When Parents Are the Threat

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Pleased with a program that appeared to save both children and money (the state saved roughly $200 a family per year), Minnesota took Alternative Response statewide in 2004. Several other states, including Missouri and Virginia, have embarked on similar projects.

In Minnesota, where all social services are administered at the county level, there has been intracounty debate over whether some cases are too unstable for Alternative Response. Sue Easterbrooks, program director for early intervention at St. David's Child Development and Family Services in Minneapolis, complains that county officials sometimes refer to Alternative Response cases that need sturdier support than relatives and neighbors can provide. "Some of these families are not low risk--they are high risk," says Easterbrooks.

Cases like Karla and John Baker's are the most controversial. Police raided their home in February 2005, suspecting that the couple was running a meth lab. The Bakers, who turned out to be users rather than dealers, were charged with endangering the welfare of their son Justin, 12. After the Bakers were able to plea-bargain their way out of jail time, Cindy Finch, an Olmsted County social worker, offered an ultimatum: come up with a life plan or lose Justin permanently.

Finch convened a family meeting that included Justin's parents, his maternal grandparents, a maternal aunt and Karla and John's 22-year-old daughter. The session gave Justin a chance to express his feelings. "I finally got to talk about it," Justin says of his parents' drug use. "I just told them I knew what they did, but I felt safe with them." Even so, Finch had him make a list of family and friends he would call if his parents ever made him feel unsafe. Meanwhile, all the relatives agreed to visit the family twice a week to make sure they were holding together. Most controversial, however, was Finch's proposal that if Karla and John should decide to use drugs, they do so when Justin was not home but at a relative's, to protect him and avoid losing custody. "We don't encourage parents' using," says Christie Bausman, another county social worker, "but we know that they might. If they're going to use, we ask them, 'How can you use when your children aren't around and in a way that won't damage them?'"

John Baker says he and Karla won't need those support options because they have been drug free since the arrest. But he says he appreciates the attitude behind them. "They treated us like we were still people," he says. "They didn't point fingers at us. They said, 'We're not going to tell you you can't use. But if you choose to use, we want you to have these plans for Justin.'" This laissez-faire approach may make parents feel more comfortable, but it troubles critics like Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children's Rights. "Drug use has consequences beyond the five minutes when you're using," says Lowry.