School Board Member Gives Up Adopted Kid
It isn’t just ordinary parents who sometimes find themselves unable to cope with the extreme demands placed on them by a troubled, potentially violent child.
A member of the Pinellas County School Board, near St. Petersburg, Florida, told attendees at a recent state legislative committee hearing that she is going to have to give up her parental rights over the preteen boy she adopted seven years ago, as a 4-year-old, in order to get him the help he needs. She and her husband can’t afford the full-time treatment the boy—who was born exposed to drugs and alcohol—requires, Nancy Bostock told the Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs at a Monday night hearing in neighboring Hillsborough County. But neither can they keep the preteen at home, without putting the safety of their other three children at risk, recounts the St. Petersburg Times.
“I want to advocate for adoption of children with disabilities, but right now—with the lack of post-adoption support—I can’t with good conscience advocate for this,” Bostock, who has another adopted child, told the committee.
Another recent ABAJournal.com post discusses the case of a Washington state family struggling with a child facing similar issues. Although it is unlikely to help them much, their court battle to obtain state-funded treatment they could not afford resulted in a Washington Supreme Court ruling that may help other families there.
