SEATTLE – Teresa Mattson, Michael Rothermel and Amanda Franklin have all endured chaos after adopting their foster children, kids who've been victimized by abuse, neglect and drug-addicted parents, leading to serious mental illness.

They've had police come to their house because of their children. Some have endured threats of injury and death. And all feel that the state has failed to give their families the help they need.

Their stories are frightening:

Mattson: "He had a lighter and an aerosol can and he made a torch and he was threatening to burn kids alive."

Rothermel: "I've been kicked and bitten and punched and scratched."

Franklin: "She threatened to jump out a window. She broke a window. She was assaultive to us."

Rothermel: "Yeah, I'm afraid of him."

Linda Green-Baskett adopted a toddler nicknamed "G" out of foster care. "G" had scars from abuse and bizarre behaviors, which escalated as she got older. At 5, she cut up her face with a pair of scissors. All objects at home became weapons. Everything sharp had to be locked up.

"G" was even locked in her bedroom at night to protect herself and the family. At the age of 10, she threatened to kill them all.

"She said, 'I've had it. I'm going to kill everybody,'" Green-Baskett said. "I said, 'so what's that mean?' 'You wait and see what happens when you go to sleep tonight.'"

After that threat, "G" spent nine weeks in a psychiatric hospital. From there doctors said she shouldn't go home. It was too dangerous. Her little sisters especially would be at risk.

"At this point I'm thinking I can't do this anymore," Green-Baskett said. "I absolutely can't do this."

In severe cases like this, the state of Washington has a legal obligation to pay for services after the adoption. There's an adoption support agreement saying so.

"(They said) Don't worry, Adoption Support is there for anything you would need in the future," Green-Baskett said.

KING 5 Investigators: "They told you that?

Green-Baskett: "Explicitly."

So the family asked the state to send "G" to a secure group home for treatment. 

"But DSHS said no, we support your adoption, but we won't pay for that. And they said more," Green-Baskett said. "You have an obligation to take her home or else it's child abandonment."

All the parents interviewed for our story asked and begged for group home treatment. They've all been turned down.

"So, then you're just left out there with this kid who is extremely violent and abusive and the state is not there for you," Teresa Mattson said.

"This is truly my son ... and I have no regrets of adopting him … it's the system that has failed us, and failed him," Marillyn Schultz Rothermel.

There is a state law saying the Department of Social and Health Services can only pay for group home treatment for foster children – not for children adopted out of foster care. Four of the five families we interviewed didn't know the law existed. Linda Lillevik is an attorney who represents foster parents.

KING

Linda Green Baskett adopted a toddler nicknamed "G" from a foster home.

"I see it happening so much more often," she said. "I'm sorry, we should not be giving the shaft to these foster parents who we made all these promises to, and said please take these children, please, please, please, and then leaving them with nothing, and in fact almost destroying their families because of this, it's horrible."

Lonnie Locke runs DSHS's adoption support program. She says the state doesn't have the money or space in specialized group homes for kids who aren't wards of the state.

"We'll do whatever we can to help you get the services that you need, but this is what we're having to deal with at this moment," she said.

Green-Baskett said: "It's unethical, it's absurd that the department forces families into this situation."

Representative Ruth Kagi chairs the house committee that oversees children's services. She had no idea there was a law that prevented adoptive parents from getting the help they need.

"It's a fault in our law," Kagi said. "And that's what was clear to me when you showed that document, that it is a gap in our law and we need to address it."

"My hope is that parents join together and say: These are the most vulnerable citizens of this state.  Why are they getting treated this way?" Green-Baskett said.