The number of children in Ohio who are placed in foster care continues to increase as the opioid crisis worsens. There’s a shortage of foster care families to meet the need.
More than 15,000 children are in Ohio’s foster care system but only 7,200 families are available to take them in. In some counties, more than half of the kids in protective custody are placed outside the county due to a lack of families. Attorney General Mike DeWine blames the opioid epidemic.
“We have today in Ohio a foster care crisis of immense proportions,” he said.
DeWine says $1 million from the crime-victim fund will be put into programs in 10 counties to help existing foster and kinship care families, but not to recruit new ones.
But there’s a new webpage on the attorney general’s site with information on how to become foster parents.
