Foster-care deaths increase, but advocates defend system

Foster-care deaths increase, but advocates defend system - Whittier Daily News

By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/21/2010 08:50:48 PM PST

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Amid growing concerns about an increase in child abuse and deaths in Los Angeles County, child advocates and county officials are debating what impact new reforms have had in recent years and how to best improve the troubled foster-care system.

The debate centers in part over how the county's Department of Children and Family Services should be funded. A previous method was scrapped in 2007 because it gave financial incentives to tear kids away from their families and place them in foster homes.

The new method essentially involves the county receiving a fixed, capped amount of money under a waiver granted by the federal government.

While most county officials have called it a success, some have questioned whether it has played a role in a recent countywide increase in child abuse and deaths.

DCFS director Trish Ploehn - who reportedly is facing possible ouster from her job because of problems within the department - defended the waiver.

"The waiver itself has been exceptionally successful," Ploehn said. "The old way of doing foster care basically set up an incentive for foster-care agencies to have more children in care. That is not a good way to do child welfare, and research bears out that children always do much better in their own homes. Removing a child from their family is traumatizing to the child."

But Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has raised concerns recently about the waiver and DCFS' drive to reduce the number of

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children in foster care, saying the push has resulted in the county leaving too many children in unsafe environments.
Yaroslavsky did not return calls for comment.

Yaroslavsky's concerns come as the number of child deaths rose from 18 in 2008 to 26 last year. And 23 have been reported this year, putting it on track to surpass last year's figure.

DCFS released the figures under a new law designed to give the public a fuller picture of the number of children who died after county agencies were brought in to investigate reports of abuse or neglect.

County officials, however, have said the apparent statistical increase in deaths may be misleading, because a new law requires an expansion in the number of causes of death that should be counted. The old way primarily focused on homicides, while the new statistics also include drownings, suicides and other types of deaths resulting from accident or neglect.

The number of reports of abuse and neglect also has increased from 182,013 in 2007 to 186,782 last year.

As of Sept. 21, the number stood at 139,571 and was on pace to surpass 2009.

But Ploehn said she believes the rising number of reports of child abuse and neglect in the county is not connected to the waiver or other reforms, but rather the increasing stress on families hit by the nation's weak economy.

Meanwhile, a report slated for release this week is expected to show that the well-being of children in DCFS' care has improved since the waiver went into effect in 2007.

The report, requested by Supervisors Michael Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas, is expected to show the number of children in long-term foster care has dropped from 9,918 in 2007 to 6,641 now, the number of children abused or neglected in foster care has fallen from 451 in 2007 to 393 now, and the number of children placed in group homes has decreased 33 percent, according to DCFS figures.

Under the method of funding before the waiver, the county received $30,000 to $150,000 in state and federal funding for each child placed in foster care.

A series of audits in 2003 found private foster-family agencies and group homes had spent millions of taxpayer dollars to drive around in Jaguars and Mercedes and pay for Las Vegas gambling debts, calls to psychic hot lines, jewelry, parties and alcohol.

At the time, former DCFS Director David Sanders said that because of the financial incentives in child-welfare laws, up to half the county's foster children had been unnecessarily placed in a system that is often more dangerous than their homes.

Sanders, who advocated the waiver, said the point of the waiver was to free up a portion of DCFS' $1.8 billion budget to use on services to help families stay together.

In 2007, the federal government granted Los Angeles County and other jurisdictions throughout the nation the waivers. Since then, DCFS has used $88 million that normally would have gone to pay for foster care and put it toward services to help families and keep children out of foster care. At the same time, the number of children in foster homes has dropped from 30,000 in 2003 to 15,000 now.

Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said there is no evidence the waiver has compromised the safety of children in the county.

"The waiver is the only thing that has kept this whole situation from being even worse," Wexler said. "We know it's possible to improve safety under a waiver because Florida has done it. Without the waiver, huge numbers of additional children will be needlessly torn from everyone they know and love."

troy.anderson@dailynews.com

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