Teen-Age Foster Child Uses Personal Ad to Find Home

It could have been just another “personal” ad vertisement in a local newspaper: “Young man seeks love, compassion and support.”

But Sean Dorrington was seeking much more.

Dorrington, 18, placed an open letter in the Arlington Advocate seeking a new home. He has already spent half his life in foster homes.

“I am a junior at Arlington High School and I want to live here for my last year of school,” his letter read. “I am asking the town if someone would like to take me in for a year.”

His letter represents a new form of marketing by the state Department of Social Services: direct pleas from the child.

Although Dorrington decided to place the letter on his own, DSS officials say his attempts to find a new family agree with their efforts to involve older teen-agers in their own placement decisions.

Critics are outraged that the state would put the burden of family placement on an adolescent.

Dorrington was forced to seek a new home when the private contractor overseeing his case, Evergreen Community Services, notified him that it was going to evict him from the foster home where he lived. The company cited his age and the lack of foster homes available near Arlington, a suburb of Boston.

Under its contract with the state, Evergreen was not obliged to provide foster homes for children older than 17. The state, however, will provide funds for foster children older than 18 if they are in school.

In his letter, Dorrington said he has lived in foster homes since he was taken from his abusive parents at the age of 9. He noted that the state would pay a stipend for his living expenses.

“I have never been arrested and I am very helpful around the house,” his ad read. “My ambition is to be a fireman for Arlington. My grandfather was a retired captain for Arlington.”

On a Friday, after interviewing with about a dozen families, he moved into the home of Janet Halloran, a mother of two adult children. DSS spokesman Jay Madigan said Dorrington’s appeal exemplifies how teen-agers can help take responsibility for their own lives.

“Sean is feeling the pressure of a deadline, but that’s what we want,” Madigan said. “He needs to feel what it’s like to be a responsible adult.”

But Robin Nixon of the Child Welfare League of America in Washington said it is almost cruel to threaten teen-agers with eviction to impel them to find new homes.

“What makes the state think that an 18-year-old will be better at finding a suitable foster family than it has been and, anyway, what good parent would say to their 18-year-old, ‘You are on your own now whether you are ready or not?’ ” she said.

Dorrington, meanwhile, has an agreement with Halloran--a room in exchange for his promise to work part time, stay in school, keep her informed of his whereabouts and come home when he says he will.

“I see myself as a friend and mentor to a person who needed help,” Halloran said.