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Children's Board Research Touts Post-Adoption Services

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 26, 2008

Updated: 02/25/2008 11:33 pm

TAMPA -- Horror stories from parents who adopted children through the state only to discover the children had such serious problems they couldn't care for them have prompted one local agency to research ways to keep these fragile families together.

The Children's Board of Hillsborough County released a study last month that focuses on beefing up the community's post-adoption services to provide adoptive families with training, therapeutic services, guidance and financial assistance long after they have welcomed children as their own.

"This is a huge need for our community and in every community," said Jeff Rainey, chief executive officer of Hillsborough Kids Inc., a nonprofit agency that contracts with the Florida Department of Children & Families to provide foster care and adoption services.

Hillsborough leads the state in adoptions, finalizing 1,143 in the past three fiscal years. Of those, only three adoptions have resulted in children returning to the foster care system, Rainey said.

"The ones that are coming back are the ones that were adopted several years ago," he said.

Typically, these are teens with emotional problems starting to emerge, Rainey said.

"That's where we lack the services -- with the older children," he said.

Breakdowns in international adoptions, in which screenings and other preplacement services aren't consistently required, also are on the rise, Rainey said.

Board Backs 200 Programs

The children's board, which is funded through local property taxes, supports more than 200 programs that provide critical prevention and early intervention services to families countywide.

The board also attracts outside money for programs, recently leveraging $54,600 in federal funding earmarked for adoption services. In addition, the agency put $300,000 from its budget toward the effort in hopes of attracting matching grants.

"We have a wonderful array of providers," said Chamain Moss-Torres, a program manager at the board. "However, a lot of efforts could concentrate on better collaboration."

The study took shape last summer and includes input from adoptive families and members of the community. Among recommendations, the board wants to increase the number of clinicians trained in abuse, neglect and abandonment. Providers also need to understand the effects of a child's ability to bond with future caregivers.

"Attachment and bonding is one of our big needs," Moss-Torres said.

That would call for an expansion of therapeutic services, something sorely needed in Hillsborough, advocates and adoptive parents say.

There's also a need to train parents on what to expect from children who have been in the foster care system, Moss-Torres said. Although the board supports disclosing children's histories to potential parents, there is no way to predict behavior, she said.

Another tack is to change the mindset that if an adoption isn't working, parents can send children back to the state.

"That's simply not working," Moss-Torres said.

Adoption Classes Set To Start

One recommendation will start next month: an adoption class similar to the state-required foster parenting class known as MAPP training, in which parents go through background checks, home evaluations and preparations for caring for a child in the system.

Identifying adoptive parents early and readying them for a child with special needs is paramount, study participants said.

Hillsborough Kids will begin such a class next month, Rainey said.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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