Oregon Governor Releases Child Welfare Report

Signs Legislation to Improve Child Protection Services; Report shows progress in improving the lives of children in state care; budgets this session and legislation signed today keep Oregon on the right path

June 25, 2007 -- Salem – Today at a bill signing ceremony for a package of legislation aimed to improve Oregon’s child welfare system, the Oregon Governor released a report from the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) that indicates that more children in Oregon exited the foster care system than entered in 2006, reversing a three-year trend and improving stability and permanency for Oregon’s children.

The report, called the “2006 Status of Children in Oregon’s Child Welfare System”, also showed that more than half of the children who were placed in foster care eventually were reunified with their families.

“I am personally committed to improving the life of every child in this state, particularly the lives of those in the state’s care,” said Gov. Ted Kulongoski. “This report paints a picture of what happens to some of our most vulnerable children. It tells us that, when it comes to providing supports for families so that they can be reunified with their children, we’re making progress – and that when reunification can’t happen, we’re doing a better job of moving children into permanent adoptive placements.”

DHS compiled data for the report from the state’s foster care, adoption and child protective services programs. DHS is the agency responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of the state’s abused and neglected children in the child welfare system.

The report shows that DHS received 60,746 reports of suspected abuse and neglect during 2006. Out of those reports, 12,043 children were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect. The most significant problems facing the families of those victims were drug and alcohol abuse, parental involvement with law enforcement, and domestic violence.

“A single victim of child abuse or neglect is one too many,” the Governor said. “Perhaps the most significant message this report highlights is the critical importance of preventing child abuse in the first place. I’m proud of the steps we’ve taken this legislative session to improve family stability so that ultimately we reduce the number of child abuse or neglect victims in the future.”

The Governor listed some of the progress made this session to prevent child abuse, including:

* Improvements to and expansion of child care supports for low-income working families;
* Expanded access to Oregon’s Pre-Kindergarten and Head Start programs;
* Expansion of affordable housing options for low-income families;
* Enhanced outpatient drug and alcohol treatment capacity for families at risk of entering, or already known to, the child welfare system;
* Improvements to Oregon’s TANF program, focusing on better outcomes for children and better employment opportunities for families;
* Improved access to Healthy Start, Oregon’s home-visitation program for first-birth families;
* Growing the number of Crisis Relief Nurseries and expanding access to the nine existing nurseries serving children and families identified as being at high-risk of abuse or neglect; and
* Improving and expanding behavioral health services for children and families across child-serving systems.

“The ultimate goal of Oregon’s child welfare system is to make it possible for the children in that system to live in safe, supportive and healthy environments where they can grow and thrive,” said Bruce Goldberg, M.D., DHS director. “The information in this report helps guide the work we do in child welfare and helps determine whether our efforts are effective.”

To improve the child welfare system, DHS has implemented a series of initiatives, including improving access to addiction treatment for families, improving school stability and strengthening connections to relatives for children in the foster care system, expanding caseworker access to law enforcement information, and implementing the new Oregon Child Safety Model designed to improve the safety of children receiving child protective services and improve the department’s ability to deliver consistent, best-practice child protective services to children and families throughout the state.

“We have invested a lot of time identifying best practices and procedures, including monthly caseworker face-to-face visits with children; increasing the timeliness of abuse assessments; and significantly decreasing the average length of time for a child to reach adoption,” said Goldberg. “We are committed to continuing to improve services to children and families in the child welfare system, and to working with all Oregonians to reduce the number of children in need of those services in the future.”

The Governor today also signed a series of legislation designed to improve the lives of children in the child welfare system, particularly those children in foster care. The bills resulted from a bipartisan effort under the leadership of Senator Kate Brown, Senator Jeff Kruse, Representative Mike Schaufler and Representative Wayne Krieger.
The legislation signed today strengthens DHS’s ability to keep children safe and help children in the foster care system thrive, and includes:

Senate Bill 408: This bill helps ensure stable placements for children in the child welfare system by requiring the Department of Human Services to develop a permanency plan for a child before filing a petition to terminate parental rights. Currently, the law directs DHS to simultaneously file a petition to terminate parental rights and identify, recruit, process and approve a qualified family for adoption if the child has been in substitute care under DHS responsibility for at least 15 of the past 22 months. This bill changes that, requiring the Department to plan for a child’s future, permanent placement before filing a petition to severe the parent/child relationship through termination.

Senate Bill 409: This bill helps enhance the well-being of children placed in foster care by making relatives a preferred placement whenever possible, specifically adding to current law relatives or persons who have a caregiver relationship as people with whom the court may direct DHS to place a child.

Senate Bill 410: This bill strengthens the partnership between the Legislature and the Department of Human Services by formalizing a process for review of specific cases to enhance services delivered to children and families in the child welfare system. Specifically, SB 410 establishes authority for the Director of Human Services, upon request of the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House, to convene a “sensitive review committee,” which will include at least one legislator from both chambers, to review department practice and policies in specific cases of abuse or neglect. DHS must report findings and conclusions from a sensitive review to the House Speaker and the Senate President within 180 days after receiving the request.

Senate Bill 412: This bill requires the Department of Human Services to notify a child’s attorney, child’s court-appointed special advocate (CASA), parent, and parent’s attorney when a report of child abuse involves a child in foster care. Currently, there is no legal requirement that these parties be notified of such reports.

Senate Bill 413: This bill strengthens communication between DHS and the Legislature by requiring the Department of Human Services to report to the Legislature before September 30 of even numbered years regarding the children in the state’s child welfare system. Building on the Department’s current “Status of Children in the Child Welfare System” report, the bill requires DHS to officially report to legislative interim committees dealing with child welfare matters on specific information relating to the number of placements for children in foster care and the Department’s efforts to place children in foster care with their siblings and relatives.

The full 2006 Status of Children in Oregon’s Child Welfare System report can be found at http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/abuse/publications/children/index.shtml.

Source: Oregon Governor