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* Last month, the Illinois Answers Project reported on a lawsuit against Illinois for holding foster children in detention due to lack of housing…
The Cook County public guardian is suing Illinois child welfare officials for allowing foster children to remain locked up in juvenile detention even after they’ve been ordered released — a problem that has only gotten worse, an Illinois Answers Project investigation found last year.
At issue is the inability of the state’s Department of Children and Family Services’ to find appropriate placements for children with behavioral health and emotional problems that often stem from their histories of serious abuse and neglect.
The federal lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, alleges that “children incarcerated in juvenile jail are confined to their cells for the majority of the day, have limited opportunities to exercise and are exposed to unnecessary violence and dangers. Moreover, DCFS is unable to provide them the clinically appropriate mental health treatment and educational services that they need — critical resources for children who have suffered trauma and instability.” […]
The Illinois Answers investigation showed a steady increase in the number of Illinois foster children held for weeks or months after a judge ordered their release from detention centers. A total of 73 foster children were locked up for weeks or months in the Cook County juvenile temporary detention center without pending charges during 2021, according to an analysis of court and DCFS records.
* Illinois is hardly the only state lacking resources to house foster children. Let’s start in North Carolina. Youth Today…
Late last year, the Disability Rights North Carolina and the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP filed a class action suit against North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley, seeking to end discrimination regarding children with disabilities who are placed in foster care (as wards of the state), and who are then unnecessarily segregated from their home communities.
As a result, they are often isolated in heavily restrictive and clinically inappropriate institutional placements called psychiatric residential treatment facilities (PRTFs). This is not the first such class action. Ad litem attorneys (and others standing as “next friends”) to children with disabilities relegated to PTRFs all over the country are seeking similar relief. As noted in the North Carolina complaint:
“PRTFs are designed to provide intensive, short-term, residential psychiatric treatment for temporary stabilization. They are generally unsuitable as a long-term ‘place to live,’ but that does not stop DHHS from allowing children to languish there for extended periods of time. Unsurprisingly, research shows that children with disabilities confined to PRTFs suffer much worse outcomes than non-institutionalized children. These outcomes include spending longer periods of time in child welfare custody without a permanent home; losing critical family connections with parents, siblings, and extended family due to their confinement; and experiencing higher rates of maltreatment while in child welfare custody.”
* More from North Carolina…
The State Department of Social Services is admitting it’s in an emergency situation when it comes to housing children in the foster care system, especially those with mental health challenges.
FOX8 has confirmed dozens of children are living in hospital emergency rooms because there isn’t a family to care for them.
Cone Health has eight kids living in their ER. officials tell us this is common, and the kids stay for a while. […]
“It’s gotten so bad that at one point a few weeks ago, there was not even space in our local hospitals,” said North Carolina Senator Michael Garret.
* Texas has a huge budget surplus, but these problems also exist in the Lone Star State…
When U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack declared in 2015 that Texas foster kids were leaving state care more damaged than when they entered, it forced the state to confront decades of missteps.
After a yearlong trial for the lawsuit, which was filed in 2011, the Corpus Christi judge found Texas was violating the constitutional rights of foster children by exposing them to an “unreasonable risk of harm.” Caseworkers were carrying more than double the standard for caseload limits, children were being placed far from their home counties, and the state was not enforcing residential facilities’ compliance with licensing standards. […]
Much of her ire over the years has been focused on how DFPS has tried to handle a capacity crisis. There is a high number of children with severe mental health and behavioral needs, but not enough licensed facilities or foster families trained to properly care for them.
“I’m sure you have multiple excuses, but I guess I don’t want to hear them right now,” Jack said at a 2021 hearing, berating state officials about children sleeping in offices and motels.
* Texas’ family and child welfare commissioner plans to outsource case management. Texas Tribune…
Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Stephanie Muth, who began her tenure about a month ago, told lawmakers writing a new two-year state budget that the agency will have different needs as it moves into the new system of outsourcing case management services to nonprofits.
