New panel to reform foster-care system

By Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The five-member panel is responsible for finding ways to reform a system that — with 8,000 foster children on any given day — has struggled to provide children stable homes and keep siblings together.

The panel was created by the July settlement in a class-action lawsuit that charged that foster children were being psychologically scarred by outdated practices. Rather than go to trial this fall, the state Department of Social and Health Services agreed to a reform plan that is expected to cost up to $50 million.

The panel's chairman, John Landsverk, is a psychologist and researcher in San Diego who has researched the "multiple placement" of foster children. Another member of the panel, Jess McDonald, was involved with a similar court-ordered settlement while running Illinois' child-welfare department.

The panel also includes experts on two other problems facing Washington's foster-care system. Jan McCarthy, of Georgetown University, is an expert on children's mental-health care. Dorothy Roberts, a law professor at Northwestern University, has written extensively on the disproportionate numbers of minority children in foster care.

The final member is former state Sen. Jeanine Long, a Republican who chaired a Senate committee on human services.

The panel is expected to convene within a month and to meet three days per month for the next year. Its first tasks will be focused on problems in the state's children's mental-care system and services for troubled adolescents.

Over the next year, the panel is supposed to come up with specific benchmarks for, among other things, how often caseworkers must make face-to-face visits with foster children.

Casey Trupin, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said foster children "can no longer have services that fall way below the professional standard. That will be a radical change."

If the panel finds that DSHS is failing to meet the benchmarks, the lawsuit can be reactivated and a judge could order changes. That probably won't be necessary, said Ross Dawson, deputy director of DSHS' child-welfare wing.

The panel members will be reimbursed for their time and travel costs, and will hire a staff member. At DSHS' request, the nonprofit Casey Family Programs will help cover those costs.
 
The panel is supposed to meet publicly and comply with state open-records laws.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com