Topeka ? A foster parent for the past 16 years, Lori Oden can’t take it anymore.

“As of March 13, I stopped taking children into my home as a protest against a system that I believe no longer considers what’s in the best interest of the child,” she said.

Erica Oden 19, and her adoptive mother, Lori Oden, both from Rice County, address members of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee at the Statehouse. Tuesday's testimonies were in favor of a proposed legislative bill protecting foster parents from hostile social workers and false abuse allegations.

“My heart is broken.”

Oden, who lives in Sterling, testified Tuesday before the House Federal and State Affairs Committee in support of a bill designed to protect foster parents from hostile social workers and false allegations of abuse.

On Monday, 52 legislators signed a proclamation in support of the bill.

“Every legislator has heard the stories of this going on in their district,” said Rep. Bonnie Sharp, D-Kansas City. “Foster parents need to be heard.”

Oden said she first got crosswise with the system in 1993, when social workers resisted her efforts to adopt Erica, then 10 years old, who had been in Oden’s home for three years.

“Because of my advocacy for this child, I was banned from the courtroom,” she said, noting the process dragged on for another two years before the adoption was allowed.

Erica, standing by her adoptive mother’s side, said that while Oden was the only adult in the system who bothered to listen to her, she also had the least input.

“When I’d have a hearing, I talked to my (court appointed) guardian ad litem (attorney) for about three minutes before the hearing,” she said. “And then he’d get up and act like he hadn’t heard anything I’d said. Nobody listened to me.”

Her voice cracking, Erica, now 19, added, “When foster parents have no voice, it hurts the kids. I know what it’s like to be one of those kids.”

Oden said she decided to quit after social workers refused to return a foster child to her home after attempts to reunite the teen-age girl with her natural parents had failed.

According to Oden, the social workers said she had become “too attached” to the girl. Allowing the relationship to continue, they said, was not in the girl’s best interest. She remains in foster care.

“After that, I quit,” Oden said. “I’ve given up.”

The bill would require social workers to contact foster parents when children once in their care return to the system. The foster parent would have the option of taking the child back.

Other foster parents and foster children testified that they, too, had suffered the wrath of uncaring social workers.

Foster parent Shelly Kwalik said the social worker assigned to her foster child’s case recently gave her two weeks to either adopt the teen-ager, file for guardianship or see her moved to another foster home.

“We are the only family this child has had for the past three years,” said Kwalik, who lives in Johnson County. “And now we’ve been given a two-week ultimatum. This is emotional blackmail.”

Opponents of the bill, a group that includes Marilyn Jacobson, assistant secretary in charge of children and family policy at the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, are expected to testify today.

“We heard some pretty powerful testimony today,” said committee chairman Doug Mays, R-Topeka. “It looks like there may be some problems in the foster care system.”