Friday, February 28th 2025, 6:52 am
Over the last decade, the number of children in foster care in Oklahoma has declined, but the need for foster families remains.
Oklahoma Human Services reports that 10 years ago, nearly 10,000 children were in the state’s foster care system. Now, that number has been cut in half, thanks in part to prevention services.
Oklahoma Human Services oversees a wide range of programs to support people across the state, including children who may be living in unsafe circumstances.
Child welfare specialist Andrea Weaver says the primary goal of the state’s foster care system is to keep children with their families whenever it is safe to do so. When that is not possible, the system first looks for a relative who can care for the child. If no suitable relatives are available, Oklahoma Human Services works to find a foster home.
Weaver says even after children enter foster care, the ultimate goal remains reunification with their families whenever it can be safely achieved.
In 2014, Weaver says about 10,000 children were in foster care in Oklahoma. Today, that number is around half of what it was, thanks to services aimed at keeping families together.
One key program is family-centered prevention services.
Family-centered prevention services, first implemented in 2008, are designed to keep families together and avoid removing children from their homes whenever possible.
Stephanie Gleese, the program’s supervisor, says the program has played a significant role in reducing the number of children in foster care.
“We really have focused on prevention services — not just preventing kids who have come to the attention of child welfare from entering care, but also really moving upstream to have those primary prevention services and supporting communities,” Gleese said.
In 2024, Gleese says the program helped more than 3,000 children.
“We know that almost 72% of those children are still in their home with their parent when their case closes. Approximately 10 to 15% of those kids do end up coming into care eventually. So, you think of that in terms of numbers, that’s approximately 2,000 children who were diverted from care through family-centered services programs,” Gleese said.
While fewer children are entering foster care, many foster families are also leaving the system for a variety of reasons.
“That could be a change in their family, it could be a birth, it could be a death in the family, it could be that they’ve adopted children in foster care and now they’re ready to focus their attention on maintaining that relationship throughout adulthood,” Weaver said.
Weaver says sometimes more families leave the system than they have children coming in, so even though there are fewer kids in care, there are many children in the state's care.
Weaver says Oklahoma Human Services aims to open 867 new foster homes across the state this year, with a goal of opening 127 of those homes in Tulsa County. She says the agency is about halfway through its fiscal year and is making progress toward that goal.
The greatest need, according to Weaver, is for families willing to foster sibling groups and teenagers.
To learn more about the qualifications to become a foster parent or what being a foster parent involves, visit okfosters.org.
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