LEWISTON – When Christopher Flynn’s sister-in-law couldn’t take care of her children anymore, they ended up in a foster home here.

Flynn and his wife, Billie Joe, had a 2-year-old daughter and they’d wanted more children. His 3-year-old nephew and 4-year-old niece moved into their Lyman home in January. They’re in the process of adopting the kids.

“It wasn’t something we really had to think about,” said Christopher Flynn. “The kids get to stay with the family they were born into. They get to grow up with their cousins.”

The little boy and little girl have started to call the couple mom and dad.

“I think it’s better for everybody,” he said.

In the last year the Department of Human Services’ Lewiston office has placed more children with relatives, reunited more parents with their children and shortened the average stay in foster care.

Two years ago after intense legislative review, the agency faced a number of statewide recommendations such as reducing the caseload for social workers and increasing the number of children going to relatives by 25 percent.

The system was just short of that goal last year. Lewiston made the 25 percent.

In the last six months the Lewiston office, which serves Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, reunited 54 children with their parents. The entire year prior they had 40.

One year ago children placed in foster care stayed an average of 35 months. Today it’s 33.

“That’s, from our perspective, still too long,” said Daniel Despard, regional program administrator. “We’re making progress but we want to do better.”

The district has about 20 fewer children in foster care now than it did last fall.

There has also been more of an emphasis to get family members involved right after the initial contact with a parent who’s found to be neglecting or abusing a child, he said. An untold number of cases aren’t proceeding to court – and the children aren’t entering the foster care system – because of relatives’ support and help.

“The numbers don’t tell the whole story,” Despard said. “A lot of staff are saying this is what I wanted to do. I didn’t go to social worker’s school to be in adversarial relationships all the time.”

Dean Crocker, state ombudsman for child welfare services, said attitudes have “clearly improved.” His position came about last year, born out of the recommendations for reform.

His job is to be an advocate for children and for improving the system.

Crocker said he’s pleased the number of relative placements and relative adoptions are going up, but that they’re still too low.

“Nationally, kinship placement tends to be more stable,” he said. Children often get to stay in their community, keep their friends and keep the familiar. “Being removed from your parents is traumatic enough. When you’re moved hundreds of miles away … to new friends, new families, that trauma is 10-fold.”

He’d also like to see more preventative and educational steps. “The best cure for the system is not to allow kids to get into it,” Crocker said.
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