A growing number of children removed from their homes by court order — a trend many blame on the drug crisis — may lead to more protections for families that take them in.
A proposal in the General Assembly makes it a felony to assault a foster parent, and makes it easier for foster families to get restraining orders to protect themselves and children in their care.
Foster parent Erika Celeste pushed for the law after getting death threats from the biological mother of an infant in her care.
Child welfare workers told Celeste, of Steuben County, that she’d have to hire a lawyer and go to court to get a protective order.
“No foster family should have to go through what we did,” she said.
At a hearing last week, officials from the Indiana Department of Child Services confirmed that they can seek protective orders for children removed from a biological parent’s custody, but they cannot get them for the foster parents.
The bill comes as the need for foster parents climbs amid what many consider a crisis in the use of opioids, heroin and methamphetamine.
The number of children going into foster care in Indiana went up 40 percent from September 2013 to September 2015. There are now more than 10,000 children who’ve been removed by the state from their parent or guardian.
Child-welfare workers and judges say the increase largely stems from drug use among parents, leading to cases of neglect and child abuse.
Angela Marie, president of the Allen County Foster Parents Association, said more drug-related cases also lead to more threatening behavior by parents whose children have been taken.
“We’re not the ones taking their children away, but they blame us and they hate us for it,” she said. “This bill is long overdue.”
Rep. Dennis Zent, R-Angola, offered to carry the legislation after hearing from Celeste and other foster parents who said they feel unprotected.
Weighing in, too, was Allen County Judge Charles Pratt, who routinely oversees what are called "CHINS," or child-in-need-of-services cases, in which the state steps in to place a child in foster care.
Foster families are particularly vulnerable, Pratt said. In written testimony to lawmakers, he said biological parents who’ve had their children taken often suffer from drug addiction, mental illness or other impairments that lead them to unstable, threatening behavior.
Pratt described foster parents as “men and women in the trenches” who need added help from the state.
In addition to clearing the way for the Department of Child Services to get involved in protective orders, Zent’s bill increases the penalty for battery of a foster parent.
It raises the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony, mirroring a law that elevates a battery crime if the victim is a police officer or teacher harmed in the line of duty.
Celeste said even more protections are needed for foster parents, who are considered contractors, not employees, of the state.
“But this is a good first step," she said.