DHS faces scrutiny over care
DHS faces scrutiny over care
By Randy Ellis and Nolan Clay
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51
Published: February 14, 2008
TULSA — During her first 11 months of life, a Tulsa County girl in DHS care allegedly suffered a fractured skull, seizures and severe dehydration while being bounced around 17 foster homes, emergency shelters and a group home.
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Calling the treatment of this infant and other
Oklahoma children in state care a "disgrace,” a national child advocacy group Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit in Tulsa.
The civil rights lawsuit requests that a federal judge step in and order reforms to Oklahoma's child welfare system.
"Oklahoma has long maintained one of the most dangerous and badly mismanaged child welfare systems in the nation, and thousands of children have suffered under nightmarish conditions for years as a result,” said
Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children's Rights.
"It is disgraceful that we have to seek a federal court order to force the state to begin fixing problems that it should have addressed many years ago. But it is clear that this is the only way to protect Oklahoma's abused and neglected children — and that is what this lawsuit is about,” Lowry said.
DHS issued a statement in response to the lawsuit.
"All states are at different places in their respective strengths and challenges and all can be improved,” DHS said. "The department looks forward to showing the strengths of Oklahoma's system and improving it where appropriate.”
Children's Rights is a
New York-based child advocacy organization.
Four Oklahoma law firms and one international firm joined Children's Rights Wednesday in filing the lawsuit on behalf of nine children who allegedly have been physically and psychologically damaged by Oklahoma's foster care system.
Gov. Brad Henry and
Oklahoma Department of Human Services officials are named as defendants.
Children's Rights attorneys are asking a judge to declare the lawsuit a class action so they can represent more than 10,000 children in DHS custody in seeking court-ordered reforms for their benefit.
Children's Rights has successfully used class-action lawsuits in the past to force changes in child-welfare systems in about a dozen other states.
DHS indicated in its statement that it would oppose federal intervention and the granting of class-action status.
"Duplicating the efforts of state courts with federal court intervention seems unnecessary,” DHS said. "The department hopes the federal court will realize that every case involving a child in the custody of the state of Oklahoma is unique and is judicially supervised by a state judge.”
Children's Rights, however, contends the failure of DHS to protect children in its care has been well-documented for more than 10 years and the agency has neglected to fix the problems.
In two of the last five years, Oklahoma had the worst rate in the nation of children being abused while in foster care, the lawsuit states.
"This includes physical abuse, sexual abuse or extreme neglect inflicted on foster children by foster parents or staff at shelters or other facilities,” the lawsuit said.
Oklahoma also has a bad record of splitting up siblings in foster homes and psychologically damaging children by bouncing them around from one foster home or shelter to another, the lawsuit states.
"Recent state data shows that 34 percent of foster children in Oklahoma had experienced four or more placements and 17 percent — approximately 1,700 children — had experienced six or more placements while in DHS custody,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit blames excessive caseloads and the rapid turnover of child welfare workers for part of the agency's problems.
National standards limit caseloads to 12 to 15 children per caseworker, but DHS "routinely assigns its employees more than 50 children each, and some carry caseloads of more than 100 children,” the lawsuit said.
While DHS policy calls for caseworkers to visit children in foster homes at least once a month, they "routinely fail to visit children in foster placements for as long as six months at a time,” the lawsuit states.
Children are jammed into overcrowded shelters because there is a shortage of foster homes, the lawsuit contends.
One reason there are so few foster parents is because they are underpaid, the lawsuit said.
An Oklahoma foster parent is paid less than $12 a day. That needs to be increased by more than 50 percent to cover the real costs of raising a child, the lawsuit said.
Because of the foster home shortage, "DHS utilizes foster homes that jeopardize the safety of children, including homes with adults who have criminal convictions, homes that are dirty, overcrowded or lack adequate food, and homes in which supervision is dangerously lacking,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit cited horrific cases in which children have been killed or severely injured while in state custody to bolster its argument that court intervention is necessary.
