By C.J. Harte/Correspondent

JONESVILLE, Va. -- The need for foster care has grown substantially in Virginia recently. According to social workers, increased illegal drug use is to blame, in part. A number of officials also claim that illegal drug use has been on the rise since highways into Virginia from Tennessee and Kentucky towns have improved.

Two years ago in Lee County, Va., there were fewer than 72 children in foster homes. After the illegal use of drugs increased in the last two years, children in foster care jumped to more than one hundred.

Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine is seeking an extra $36.2 million for foster care and adoption subsidies, some of which would increase the amount paid to foster families. Currently, foster families receive monthly payments from $368 to $546 for each child. The exact amount depends on age and other factors.

Social workers have been looking for budget increases for years and haven’t taken Kaine’s statement seriously, but are waiting to see if the General Assembly will positively respond to the request.

At the present time, most social workers are stressed as the problems increase and funds remain stagnant. “Probably 70 to 80 percent of the kids in foster care are drug-or alcohol-related,” stated Lee County Director of Social Services, Jerry Spence.

In November 2007 there were 78 children in foster care in Lee County.

“The number is still high, especially for a social-services department that hasn’t seen an increase in state funding since the late ‘80’s,” Spence said.

While Virginia juvenile court judges and social-services officials believed they were putting too many children into foster care and since 1999 have used alternatives to foster care such as counseling for a troubled family or sending a child to a relative for care, theorizing that method is less disruptive and has sharply decreased the number of children in foster care.

This method has not effectively dealt with children who come from drug-addicted parents.

Information from the state medical examiner’s office reveals that Virginia suffered 8.3 percent of fatal drug overdoses for every 100,000 residents in 2006. In Lee County, statistics show that overdose rates were 21 for every 100,000 in Lee County. Wise County recorded a 50.1 rate for every 100,000 residents.

Parallel to the statistics for fatal drug overdoses is a sharp increase in foster care statistics. This is especially prevalent in Wise County, where the rate in foster-care cases jumped 62 percent. Social workers in Southwest Virginia stated that alcohol and drug abuse accounts for 50 to 70 percent of foster-care cases in the area.

Director of the State Department of Social Services’ Abingdon office, Tony Fritz, said that the standard caseload for foster-care workers is about 15 cases in Southwestern Virginia. Fritz says the statistic is directly attributed to the abuse of painkillers and methamphetamine.

“Foster-care cases locally are going out of sight,” stated Fritz.

C.J. Harte is a Correspondent for the Daily News. He can be reached via e-mail at charte@middlesborodailynews.com.