In Allegheny County, personal connection often paves way for adoption, foster care

Elizabeth DeLawder teaches third-grade math at Pittsburgh Morrow in Brighton Heights and interacts with many children every day.

However, she fostered a close relationship with fifth-grader Jackson Johnson, 11, in 2012 after learning of his living situation.

“When I first met him, he would barely talk,” DeLawder said.

She discovered Jackson was a foster child who had been living in a group home because his parent was not able care for him. DeLawder and her husband, Thomas DeLawder, were exploring adopting a child at the time.

In March, the DeLawders officially adopted Jackson, now 14, who took their last name. Because DeLawder and Jackson had a relationship before the adoption, their situation is classified as kinship care, which is a practice on the rise in Western Pennsylvania, according to data from the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.

“I just made it a priority to check on him and make sure he was doing well in school,” DeLawder said. “If the opportunity (arose), we said we would be willing to adopt him.”

Kin providers care for children with whom they share a prior bond or “kinship.” They can be grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles or others with a connection.

More than 1,300 children in Allegheny County are in some sort of foster care, which is down from about 3,000 10 years ago, said Walter Smith, deputy director in the Office of Children, Youth and Families at the county Department of Human Services. Fifty-three percent of the 1,300 children are in kinship care.

Unfamiliar with the adoption process, the DeLawders sought help through the Western Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization A Second Chance.

“I founded A Second Chance (in 1994) so we could give children, youth and families the opportunity to be placed with their kin,” said founder, president and CEO Sharon McDaniel. “To place more children in a home without support is going to deteriorate that family even more.”

Children whose parents are incapable of caring for them are typically placed in foster or group homes where they live with other children and are monitored by caregivers.

Smith said the department realized in the early 1990s that foster placements did not promote the positive long-term growth of children. This realization sparked a movement to unite children with familiar, responsible caretakers.

“Kinship foster care allows them to grow up with a family and sense of belonging,” Smith said. “In the long run, it really benefits kids a lot.”

Because placing children back into potentially troubling family situations raises safety concerns, A Second Chance conducts a rigorous screening process to ensure it finds a caretaker who has the child's best interest at heart, McDaniel said.

McDaniel and Smith said children placed in foster care usually are victims of neglect, as opposed to physical or sexual abuse.

“The issue is how we deal with Mom's substance abuse,” McDaniel said. “It's really about how do we help the family system deal with disappointment.”

Smith said the county works with organizations such as A Second Chance to help rehabilitate parents who neglect their children because of drug and alcohol abuse or mental health issues.

Many kin providers are opting for permanent legal custodianship instead of adoption because it gives them legal custody of the child without adopting while the birth parent rehabilitates.

In 2014, 83 percent of children claimed through permanent legal custodianship in Allegheny County were given to kin providers. as opposed to 46 percent who were claimed through traditional adoption, according to the county Department of Human Services.

Jackson said he is glad he chose to live with his adoptive parents, and the experience has been positive.

“If I didn't, I'd still be in a group home,” he said.

DeLawder of Ellwood City, who plans on adopting again, said kinship care is a great option for those who want make a drastic change in a child's life.

“It's a great idea. Kids are going to do well if they are with somebody they know and trust,” she said. “It really could not have gone any better.”

Katishi Maake is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7841 or kmaake@tribweb.com.