Adoption in Child Time, Inc.

On November 27, 2007 in Indianapolis, TaJanay Bailey, a three-year-old ward of the Indiana Department of Child Services, died of blunt force trauma. The child had been in foster care and had been sent to her birth mother and the mother’s live-in boyfriend for a 30-day trial visit. Within those 30 days she was murdered. The birth mother and her boyfriend have been charged with the murder.

According to the Indianapolis Star, the Department of Child Services, in a report issued December 14, asserted that there were frequent gaps in information sharing between the people involved in TaJanay’s case. The Star reported: “DCS Director James Payne said any mishandling of the case was rooted in errors of judgment, not negligence.”

According to earlier media reports about the case, TaJanay’s foster mother voiced concern about the safety of the child in the birth mother’s home, but she was ignored.

DCS is making great efforts to improve services for children in need. The centerpiece of their plan is creating a team in which case managers, birth parents, advocates, and counselors involved in a case meet regularly to share information and to tailor the case plan to the specific situation. Again according to the Star: “The first team visit in TaJanay’s case was Aug. 28. The report says some team members did not feel their concerns carried enough weight. Foster parents frequently weren’t included.”

“Foster parents are professional parents,” says Chris Morrison, Executive Director of the Indiana Foster Care and Adoption Association (IFCAA.) “They are required to take extensive parent training to get and stay licensed as foster parents. They have extensive experience as parents. And they are closely monitored as they care for abused and neglected children.” Yet, according to the Star’s description of the DCS team concept, the child’s foster parents are not considered integral members of the team. Instead they “may” be called on, but the circumstances are not specified.

Foster parents are the primary advocates for our most vulnerable citizens, children in care. Case managers, advocates, and counselors come and go. They spend at most one or two hours per week with the child. Foster parents care for the child 24/7. Foster parents are the ones who take these children to the emergency room when they return battered from a reunification visit. Better than anyone else on the team, foster parents know what is going on.

The DCS concepts of forming a team, sharing information, and tailoring each case plan to the individuals involved are all laudable. Failing to include foster parents as integral members of the team is not laudable. Ignoring the information and judgment of the people who know the child best is a huge gap in an otherwise good idea. So long as foster parents are treated as hotel keepers instead of the most important advocates for the children in their care, tragedies like TaJanay Bailey episode will continue.