We can help foster care workers with a very difficult task

Three children from the ages of 5 to 11 were removed Wednesday by local law enforcement from a home with an active and very dangerous meth lab.

It was so dangerous law enforcement immediately evacuated the home and won’t re-enter until a hazmat team clears the area.

A well-being check on the children by Missouri Children’s Division workers brought authorities to the property.

Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs and his deputies are to be commended for their work and thoroughness in handling the situation.

But a group of individuals who also frequently have a thankless job are the children’s division workers tasked with determining if homes and situations are safe for children, or if they should request a child’s removal.

These workers do not always have law enforcement with them when they enter homes. They find the most unsanitary and unsafe conditions, conditions no child should have to live in, and the most heartbreaking of circumstances.

There were approximately 300 children in foster care as of late November in the judicial circuit, which includes Butler and Ripley counties. It’s a number that has been high for many years.

That number was about 100 around 2010, local officials have said.

On multiple occasions officials have also said that drug use is the primary reason children come into care.

Even in cases of neglect or unsanitary homes, drug use is often the underlying cause.

“The problem is that we have an abundance of drugs and drug use in our community that has led to parents not being able to sufficiently care for their children,” Misty Dodson, the Poplar Bluff R-I School District liaison for children in foster care, has said.

But the fact that their parents can’t take care of them doesn’t stop children from loving their families and wanting to stay in the home.

“No matter what their parents have done, these kids still love them with everything they have,” a Butler County foster mother said in an interview in 2015.

It leaves children’s division workers with a monumental and very difficult task.

We want to thank them for taking on that task, and acknowledge how difficult and important their work is to our community.

One of the ways we as a community can help is by considering becoming a foster or adoptive parent.

The need for these homes is always great. When all of the local homes are full, children have to be placed outside their school districts and communities.

Children’s Division holds foster and adoptive parent classes at least twice a year. Classes can be scheduled more often if at least 10 participants have signed up. Class schedules are flexible and attempt to accommodate the schedules of participants.

They help participants learn how to care for the children, how to help foster relationships between the child and their family and how to work within a professional team.

Workers can also meet with small groups or at an individual’s home to talk more about foster and adoptive care.

For more information, the local circuit can be reached at 573-840-9249.