December 7, 2000

Iowa teen pregnancy, adoption programs
improving dramatically, managers say

Jessica Tarbox
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa — The teen pregnancy prevention and adoption programs within the Iowa Department of Human Services are doing what they can to offset the tragedies that so often appear on the front page of the newspaper and on the opening spot on the 5 p.m. television news.

Since their inception, these programs have been changing the lives of children across Iowa, and in the last few years, the programs' results have improved dramatically, according to Jo Lerberg, teen pregnancy prevention program manager, and Charlcie Carey, adoption program manager.The number of teen pregnancies has dropped and Iowa is now ranked 32nd in the nation for teen pregnancies each year; finalized adoptions reached 730 last year, up from 200 five years ago.

"The public often describes teen pregnancies as an epidemic when the numbers have really gone down in the last few years," Lerberg said. The national teen pregnancy numbers, she said, are a different story: "Pregnancies and live births to teens are about four times what they are in other industrialized countries."

To combat the situation in Iowa, though on a smaller scale, the Iowa DHS has directed grant funds to more than 20 programs throughout the state. The programs are community-based, Lerberg said, and provide both prevention services to children of all ages and support programs for pregnant or parenting teens.

"We have programs like the It Takes Two program," Lerberg said. "The basis is to teach decision-making skills and rights and responsibilities. We discuss issues of sexuality and the impact pregnancies would have on a teen-age life.

"We bring in a panel of teen-age mothers and they say 'Here's the things we're missing,' and 'We thought this would make a relationship better but now we're raising children on our own.'"

In prevention programs, Lerberg said, the attendance is not primarily female, as it is in parenting programs. About half of the attendants are male. "We've made a big effort to acknowledge that it takes two," she said. "We've have some success in dealing with fathers in programs of their own. There's also been a national focus on including young men."

The adoption program is increasing the number of finalized adoptions each year, but the need for homes for children never disappears. Carey said that each month, between 125 and 130 children are awaiting adoption. The adoption service within the DHS, however, is a service for placing special needs children and not babies, whose adoptions are handled by private adoption services. People seeking healthy infants, she said, would not employ this program.

"Our adoption program places children who are categorized as special needs," she said. Special needs factors include "a background of abuse and neglect, age, mental or physical disability, or a sibling group of three or more that must be placed together. Minority children are also considered special needs."

The improvements in the state adoption program are rooted in governmental support at both the national and state levels.

"President Clinton was very interested in adoption," Carey said, and he proposed that the nation double the number of adoptions by the year 2002. "The federal initiative contributed to the increased adoptions. The governor is also interested in adoptions and he's made himself very available, initiated a renewed emphasis." Gov. Tom Vilsack was an adopted child himself, which Carey believes contributes to his interest.

Despite improvements in the two programs, Lerberg and Carey said recruitment programs are constantly moving to increase awareness about teen pregnancies and adoption, and thus stimulate more involvement in the programs.

Teen pregnancy programs have a statewide media campaign, Lerberg said, including posters, bus signs and ads on television, and they are currently working on getting lead-ins to movies in the theaters. A teen hotline, Tele-Friend, is also available.

Adoption recruitment focuses on publicizing the face that many children are still waiting to be adopted. Carey said the recruitment program publishes a quarterly listing book and a quarterly newsletter, and it campaigns in newspapers, television spots, the Iowa State Fair, and through regional recruitment teams. The list of waiting children is also posted on the state Web site.

Children in Iowa are continuing to have children of their own, and others continue to live in need of a loving home. The efforts of the DHS teen pregnancy and adoption programs, and employees such as Lerberg and Carey, are gradually carving a path toward a day when neither of these is a problem, despite how far in the future that may be.