Broken home

Last fall, Florida teenager Davion Only became the national poster child for adopting older foster children. On May 30, the 15-year-old returned to foster care when his new family changed its mind after having him for two months. Now Davion is the poster child for how teen adoptive placements can fall apart—but new research offers a way to help.

Davion made national headlines in October 2013 when Connie Going of the Eckerd adoption agency took him church-to-church around St. Petersburg to speak on his own behalf. A foster child since birth, Davion pleaded from the pulpit for someone to adopt him before he “aged out” of the system in another three years. The teen known for kicking holes in the wall promised to be on his best behavior if someone would just give him a chance.

“I know God hasn’t given up on me,” Davion said with quiet confidence. “So I’m not giving up either.”

His story went viral, with support from an ABC News “Person of the Week” feature and live interviews on The Today Show and The View. Within weeks, Eckerd announced that over 10,000 families from around the globe had contacted the agency, leading to much public excitement about his future options.

This spring, Eckerd matched Davion with an adoptive family in Ohio. The Tampa Bay Times reported that Davion visited the family over spring break in March, returned to Florida to pack his bags, and then moved in with the pastor, his wife, and three biological children. Then “things got physical” between Davion, another child in the home, and the dad, according to Lorita Shirley, Eckerd’s chief of community-based care. Davion returned to Florida and lives in a therapeutic foster home.

“The biggest thing that went wrong is that Davion spent 15 years in the system,” Shirley told the Times. “He has a lot of built up anger. It’s been very devastating for everyone involved.”

As an adoptive parent six times over, including three older-child adoptions, I recognized three red flags when reading about Davion’s disruption.

First, people want a bad guy: Whose fault was it, Davion’s or his new parents’? It’s easiest to blame Davion—scapegoated as the messed-up teenager, ruined by “the system,” who comes in and destroys a family.

Richard Prince, the teen’s long-time mentor, was at first hesitant to talk because he saw the press “hanging [Davion] out to dry.”

“Those who are adopting need to expect these things,” Prince said. “These kids will push you and push you and push you to see how much you care, and if you will send them back. If you’re still there after this altercation happens, it’s then you gain respect from the child because [the child thinks] ‘You saw the ugliest part of me and you still love me? You will still keep me?’”

But before pointing fingers at the parents, consider this second red flag: Was Davion’s placement an appropriate one? Adoption “best practices” reveal specific placement guidelines that offer the best chance for teen adoption success, including:

Many of these criteria were unmet in Davion’s case. As reported by the Tampa Bay Times, Davion moved hundreds of miles away from his friends at his group home and school, lost his 10-year relationship with his adoption specialist, and could no longer see his trusted mentor. He had only one home visit before joining a new family with three younger children and no prior experience with adoption. Eckerd’s public relations manager Terri Durdaller agreed that the newspaper story was accurate.

“The family wasn’t supported appropriately or prepared the way they should have been,” said a friend of the adoptive family who wanted to remain anonymous for the family’s privacy. “They didn’t have any services for the whole family or a support system in place when he got there.”

The Donaldson Adoption Institute in April released Keeping the Promise: The Case for Adoption Support and Preservation, a report highlighting the need for better post-adoption services. The study is the first in-depth analysis of the outcomes for children and families after the foster care adoption rate doubled between 1997 and 2003. In the last 10 years, foster care adoptions remained over 50,000 per year.

The study found that 90 percent of adoptive parents say they are “satisfied” with their adoptions. But satisfaction does not mean an easy placement. Adoptive families are three to four times more likely to seek counseling for a child, and five to seven times more likely to seek residential treatment, compared to families with only biological children. While only 10 percent of the general population seeks mental health services for children, almost half of families with foster care adoptions do. For those adopting teenagers, 57 percent seek mental health services. Yet, adoption-competent mental health workers and professionals are scarce, making it hard to find services.

When researchers analyzed services available through child welfare in 49 states, they found only 17 states offered substantial services. Illinois spent the most per child—though less than the cost of foster care—and had success to show for it. Fewer than 1 percent of its kids returned to care after adoption (the national average is 10 percent).

The final red flag in Davion’s story: The violation of the teen’s privacy. The details of his disruption should not have been splashed all over the internet in violation of the goal set out by Florida Statute for children in foster care “to have their privacy protected.” Eckerd’s Durdaller says the agency “didn’t break any confidentiality laws.”

When the Tampa Bay Times interviewed Davion last fall, he said he hoped the press generated by his story would benefit all the other foster care teenagers wanting to be adopted: “Hopefully, a family will come get y’all before you guys age out.” Eckerd, after a while, plans to try again with Davion. He has two years left.

Foster favorables

The number of children in foster care declined by 24 percent between 2002 and 2012, dropping from 524,000 to 400,000, according to the federal government’s Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). The decline was greatest among African-American children. In 2002, 193,000 black children were in care. Ten years later the number was down to 102,000—but they still make up about a fourth of the children in the system, and enter it at twice the national average. The number of Hispanic children in foster care slightly decreased.

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 requires states to begin terminating parental rights if children have been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months. That clock resets each time a child leaves care, so some children are stuck in the system for years. Still, from 2002 to 2012 the average stay in foster care declined from about 31 months to 22 months, with some children successfully reunited with their parents and others moving more quickly toward adoption.

In addition, more families may be willing to adopt from foster care. The Dave Thomas Foundation’s 2013 National Foster Care Adoption Attitudes Survey noted that Americans now have a higher opinion of foster care adoption than they do of international or private adoption, with 84 percent of respondents “favorable” or “extremely favorable” regarding foster care adoption.

According to AFCARS, the average age of a child adopted from foster care in 2012 was 6. Still, about 100,000 foster children with no legal parents wait to be adopted: Even though they are eligible for adoption, a third of them will wait at least another year after termination of parental rights before finding a home. That’s a long time to wait, especially when you’re 6. —S.P.