Then there's Akela, a child no one wants to watch.

"My family used to tell me you can pay me $100 an hour and I'm not going to watch him," Flores said, adding that Akela's mother's drug addiction has left its mark.

Fostering children: It's a job that few want and a responsibility that many find too draining without more help.

So the state has launched a pilot project to help foster parents by recruiting neighborhood volunteers who can lend a hand with simple tasks such as grocery shopping, meal preparation or cleaning.

"And yet we're asking foster parents to do without that network like I had," Chung said, adding that she wants to create a "cousins" network of committed volunteers.

"I want to see if I'm correct in saying there are these people around who would be willing to help," she said.

Akela was 14 months old when he came to her. He would scream for hours at a time, day and night, and run into the walls, giving himself a bloody nose and other injuries, Flores said. He would jump from the television set, destroy things and pull his sister's hair, she said, adding that he had trouble sleeping through the night and would wake three or four times, screaming.

"After three weeks my husband said he has to leave because of the screaming at the top of his lungs," Flores said.

Today Akela is affectionate, hyperactive, explosive but at times cooperative. Years of therapy, special education and patience have improved his behavior, but she said she never lets him out of her sight, even when he goes into the bathroom.

Kalani, 15, who came to Flores when he was younger, said his mother could use a break.

Kalani helps with Akela, getting him ready for hockey last week. But the boy took off down the sidewalk, skated out into the street, laid down in the road then jumped into the back of his brother's truck.

"It's kind of hard for my mom because she's getting old and needs a little break," Kalani said.

Flores is taking a break from foster care and won't accept children for a while, but she remains legal guardian to three children who live with her.

The state doesn't keep statistics on the number of children who come into the system because of drug abuse, but acknowledges the link between drug abuse and the removal of children from homes, said Sarah Caskin, executive director for Hawai'i Foster Parent Association.

Akela Flores, 8, and sister Kanoe, 10, play on the jungle gym at Pearl City Highlands Elementary School. The two were taken in by Annette Flores of Pearl City, who also cares for their foster brother, Kalani. Years of therapy, special education and patience have improved Akela's unpredictable behavior. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Raynette Ah Chong, who has cared for foster children for 11 years, agrees and said the problem seems to have worsened in the past six years.

"I have fostered 98 children in the last 11 years and the majority of my kids were drug exposed," Ah Chong said. "Our No. 1 problem in the state of Hawai'i is drug use and drug-exposed babies, and these babies are damaged."

Children as young as 6 are taking on the role of parent in drug homes, caring for younger siblings and cooking the meals but doing a poor job of it, Ah Chong said. Children come to her with head lice, broken bones, infections and impetigo, Ah Chong said.

"I have to teach them to be a child," she said, adding that some children resent losing their "adult" status and turn to inappropriate behavior.

Foster parents can't always turn to the state because social workers are overloaded or inexperienced, Ah Chong said.

Akela Flores gets help putting on his skates from his foster brother, Kalani, at their home in Pearl City. Kalani says their legal guardian, Annette Flores, is "getting old and needs a little break." Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Both Ah Chong and Flores are supported by their families, husbands and older children who help. But Ah Chong said many foster families could use volunteer help around the home or for tutoring.

Kayle Perez, an administrator for the state Department of Human Services said the number of children coming into the system has increased each year over the past five years. And while state workers try hard to place children with other family members, general-license foster homes are still needed. Foster parents leave the system, but the state hasn't tried to find out why. It is now developing an exit survey to determine why foster parents leave.

"To be honest, some families say 'I can't do this'; this is not what they thought it would be," said Perez, who heads the foster home licensing unit. "Lack of support, the children being difficult, I don't know what the reasons are."

DHS workers hope the pilot project will take off and give some relief to foster families, she said.

The program will have to be sensitive to the needs of foster families, said Barbara Wright, a trainer with Hawai'i Foster Parent Association. Volunteers must be ready for the long haul and be consistent, especially if they deal with the children, Wright said.

With the ever-increasing need for foster care and the fact that drug addiction is adding to the problem, she said more will have to be done to deflect future social problems.

"If the community does not step up to the plate, I think we'll probably need to build more prisons and we'll have to ask educators and schools to do more of the rearing of our children," Wright said.