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DHS dilemma: Doing right by a child
A foster couple battles a mandate to keep families together.
Another problem is that the plans that neglectful parents are given to regain custody are often too formulaic.
Judith Silver is a pediatric psychologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who runs a training program for DHS.
"Rarely does the system take the individual needs of the child into account in conjunction with the parents' capacity to care for this child with special needs," she said.
According to the federal Adoption and Safe Family Act of 1997, Ronnie's case should have been resolved by now. The law was designed, in part, to limit the time children spend in the limbo of foster care.
The general rule is that after a child has spent 15 of the last 22 months in foster care, his parents' rights should be terminated.
Ronnie has been with his foster family for 35 months. The Whites are seeking permanent legal custodianship rather than adoption, because they don't want to cut off all contact with the birth family.
"We would never keep Ronnie from them," Gary White said. "That would hurt Ronnie."
The harder she fights for him, Pat said, the more she worries that she will lose him.
Hope at a court hearing
On Dec. 19, the Whites arrived at Family Court at 9:30 a.m., unsure whether they would be allowed to attend Ronnie's custody hearing. They stood anxiously in the waiting room among grandaunts and teenage mothers, restless toddlers and crying babies. It was impossible not to overhear some of the cell-phone conversations, scraps of anger and loss, talk of guns and hunger.Half an hour later, they were led into the courtroom, which is closed to the public. They had no idea what to expect.
Pat listened, astonished, as the city solicitor, speaking on behalf of DHS and the foster-care agency, recommended that Ronnie remain with the Whites permanently.
She bit her lip, determined to stay silent, to not jinx it.
The judge asked why DHS had changed its recommendation, the Whites said, and was told that Ronnie's birth parents were in a more difficult position now. Their oldest son was having emotional problems, and they had recently learned that their 3-year-old son was also autistic.
According to an internal DHS memo, adoption wasn't appropriate either, because the parents had complied with all training requirements and the boy's bond with them was strong.
"In this difficult situation," the memo said, "permanent legal custody seems to be the right and fair decision."
Ronnie's mother agreed to let Ronnie live with the Whites. His father, however, is contesting the decision.
The next hearing is scheduled for May.
"I feel so sorry for his parents," Pat White said. "But their disabilities are never going to change. And neither will Ronnie's needs. He's a complicated kid."
This month, worried over losing custody to Ronnie's father, the Whites thought about hiring a lawyer. Then the foster agency called.
"I thought it was a new caseworker," Pat said. But no. The woman said she was "the permanency worker."
