Oklahoma foster system in "severe disarray," lawsuit claims
BY RANDY ELLIS
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17
Published: December 4, 2008
TULSA — Nine Oklahoma foster children were bounced around among 176 primary caseworkers because of “severe disarray” within DHS, attorneys said in documents filed Thursday in Tulsa federal court.
The state Department of Human Services also had 125 secondary workers and 190 supervisors overseeing care of those children, documents reveal.
“These staggering numbers reflect severe disarray in the basic oversight of children in state custody,” the children’s attorneys stated.
DHS spokesman
George Johnson said Thursday he had not seen the court filings and could not comment.
The disclosures came in an ongoing federal lawsuit filed by attorneys associated with Children’s Rights, a
New York-based child advocacy organization.
The attorneys currently represent nine children, but are seeking class action status to represent all children in DHS custody. The attorneys claim DHS has violated the children’s federal constitutional rights by failing to give them proper care and treatment and failing to provide them with safe and adequate living conditions. There are currently about 7,230 Oklahoma children in foster care.
The children’s attorneys have been battling DHS for e-mails by the current and past caseworkers and supervisors assigned to the nine children they represent.
Attorneys for the children claim DHS attorneys have been stonewalling them for months and now want them to pay costs of retrieving the e-mails. The children’s attorneys want DHS to pay.
DHS has provided them with access to some e-mails from their clients’ current caseworkers.
In one May 2007 e-mail, a caseworker said a child’s foster home placement was “doomed ... from the start because of all the family friction, problems, etc.”
In another e-mail, dated September 2007, a caseworker says a foster child was bounced around for weeks among three different shelters “because we have a shortage of foster home resources and had no opening to offer him.”
An adoption request was held up for six months because some paperwork was missing and the case was passed around while an employee was on extended leave, an April 2008 e-mail from a DHS supervisor revealed.
In other e-mails, workers complained about being “very understaffed” and “very overworked,” and having to visit 10 homes in a single day.
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DHS is run. My son-in-laws nieces were abused sexually and lived in filth. My daughter and her husband took these children and made them a part of their family. DHS harrassed them from day one. The younger one was five and had been in 4 foster homes before they were allowed to come to my daughters house. My daughter's family was treated like they were the evil ones. My daughter spent $7,000 out of her own pocket on dental bills for these children. They could never get DHS to understand that these children were in pain. These children came to them with no clothes, and a huge bag of candy. They were given vouchers for clothes and Walmart said they could not honor them because DHS had not paid them. DHS said go to Dillards. Dillards said no, DHS had not paid them. DHS said wait a couple of weeks. My daughter just bought the clothes so the children could go to school. The younger one was sent to a private Christian School at my son'in-laws expense so she could catch up with her age group. After all living 6 places in 4 months is not exactly the way a child keeps up in school. Fortunately my son-in-law and daughter are able to afford this but, what about the relatives and foster families that can't? After 9 months these children were placed back with the father. They are 13 and 15 now. They have been taken away from him more times than I can count. We have reported them to DHS so many times I can't count that either. They are always returned to the father, the mother gave up custody a long time ago. The live in filth,they have lice, the father does not work, the 13 year old sleeps in the bed with the father. GRRRRRRR!!! this just makes me want to scream. What the H**l is the mattter with this system? The danged social worker left her own 2 year old in the car with the motor running when she came to do an evaluation.
Being foster parents, we have been challenged, discriminated against (by the "good" people of Okla), threatened by birth-families, accused falsely. But everytime they come to get the kids, we cry after they leave. Our state legislator knows us well because we continually remind him of the foster care crisis.
More caseworkers, more foster families. Great to hear how Mollie passed the checks.....too bad you couldn't get your grandkids but there's alot of other foster kids that would love a have a home like yours.