Oregon's foster care fails to thrive

Oregon's foster care fails to thrive
Checkup - Six years after a dismal federal review, the state's system
has made little progress protecting children

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/pr...090.xml&coll=7

Sunday, October 07, 2007
MICHELLE COLE and BRENT WALTH
The Oregonian

More than 3,000 children a month who are in state foster care don't get
visits from their caseworkers as state rules require.

The state has deadlines for investigating reports of child abuse or
neglect. But state workers fail to respond fast enough more than 300
times a month.

And an increasing number of kids are abused or neglected after coming
under state supervision.

In one measure after another, the state's own benchmarks show that its
child welfare system fails too often to keep kids safe.

Six years ago, a federal review found that Oregon's child welfare safety
net failed to meet standards in eight key areas. An investigation by The
Oregonian, using the state's own benchmarks, has found little progress.

Another federal review of Oregon's system is coming soon. Oregon child
welfare officials admit they won't meet federal guidelines for taking
care of the more than 12,000 children under state supervision.

They blame economic recession, record-breaking levels of abuse and
neglect, coupled with cuts to drug and alcohol treatment programs that
parents need to get their kids back.

"We know what we have to work on," says Ramona Foley, who runs Oregon's
child welfare program.

The state assumes a complicated and often precarious role in protecting
children. Facing thousands of reports each year, Oregon caseworkers must
decide when to remove children from a home, when it's safe for them to
go back, and what's the best way to meet a family's needs in the meantime.

When they decide a child is in danger, caseworkers are supposed to visit
the family within 24 hours. They have five days in cases where there is
no immediate threat.

State records show caseworkers miss their deadlines about 19 percent of
the time, a rate that has improved significantly since 2001, but they
still fall behind on hundreds of reports a month.

Making the deadline doesn't help if the investigation isn't thorough.

In late 2004, the Department of Human Services heard about Jewell
Newland's family from several people in Monmouth, a small town west of
Salem. The reports, including those from teachers, raised concerns about
the welfare of Jewell, then 7 weeks old, and her older siblings.

"My impression is that a lot of people called," says Anne Thomas, who
baby-sat for Jewell's family. Thomas reported her concerns to the state
when Jewell's mother told her the father broke the baby's ribs when he
fell with her.

"While she was alive I tried to alert them," Thomas says.

A state child welfare caseworker visited the family within 24 hours
after Jewell's injuries were reported. Records show she found a
distracted dad and fussy baby, but she left Jewell with him.

Two days later, Jewell's parents took her to a local hospital where
doctors then rushed her to OHSU Hospital for surgery to repair internal
injuries. Jewell died Jan. 14, 2005 -- three months from the day she was
born.

Medical records say the father, James Newland, had again fallen with
Jewell in his arms. Police and toxicology reports later showed that
Newland had used methamphetamine the prior evening, then waited 14 hours
after Jewell's injuries to seek help.

Newland later pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and criminal
mistreatment, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Oregon's child welfare system had records on both parents. But an
internal review of the case found no documentation that the caseworker
knew about or considered the family's history of abuse or domestic violence.

Some details of the case became public because in 2004 state officials
promised to release results of investigations when children were killed
or seriously injured.

Several children have been killed or injured under state supervision
since Jewell's death. But it's impossible to know what the state learned
from all of those investigations. State officials have refused The
Oregonian's request for at least four recent investigative reports.

Short of the goal

In 2001, at the time of the most recent federal review, the state
toughened its rules governing how often caseworkers must visit a child.
It had been once every three months. Now it's once every 30 days.

"How do you tell anybody their kids are safe if you're not seeing them?"
Foley says. "That's a basic thing."

But the state's own numbers show caseworkers met the goal 72 percent of
the time this year -- not all that different from six years ago but up
from a low of 56 percent at one point last year.

In June, that meant about 3,000 children went more than 30 days without
seeing their caseworkers. Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of the Department
of Human Services, has promised the state will hit the 80 percent mark
by next year.

The case of Devin Gould shows why the visits are so necessary.

One-month-old Devin was glassy-eyed and wouldn't respond when his mother
brought him to the Rogue Valley Medical Center on July 25, 2005. Doctors
discovered skull and rib fractures and other internal injuries.

The state had already removed an older sibling from Devin's mother,
Victoria Gould, and placed Devin in temporary protective custody when he
was born. But state officials allowed Devin to live with his mother at a
relative's home in southern Oregon.

