Giving Compass' Take:

• Jeremy Kohomban, Jennifer Rodriguez, and Ron Haskins explain how the opioid crisis is putting additional strain on the foster care system as addicted parents struggle and fail to care for their children. 

• How can funders help to curb addiction and increase family success? 

• Learn how a new foster care law is helping reduce strain on the system by keeping families together. 

Although quality of care has long been an issue, the current opioid problem brings much urgency to the need for quality foster parenting in communities across the country.  Local and state child welfare systems are on the front lines of the national response, helping families and children affected by the devastating epidemic. For months, media has reported that increasing numbers of children are coming into foster care in many areas as a result of parental drug addiction, particularly to opioids. These reports are consistent with the most recent federal data on the number of children in foster care which shows three consecutive years of increasing numbers of children entering foster care.

Reports by federal and state public agencies responsible for foster care services indicate that the rise in parental substance use, including opioids, and the limited availability of other alternative responses, is likely a key driver in the uptick in the number of children entering foster care.

As long as the current trend continues, there will be continued pressure on child welfare systems to provide timely and appropriate services to children and families. Having more children in foster care will intensify what is already a problem in many states; namely, recruiting and retaining enough good foster homes for children who have been removed from their families. States should now be intensifying their efforts to find and train foster parents and to ensure state and county child welfare agencies have policies and practices that support foster parents, including kin, in providing quality parenting.

Read the full article about how the opioid epidemic affects the foster care system by Jeremy Kohomban, Jennifer Rodriguez, and Ron Haskins at Brookings.