Panel criticizes state’s foster care reforms

The state of Washington has failed to make dozens of changes legally required to improve its troubled foster care system, a panel of child experts concluded in a report released late Tuesday.

The panel found the Children’s Administration failed to complete about two-thirds of its “action steps” – including steps to better monitor children’s mental health, reduce the caseloads of its social workers, and provide more staffers to work with children who had been moved to multiple foster homes.

“The results are disappointing but not surprising,” said Tim Farris, an attorney who sued the state on behalf of Washington’s foster children. “While it is clear that some in the department are working on making changes, the overall picture is not at all where we hoped it would be at this point.”

Cheryl Stephani, head of the state’s Children’s Administration, said the report did not provide an accurate assessment of the changes in the foster care system because its pass-fail grading did not take into consideration incremental improvements.

“It really is an underestimation of the progress that we have made to date,” Stephani said. “We’ve been working very hard on implementing the action steps.”

Stephani said the department will hire 250 new caseworkers in the next year, and ensure quicker, more frequent visits with foster children. The state also will extend health benefits to foster children who plan to pursue higher education after they leave care.

The Braam Oversight Panel was created in 2004 to oversee the settlement of a landmark six-year lawsuit that promised dramatic reforms in Washington’s child welfare system

The lawsuit accused the foster care system of failing to provide proper support services to children, and took its name from lead plaintiff Jessica Braam, who lived in 34 foster homes as a child.

In 2004, the Children’s Administration settled the lawsuit, estimating it would cost $50 million to make the improvements.

In a news release Tuesday, the state stated that on any given day, about 9,600 foster children are covered by the agreement – just a fraction of all children served by the department.

“You do have to understand that foster care is one part of the work we do, and while it is a very important part, we also need to be working in areas that are important to (other children) as well,” Stephani said.

Casey Trupin, a staff attorney with Columbia Legal Services, said regardless of its other responsibilities, the department is legally obligated to meet the terms of the settlement.

“To me, that’s like saying I have nine kids and I forgot to feed one for a month,” Trupin said. “It’s just absolutely unacceptable. This is something they agreed to do.”

The panel’s report covers the department’s progress in the first 18 months of the settlement.

In a response to the report, the department complained that sections of the report were “unnecessarily critical or even punitive.” In its public report, the panel apparently removed some of those comments.

The report – as well as the state’s response – showed signs of frustration between the state and the monitoring panel.

“At the end of the day,” Stephani said, “we all want the same thing. We want to keep children safe and well.”