Police records say his mother grabbed the baby by the chest, held him in
front of her, causing his head to move forward and backward three times
before she put him down on the floor, where his head hit wood paneling
on a couch. Victoria Gould pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and
was sentenced to 71/2 years in prison.

Today Devin lives with foster parents trained to take care of his
special needs resulting from his brain injury.

An internal state review found several breakdowns by state officials in
Devin's case, including an inadequate number of visits. Una Swanson,
child protective services manager, said caseworkers did not do an
adequate job of assessing the mom's parenting ability.

In an April 2007 caseworker survey conducted for the federal review,
more than half of the 144 caseworkers who responded said workload kept
them from seeing children and their parents every 30 days.

Connections lacking

The state's own benchmarks also suggest that many older kids fail to
thrive within Oregon's child welfare system because they are moved from
foster home to foster home, making it difficult to form meaningful
relationships with adults before they turn 18 and are out on their own.

In 2006, nearly 64 percent of the children who lived in foster care for
more than two years had lived in more than two homes. That was only
slightly better than the 66.5 percent in 2004. Officials acknowledge
that the state needs to improve.

Many Oregon children in foster care are unhappy in their temporary
homes, according to a recent state survey of 223 kids who are in foster
care or who just left.

Some said they felt the state is working to help connect them with a
caring adult, but others said caseworkers never talked to them about
adoption or some other permanent arrangement.

Anna Cash, 19, counts herself among the lucky ones. She came into state
care when she was 12. She's lived in three homes -- two the first year
-- and had at least three caseworkers.

"I've only met a couple of people who have been in their home for more
than a year and a half," she says. "A lot of kids run away."

Cash says she has a good relationship with her current caseworker, who
is helping her make the transition from state care to adult life on her
own. Her most recent foster parents, who gave her a home for six years,
are also supportive.

"I feel really fortunate because I know a lot of kids in foster care
don't have that," Cash says. "When I first entered care it was really
hard being taken out of your parents' house and going somewhere where
you wonder whether you're going to fit in."

Oregon's child welfare system isn't alone in its struggles. No state
passed the most recent federal review, in 2001. And this year the
standards are tougher. Oregon officials admit they're not sure the state
will do any better than before.

They received a preview three weeks ago from Linda Mitchell, a senior
child welfare specialist with the federal Administration on Children,
Youth and Families.

The early results, Mitchell said, showed caseworkers are not visiting
children -- or their parents -- as frequently as they should. Parents
seeking help with mental illness or drug addiction are put on waiting lists.

"I would venture a guess," she said, "that (the results) are probably
not at the level that you had hoped or expected."

Foley, in charge of Oregon's program, says the state's child welfare
system is beginning to see the effects of major efforts to improve it.

A new "safety model" for caseworkers was prompted by two high-profile
child abuse cases in 2004 -- a child murdered shortly after caseworkers
returned him to his family and another child nearly starved in a foster
home.

Foley says the 2007 Legislature recently approved money for 107 more
caseworkers, a job where turnover rates remain high. Lawmakers also
approved more money for drug and alcohol programs that had been cut.

That certainly will help, but the improvements haven't yet made the job
easier for Patti Hurtt, a child caseworker in Gresham with 10 years'
experience.

As a result of the new safety model, Hurtt says, workers in her office
have seen a 50 percent increase in the number of cases needing 24-hour
response -- with no new staff.

"It's a lot of trying to keep your head above water and keeping the kids
safe all at the same time," she says. "It's been a frustrating summer."

That frustration is shared by others whose work brings them into contact
with abused and neglected children.

Sgt. Kim Dorn of the Monmouth Police Department helped lead the
investigation of Jewell Newland's death. The only pictures she ever saw
of Jewell were from the baby's autopsy.

"I wish that we had a picture of her alive," Dorn says. "I've always
wished that I'd seen her that way -- and remembered her like that."

Researcher Lynne Palombo contributed to this report. Michelle Cole:
503-221-8234; Brent Walth: 503-294-5072;


©2007 The Oregonian








An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.

Currently Child Protective Services violates more civil rights on a
daily basis then all other agencies combined, Including the NSA/CIA
wiretaping program…


FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache...fpanalysis.doc

or for .doc
http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc


HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html


A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca

30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.


The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade
Horn of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991

This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.

Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close

The full study is available here.
http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf



The bottom line? - the foster care system nationwide for the most part
turns out young adults that are nothing more than walking wreckage...