since DCFS awards contracts based on the previous year’s performance, “you can’t help but be cynical that decisions might be based on the need to get funding,” said Anita Weinberg, director of child law policy and legislative programs at the Child Law Center at Loyola University’s School of Law, which represents children in abuse, neglect and delinquency cases.

And each quarter DCFS circulates a list of agencies ranked by the percentage of children they place in adoptive or guardianship homes. The year-end ranking for fiscal 1999 shows that 38 of 43 agencies in Cook County met DCFS goals for placing children with relatives; less than half met the goals for non-relatives.

It’s embarrassing to get a low ranking, said Roxy Glasco, child welfare director for Chicago Commons, 4600 S. McDowell Ave., in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the city’s Southwest Side. To improve her agency’s ratings, her staff is now focusing on finding adoptive parents as soon as they get cases, along with reuniting children with their natural parents, Glasco said.

Illinois is one of only three states that requires that caseworkers try to reunite children with their biological parents while simultaneously identifying and helping families to adopt them, according to a June report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization with offices in Denver and Washington, D.C.

That requirement causes even more pressure, Weinberg said. Biological parents may lose confidence in caseworkers if they encourage foster parents to adopt. And foster families may find it awkward to prepare for adoption while helping children and their natural parents build relationships that can lead to reunification, she added.

So far, Illinois is “groundbreaking” in its focus on paying private agencies based on specific outcomes, said Barbara Schmitt, assistant director of the managed care institute for the Child Welfare League of America, a non-profit in Washington, D.C. Other states are hesitant because they don’t know what guidelines are realistic, she said.But McDonald considers the DCFS goals generous. “The greatest sin of all would be to keep children in the system just to help these agencies.”

Policy Shift
State child welfare agencies once hesitated to place children with relatives, worrying that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” especially in substance abuse cases, said Wolf of the ACLU.

Then in 1991, DCFS signed a consent decree to settle the ACLU lawsuit, agreeing to reduce the number of children caseworkers manage and to work harder at moving children out of foster care.

In 1993, 3-year-old Joseph Wallace was hanged by his mother, Amanda Wallace, in their West Side apartment, two months after he was returned from foster care. Wallace was convicted of murder in 1996, sentenced to life in prison and sent to Dwight Correctional Center in downstate Dwight. She committed suicide in 1997.

The tragedy triggered public scrutiny of DCFS, and caseworkers grew timid about sending foster children back home, Wolf said. The system stalled, and the number of children in foster care grew from 33,088 in 1993 to 47,673 in 1995, DCFS records show.

Foster children living with relatives rose from about 10,000 in 1990 to almost 30,000 in 1995. By 1998, they represented about 57 percent of the state’s caseload, DCFS records show.

In 1999, that figure fell to 52 percent since so many relatives were adopting their foster children, said Testa of DCFS.

Still, Illinois had more foster children living with relatives in 1999 than any other state, according to the Child Welfare League of America’s National Data Analysis System. “Relatives are the heroes of our system,” Wolf said.

There is far less state regulation of foster homes run by relatives, the Reporter found. Of the 14,624 relative foster parents living in Cook County, 7,800 are not licensed, DCFS records show. Of those, 913 have license applications pending.

To be licensed, a foster home must meet DCFS guidelines, including having a bedroom for the child that can only be shared with other children. Foster parents must be able to independently support themselves, submit three character references and a medical report, and attend parenting classes.

Because relatives do not have to be licensed, they do not need to meet those requirements, DCFS spokeswoman Maureen Squires said. They can take in their nieces, nephews and grandchildren as long as caseworkers determine their homes are relatively clean and safe, she said.

DCFS pays licensed foster parents between $352 and $434 per month, depending on the age of the child. Relative foster parents who are not licensed get between $276 and $281 per month, said Allen of DCFS. “We want to encourage unlicensed foster parents to get licensed,” she said.

But it is unfair that many relatives are paid less than non-relatives, said state Rep. Howard. Children “have the same needs. They need a roof over their head and they need to eat.”

Tom Grippando, special assistant to Public Guardian Patrick Murphy, said the disparity hits black children hardest. In fiscal 1999, 90 percent of foster children living with relatives were African American, he said. Eighty percent of those living with relatives in unlicensed foster homes are black, according to DCFS.

DCFS has stepped up its efforts to recruit non-relative adoptive parents. The department teams with the Chicago Sun-Times, WGN-TV, Channel 9 and WMAQ-TV, Channel 5 to publicize children available for adoption. “Wednesday’s Child,” a weekly news segment on Channel 5 that features a child up for adoption, began in July. Photographs of the children also appear on the DCFS Web site.

But these initiatives have not been very effective, said Margaret Berglind, assistant executive director of the Child Care Association of Illinois, a membership group of private child welfare agencies.

The response to “Wednesday’s Child” has been “underwhelming,” Berglind said. “For this type of campaign, we would generally get hundreds of responses, but in these cases we only get about 15 calls per night.”

It is too early to assess the campaign, said Wynona Redmond, DCFS Deputy Director of External Affairs.

As of August, 1,538 Illinois children were awaiting adoption, according to the Adoption Information Center of Illinois. Between 1981 and 1998, the center had listed only about 200 cases each year, said Executive Director Marilyn Panichi.

Eighty-four percent of the children are African American and 60 percent are boys, according to the center. About 45 percent of the children’s parents have lost their custody rights, Panichi said.

Fewer Services
Lawndale resident Dorothy Walton, 41, is in the final stages of adopting her three nieces, who have been with her since December 1995. She looks forward to telling the children they will now be safe.

“They should have terminated the parental rights long ago,” she said. “My sister disappeared for two years and for the whole time the kids were emotionally distraught. They didn’t know if they were coming or going.”

Walton said she first considered becoming a subsidized guardian.

Eventually, however, Walton decided it would be less complicated to adopt. “My sister called me a low life and everything else,” she said. “It really hurt. I had to decide that I couldn’t save my sister and I instead would save her children.”

Yet Walton, vice president of the Relative Foster Parent Association, a support group, said she is not completely happy with the system. Her nieces, now 13, 8 and 6, may still need treatment for the abuse they have suffered. Walton convinced DCFS to pay for counseling for six months, and she expects that support to continue for as long as it’s needed.

“DCFS gets you to adopt and they dump the children in your lap,” she said. “They say, now these children are your problem. But what happens if these children’s problems escalate, what will I do then?”

The agency that works with Walton, Cabrini-Green Youth and Family Services at 900 N. Franklin St., is aware of such concerns, said Antoine Taylor, the agency’s recruitment trainer and manager of intake. “Their biggest fear is, ‘now I am out here all by myself,’” Taylor said.

And some child welfare experts fear that children with emotional and physical problems won’t get the services they need once they’re adopted.

Without these services, the new families may not last. The department keeps track of disrupted adoptions only when they occur within 12 months of the completion of adoptions, Testa said.

“We should plan for more [disrupted adoptions] in the future,” Glasco said. “We don’t know how many adoptions are going to blow up.”

For more information on adoptions and foster care, visit the following sites:

w Illinois Department of Children and Family Services adoption page

w August 1999 announcement by Governor George H. Ryan concerning record number of Illinois adoptions

w Illinois Adoption Act and The Adoption and Safe Family Act and The Illinois Permanency Initiative

w Illinois Adoption trends from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

w Data on child welfare from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

w January 1999 Web Extra: Children and Family Services Caseloads by Race

Contributing: Alden K. Loury and Alysia Tate. Sylvia Barragán and Claire D’Alba helped research this article.