Number of Foster children in NY region on the Rise. This is Why
Sullivan County is not the only one in the Hudson Valley whose number of foster children has spiked in recent years.
Like Sullivan, Darcie Miller, commissioner of the Orange County Department of Social Services, named the opioid crisis as the reason.
Between 1995 and 2017, neighboring Orange County peaked in 2002 with 501 foster kids, according to the most recent data from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
It dropped to a low of 331 children in 2015 and has risen to 386 through January of 2019, about a 16.6 percent increase, according to Irene Kurlander, deputy commissioner of the department of social services.
“We’ve done a lot of work to really try to keep those numbers down,” with preventative programs, Miller said.
However, unlike Sullivan, Orange County …
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