State misses foster-care goals

An independent panel of national experts found the state failed to meet two-thirds of its goals in a landmark effort to improve foster care, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report, authored by an oversight group known as the Braam Panel, is the first indication of the state's commitment to dramatically overhaul the way it deals with foster children.

The Department of Social and Health Services had agreed in 2004 to make dozens of changes in response to a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of foster children.

The five-member panel will continue to monitor DSHS for five more years. But advocates for foster children say its initial report — which found DSHS completed only 13 of 45 promised steps — doesn't bode well for the highly anticipated improvement plan.

"It shows the department needs to put a lot more focus into this and treat this with a lot more urgency," said Casey Trupin, a lawyer for the foster children. "When somebody fails to meet 32 of 45 action steps, it's not a good sign."

DSHS, however, believes the report did not accurately reflect its progress. Cheryl Stephani, the DSHS assistant secretary for the Children's Administration, said that part of the problem was the way the panel made its assessments. For example, some of the agreed-upon steps had several subcomponents, and if some but not all were completed, the panel deemed that DSHS had failed to meet its goals.

In addition, Stephani said that in some cases, an old computer system prevented the department from providing documentation for some of the steps it had completed.

"I think the important point to know is we are working hard; we want to be succeed in this," she said.

In particular, the panel found continued problems in the state's plan to keep foster children in as few homes as possible. The problem of children pinballing among foster homes was the impetus for the Braam lawsuit — its namesake, Jessica Braam, was in 34 different homes.

One critical requirement — high-level reviews of children with four or more foster-care placements — was marked as "incomplete" because the panel did not accept the plan DSHS had provided. In some cases, Trupin said, DSHS had submitted a "plan to plan," rather than a well-thought-out agenda to meet its goals.

Gov. Christine Gregoire put child safety as her first priority for the child-welfare system, and the panel found that DSHS did meet several goals related to that. Social workers were having face-to-face meetings within the first week that a child was put in foster care, and were also seeing children within 24 hours of reported abuse.

Still, there were problems, according to the panel. Social workers have not been seeing each foster child every 30 days, a policy that Gregoire implemented within months of taking office.

Social workers also appeared to be struggling with new requirements to keep siblings together. Six of seven policies required by the Braam settlement were found to be "incomplete."

Stephani said that some of shortcomings were caused by a lack of resources, but that they'll be getting additional staff over the next year.

The state has six months to come up with a plan to address its shortcomings. If it fails, attorneys for foster children may take DSHS back to court.

"We think this will be a critical period," Trupin said. "They can certainly show their level of commitment over the next six months."

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562