DCFS sees record-breaking number of adoptions from foster care
The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is celebrating a record-breaking number of adoptions from foster care, with 912 children finding homes in the Federal Fiscal Year of 2018. It’s an 18% increase from the previous record set last year. DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner Walters said additional staffing support as well as families wanting to take in more than just one child.
"Instead of a family adopting one child, they are adopting two or three or maybe four or five children, so that's a big chunk," said Walters.
Walters said the agency is seeking out families that will adopt groups of siblings over just one child at a time.
"It is gut-wrenching to separate siblings from each other because we have a family that is happy to have children, but they only want one," said Walters.
Walters said although this is the third year in a row to break the record, she does not predict the streak to go into a fourth year.
"I predict that the adoption number will start going down. I think that we have hit an all-time high, but, you know, I thought that last year," said Walters.