ALBANY COUNTY — Despite the coronavirus shutdown, important parts of county government continue, including oversight of foster care. Most children are in foster care because they’ve been abused or neglected in the home they were born into.

Moira Manning, the county’s commissioner for the Department for Children, Youth and Families, said at Friday’s press briefing that the theme for National Foster Care Month is “Foster care is a support to families, not a substitute for parents.”

Parents, Manning said, need to be involved in the “permanency planning” for their child.

“We find it much more successful if the parent and child remain in contact,” she said. So the department holds “parent-to-parent” meetings in which the biological parent and the foster parent discuss the child’s needs and such things as favorite foods and toys as well as cultural practices.

The goal is to facilitate a reunification sooner. 

“We really thank all the relative caregivers that are taking care of the children in what we call a kinship placement,” said Manning. “They are key in really keeping the child in their own community.”

Currently, Albany County has 139 children in a foster-care placement, Manning said. Thirty-three of those are with Albany County certified foster parents; 16 are with relative caregivers; and the remaining 90 are with foster parents through voluntary agencies — Berkshire Farms, Northern Rivers, and St. Catherine’s Center for Children.

As part of its bipartisan budget act of 2018, the federal government enacted the Family First Prevention Services Act, which prioritizes family-based foster care, limiting federal reimbursement for certain residential placements. Last year, the state’s Office of Children and Family Services was informed that its request to delay some of the provisions of the federal act was delayed in New York State until Sept. 29, 2021. 

The Family First Prevention Services Act will let New York and other states use Title IV-E money from Social Security that formerly could be used only for foster care and adoption support to instead fund services on parenting, substance-abuse treatment, and mental-health interventions to keep families together. But the law also restricts federal funds for placing children in group homes or facilities.

Last November, when The Enterprise wrote about the process to become a foster parent in Albany County, 48 percent of foster children were reunited with their biological parents. 

“If you can open your heart and open your home, we would love to have you foster a child,” said Manning on Friday, giving this phone number to start the process: 518-447-7515.

Last year, Manning said, 58 foster-care children were adopted through Albany County Family Court.