ST. CLOUD — A declining number of licensed foster homes in the St. Cloud area is costing nearby counties more money when they’re forced to seek more expensive care for children, according to officials.

Both Benton and Stearns counties have reported significant declines over the past few years. The number of licensed foster homes in Benton County has declined from 21 to 12 in about four years, according to Jill Nettestad, licensing social worker in Benton County. Foster care costs for the county have more than doubled in the same period, from about $250,000 in 2010 to over $536,000 so far this year, she said.

Sometimes the only option for county social workers is to place children in therapeutic foster care, which is much more expensive, when there aren’t any regular foster care homes available. The average cost for a child in therapeutic foster care is $89 per day, compared to $34 per day in a regular foster home, according to Nettestad. Out of the 36 children who are currently in foster care in Benton County, 13 of them are in therapeutic foster care, she said.

“A lot of those kids in therapeutic foster homes aren’t there because they need the extra therapy or the extra support,” Nettestad said. “It’s because we don’t have the space in the county homes, or we don’t have the county homes to be able to support sibling groups.”

Stearns County is also facing the same problem. The number of county-licensed foster homes has dwindled from 81 in 2005 to 51 today, according to Brenda Mahoney, family and children’s services director in the human services department. More than half of the children in Stearns County foster care are staying with relatives, a 12-15 percent increase from about three years ago, she said.

One of the reasons there are fewer licensed foster homes is because both parents work, making it difficult for the family to take in a young child.

St. Cloud resident Deana Hoeschen and her husband have taken in about 20 foster children. She helped start a support group for other foster care families in Stearns County.

Some prospective foster parents don’t realize how difficult the job can be, she said, because many foster children have experienced trauma, fetal alcohol syndrome, drug exposure or other issues.

“It becomes a whole different realm of parenting and there’s a lot of skills that are involved with being able to do that effectively,” Hoeschen said. “And I think that scares people.”

Although being a foster parent can be a difficult task, it’s extremely rewarding, she said.