Implementation of the new approach, called community-based care, began about six years ago but is still not fully in place. It was adopted in 2017 and is meant to keep foster children closer to home while they’re in state care. It is currently used only in parts of three of the agency’s 11 regional service areas, and there are plans to introduce it to more areas during the next two-year state budget cycle, according to a map shared during Friday’s meeting. […]
The change will likely require fewer in-house case workers. It will also require a different agency mindset, Muth said at Friday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing.
“We’re in two worlds,” Muth said. “We have the legacy world, we have the CBC world. We know how to operate the legacy world — that’s our comfort zone. But as you look at moving to community-based care, it’s very different skillsets that we need as an agency.”
Muth said that means thinking more about managing contracts with third parties and less about staffers managing cases.
* Georgia…
The state of Georgia shelled out $28 million last year to the Department of Children and Family Services to put foster children up in hotels, sometimes for months at a time, Channel 2 Action News has learned. […]
Julie and Jeff Selander said that a 12-year-old boy they were attempting to foster was kept in a series of hotels from Canton to Waycross for months.
“So a 12-year-old can move from hotel to hotel with no education,” Julie Selander said. “He’s not received any education. Two days later, I get a text message saying that they’re just going to keep him at the hotel.” […]
Lincoln found that at $1,500 a night, it costs more money to place a foster child in a hotel than it does for the average person to book a night at the Four Seasons.
The state has spent roughly $250,000 in taxpayer funds to house the 12-year-old alone.
* Kansas…
A young Kansas girl suffered a severe head injury after being placed in a foster home by KVC Behavioral Healthcare Inc., according to a lawsuit filed last year in Shawnee County.
The lawsuit alleges that the child suffered severe head trauma after KVC, a state contracted foster care provider, placed the child in a “dangerously overcrowded” foster home and failed to ensure safety planning services were provided to the foster parents. […]
The lawsuit says the number of foster children living in the home “exceeded capacity”, though it is unclear in court documents how many children were in the home. They were also “inappropriate age-mates” to the incoming baby girl, the lawsuit said.
Some of the foster children were suspected of being “mentally unstable and aggressive” according to the lawsuit. But a KVC employee allegedly failed to give the foster parents safety planning services and ensure they understood the behavioral and psychological problems of the other foster children.
* Tennessee via the AP…
The Tennessee agency that has faced heightened scrutiny for failures in oversight of the state’s most vulnerable children is requesting a quick influx of $26.6 million, aimed at keeping youth from having to sleep in administrative state offices or in transitional housing, among other pressing problems.
Tennessee Department of Children’s Services Commissioner Margie Quin unveiled the request to a state House panel Monday.
It includes $20.4 million allocated to increase the rates for care providers, which is expected to add 118 beds for kids. There’s also a request for $4.1 million to add 48 clinical assessment beds that help identify the next placement for a child, while providing medical and mental health treatment; and $2.1 million to incentivize more foster care placements for teenagers and groups of siblings.
The request for funding follows a sweeping audit that identified a host of problems at the agency. It underscored reports of high employee turnover over the past two years and challenges to find proper temporary housing. It also stressed that the state’s failure to investigate abuse and neglect allegations contributed to putting children’s health, safety and wellbeing at risk. Democratic lawmakers have long deemed the agency’s woes as a crisis that demands immediate changes to protect vulnerable youth.
posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 11:21 am
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Broken homes produce broken children and the states are the care-giver of last resort. It is no longer somebody else’s problem, it’s ours to solve. We haven’t yet shown we’re up to the task.
I take some small comfort in knowing that Illinois isn’t an outlier in this area. Very small comfort, and we need a comprehensive series of programs to address all of the causes that result in neglected, abused and abandoned children, as well as safe and compassionate juvenile justice.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 11:30 am
== Texas’ family and child welfare commissioner plans to outsource case management. ==
Another disaster waiting to happen … because outsourcing has worked so well in other States like Illinois /s
Seriously, all Texas will be doing is kicking the can down the road a few years.
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 11:45 am
== found that at $1,500 a night, it costs more money to place a foster child in a hotel ==
At $1,500 a night, they better have 24/7 onsite supervision by case workers
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 11:48 am
Running a State level institution for kids is a public relations disaster waiting to happen. I get that.
