T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Monroe County Commissioner Tim Price and others hear a report from Monroe County Job and Family Services Director Jeanette Schwall.

WOODSFIELD — Monroe County needs more foster families, according to Job and Family Services Director Jeanette Schwall.

She updated the Monroe County Board of Commissioners about several subjects last week, including the foster care program, which is always on the lookout for more participants. She said there are four foster homes in Monroe County with 11 children currently in the custody of the Monroe County DJFS.

“Some of them are in care in Coshocton and Cambridge and different areas that we’re still paying for, but we don’t have enough foster families in our county to house the kids,” Schwall said.

She added that the number of local foster homes remains steady.

“We normally don’t have more than two or three foster homes in the county,” she said, noting the need is always present.

“A lot of times, we’re removing children for living conditions. We’re removing them because maybe their parents are unable to care for them for whatever reason, and that might be because of drugs,” Schwall said. “It’s a variety of things for us here in Monroe. A lot of people would like to say the opioid crisis has caused more. That may be true for us, but not necessarily.”

Schwall said all interested and dedicated people are invited to be foster parents.

“We’re always open to that, and we do try. We’ve got foster parent recruitment. Every year we have a month where we do that. We’re always open and able to try to get foster parents, but it’s a voluntary thing and then beyond that, they have to go through training. They have to get a lot of hours of training, and so it takes a lot on their part to even get certified to be a foster parent,” she said.

The foster family recruiting month for 2020 has not yet been decided. Interested adults should call her office at 740-472-1602.