Montana is facing a swelling number of children entering foster care with a limited number of homes in which to place them.

The widening gap has added more pressure to some of the state’s already stretched-thin agencies and volunteers.

Sam Newton said he and his wife, Honey, receive calls multiple times a year from foster agencies asking if they can take more children. Their large yellow house on Kalispell backroads is currently home to eight children — six biological and two foster.

“No matter how many kids we take, it’s not enough compared to the kids that need a home,” Newton said. “All foster parents feel that weight right now.”

As of March, there were 3,019 Montana children in foster care — the highest number in 16 years, according to the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

At the same time, there are 1,155 licensed foster families in Montana. That number does not include unlicensed placements where a child moves in with a family member or family friend.

As Newton talked about why he and his wife felt led to foster, the family’s newest child ran with a toy foam ax in his hand, taking turns chasing the Newton kids and being chased.

The boy was younger than 10 when he and his siblings were removed from their home. The Newtons’ house is his 11th placement in two years.

Katie Gerten is the foster care program supervisor for Youth Dynamics, a nonprofit that works to place children with therapeutic foster parents.

Gerten said for a child who has already experienced abuse, neglect or watched his or her guardians struggle with an addiction, being repeatedly relocated further hurts chances for success.

“When you’re looking at a child losing contact with their place of origin, switching schools and adults every few months, every time they’re losing everything they know,” she said.

While a lack of foster parents is a national issue, it’s one that communities have been slow to recognize, she said.

“On a daily basis you’re seeing kids shuffle around — we have a girl from Glendive who has lived in 14 different places around the state,” Gerten said. “People assume there’s enough parents out there, that this doesn’t happen and kids have a place to go.”

J.F. Hewitt, Youth Dynamics outreach coordinator in Kalispell, said the office receives roughly 20 cases a month involving youths who need placement in homes. The office currently has 15 foster parents.

“At the point that these children have hit my desk, at average, they’ve been disrupted 10 times. When you’re looking at a five-year-old, that’s quite a bit,” Hewitt said. “When I look at a family, what I’m looking for is, ‘Can I make this the last move?’”

As of late February, there were 166 children in foster care in Flathead County, including 52 pulled from other counties. There were 75 licensed foster parents or family caretakers in the area.

Hewitt said out of the 15 foster parents with whom he works, three could take another child. And the type of child who would do well in his foster parents’ homes may not be the next case he receives.

“Placing a child isn’t just, ‘Oh, you got these 2,700 children, throw them into a home,’” he said.

He said foster parents often look for a specific age, such as an older couple may look for a child out of diapers.

Children who don’t find matches, often end up in temporary group homes or bounce between short-term foster parents until landing in a residential facility, Hewitt said.

Jennifer Metcalfe with the Kalispell Child and Family Services office said repeated relocation is not the case with every foster child.

“It’s awful to hear about kids who have been bounced around, but I would say it’s not the norm,” Metcalfe said. “We try to be thoughtful about where we’re placing kids instead of knee-jerk reactions.” That being said, she said when it’s an emergency and a child needs a new placement, he or she will go to the first home with an opening until there’s a better fit.

She said whenever the state gets a report of child abuse, it’s given a threat rating that determines if a social worker should go to the home immediately, within 48 hours or within 10 days. Of the reports investigated in 2015, 19 percent were categorized as immediate threats, according to the department.

“If there’s danger, we’re removing children,” Metcalfe said. “But if we’re just looking through the list and there’s no one on there taking teenagers, it gets hard. We will come back to the office all night until we find something — it’s been done before.”

She said when children come from tumultuous backgrounds, they often have several phases in their placement, such as a residential treatment center or a therapeutic youth home. She said long-standing issues often are unresolved by the time a child makes it into a foster home.

She said that some foster parents choose not to take additional children because they already have a full house or choose to adopt.

“All our foster parents try to keep kids in their house, but sometimes it’s not feasible,” she said.

Mary Bryan and her husband co-founded Child Bridge in 2012 after hearing about the growing gap between foster kids and parents. The faith-based nonprofit focuses on finding and supporting foster parents by establishing relationships with churches to explain to communities about child welfare needs.

Their work began in the Flathead but expanded into Billings in 2014 and reached Missoula in January.

“When we educate people, we’re focusing on a holistic understanding of kids’ needs and their development so that the people who become foster parents know what they’re stepping into,” she said.

Child Bridge also offers monthly resources groups for adoptive families, child welfare workers or people just considering fostering or adopting.

She said through the program, more than 150 families have been matched with foster children.

“If a family isn’t set up well to take in a child that has already been through so much, we’re trying to avoid that if at all possible,” Bryan said. “At the same time, there’re so many people out there who could identify with this work if they understood the need.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.