By Nancy Osborne | BCH Chief Programs Officer
When we hear the daunting number of more than 11,000 children in the North Carolina foster care system, what exactly does this mean? Where do all those children live?
The terms can sometimes be confusing, but that number refers to what is known as out-of-home care.
What is out-of-home care?
Simply put, children in the custody of the state’s foster care system have been removed from their homes by the NC Department of Social Services (DSS) for their safety and well-being.
Once they enter the state’s custody, DSS staff must identify out-of-home care, which is an approved living arrangement, for the children to live. Out-of-home care can be in a variety of settings. Some children are placed in foster homes. Some live in residential group care settings. Others are placed with either extended family or approved non-relatives. If a heightened level of care is required, some are placed in therapeutic or hospital-like settings.
One foster care system, many settings
For people who have supported Baptist Children’s Homes (BCH) for many years, it can sometimes seem as though foster care and cottage care, which is a form of residential group care, serve two different groups of children.
In reality, the opposite is true.
The children BCH serves, whether in licensed foster homes or cottages, are all part of the same NC foster care system and among the more than 11,000 children currently receiving out-of-home care.
In these settings, which are available throughout the state, the focus remains the same: child safety, caregiver support, and wraparound services for achieving permanency. Permanency can come through safe reunification (which is always the primary goal), long-term guardianship, or adoption.
Until a permanent solution is reached and the legal care involving the child and family is resolved, that child remains in out-of-home care. This process can, and often does, take years.
BCH’s role is to provide exceptional care for children while working in tandem with DSS. Most importantly, BCH seeks to carry out this work through its gospel-centered mission of ensuring every child, family member and relationship involved sees the hope that is only found in Christ.
How foster care has changed
When BCH began in 1885, it operated as a true orphanage. At the time, children who could not safely remain at home because they had lost one or both parents were commonly placed in orphanages across the country.
Over the last century, that approach evolved significantly. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, the United States increasingly embraced family-style foster care as the preferred model for serving children.
As states made this shift, BCH also adapted in order to meet the changing needs of children and families. Yet one challenge has remained persistent: there are simply not enough foster homes for the number of children needing care. That gap between the two has actually grown wider as there is a nationwide decline in the total number of foster homes.
The challenge of keeping siblings together
The Families First Prevention Services Act of 2018 reshaped the role of residential group care settings across the country. Although there is generalized agreement that a family home setting is preferred, undeniable realities remain.
During my brief time helping search for out-of-home placements for children entering care, none were more difficult than trying to find ones that had the capacity to keep large sibling groups together.
I remember one referral involving seven siblings. It was heartbreaking that the only option available at the time meant splitting them in placements throughout three different counties spanning hundreds of miles.
Recruiting BCH foster families who are open to siblings is a blessing, but most of them are still not capable of accommodating larger groups. NC licensing standards limit foster homes to five total children in a household.
Residential care still matters
Throughout BCH’s locations, large sibling groups are able to be served. We can give those children a place to remain connected, even in the midst of the chaos and the confusion that comes with being removed from their home.
There are also some children who are able to thrive in a group-like setting for a time, especially when they are working through significant trauma.
The gospel is at the center
At BCH, it is a privilege to be able to serve children in foster care through out-of-home care across the state. Most of all, regardless of the setting, the gospel is firmly at the center. It is the opportunity to offer hope, healing, and stability while witnessing the love of Christ transform the hearts and lives of those we serve.
