County Strikes Back on Foster Children Charges

The director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services accused state officials Thursday of trying to protect themselves from lawsuits by blaming the county for failing to protect foster children from abuse.

Robert Chaffee contended that state social services officials had made “wild, generalized charges” in a letter quoted in Thursday’s Times that accused county children’s services officials of repeatedly failing to promptly report deaths, abuse and overcrowded conditions in foster homes to state officials so that the homes could be shut down.

Chaffee told reporters that he suspected officials of the state Department of Social Services of using the letter to try to distance themselves from pending legal action against the county that alleges that social workers have been negligent in visiting and protecting foster children.

“I think they are trying to protect the legal position of the state regarding liability,” said Chaffee.

Larry Bolton, assistant chief counsel for the state Department of Social Services, denied that his department’s criticism of county officials was a diversionary legal tactic.

“Certainly we don’t want to be sued successfully,” he said. “(But) everything we do is to protect kids. And if we’re doing that, hopefully we won’t be sued successfully.”

Linda McMahon, director of state social services, sent the scathing letter to Chaffee last month accusing county officials of “typically” waiting six months to a year before reporting dangerous conditions in foster homes to state officials who are responsible for taking legal action to revoke the licenses of such homes. The letter also indicated that because of the alleged poor performance of the county children’s services department, state officials were considering terminating the $3.3-million-per-year contract that gives the county authority to license and monitor 3,800 foster homes housing more than 10,000 children.

“The state certainly can take it back, if it will give us 90 days notice,” Chaffee said of the licensing duties. But he added, “To keep it local and to keep it running properly . . . we should control it.”

Fred Miller, state deputy director of community care licensing, said Thursday that state officials have a contingency plan to take over the licensing and monitoring from the county.

“Given everything that’s going on right now,” said Miller, “if I had to name a thing that is most likely it would be termination of the contract.” Chaffee discussed the state-county dispute with reporters in the hallway outside the county Board of Supervisors hearing room where Supervisor Michael Antonovich was conducting a symposium on ways to improve foster care and adoption procedures.

Chaffee cited possible future law suits in refusing to respond to state allegations that county authorities had failed to act promptly last year when 10 children were found sleeping on the floor of a garage in a foster home and again when 20 infants were found in 10 cribs in another home licensed for only four children.

“A lot of these cases are enormously complicated,” he said, and contended that the instances cited by the state were few in comparison to the huge number of cases handled by his department.

“Accidents do happen in this system,” he said. “My position is that these are not illustrative of the whole system.”

McMahon’s letter criticizing county officials is the latest episode in a simmering dispute between state and county social service officials.

The county Department of Children’s Services is being sued by several public-interest law firms in an attempt to require social workers to visit foster children at least once a month as required by state regulations. The state Department of Social Services was included as a defendant in the case on a motion by the county, but state lawyers filed a document in the case last April alleging that the county had, indeed, failed to meet visitation regulations.