Record high number of children reported in foster care

Monday, November 7th 2005, 12:25 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Oklahoma Department of Human Services is reporting a record 7,012 children in foster care, nearly a thousand more than last year. Parental drug abuse is a contributing factor in the rising numbers.

Methamphetamine use is a major problem despite a law passed last year restricting the sale of cold medicine that can be used to make the dangerous drug, said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control. The law has cut down on the number of meth lab busts in the state, but addicts can still get the drug from dealers.

The average age of a meth user in Oklahoma is 18 to 34, prime parenting age, Woodward said.

"It is very common for children to be involved and exposed (to the drug use). Frequently parents give up custody of their kids; trading their children to keep up their drug habit," Woodward said.

Judges are becoming more reluctant to return children to parents who have spent time in jail for meth possession because the relapse rate is so high, Woodward said.

"Some kids are never claimed once the parents get out of jail; they just go back to using," he said. "It is such a dangerous and addictive drug."

The number of adults arrested for synthetic drug possession statewide increased from 2,823 in 2002, to 2,997 in 2003, to 3,006 in 2004. The number of children in foster care was 6,011 in August 2003, 6,129 in August 2004 and 7,012 in August 2005.

Foster mother Janus Roth has housed more than 40 children in seven years. Most of them were born to drug-addicted mothers.

"As they get older, they have a lot of physical and intellectual delays," she said. "It is hard for them because, through no fault of their own, they are marked for life."