An influx of teenagers are now entering foster care and more than 300 families are needed according to Clark County.
There are more than 3,000 children in foster care as stated on the county website and Patrick Barkley, Deputy Director of Family Services said as of Thursday, 661 are teens. While some are with relatives and foster families, there are about 30-40 teens at the Child Haven campus, a shelter, on any given day.
“It's trending higher right now,” Patrick Barkley, Deputy Director of the Clark County Department of Family Services said. “There's a lot of kids coming in. We can have like 20 admissions on one day. That’s why we're really doing a call out for this particular population.”
The county said teens come into their care for various reasons including abuse and neglect or unsafe living situations.
“Our data is trending the same as the national data, which is showing that during the pandemic, there was child abuse going on, maybe even at a more substantial rate, but it was undetected because a lot of the mandated reporters such as schoolteachers, nurses, medical professionals, they weren’t making the reports,” Barkley said. “The kids were at home doing the homeschooling and they there was just not the eyes on the children as much as what previously had been.”
Barkley and his team want to find safe and caring homes to reduce the amount of time the teens are in a shelter and help them build skills for independence along with accomplishing their goals of graduating high school and getting a job.
“When they're in the shelter kind of setting, they're surrounded by a lot of other teens that have a lot of complex issues,” Barkley said. “You can imagine that all the time being around each other, like constantly, that's what they're kind of modeling.”
The county knows some may hesitate to participate in fostering a teen but Barkley said the county provides services for support.
Clark County Family Services is offering an expedited 2-week foster care training for those who are ready to welcome teenagers into their home. The class starts the weekend of July 29. However, those interested need to start preparing now to go through the fingerprinting and background process. While the county welcomes all to consider the opportunity, Barkley said the county needs more support from the African American community.
“Our African American population has a huge disproportionality for removals and kids in foster care,” Barkley said. “So we need more African American homes. "We want to make sure children are staying in their community, so they don't feel completely detached after the fact that they've been removed.”
The county is offering information sessions for those interested in starting the process