Orange County Tries to Breach Language Barrier in Foster Homes

For a moment, her large almond eyes leave the television screen where Teletubbies frolic and wave. She crunches up her eyebrows and lets you in on what she is thinking.

“Quiero mi mama,” I want my mama, the 5-year-old says in the only language she knows.

Sue Chrastka is the girl’s foster mother, caring temporarily for her and her 3-year-old brother because their birth mother was suspected of being on drugs.

Chrastka’s spacious house is filled with toys, her backyard is like a park. She has taken in neglected children for 12 years, offering a stable, cheerful home. But there is one skill she lacks despite her best intentions.

“I don’t speak Spanish,” said Chrastka, 48. “I know it can be overwhelming for them culturally.”

A shortage of Spanish-speaking foster families in increasingly diverse Orange County is forcing social workers to place children in homes where language and cultural barriers compound an already difficult situation, officials say.

“Our pool of licensed families is lagging behind the demographic changes,” said Pat Wiggins, a supervisor with Orange County Children and Family Services. “It is hard on the children because they can’t communicate with their foster parents and they are already suffering from the separation from their biological families.”

There are no statewide figures, but officials say the problem is common in other diverse communities as well.

In Orange County, fewer than 50 of the 630 licensed foster homes are Spanish-speaking households. In contrast, about 44% of the children who pass through Orangewood Children’s Home--a shelter for those awaiting new homes--are Latino and many can’t speak English. There are between 1,200 and 1,400 abused or neglected children in the county’s foster care system at any given time.

Social workers say they also need foster families who speak Vietnamese, Korean and other languages, but Spanish speakers are a priority. Although the shortage of such families does not mean the children are being neglected, workers are left to find culturally compatible homes outside the county, or place children locally in English-speaking homes. Such arrangements are less than ideal, the workers say.

Challenge is nothing new to Chrastka and her husband, Joe, 44, a financial consultant. The couple became licensed foster parents 12 years ago, caring for children with special medical needs. Their son Jeremy, 14, was born with cerebral palsy and is blind. They decided to adopt two more disabled children. Katie, 14, is deaf, and Hayden, 9, needs to be fed through a tube because of a birth defect. The couple are legal guardians to two other boys with learning disabilities, Marcos, 12, and Steven, 9.

“This is where I’ve been called,” said Chrastka, who quit her job in banking when she decided to become a foster mother.

Her house is run with military precision. Her five children are up at 6 a.m. They are fed and dressed and put on their way to school. She also cares for three foster children, including the two Spanish-speaking siblings and a 6-year-old boy. They are up at 6:30 or 7 a.m. After the tables are cleaned from the first batch, breakfast is served a second time.

Chrastka takes the language barrier in stride.

One recent morning, Chrastka was watching the three foster children play in the backyard. As the 3-year-old boy struggled to get on a swing, Chrastka prompted him.

“Do you need help?” Chrastka called out. The boy nodded.

“Say, ‘Help, please.’ ”

“Help, please,” the boy repeated, while his sister peeked from the jungle gym with her first smile of the day.

The family’s nanny, Norma Canas, is able to bridge some of the communication barriers.

“They seem to open up to me a little more,” Canas, a native of El Salvador, said in Spanish. “The little girl cried so much when she first came. She hugged me and called me ‘mama.’ She told me about her family and the fights her parents had. I think it helps that they can talk to me. They have so much held up inside, it helps to let it out.”

Since December, Children and Family Services has been aggressively recruiting in the Latino community. The county this week licensed 10 more Spanish-speaking foster homes after the families completed a required six-day course. Officials, however, say the numbers still fall short of the demand.