There are approximately 800 children who are available for adoption in Virginia. They are ready to find a permanent and loving forever family. 10 News is highlighting a child in need of a home each day in November during 30 Days of Hope. We also tell some of the success stories and challenges facing the foster care system. The children are of all ages and races and have been placed in foster care through no fault of their own. 2024 marks the eighth year 10 News has done this series.

Parents, voluntarily giving up their children as they get older, near teens, or in their teenage years. It’s a huge problem in Virginia, especially in our part of the Commonwealth.

“It’s shocking and it creates an additional burden on our foster care system,” said Renee Brown, CEO and president of DePaul Community Resources.

It’s called a “custody release.” Hundreds of petitions have been filed in the last five years alone.

“To think of a parent who is faced with the decision, ‘How do I keep my younger children safe?’ How do I keep myself safe? How do I keep the child, the teenager I love, safe? And do you feel like they’re failing at it? What a feeling that must be. They feel they have no choice,” Brown said.

But that is the choice parents face. There is an increase in parents applying for relief from custody. When a parent decides they cannot care for their child, they petition the court to release them from custody. Typically, the child then goes into foster care.

Brown is part of a Virginia Commission on Youth advisory group to try to solve the problem.

“I’m usually in crisis mode. They usually tried a lot of different things. They feel they have no choice. Usually there is a safety issue. They’re either afraid of their child or they’re afraid of the choices their child is making,” Brown said.

It happens in all kinds of families. Families with limited resources for upper middle class families who have a lot of resources and insurance and nothing seems to work.

But people don’t realize how big this problem is, especially here.

“In the western part of the state, we have about 20 percent of the population, but we have probably close to 50 percent of the custodial relief petitions filed,” Brown said.

Eric Reynolds is the director of the Office of the Child Advocate and is also looking for solutions.

“What parent would want to be released from custody of their own child? It is extremely unusual. But when you look at the situations, when it’s a grandmother, when it’s an adoptive family that doesn’t have that child’s history, and foreign adoptions, when they don’t have that child’s medical or traumatic history, and all at once, things start to happen, so so you can understand the situation they’re in,” Reynolds said.

Some of the solutions discussed include:

• Connecting with parents earlier.

• Provide training for adoptive parents because once children reach their teenage years, it can be difficult for families as teenagers try to figure out who they and their biological families are. That’s when the biggest relief of custody happens for adoptive families.

• Getting resources from the courts and police to share with families.

• Amendments to the Code of Virginia.

“When police realize they are coming home more than once, how do we give our officers the resources to share with their family? Say, ‘Here are some things you can do to support your family, to strengthen your family, to prevent this crisis from continuing,'” Brown said.

In Northern Virginia, Fairfax has done a lot of prevention efforts and been successful, with only three petitions passed in the last few years.

“They have the mindset of the communities involved, the private providers, the CSBs, they’re all in on this,” said Reynolds, who acknowledged the same partnerships aren’t happening in our region. “It’s not happening. It goes back to collaboration, in silos. We all have to work together, playing well together in the sandbox.”

While the group is currently looking at changes to policy and legislation in Virginia, Brown stresses that it needs to work everywhere — even in under-resourced places like southwest Virginia. She says the staff has to be there to be able to do this, which can be a challenge.

“We have to figure it out. Children deserve it. Our families deserve it. Our overburdened foster care system deserves all of our effort,” Brown said.

The Virginia Youth Commission is accepting public comments on the 2024 Draft Recommendations (which you can see here) for: The use and impact of custodial relief on the care and support of young people

Public comments must be received by 5:00 p.m., November 21. Public comments received by the deadline will be forwarded to the Commission for consideration at the November 25 Commission meeting. In person, public comments will also be taken at this meeting.

Are you ready to take the next step to foster or adopt?

Frequently asked questions about foster care and adoption in Virginia can be found Here.

If you have questions about foster care/adoption or are interested in starting the process, contact the VDSS Family Services Division’s Adoption Recruitment Coordinator at [email protected].

To see all the 30 Days of Hope stories and the children we’ve featured, visit us Here.