Hamilton Co. lags behind every other large urban county in Ohio

Hamilton County report criticizes pace of adoptions for foster children
Associated Press, March 18, 2007, pg. C6.

A scathing report blames government negligence for the continued slow rate of adoption for foster children in Hamilton County, which lags every other large urban county in the state in finding permanent homes for abused and neglected children.

A report issued this month, as part of five years of federal court oversight, accused the county of not aggressively recruiting adoptive parents while children spend months or even years in foster care.

"The Hamilton County program has had abysmal results," says the report by Cincinnati lawyer Frank Wasserman. "It is not that the agency is ignorant of what it needs to do. ... What appears lacking is the will and/or resources to seriously undertake this essential work."

The report shows that about one-third of eligible children were adopted in the county each year from 2003 to 2005, compared with an adoption rate greater than 50 percent in every other large Ohio county.

The foster-care and adoption system is run by the county's Department of Job and Family Services, which already is being criticized because recent background checks found that 11 percent of foster parents had criminal records.

"This is another example of the problems we're finding at JFS," County Commissioner Pat DeWine said. "There is no reason Hamilton County should be so far behind every other county in the state. It's deeply, deeply disturbing."

Commissioners will continue to scrutinize adoptions after judicial oversight ends in July, DeWine said.

About 290 children are awaiting adoption. Department officials said they know they can do better but are making improvements.

"This is a persistent problem for us, as it is for all counties," spokesman Brian Gregg said.

The reports are required under a federal court settlement five years ago, which ended a lawsuit accusing the county of refusing to place black children with white adoptive parents in Ohio's third-largest county.

Wasserman said the county no longer discriminates but still has misplaced priorities in its adoption program.