Iowa's social workers see growing foster care caseloads

As a social worker and a foster parent, Emily Steeples sees foster care’s shortcomings up close.

Steeples is a foster and adoptive family connections specialist for Four Oaks in Cedar Rapids, which provides support for families across most of the state. She and her spouse, Krista Kronstein, 36, also have been foster parents since 2015.

“I think (Iowa Department of Human Services workers) definitely are trying their best,” Steeples said. “I don’t think there’s anybody out there, and I haven’t had contact with anybody, who’s not really trying to do what’s best for kids.”

But what Steeples and others interviewed for this series have said DHS child welfare system lacks a number of key things — enough foster parents to care for displaced children; enough social workers to support birth and foster parents; and enough resources to bring foster care up to top capacity for those it surrounds.

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