Marion County tends to have fewer of the lower level cases, but more level 3 cases. Level three cases consist of children requiring residential treatment, parent incarceration, parents needing in-patient drug and alcohol treatment, and chronically neglectful families. Children entering care in Marion County manifest the same problems as children entering elsewhere in Oregon. Statewide, the proportion of sexual abuse victims has continued to increase. This trend is distressing knowing the long term effects of sexual abuse.
Most children enter care after parental abuse.
These same parents often exhibit problems known as family factors. The profile of parental problems in Marion County is similar to the Oregon profile. Over half the families with children entering foster care in Marion County have parents with drug and alcohol problems. Nearly a third of the families have parents with poor parenting skills, inadequate incomes, inadequate housing or are unemployed. One fourth of these families chronically neglect their children, and about half are single parent households.