McDermott, along with Ron Nakasone, won a 2006 Casey Medal (television short form) for her story.

When photographer Ron Nakasone and I took on the assignment of documenting Indiana's desperate shortage of foster families, we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us. We wanted to find the most effective ways to illustrate the fact that there are some 10,000 children every month in Indiana who may be in need of foster care -– and that there are not nearly enough foster homes.

WISH-TV’s assistant news director, Kevin Finch, told us that if we wanted to draw viewers in, we had to show the problem as realistically as possible -– we had to be there with a camera as a child was actually removed from his biological parents’ home.  We knew the case workers in a situation like this would have to scramble to find a suitable place to take the child because of the lack of foster homes.  We also knew it would be difficult to get this scene on tape, given the issues involved in protecting the identities of children in the foster care system.

Our first break was working with a state official who was open to the possibility of our tagging along with a team of social workers as they worked their cases. James Payne, a former family court judge who is now director of the Indiana Department of Child Services, agreed to let us follow some of his case managers with a camera. While some of the case managers apparently were reluctant to have us along, we

ultimately were paired up with a willing team and later that same day documented what would be the series' first image –- that of a young boy being taken away from his biological parents' home, after child protection workers suspected the parents were using drugs. And wrenching scenes like this were something case managers have to take part in on a regular basis.

Witnessing this moment was very hard.  The boy’s mother was shouting at the caseworkers, denying she had been using drugs. The little boy was almost expressionless as one of the case managers carried him out of the house. The caseworkers were doing everything they could to lessen the horror of the situation for the child -– asking if he were hungry, letting him know they were going to get him some dinner. It wasn’t difficult to remain a bystander in a physical sense, but in an emotional sense, I was anything but a bystander. Part of me wanted to take that little boy home myself. 

We later contacted the executive director of a nonprofit agency that trains foster parents to find out why people become foster parents, and what the application process is like. From there, we were put in contact with several families who became part of our series. 

We felt it was important to show children's faces and tell their stories with as much detail as possible, to make the series compelling. But state and private agencies typically are reluctant to allow media to identify children in the system.  We got around that by showing only those who had already been adopted by their foster parents. Because we approached the story in this manner, with the consent of the foster families and the foster-care agency with which we worked, we avoided exposing vulnerable children.

The foster care system is a worthwhile subject for a reporter in just about any state to pursue. The key for us was finding an official open to the media, and developing relationships and trust with those who work with foster children.

It meant a lot to me to be able to work on this series. Kids in foster care are often repeatedly victimized –- first, by the parents who have either abused or neglected them; then, possibly, by receiving poor quality foster care, or by being bounced from one foster home to the next. These are topics that need more attention from journalists. And as a result of our series, the foster care agency with which we worked reported an increase in calls from people interested in becoming foster parents. We know that’s probably a short-term effect. So we plan to do a follow-up and keep asking what happens to 10,000 children a month.