Yes, the State can mess up a one car parade, or a veterans hospital. But was the old system of State ran mental health hospitals and orphanages really worse that the disaster we have now?
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 11:54 am
Props to Isabel on the research and correlation of this being a systemic problem across many states. The institution of family and support by our non-profit and government system is in dire straits.
Comment by CentralILCentrist Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 11:54 am
It’s good to have information from other states experiencing similar problems. In my view this ongoing problem is a result of privatization of key services. No outside vendor thinks they can make money serving these young people, so the state has only bad choices available.
Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:02 pm
= But was the old system of State ran mental health hospitals and orphanages really worse that the disaster we have now? =
Yes, movies like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” weren’t completely made up.
Comment by cover Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:18 pm
Illinois also faces the collapse of social services caused by Rauner and his ilk; skilled people were dumped and some never came back to social services. Even the orgs like LSSI, Catholic Charities, etc. were badly affected by budget cuts resulting in staff losses. But they must be paid as well; maybe the mega-rich seeking handouts for the Bears can take note of needs other than their own greed.
Comment by thisjustinagain Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:23 pm
RNUG: one word - Choate
Comment by Papa2008 Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:24 pm
===movies like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” weren’t completely made up===
And even worse in real life. For example, Choate https://capitolfax.com/2023/02/10/fix-these-problems-or-shut-choate-down/
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:30 pm
No one ever wants to pay what needs to be paid to either (1) prevent these kids from coming into the system in the first place, or (2) deal with the consequences of them coming into care.
Things cost money. Preventative care would be cheaper, but Americans don’t believe in preventing harm.
Comment by Homebody Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:31 pm
Outsourcing = state agency incapable of doing the job.
Appointing political hacks to contract with connected firms has become a familiar refrain in state government, unfortunately.
Comment by Sir Reel Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:36 pm
Friendly Bob Adams: There are plenty of privately run, charitable, not for profit agencies in this state that could excel at providing services to this population. The state chooses not to fund them.
Comment by Papa2008 Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 12:58 pm
The governor says we should “go all in for kids in illinois.” I agree, but I think we should start by finally doing something about the despicable condition of the DCFS child welfare system in this state.
Comment by Rufus T. Firefly Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 1:12 pm
Privatization is not a bad thing if the vendor is held accountable. Metrics need to be in the contract and the government official responsible for overseeing the contract needs to ensure metrics are met or consequences for not doing so are doled out. I’ve seen too many government contracts that have don’t have the oversight needed.
Comment by Zoe Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 1:34 pm
I had the opportunity to visit a Head Start program yesterday. Amazing the work they are doing with parents to improve kids’ lives, so they do not go into the DCFS system. Maybe we should look at funding prevention, so we don’t end up with so many in foster care in the first place.
Comment by jimbo26 Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 1:45 pm
If the goal is to produce an adult who can function independently in society, DCFS has never done well. There are a few success stories. But the broad track record is poor.
Keeping children out of the system starts before they are born. We have to work with people before they become parents. I don’t see this happening.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 2:21 pm
I don’t see prevention being a success. What you’re really talking in a lot of these most serious cases are people choosing not to have children. The state can’t force that issue, it gets no say (for good reason). These (like at Choate) are not the cases of children being taken away because they’re poor.
I think if you look at school scores, you would see that foster care receivers have some of the lowest scores. Leads me to wonder if even the easy cases aren’t really thriving.
I’m with Friendly Bob, I’m against outsourcing as it opens up ugly religious entanglement issues. I’d rather see the house put it all inhouse AND properly fund it and oversee it, even if it involves offering pay higher than what people in other state departments get, just call it special skills and move on. And children need to be placed near where they are from, so no hiding them in Anna.
Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 2:33 pm
A society is judged by how it cares for those unable to care for themselves, in this case our most vulnerable children. We are failing miserably. It’s not that we can’t as a society do better, it’s that we don’t seem to have the will to do better and that is a disgrace.
Comment by Manchester Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 5:06 pm
As has been said here many times before: Governor’ own.
Why has JBP skated on this and other social services issues?
Comment by Joe Tuesday, Feb 14, 23 @ 9:07 pm