Study puts blame on DHS for deaths of five children while in State Custody

Study puts blame on DHS for deaths of five children | Tulsa World

By GAVIN OFF World Data Editor
Published: 3/18/2011  2:31 AM
Last Modified: 3/18/2011  5:11 AM

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Read a Children’s Rights report on the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.

A children's advocacy group that is suing the Oklahoma Department of Human Services for failures in its foster-care system released an independent study Thursday intended to bolster claims it is making in federal court.

According to the report - conducted by child-welfare advocate John Goad and released by the group Children's Rights - proper DHS intervention could have prevented the deaths of at least five children who died between 2007 and 2009 of abuse or neglect while in state custody.

Additionally, the study found that:

It took personnel in the DHS Office of Client Advocacy a month or more to contact one-third of the alleged victims who lived in large group homes.

DHS Child Protective Services Division investigators failed to take the proper steps to protect 20 percent of the alleged victims in foster care and kinship/family member homes.

About half of all investigations of foster or kinship/family member homes ignored or discounted credible evidence of abuse or neglect.

DHS failed to interview nearly a quarter of key sources, including doctors, police and caseworkers.

"What the findings do is confirm that children in the foster care system in Oklahoma are in danger and are being neglected by the child-welfare system," said Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children's Rights.

DHS officials discredited the report.

In a news release, DHS officials state that Goad's Oklahoma report is strikingly similar to his 2003 report on Georgia's child-welfare system. Goad was paid $62,000 for his expertise, DHS officials stated.

Marq Youngblood, DHS' chief coordinating officer, stated in the news release: "Protecting the children who are placed in OKDHS care is our top priority. The people working in this agency have dedicated their lives to making sure kids are safe while getting the care and treatment they need."

Children's Rights sued DHS in February 2008, seeking widespread reforms in the state's child-welfare system. Reforms include lowering worker caseloads, adding training for foster families and increasing oversight.

The federal trial is expected to begin as early as October.

Thursday's report is the second study released by Children's Rights in recent months to target DHS.

Last month, the group released a report stating that one in eight children in the department's custody suffered from confirmed abuse or neglect. The Center for the Support of Families conducted that report.

Sheree Powell, a spokeswoman for DHS, said that in the coming days, the department will examine how Goad reached the conclusions found in the latest study.

She said Goad's conclusions differ sharply from the state's review of the same data.

But Lowry said DHS is ignoring the problem and that Oklahoma traditionally has been one of the worst states for abuse in the foster care system.

The Children's Rights report pointed to specific Oklahoma cases, such as a 5-year-old who died from blunt-force trauma less than five weeks after DHS reunited the child with his parents, who repeatedly abused him.

Also, a 1-year-old was struck and killed by a truck nine days after DHS screened out allegations from a child-welfare worker that the child and six others were left in the foster care home without adult supervision, the Children's Rights report said.

Goad attributed many of the problems to "systemic failures among DHS' responses to reports of child maltreatment in foster placements," the group's new release states.
Gavin Off 918-732-8106
gavin.off@tulsaworld.com