Troubled children hardest to place

Finding adoptive homes for teenage foster kids has always been a challenge. Most languish in foster care until they “age out” at 18, and many of those wind up unemployed, homeless or in jail.

For foster children with criminal histories, the situation is even bleaker. Their crimes are typically disciplinary infractions or fighting, running away, vandalism or stealing, actions that might get a teenager with parents grounded but get a youth in foster care hauled off by police.

They become wards of the Los Angeles County Probation Department and -- with no parents pledging support or homes to return to -- are often ordered into group homes or institutions, where they stay even after their terms are completed.

“These are not bad kids,” said L.A. County deputy probation officer Mary Ann Smiley. “They come from unstable homes; they’ve been bounced around. They’re angry, they’re impulsive, they’re discouraged.” Some have mental or emotional problems that have never been adequately addressed.

Four years ago -- prodded by changes in state law and technological advances that make searches easier -- the Probation Department launched one of the first programs in the nation aimed at finding adoptive homes for foster children in the juvenile justice system.

“Everyone laughed at first,” said Lisa Campbell, the deputy probation officer who heads the department’s permanency placement campaign. “Who’s going to adopt our kids? They’re the lowest of the low.”

Dayna Bennett’s adoption of Casey has buoyed efforts to find families for other kids in custody. “Now we’re getting calls from judges, probation officers, district attorneys, referring cases to us,” Campbell said.

Social workers from the county’s Department of Children and Family Services work with probation officers who have been trained to mine foster care files and conduct Internet searches to unearth relatives, neighbors and friends.

Sometimes the biggest challenge is persuading abandoned teens to accept new families. Many still hope to be reunited with parents they haven’t seen or heard from in years. Others have been conditioned to expect rejection or worry about leaving siblings behind.

But Campbell said three more youths have been matched with potential guardians or adoptive families -- one with a staff member from his former group home, another with an aunt and another with a football coach who has taken him in.

“These kids deserved to be loved too,” she said. “And there are people that can love them.”

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sandy.banks@latimes.com