Across the United States, the opioid epidemic isn\u2019t just affecting addicts. It\u2019s hurting their children, who are going into an increasingly beleaguered foster care system. Demand for foster homes can\u2019t keep up with the numbers of kids needing placements.<\/p>\n
Indiana is particularly feeling the burden in its foster-care system due to the drug epidemic in the state.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very hard. We get multiple calls daily from the Department Of Child Services looking for homes for children that have been removed and we have to turn them down because we just don’t have any open beds for them,\u201d<\/em> Jen Rasey, who manages 13 foster homes in the South Bend area, told<\/a> WSBT.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the director of Indiana\u2019s Department of Child Services told the General Assembly Budget Committee that the opioid epidemic has meant more children having to be removed from their homes. It\u2019s a trend occurring in at least 32 states.<\/p>\n In the 2015 fiscal year, there were nearly 429,000 children in foster care around the country, a 6.7 percent increase over fiscal year 2013, according to \u00a0data released in October by the Administration on Children and Families (ACF). There was also a significant boost in the number of children entering the system in 2015, with 71 percent of states reporting a hike between 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom 2012 to 2015, the percentage of removals where parental substance use was cited as a contributing factor increased 13 percent (from 28.5 percent in 2012 to 32.2 percent in 2015)\u2014the largest percent increase compared to any other circumstance around removal,\u201d<\/em> the ACF said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Part of the problem, the agency added, is that \u201crecent trends in substance abuse are sometimes affecting entire families and neighborhoods, making a child\u2019s placement with relatives an unviable option.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n However, substance abuse isn\u2019t the only factor in the growing number of children entering foster care, Marie K. Cohen wrote<\/a> for the Chronicle of Social Change in mid-December. Changes in policy and practice could be to blame for at least some of the increase in foster care entries in at least three states: Georgia, Florida and Minnesota.<\/p>\n
\n ![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2016.09\/thumbnail\/57e44229c36188464d8b475a.jpg\")
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n