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The decision to remove children from a home where parents are not caring properly for their offspring is made by a Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge following a hearing. Usually, the petition for removal by Social Services is part of a criminal proceeding against one or both of the parents.
The shortage of foster homes has also increased the burden on the already stretched staff in the county Social Services office. Since many children are in homes outside the county, travel time to visit those homes takes the department’s case workers away from other work they could do within Rappahannock.
Mrs. Bowen acknowledged that the workload in her office is one of the reasons that so many children come under the care of■ Protective Services. “The understaffing means that prevention work is not being done,’’ getting to the families before the problems become so severe that the children must be removed.
She said that is one of her goals as the department’s director — to increase its emphasis on prevention of abuse and neglect by education.
And, she added, there are sometimes problems with both foster homes and with the children who are sent there. “There are horror stories, but we want to eliminate them. You can either emphasize the positive or the negative. You can see the glass as half empty — or half full.
“I prefer to look at the positive,’’ Mrs. Bowen said, “and we have had some wonderful results.”
Children are placed into foster care on a temporary basis, usually for a period of from several months to a year and a half. During that
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