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More abused kids are under 5 Increase slows, but victims are younger Staff and wire reports PORTLAND -- The number of child abuse cases rose 4 percent last year to a record high that state officials blamed mostly on drug use by parents. A report released Wednesday by the State Office for Services to Children and Families said the total number of confirmed child abuse victims was 10,147 in 1998. Of those cases, nearly half involved the most vulnerable children, those 5 or younger. "It's very shocking," said Jill Nelson, a foster mother who increasingly takes care of younger children placed with her. "It's very sad." Jackson County saw a similar increase -- 3.6 percent -- as the state. The county had 22 more confirmed child abuse cases in 1998 than in 1997, rising from 605 cases in 1997 to 627 in 1998. "It's still continuing to rise, but not nearly at the dramatic rate it was between 1996 to 1997," said Susan Kaough, the Medford branch manager for Services to Children and Families. The increase between those two years was 31.8 percent or 146 cases. Kaough said one big reason for the slower increase in 1998 is that the local staff can't take many more cases. "We're at capacity," she said. SCF employees aren't able to answer half of the referrals that come, she said. The number of confirmed child abuse cases also doesn't tell the whole story. While Kaough doesn't have 1997 numbers, in 1997 Jackson County had the highest number of referrals of potential child abuse -- 2,653 -- of the eight Southern Oregon counties. Of those reports, Medford's SCF workers were able to respond to 1,132. The children they can't help, after prioritizing their needs, are referred to a community network, which finds other resources to help, Kaough said. Not all the news in the state report was bad. The number of child abuse deaths had decreased to 17 last year, down from 34 in 1997 and 30 in 1996. Still, "any child who dies of maltreatment is one too many," said Kay Toran, who has resigned but remains temporary director of the child welfare agency during a search for her replacement. Child-protection workers say that in the past decade, the number of children entering care whose parents have mental disabilities has doubled. Those whose parents are criminally involved went from one-fourth to half, and the number with parents who have drug and alcohol problems moved from half to 60 percent, according to Portland State University's Child Welfare Partnership. But the surge of very young children in foster care -- from 30 percent 10 years ago to 47 percent now -- is partly due to the agency's focus on children who are least able to protect themselves. The Best Interest of the Child bill, passed two years ago, requires that the agency give abusive and neglectful parents only one year to make their home safe before their children are placed in permanent adoptive homes. "We are making sure early on that parents understand -- right up front -- that this is very serious and that things need to change or your child can be placed in another, permanent situation," said Betty Uchytil, director of field operations for the child-protective agency. The agency also is able to respond more swiftly to abused and neglected children because last legislative session lawmakers approved 163 more hot line and social workers. The impact of those workers was marked by a 14 percent increase in the number of abuse investigations in 1997. In 1998, investigations rose only 0.7 percent to 17,300 cases, because most of the workers had already been hired. If Oregonians want to help children of all ages, they have to better finance programs that work to help families before problems become serious and children get hurt, said Ben de Haan, chairman of the board for the Children's Trust Fund of Oregon, a state agency that finances programs to help struggling families. In the state's 3,700 foster homes, the sound of teenage phone calls and radios has been replaced by lullabies and toddlers' squeals. Foster mothers such as Nelson are taking more and more younger children. And the abuse they see among children younger than 2 is more disturbing than ever. Nearly all of the 40 children who have passed through Nelson's home have families ravaged by drugs, she said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA