Hundreds of children go missing from Massachusetts DCF custody each year, records show
The last five years provide a troubling snapshot of the hundreds of youngsters who go missing from the custody of the state Department of Children and Families every year, records show.
The count of missing children has ranged from 856 in 2017 to 578 in the first 10 months of this year, according to state figures provided in response to a Herald public records request.
“There are people out there who don’t have good intentions,” said Emmett Folgert, a former Boston foster parent who is now program coordinator at Safe City Dorchester at MissionSAFE — a nonprofit that works with youngsters, some of whom, like many missing DCF children, have backgrounds of trauma.
“When a kid has run away, it’s a very dangerous situation,” Folgert added.
Children are considered “missing” from foster care — a group or family foster home — if their whereabouts are unknown, a department spokeswoman said. They are “absent” if their whereabouts are known but they refuse to return to their DCF placement, she said.
The highest number of missing children in the last five years — 858 — was in 2019. The year afterward, the number dropped to 652.
Last year’s number was lower than previous years because schools and youth programs, the places most likely to notice a child is missing, were closed due the coronavirus pandemic, Folgert said.
This year’s number — 578 of the approximately 8,400 children in DCF custody — was lower because it represented only the first 10 months of the year, and possibly because some schools were still allowing remote learning.
“Most of the children we care for have been abused or neglected,” the DCF spokeswoman said, “and having that traumatic experience can result in kids engaging in risky behaviors, and one of these can be running away.”
One of the first of the systemwide reforms initiated by the Gov. Charlie Baker administration in 2015, she said, included the department’s first policy on children who are missing or absent.
Under that policy, when a child is missing, the department must report it within 24 hours to law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which received 21.7 million reports last year.
If a child is missing and believed to be in immediate danger or at risk of being a victim of human trafficking or sexual exploitation and the caregiver will not file a report with law enforcement, a social worker must do so immediately. Police may issue a Be On the Lookout, or BOLO, for the child to officers on patrol, or an Amber Alert that notifies people throughout the community or the state.
In 2018, DCF hired 10 new social workers responsible for locating and engaging youngsters missing or absent from the department’s care, the spokeswoman said.
When Folgert was a foster parent, he had some kids who ran away.
“Luckily, I knew where to find them, and I had good relationships with their families,” he said. “Sometimes they’d go back home or stay with a friend. As a foster parent, you don’t want to overreact, but of course you feel terrible. It can be a crisis. But if you have good training around what trauma means, they usually come back.”
The holiday season can be a particularly stressful time for some children, which may make them more prone to run away, Folgert said.
“They feel like everyone else is happy, and they’re not, and that only makes them more lonely,” he said. “If you’re a foster parent, you can’t assume the child assumes you have the best intentions, because that might not have been their experience with other adults. You have to be sensitive and patient with them to let them know they’re safe.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3qm0Jhj
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