Foster children need to be loved, said former foster parent Sandra Price, and Cortland County needs foster parents to love them.
Price, a county legislator who presented a recognition award to foster parents at a Cortland County Legislature meeting in April, said one of the reasons she became a legislator was to help foster parents.
“I think foster parents have challenges I didn’t have,” said Price (D-Harford, Virgil).
Since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020, the demand for foster parents has increased, said Social Services Commissioner Kristen Monroe.
“We saw more children entering foster care and fewer children leaving foster care in 2020,” Monroe said in an email. “During the pandemic, our ability to achieve permanency for children through reunification with their families or through adoption was slowed down. This was due to every system, including the courts, schools, mental health providers, day-care centers, medical providers, etc., being shut down or severely slowed down initially.”
In December 2020, Cortland County was below 50% of its estimated need for foster care homes, show data from the state Office of Children and Family Services.
The Department of Social Services partnered with Hillside Children’s Center of Syracuse in 2021 to recruit foster parents. Hillside Children’s Center has been trying to recruit new foster care parents by offering information sessions, posting fliers and training new foster parents, 30 hours over 10 weeks.
Monroe said the pandemic severely affected the foster care system in Cortland County.
Having children stay at home for virtual services made it difficult for foster parents to receive support and benefit from the services, she said. During the pandemic, foster parents were more wary of receiving additional kids because of COVID-19.
During the pandemic shutdown, mandated reporters – such as teachers, camp counselors and medical professionals – did not see children as often, Monroe said. Because of that, by the time child protective workers were aware of the problems, removing children from families was often the only solution available.
The average number of children in Foster care in Cortland County has remained at 71 for 2021 and 2020. Prior to 2020, the amount of children in foster care only went as low as 53 in 2017 but otherwise remained largely unchanged.
Foster parents must be at least 21, with basic parenting skills and the ability to be a patient, good communicator, Monroe said. People interested in being a foster care parent can contact recruiters from Hillside Children’s Center at 315-209-7541.
