Florida's new adoption vision: Ditch 'foster,' keep the family
The "No Place Like Home' initiative aims to make it easier for foster families to adopt children they have cared for in state custody.
By ALISA ULFERTS
Published November 5, 2003
[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
From left, Josh, 6, in red and Zachary, 4, in green T-shirt in background, help their dad, Patrick Calcutt, prepare dinner in their St. Petersburg home. In the foreground in green is Billy, 4, Mary, 8, and Matt, 10. Right is mom Kathleen Calcutt.
TALLAHASSEE - For the Calcutt family of St. Petersburg, everything came together during summer vacation.
Two of the five Calcutt kids were new to the family, but a week in the car changed everything. "When we came back, we were a family," said dad Patrick Calcutt.
One year ago Monday, Zach, 4, and Josh, 6, were adopted by the Calcutt family. They joined Billy, 4, Matt, 10, and sister Mary Catharine, 8, in the Calcutts' three-story home in St. Petersburg.
But adopting wasn't easy, even though Zach and Josh were foster kids in need of a good home.
"Sometimes the system places obstacles in your path that slow down the process," Patrick Calcutt said.
So the couple, who share a law practice that includes some adoption work, were pleased Tuesday to hear about a new state program designed to make it easier for foster families and their relatives to adopt kids they have cared for in state custody.
Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday unveiled the initiative, dubbed "No Place Like Home."
"We are committed to finding the right home for each child waiting for a family," Bush said.
The state has 4,600 children in foster care who are ready for adoption, and the state has found possible homes for 2,500 of them. The rest grow older and harder to adopt each day.
Bush has made finding homes for kids in foster care a priority, and the state's success last year in finding adoptive families for 2,246 foster kids earned it the largest federal bonus of any state - $3.5-million - that will be used to pay for the new awareness campaign.
Now, Bush wants Florida to step up its search even more for families who can give kids a permanent home and to accelerate the process of approving them for adoption.
But the new urgency of the program does not mean Bush favors lifting the state's ban on gay adoptions. "Not from my perspective," Bush said.
The program has several key elements:
- To speed up adoption approval for foster parents and relatives, the state will build on the information gathered when families became foster parents, rather than starting from scratch when a foster parent decides to adopt. That could shave weeks, if not months, from the wait time, said officials with the Department of Children and Families, which supervises foster children.
- Weeklong camps for foster kids and prospective families will be established. The state will start a pilot program in Tampa and Orlando where kids and parents can spend a week together before they decide if they fit as a family.
- Public service announcements urging families to adopt older and harder to place children such as siblings will run on some cable stations and, Bush hopes, network television. The spots feature two families who have adopted older children.
Although the state will do all it can to help these children, parents are desperately needed, Bush said.
An Escambia County father who adopted four boys stood beside Bush during Tuesday's announcement and pleaded with families to come forward and adopt the 2,100 kids for whom no family has been found.
"Who are they going to call family? Where are they going to call home?" asked Larry Knight, who, along with his wife, Sharon, took in four sons and had another. The Knights are featured in one of the public service announcements.
Patrick Calcutt said the weeklong camps will be a real help to both foster kids and potential parents. Usually, such visits last for half a day and "it's hard to get away from the shopping mentality," Calcutt said. Giving both children and adults more time to get to know each other is a good step, he said.
As attorneys who have helped other families adopt, and as parents who have temporarily taken in troubled teens for the state, the Calcutts knew what they were in for when they decided it was time to adopt.
Calcutt said he and his wife, Kathleen, heard well-meaning friends warn them that adopting foster kids could be hard on the three children they already had. But the opposite was true, Calcutt said.
"If you can imagine getting a friend to come over and then staying, that's how excited they were. Matthew got a little brother to coach and Billy got a friend. Mary Catharine is a born teacher, and now she has a whole classroom," Calcutt said. "They do everything together."
- For more information on adopting, call 1-800-962-3678 or visit www.fladopt.org
