By Kate York, kyork@mariettatimes.com
 When
Robin Null decided to become a foster parent, she debated long and
hard what age children she wanted to bring into her home.
“I felt like I was too old to be running around after the really
little ones,” she said. “And I had just gone through the teen-age
years with my kids.”
Then she said “yes” to the first child she was called about, a
16-year-old boy named Ray, and that was the end of the debate.
“He walked right into my house and into my heart and that was the
end of it,” said Null, of Coolville. “He was my little buddy.”
Not everyone is as open-minded, said Tonya Kidder, foster care case
worker for Washington County Children Services.
“It’s so much harder to place teen-agers,” Kidder said. “That’s our
biggest need. We have a real shortage of homes that will take older
kids.”
Eleven of the 23 Washington County children in foster care now are
teens, said Teri Wright, foster care/adoption supervisor.
Nationally, the median age for children in foster care is 10.1
years, according to the Administration for Children and Families.
Forty-one percent, or 207,119, of the children in foster care are 13
or older.
“We’ve been seeing a lot more and we seem to be getting more of the
unruly, delinquent teens,” Wright said. “There are circumstances to
where they can’t go home after they’ve been through the court system
and they’re placed in our care. And a lot of families only want to
take the younger kids.”
Aside from the obvious advantages of having a teen rather than a
toddler — no diapers, they can help program the VCR — there are
extra challenges, Wright said.
“When they’re coming from backgrounds of neglect and abuse they can
act out more and when you get to that age that can mean multiple
problems,” she said. “There can be potential drug and alcohol use,
self-esteem issues, mental health issues. It takes a lot
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