The Congress recently enacted legislation that places a greater emphasis on adoption when foster children cannot be safely returned to their parents in a timely manner. Most of these parents had been abusing drugs or alcohol for 5 years or more. These substance-abusing parents often neglect their children because their primary focus is obtaining and using drugs. In addition, substance abusers often engage in criminal activity that can threaten the safety and well-being of their children. Parental Substance Abuse Is Involved in Most Foster Care Cases

On the basis of the results of our survey, we estimate that about 65 percent of the foster children in California and 74 percent in Illinois, or about 84,600 children combined, had at least one parent who was required to undergo drug or alcohol treatment as part of the case plan for family reunification. 1.) Most Substance Abusing Parents Have Serious and Longstanding Drug or Alcohol Abuse Problems

In both California and Illinois, at least two-thirds of the substance-abusing parents of foster children in our survey used cocaine, methamphetamines, or heroin—hard drugs that are highly addictive and debilitating. 2 .) 3.) Recovery from drug and alcohol addiction is generally characterized, by drug treatment professionals, as a difficult and lifelong process that frequently involves periods of relapse. Foster care agencies face difficulties in helping parents enter drug or alcohol treatment programs. Links between foster care agencies and treatment providers may not always be adequate; and as a consequence, close monitoring of parents’ progress in treatment does not always occur. Finally, agencies also face several barriers to quickly achieving adoption or guardianship in these cases when family reunification efforts fail. 4.) State laws on permanency decisionmaking for foster care cases involving parental substance abuse are discussed further in appendix V.
Given the lack of consensus as to what constitutes reasonable efforts to help reunify families, judges also need detailed information about what foster care agencies have done to help parents recover from their drug or alcohol addictions in order to determine whether reasonable efforts have been made. 5.) Initiatives Addressing Parental Substance Abuse Seek to Achieve Permanency for Children

Some locations have launched initiatives that seek to improve the prospects for recovery and family reunification when parental substance abuse is involved. These initiatives involve linkages between foster care agencies, drug treatment providers, and sometimes the courts and other organizations. Some locations are undertaking other efforts to more quickly achieve other permanency outcomes for children when the decision is made to end family reunification efforts. Some locations are also implementing programs to encourage more relatives of children in foster care to adopt or assume legal guardianship of them. While these efforts to more quickly achieve other permanency outcomes for children are not specific to cases involving parental substance abuse, they may be useful in achieving timely permanency outcomes in these foster care cases. Some indicators associated with a poor prognosis for family reunification are relevant to cases involving parental substance abuse, such as if the parent’s “only visible support system and only visible means of financial support is found in illegal drugs, prostitution, and street life.” When a poor prognosis for family reunification is indicated, foster care agencies in California should now try to place children as early as possible in foster homes in which the caregiver is willing not only to support the agency’s efforts to reunify the child with his or her parents but also to provide a permanent home if reunification efforts fail. This may reduce the time it takes to identify an adoptive parent and terminate parental rights.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the extent and characteristics of parental substance abuse among foster care cases; (2) the difficulties foster agencies face in making timely permanency decisions for foster children with substance abusing parents; and (3) initiatives that address reunifying families or achieving other permanency outcomes in a timely manner for foster children whose parents are substance abusers.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) on the basis of GAO's survey, it estimated that about two-thirds of all foster children in both California and Illinois, or about 84,600 children combined, had at least one parent who abused drugs or alcohol, and most had been doing so for at least 5 years; (2) most of these parents abused one or more hard drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroin; (3) substance abusers often abandon or neglect their children because their primary focus is obtaining and using drugs or alcohol; (4) they also place their children's safety and well-being at risk when they buy drugs or engage in other criminal activity to support their drug habit; (5) recovery from drug and alcohol addiction is generally a difficult and lifelong process that may involve periods of relapse; (6) parental substance abuse makes it more difficult to make timely decisions that protect foster children and provide them with stable homes; (7) foster care agencies face difficulties in helping parents enter drug or alcohol treatment programs; (8) in addition, foster care agencies and treatment providers may not always be adequately linked, and as a consequence, close monitoring of parents' progress in treatment does not always occur; (9) foster care agencies also face several challenges when trying to quickly achieve adoption or guardianship in these cases after family reunification efforts have failed; (10) to accommodate children's need for timely permanency decisions, some locations have launched highly collaborative initiatives, involving drug treatment providers and sometimes the courts and other organizations, to help parents obtain treatment; (11) in addition to maximizing the prospects for reunification, these initiatives may produce the detailed information about parents' progress in treatment that judges need to make timely permanency decisions; (12) some locations are undertaking other efforts to better enable foster care agencies to quickly achieve other permanency outcomes for children who cannot be safely returned to their parents in a timely manner; (13) while not designed specifically for foster care cases involving parental substance abuse, such efforts may be useful in these cases; (14) for example, concurrent planning is being used to reduce the time it takes to achieve permanency by simultaneously working to reunify the family and planning for some other permanency outcome should family reunification efforts fail; and (15) some locations are also implementing programs to encourage relatives of children in foster care to adopt or become the legal guardians of these children.