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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Foster care goals too big to do ‘at once’

Associated Press

OLYMPIA – More than five dozen benchmarks proposed to improve the state foster-care system are too monumental to be achieved all at once, a top state administrator told a panel of experts.

“Working on too many things at once, or targeting the wrong things, will not allow the organization to succeed or sustain performance over time,” Children’s Administration Director Cheryl Stephani said in written comments to an oversight board.

Stephani was responding to the 65 standards for the state foster-care program developed by the Braam Oversight Panel, a group of national experts appointed as part of a lawsuit settlement.

The panel is named after the plaintiff in the 1998 class-action lawsuit, which accused the state of bouncing children around foster homes without adequate services. The state settled the case in 2004 by promising to make dozens of specific improvements, from increased mental-health treatment for kids to better training for foster parents.

If the state breaks those promises, the matter could wind up back in court.

The panel’s proposals range from raising the graduation rate of foster kids to providing better training for foster parents. Comments on the package were due Tuesday, when state officials submitted a 57-page document, the Olympian newspaper reported Thursday.

In her comments, Stephani said the raft of proposed changes would be particularly difficult as the agency works on a top priority assigned by Gov. Christine Gregoire: faster responses and more frequent visits to children in need.

Tim Farris, an attorney representing foster children in the Braam case, said he had little sympathy for the agency, a division of the state Department of Social and Health Services.

“First of all, if they’re worried about resources, they need to go ask the Legislature for more resources,” he said. “Second, the government has a contractual obligation to comply with the settlement agreement to improve the lives of children.”

Attorneys involved in the case say they are unhappy with Gregoire’s proposed supplemental budget, which adds $4 million for foster care – a sum they say is insufficient. Gregoire also wants a $3.8 million case-management computer system and $6.2 million for nearly 200 new staffers.

Stephani agreed that child safety is the agency’s top priority, but said major policy changes could take two years to put in place. She suggested a series of steps for complying with the panel’s recommendations.

“Our organizational capacity is stretched beyond its limits, which makes it essential that we choose the right strategies up front in order to move us the farthest and fastest,” Stephani wrote.