Adoption campaign appears to paying off in county

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 | 9 a.m.

The advertising campaign unveiled last week to urge residents to adopt or take in the scores of children overwhelming Clark County children's services programs appears to be paying off, the woman in charge of those programs said Tuesday.

The campaign hit local airwaves, newspapers and magazines last Thursday after a well-publicized spike in the number of abused, neglected or abandoned children in the past year. In the six days since a hotline was established, workers have fielded more than 400 phone calls from interested residents, Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the county Department of Family Services, said.

County officials said they hoped to encourage 400 eligible families to adopt or become foster parents in the next year. Of those who have responded, Klein-Rothschild said she expects less than half will take in a child.

"It's a big decision to become a foster or adoptive parent," she said. "Many people may come and say, 'this might not work.' We need to engage people to find the right families."

The influx of calls will likely mean a greater number of informational meetings for would-be foster parents, Klein-Rothschild said. Exact times and locations had not been set Tuesday afternoon, she said.

The early success has also piqued interest outside Nevada, as officials from Los Angeles and San Diego have contacted Clark County personnel about launching similar ad campaigns, county manager Thom Reilly said.

The local campaign relied on a national series by the nonprofit Ad Council carrying the slogan "You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent." It was expected to cost the county about $50,000, mostly stemming from print ads, the only media that did not donate space, Reilly has said.

Both cities have faced steep cutbacks in child care services that has left children sleeping in officials' offices, he said. The number of Las Vegas Valley children needing shelter increased 29 percent last year, up from 3,513 the year before. Officials have blamed the spike on the state's need to remove children from methamphetamine-using parents.

"They're telling me, you have 3,500 (children)," Reilly said of his Los Angeles counterparts. "We have 75,000."

Staffing concerns have prompted lawyers in Clark County to begin looking into the local department's staffing ratios, which at 85 employees falls below the mandated average of one worker to eight school-age children and one worker to every two to four younger children.

Child care experts have long touted foster homes as the preferred alternative to institutional programs. By comparison, foster care typically costs the county $591 a month, more than $3,000 less than the bill for keeping a child at Child Haven.