One case involved the death of a 3-year-old boy and an alleged cover-up by DHS.
In March 2007, 3-year-old
Blake Ragsdale died in DHS custody after the agency unlawfully placed him back with his biological mother without a required court order approving the move, the lawsuit said.
Blake was born addicted to methamphetamine and had cerebral palsy and a rare metabolic problem that was fatal if not treated. DHS placed him back with the biological mother even though she had not completed her treatment plan, was unemployed, had no home phone or car and was not equipped to deal with his special needs, according to the lawsuit.
When he died, DHS failed in its duty to report the death to the
Child Death Review Board or judge in the case, the lawsuit states.
"DHS then tried to hide its mistakes by removing vital information from the final DHS report to the district attorney on Blake's death,” the lawsuit said. "Although contained in a draft report, the final version of the report omitted all text stating that there had been no court-approved trial home reunification. In addition, no one at DHS has been held accountable for Blake's death. The DHS caseworker in charge of Blake's case now works for DHS in another county.”
In its response, DHS contends it is not getting credit for good things it has done.
The agency says its shortage of foster parents is partially due to its success in getting foster children adopted.
"Oklahoma is consistently adopting record numbers of children out of foster care. Last year, a record 1,579 children were authorized for adoption,” the agency said. "Many foster children are adopted by their foster parents. This requires the recruitment and training of new foster families.”
DHS also emphasized its success in getting children out of foster care quickly.
The average length of stay for children in Oklahoma foster care was 21.2 months in 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, DHS said. That is seven months less than the national average of 28.8 months.
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the DHS. I have an have seen Lies on top of lies from the case workers to Hendricks & the Govenor refusees
to help. I have contacted many People re: our Case
with my G'kids. This criminal activity by DHS is going to have far reaching effects in the future of our innocent Children. Open your eyes!! people this is nothing but Legal Child Stealing. I for one lift my Prayers & Thanks to Randy Ellis & Nolan Clay for thier help in repoting the truth. May God bless you both. On behalf of our Kids. Dee
I really believe that my grandson would be alive if they were doing their duty. They were call to check on his care in his own homecare, and they do not follow through. I have seen them prosecute people with false reports and the ones they have proof of,on abuse they turn their heads. There as been numberous reports on the care of the children for a number of years and they always turn thier heads.
They call ahead and tell them they are coming so they can know and correct the problems that they have been turned in on, then as soon as they leave the the problem goes back to how it was.
These problems are in homecare not just state facilities.
The whole State of Oklahoma should be overhauled...
I can tell you that when you are inside the system & you do the type of work concerned did, you have to go through "proper channels" or you can be crushed by the corrupt administrators. I saw it over & over again. These souless fiends can actually press criminal charges for going public with specific information. So, until you know what you are talking about, try to see both sides of the issue before rushing to make accusations.
Children's Rights is a last resort when a state will not fix the problems. They did not barge in here just to take over the system, they were contacted and invited by concerned citizens. They are here to help the children that should have been protected by the state of Oklahoma. I for one feel shame when I hear Oklahoma ranks number one in child abuse and neglect in our country.
kjbriggs, meeker
www.kelseyspurpose.org
We've been screaming for changes and accountability for a long time, someone finally heard our cries and have come forward to help us fix stuff. Please let them offer thier help, they are standing outside this mess and can see things more clearly than those who are in the middle of it all.
To Gov Henry and Howard Hendricks...if your intentions were truly for the best interests of Oklahoma children then why can't the two of you see that something is terribly wrong in our state and want to work WITH others to fix it??? By opposing this lawsuit it's painfully clear that your interests lie anywhere but what's best for our children. It's time to let someone step in and get things changed for our kids benefits, they are the victims in all this and they deserve the best life has to offer and being shoved from one bad home to another and having noone who cares isn't good enough. If you can't do your job step down and let someone else do it.