Too Many Kids, Too Few Parents:

Many Foster Children Denied Nurturing Home Environment

Aired February 2, 2000

It is Wednesday, the 2nd of February in the year 2000, and I am David C. Barnett, sticking my head up out of my cubicle, trying to see my shadow, maybe not see my shadow. I can see the sun is shining bright across the frozen tundra of Northeast Ohio, so let's remain optimistic about the promise of the end of winter as we start this hour off of stories affecting us under that sun. Cuyahoga County's foster care system aims to create full-time families, but with record numbers of children under the county's custody, the goal of creating a nurturing home environment can be difficult to reach. 90.3 correspondent Harry Boomer brings us a case-in-point, the story of a former welfare recipient who decided to try to help others through foster care and came away disappointed.

Tenny Milhouse–I wanted to be a foster mom because I had a 14-year old son who he was the last one at home and he just stayed at home, close by home, and I wanted him to have a companionship, and another young man out there could have a loving home.

Harry Boomer–Tenny Milhouse lives in Parma. She has three grown children, ages 25, 23 and 21, plus a teenaged son. When she was 16, she was on welfare. But that, she says, seems like a lifetime ago. For many years now, she has been gainfully employed. She owns her own home and she has opened it and her heart to foster children. Recently, she asked the Maria Children's Home for a teenaged boy. She ended up with a 17-yer old girl with two children, who was pregnant with a third. She had dropped out of school and often displayed a disruptive attitude. Not exactly what she had bargained for, but Tenny accepted her anyway.

TM–All she asked for was some help and in turn, all they did was smack her around. She finally found somebody who cared about her and her children, and they removed her.

HB–The juvenile, whom I will call Mary, moved in in June of 1999. She moved out in September.

TM–From my point of view, the reason she was removed was because we started asking questions and I would not cooperate with them to remove the child from my home. I wanted to see what this child had, a loving home, and the more I asked questions, the worse it got. The place they placed her in, there was no lights, no gas at the time they placed her there, there was no supervision, and these were all the things, like I said, that I had to do as a foster parent. You must have lights, you must have gas, you must be supervising those children, but where they placed her at, there was none of that there, and the social worker had never visited that home, and they had a problem placing her because she was 17 with two kids, and two kids that were not being paid for. That's how she arrived at my home, because I was the only one that would say yes.

Bill Denihan–First of all, Ms. Milhouse is not our only foster parent. We have over 2,300 wonderful, caring, loving foster parents in this county.

HB–Bill Denihan is the director of Children and Family Services for Cuyahoga County.

BD–I am sure we could have found another foster parent to take care of this child and her children. Our concern is the child, not the foster parent. I dispute her comments, I think she's grossly inaccurate, I think she has all of her facts wrong. There was very agressive behavior and disruption within that foster home, and that this also was not only disruptive for the foster parents themselves, but other children and the 17-year old and two smaller children, and after a review of the case, it was determined that we remove her and put her in a relative's home, in which she had lived once before, and that's really what we're about, family reunification, and in this case, it seemed to fit. She seems to think that we should be engaged in the business of protecting her rightts, and that's not what we're about. We're in the business of protecting the rights of children, and she doesn't like the fact that the child and children were taken away out of her home, and that's too bad, quite frankly.

TM–He told me I was taking this pretty personal because I was fighting for her, but I didn't see any other way but personal because this young lady, she lived in my home, she became a part of my family, so when it comes down to treating, I don't know how to take it but personal. It made me feel really bad, it made me feel like I had lost a child. I was really hurt inside, I cried for two weeks, and it still bothers me today. (HB: What would you like to see as the resolution to this problem?) I would like to see her get help getting into a home of her own. I would like to see her get her children back, I would like to be able to see her get her education and go on with her life, all the plans that she had when she was with me, that's what I'd like to see. That's all I ever really wanted for the young lady, is for her to be able to live a normal life like everybody else out here. She deserves that. Her children deserve that.

BD–It's our direction to try to help her gain independence, gain education, but more importantly be a parent, which requires in this case, to take some parent training and some anger management training and get beyond that and get some maturity to raise your children yourself, as opposed to the county having that responsibility.

HB–Bill Denihan, director of Children and Family Services for the county. Tenny Milhouse has not given up on Mary. They talk regularly, and they get together as foten as they can. Both are disenchanted with the county's foster care system, but they know they have to work with it if Mary is to get her children back and move on with her life. For INFOhio, I'm Harry Boomer in Cleveland.