Meth linked to 12 percent of children in state custody (Missouri)

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/13808960.htm


KANSAS CITY, Mo. - About 12 percent of the children in state custody were removed from their homes because of meth, a recent analysis shows.
"We have been concerned for quite some time about the impact of meth use on children coming into care," said Deb Scott, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Social Services.
But "from our system, we weren't able to tease out what the impact of meth had been," she said.
That changed in December when the state for the first time tracked the number of children placed in foster care for meth-related reasons, such as parents who were cooking, selling or using meth.
The state plans to continue the count each month to gauge the seriousness of the problem. The data linked meth to about 1,300 of the 11,000 children in state custody.
The percentage of children in state custody for meth-related reasons ranges throughout the state from 7 percent in Jackson County to about 37 percent in the judicial circuit that includes Franklin County.