OPB News · Children's Group Calls For Changes To Stop Abuse

OPB News · Children's Group Calls For Changes To Stop Abuse

Editor's Note
The original version of this story failed to note that the Department of Human Resources conducts internal investigations of foster families.

Until recently the agency did not conduct independent investigations of foster families.

OPB regrets the error.


A group that advocates for children issued a list of changes Tuesday that it says are needed to stop abuse of children in Oregon's foster came system. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

Children First for Oregon issued the policy brief after the state released a study of a case involving a 9-year-old boy from Lane County.



A state investigation, released by the Department of Human Services, found that the boy ended up in the hospital after being beaten while in the care of his adoptive parents, who'd previously been certified as his foster parents.

Pamela Butler: "You know if they're taken away because of neglect and then they're put in a home where they're abused. It's completely detrimental to those children and it should never happen."

Pamela Butler is a policy expert with Children First for Oregon.

She's been working with Oregon's Department of Human Services to change the system. But she now says, the state isn't moving quickly enough.

Pamela Butler: "We were just pretty upset and we felt like we weren't hearing back from them about the foster care safety team recommendations. And they weren't dedicating as much time and resources to making these changes so these kids aren't getting abused in foster homes."

The non-profit identifies three specific areas where there are problems: First, inadequate tracking by the state of abuse by foster care providers; Second, insufficient investigation of allegations when they are made; and third, the fact that child welfare employees have conflicting duties.

On the one hand, Children First says, DHS workers have to recruit and train foster families. But on the other, they have to investigate allegations made against those families.

Butler acknowledges the state is in the middle of implementing a new model to deal with these issues. Case workers are also under increasing stress as a state hiring freeze reduces their numbers. But, she maintains, change still isn't coming fast enough.

Pamela Butler: "Their new Oregon Safety Model is one of the tools they're using to reduce abuse in foster care. But what we're seeing is, that it's not fully implemented yet at the practical level in the counties. And that's what we're seeing from workers and cases and reviews, there are pieces of the Oregon Safety Model that haven't fully implemented at the case level."

The Children First report is a strongly worded complaint.

Gene Evans, a spokesman for the state, says 'Children First' is a good partner and DHS takes its perspective very seriously.

He also agreed, no child should experience abuse at the hands of a foster parent.

But he added, the number of such cases is dropping and the state is working to make further progress.

Gene Evans: "Abuse in foster care is declining. We're making sure that more kids are placed with their relatives. We're screening and assessing calls and doing better investigations of foster parents. But I think it's true, it's never fast enough when you're dealing with the safety of children."

Evans had some concrete examples of changes that have been made over the last year. For one, the state didn’t used to conduct independent investigations of foster families. Evans says that's no longer the case.

Gene Evans: "Let's look at abuse in foster care. Let's look at it openly, objectively and honestly and figure out what's going on. So we can reduce the number of children who are abused."

A lawsuit, recently filed in Marion County, claims the state failed to monitor and conduct an adequate background check for a foster care provider -- Susan Alderson.

The former Silver Falls teacher pleaded guilty in February to the rape of one of her foster care children.

He's now suing the state for more than $5 million saying she repeatedly molested him from age 11 to 18.

Alderson has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

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