Washington’s Foster Care System Criticized By Review Committee

Thu., Feb. 9, 1995

Associated Press

The state’s fostercare system has been blasted by an independent panel asked to look into the deaths of four children in six years at a Seattle foster home.

“Somehow the focus has shifted away from caring for children,” said Dr. Carrie Freedheim, co-chair of the independent review committee.

The panel’s report, submitted to legislators Tuesday, called for creation of a statewide network of Child Death Review Teams to look into all deaths of children in state care. The state now provides only for selective review of suspicious deaths.

The panel also called for a new criminal investigation of Margaret Manson, the Seattle foster mother caring for the four children who died.

The 23-page report’s other recommendations focused on more money and tougher laws.

“This is not just an issue of workload but one of resource management and philosophy,” it said.

Officials at the state Department of Social and Health Services said they agree with most of the findings. The agency’s director, Jean Soliz, appointed the panel last fall.The committee noted the fine work of many foster parents and state workers, but said its assignment - to “focus on what went wrong in the Manson case” - turned up pervasive and life-threatening problems.”Four children died in care. A hard-working, caring veteran caseworker allowed a foster home to remain open in the face of blatantly poor care and a sobering array of professional complaints,” the report said.

Here are some of the problems cited in the report:

Low standards for foster care, including three-year licensing, the longest provided by any state.

“Preposterous” workloads for social workers and supervisors. The Manson home licenser had a statehigh caseload of 190 foster homes, nearly four times the state’s limit for private-agency caseworkers.

“Inadequate” investigations by the state’s Child Protective Services, which has dismissed cases after an investigator talks to the suspect but not to the complainant.

Poor recruitment efforts despite a critical shortage of foster homes.

“Pervasive problems with judgment” from all of the above. The panel suggested a team approach to foster-care management, saying workers should have more time to think.

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