CARSON CITY - During "National Foster Care Month," Nevadans are encouraged to consider becoming foster parents to the hundreds of children in need of a good home. Michael Knight, assistant director, Clark County Department of Family Services, says about 3,000 children are in the county's foster-care system at any one time.
These children are displaced from their birth family through no fault of their own, Knight notes.
"There's an allegation of abuse or neglect," he explains. "Through no fault of their own, children enter our care, and it's our responsibility to find appropriate homes for them once they do."
Knight says the goal of foster care is to eventually reunite the child with his or her birth family or close relatives. He adds that about 1,500 foster kids in Clark County were reunited with their families last year.
Knight adds that it is also increasingly common for foster parents to adopt foster children.
"If, of course, throughout the life of a case, a child becomes legally free and he or she is available for adoption, oftentimes the parent who is caring for the child in the foster home will be the one to adopt," Knight says.
Foster parents in Clark County adopted more than 500 foster children last year, he says, a number that is fairly consistent year-to-year. He adds that there are upwards of 900 licensed foster care facilities in Clark County, with each home able to foster up to six children. Knight stresses that the need for qualified foster parents is ongoing.[[In-content Ad]]
