[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 111 (Thursday, September 5, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1501-E1502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CONTINUING CRISIS IN FOSTER CARE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 4, 2002

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago Los 
Angeles County's foster care system was sued by advocates for children 
alleging that negligence, mismanagement, and abuse and neglect of 
children are routinely committed by that agency. More specifically, the 
suit charged that many thousands of foster care children with 
behavioral, emotional, and psychiatric impairments desperately need, 
but are not being provided, medically necessary mental health, 
behavioral support, and case management services, as required by 
federal law.
  When that lawsuit was filed on July 18th, I pointed out to Members of 
Congress that the allegations described in the lawsuit were not unique 
to California. States across the country are failing children in foster 
care. Since that time, officials in the District of Columbia have 
confirmed that several foster care boys were sexually abused at various 
group home facilities, including one for mentally retarded foster 
children. Florida's Department of Children and Families acknowledged 
that in addition to its inability to account for some 532 foster care 
children, children have been placed in motels due to shortage of foster 
homes.
  In the following article in the August 22nd Washington Post, an audit 
of Maryland's child welfare system reveals that the state has lost 
track of some foster care children for months and failed to ensure 
proper health care. In one case, a child spent 10 months in the care of 
a foster parent whose criminal record included two sex offenses and an 
assault charge. Just as in Los Angeles, the Maryland audit also 
revealed that foster care children were routinely denied basic health 
care, including doctor's visits, dental checkups, and psychiatric 
treatment.
  We cannot continue to spend billions of dollars on a system that does 
not provide what children need to thrive, or in some cases, even to 
survive. The government must require greater accountability to ensure 
the health and safety of every child in its custody.
  The article follows:

              [From the Washington Post, August 22, 2002]

Audit Finds Lapses in Maryland Child Care--;Contact Lost With Children; 
                        One Placed With Offender

                           (By Matthew Mosk)

       The Maryland state agency responsible for 12,000 orphaned, 
     abused and neglected children has lost track of some children 
     for months, failed to ensure proper health care and, in at 
     least one case, entrusted a foster child to a sexual 
     offender, a comprehensive review by the state's Office of 
     Legislative Audits has concluded.
       The review reported ``significant concerns'' about 
     Maryland's Social Services Administration and found numerous 
     instances of neglect on the part of the state's social 
     workers. In nearly half of 163 cases randomly chosen for 
     inspection, caseworker's files showed that they had lost 
     contact with the children and their caregivers for anywhere 
     from two to 16 months.
       Child advocates said that particular finding was an 
     unsettling reminder of the case of a 5-year-old Miami girl 
     who was missing for 15 months before caseworkers discovered 
     that she was gone.
       ``The degree to which we are at risk of repeating [the 
     Florida tragedy] is unconscionable,'' said James P. McComb, 
     executive director of the Maryland Association of Resources 
     for Families and Youth, which made up of agencies that serve 
     children.
       Maryland's troubles are also a reminder of similar woes in 
     the District, where the child protection system has long been 
     considered one of the most dysfunctional in the nation.
       The Maryland audit included other, equally disturbing 
     findings pertaining to the agency's ability to keep tabs on 
     the people entrusted with children's safety and well-being. 
     At one point, in the midst of conducting the review, the 
     audit team discovered that a child had spent 10 months in the 
     care of a foster parent whose criminal record includes two 
     sex offenses and an assault charge. After being notified by 
     auditors, social workers moved the child.
       The case was later revealed to be part of a broader 
     problem: Files contained no evidence of mandated criminal 
     background checks for caregivers in 45 percent of the cases 
     the audit team reviewed.
       Lapses on the part of social workers also extended to the 
     medical care that was supposed to be provided to children. 
     Basic health care, including doctors' visits and psychiatric 
     treatment, appeared to have been neglected in one-third of 
     the cases the auditors reviewed, and there was no evidence of 
     dental checkups in the files of 68 percent of the children.
       Moreover, there was no sign that 35 percent of the children 
     in state custody were attending school.
       In a written response to the audit, Maryland Secretary of 
     Human Resources Emelda P. Johnson pledged improvement and 
     said local social services departments have been informed of 
     the findings. Asked yesterday about the findings in a 
     telephone interview, state social services officials blamed 
     paper-work problems for many of the shortcomings.
       ``The issue here is documentation, not whether something 
     actually happened but whether it was in the folder,'' said 
     Linda E. Mouzon, executive director of the Social Services 
     Administration.
       The audit, however, concludes that the problem not only 
     involves documentation but also ``raises significant 
     questions about the actual monitoring and delivery of 
     critical services.''
       Several of the attorneys charged with representing the 
     children's interests in court agreed that the shortcomings 
     are not merely bureaucratic snags.
       ``There's no excuse for children in the state's care to be 
     living in the same condition that prompted them to be removed 
     from their homes in the first place, but that's what we're 
     seeing,'' said Joan Little, who heads the child advocacy unit 
     of the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore, which handles more than 
     5,000 of the children's legal cases each year.
       Little said she has personally witnessed cases involving 
     children whom the state agency mistakenly placed in the homes 
     of criminal sex offenders and who then became

[[Page E1502]]

     victims of sexual abuse. Though she refused to discuss the 
     specifics of those cases, she said they were heartbreakingly 
     real.
       ``This is a significant and very real problem, and it's 
     outrageous,'' she said.
       Child welfare attorney Jessica Rae had several examples of 
     her own. She recalled checking up on a 4-year-old in state 
     custody recently and being asked a chilling question by his 
     foster mother.
       ``The woman said to me, `How would anyone know that I don't 
     have him locked in the basement?` ''
       ``It was a very disturbing thing to hear,'' Rae said, 
     because she knew the answer: No one would know. The state 
     social worker assigned to check monthly on the boy had not 
     been in touch for nearly six months.
       Advocates said that even routine responsibilities, such as 
     ensuring that children see dentists, have clearly been 
     neglected. ``Kids come in here and their teeth are totally 
     brown,'' Little said. ``You don't need an expert to tell you 
     they're not getting care.''
       Mitchell Mirviss, a Baltimore lawyer who argued a landmark 
     case on child welfare in Maryland 13 years ago, said 
     deficiencies such as the ones described in the audit have not 
     been as profoundly documented in more than a decade.
       ``You're seeing results that are very alarming,'' he said. 
     ``It's a strong confirmation of what the attorneys who 
     represent these kids in juvenile court have been saying. The 
     problems are serious and endemic.''
       Mouzon said advocates are exaggerating the problem. 
     ``Everybody knows of one or two cases where something went 
     wrong. I'm not going to say that's not true,'' she said. 
     ``But I would believe that the majority of our children are 
     safe and are getting the best service possible.''
       Though there are plans in place to improve the system--
     ;such as an initiative to give social workers hand-held 
     computers that allow them to better document their visits 
     with children--;Mouzon said no action has come as a direct 
     result of the auditors` findings.
       That response surprised many of the advocates, who began 
     circulating copies of the audit in July; it was released in 
     May. Sharon Rubenstein, communications director at Advocates 
     for Children and Youth, said that when she began reading it, 
     her jaw dropped.
       ``It made me wonder, how can we rest assured that the kids 
     in our system are safe?'' she said. ``I don't think that the 
     audit should leave us sleeping well at night.''

     

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