Teamwork helping provide Sonoma County foster kids a happy ending

Logan was lying in bed around 10 one night last spring when he heard the squeal of tires outside.

The shy, 12-year-old Santa Rosa boy already didn’t feel safe in his new foster home in the East Bay, where Sonoma County child welfare workers placed him because there are too few foster homes locally to meet the need.

That feeling was about to get much worse.

Logan peered out the window of the bedroom he shared with another foster child and spotted a car racing down the dark street. Moments later he heard the shots. Three loud ones, like from a shotgun, close by.

“I saw the muzzle flash,” Logan said.

What Logan saw was a murder, the still-unsolved drive-by shooting of a woman standing on the street. While a tree obstructed his view of the attack, his exposure to the crime was the latest in a series of traumas in Logan’s young life.

He never knew his father. He and his two younger sisters were removed from the care of their neglectful mother. And the first foster care home in which he was placed in Sonoma County didn’t work out.

But that fateful night in the East Bay was a turning point for Logan, one that set him on the road to the first secure home he’s ever known.

It also represents a success story for Sonoma County Child Welfare Services, which took over responsibility for managing adoptions from the state in 2013.

Historically, children younger than 10 who are removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect are 2.5 times more likely to get adopted within three years than those 10 or older.

That sobering statistic has led to the unfortunate pattern of teens remaining in foster care or group homes for extended periods of time, never feeling part of a permanent family, advocates for children say.

But Sonoma County is working hard to break that cycle.

By working more collaboratively with extended families, recruiting more foster families willing to adopt children, and trying harder to find adoptive homes for individual kids, county social workers are seeing some encouraging trends.

The number of children younger than 18 currently in foster care in the county - 443 - represents the lowest level in a decade. And while overall adoption rates haven’t budged much, such rates for older kids like Logan are on the rise.

Huge challenges remain, especially in the area of recruiting more local residents to open their hearts and homes to kids from troubled backgrounds, said Nick Honey, director of the county’s Child Welfare Services.

There are 15 children in immediate need of adoptive homes in Sonoma County and only four homes approved and waiting to adopt. The county will need an estimated 20 new adoptive homes each year to provide children with permanent families.

Traumatized kids are best served by getting them back into permanent, loving homes as quickly as possible, whether through reunification with their existing families or adoption into new ones, Honey said.

“I start from the standpoint that every child deserves a family,” he said.

Four days after the shooting, Logan was removed from the East Bay home by social workers and brought back to Santa Rosa, where he grew up and has family.

Michael Loijos, a local real estate broker who has been a foster parent to several boys over the past six years, agreed on short notice to take Logan in.

“I’ve always wanted to be a dad,” said Loijos, who is single. “It’s just something that I’ve always known I’d be good at.”

When Logan, whose last name has been withheld to protect his privacy, arrived at Loijos’ home in the Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood, he was still in a state of shock, Loijos said.

Logan had bounced between three different homes and four schools in the past year.

Gradually, however, a sense of stability and normalcy set in. Logan re-enrolled in Steele Lane Elementary, which he had attended twice before. Loijos also helped Logan reconnect with his grandparents, who coincidentally lived just one street over. Before long, the inevitable question came up - would Loijos be adopting him?

Loijos said he knew from the moment he met Logan that he wanted to adopt him more than anything else. But his social worker urged him to take some time before making such a huge commitment.

When that time came, Loijos asked Logan to take a couple days to think seriously about it, he said.

“There are going to be lots of times when you’re pissed off with me,” Loijos told him.

Logan thought about it and came back with his answer - he wanted to be adopted.

“Since I was little, all I wanted was to have a good family,” Logan said softly as he lounged recently on a plush couch in his living room.

Facing several hurdles

In the past, adoptions of children removed from their homes by social services because of abuse or neglect faced a common conundrum.

Children would be placed in foster care while the social service or court systems determined whether the child should return to the home, or whether parental rights would be terminated and the child placed up for adoption, said Danielle Brizzolara, a social worker with Child Welfare Services who focuses on recruitment and retention of foster care and adoptive families.

That evaluation process, however, could take two years or more, during which time the child would often bond with their foster family. If the decision was ultimately made that adoption is the best alternative, the foster family might not be willing or approved for adoption. The child might then have to be removed from that home and placed in a different one for adoption, uprooting and disrupting their lives yet again, Brizzolara explained.

Since taking responsibility for adoptions from the state in 2013, however, the county has been trying to avoid such disruptions by emphasizing concurrent planning. This involves trying to get more foster families pre-approved for and willing to eventually adopt foster children before they even meet them. It doesn’t mean they’ll be required to adopt, but at least that option will be available should it be determined to be in the child’s best interests down the line, Brizzolara said.

The No. 1 goal remains finding a way for the child to reunite with their family, if that’s possible and best for them. But while that process is being explored, the agency is also looking forward.

“As soon as kids are coming in, everyone’s trying to make that plan B in case we need to do it,” Brizzolara said.

Another way the county is helping facilitate adoptions is by focusing on children in group home settings. Last year, the county successfully placed eight children from group homes into adoptive homes. In previous years there had been none.

While eight is not a huge number, “for each of those children, that that’s a dramatic change,” Honey said.

In the past, when the state managed adoptions, social workers were often frustrated that older or special needs kids in need of adoptive homes were told there simply weren’t any available, said Katie Greaves, a program development manager in the county’s Family, Youth & Children’s Division.

Now that the social workers and adoption coordinators are under one roof, a more collaborative approach exists that is more likely to lead to successful placements, Greaves said. It also give the county the opportunity to recruit a family for children with a specific set of needs by networking with out-of-area agencies in search of a good match, she said.

There is a financial incentive for the county to move as many children as possible out of foster care and into adoptive care. While in foster care, the county pays hundreds of dollars per month for their care, while also picking up the tab for medical and counseling costs, if needed.

But prioritizing adoption isn’t about saving money, it’s about doing what’s best for the children, Greaves said.

“It starts with the concept that kids who have already endured an incredible amount of trauma and neglect, for them to have to experience an ongoing state of temporary, then we are not doing right by them.”

After they agreed to move forward with the adoption, things actually got tougher for Logan and Loijos.

The notion that Loijos was going to be his father forever took some getting used to for Logan.

“He spent a good 30 days testing that limit,” Loijos said.

During some of the hours of parenting training all foster care families receive before they can be licensed, Loijos learned never to make the child’s stay in the home contingent on their behavior. So his position was, this is your home now - get used to it.

Once Logan realized that acting out wasn’t going to get him kicked out, something clicked in him, Loijos said.

“He is really developing into a more confident, more secure, happier kid,” Loijos said.

Loijos also has made a conscious effort to keep Logan connected to the members of his family who are a positive influence. His grandparents remain a big part of his life and he visits them often. Loijos has also helped Logan remain close with his two half-sisters and their father.

Some foster and adoptive families are hesitant to allow the child much, if any, contact with their previous families. But Loijos said the county encourages it, and he believes taking a team approach where all those who have a stake in the child’s welfare are involved in key decisions.

“I wanted him to know there is no plan to divide and conquer,” he said.

As Loijos arrived before the holiday break at Steele Lane Elementary School to pick up Logan from basketball practice, kindergarten teacher Anne Marie Hughes gave him a big hug. She and other teachers had witnessed the challenges Logan faced at home and have worried about him for years, she said.

“He was just this sweet, gentle soul trapped in a horrible situation,” Hughes said.

She called his adoption, which is expected to be finalized early this year, “a miracle.”

“You just don’t see things like that have a happy ending many times,” she said. “This is saving Logan’s life.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.