Countywide : ORANGE : Foster Parents Warn Against Accusations

A group of local foster parents voiced concern Wednesday that accusations of abusive behavior by staff at the Orangewood Children’s Home will discourage volunteers and worsen what is already a severe shortage of foster families.

“We need foster homes badly,” said Cherri Olson, a Fountain Valley foster mother and member of the County Foster Care Advisory Board. “Many lay people who are interested in becoming foster parents and believe they will have to deal with an agency that won’t respond to their concerns will decide not to have anything to do with it.”

Orangewood, the county’s shelter for abused, neglected and abandoned children, is being investigated by the County Juvenile Justice Commission and the grand jury over allegations that children have been physically, mentally and verbally mistreated there.

Orangewood officials say the allegations are unfounded.

Most of the children who are taken into protective custody spend some time at Orangewood before being placed with foster families. Olson said that the foster parents she has spoken to dismiss allegations of mistreatment.

There are about 600 licensed foster parents in the county but more than 2,600 children in protective custody.

“I feel any negative publicity that affects the dependency system often has a deleterious effect on recruitment,” said Barbara Labitzke, foster home development coordinator for the county and executive director of the Southern Area Fostercare Effort, which coordinates foster care in an eight-county region.

Several foster parents rallied to the defense of Orangewood in a letter to local media.

“We feel that (Orangewood) ranks with the very best programs and facilities nationwide,” stated the letter signed by 17 foster parents.

The foster parents also questioned the motives and conduct of Dorothy Moore, the Newport Beach woman who first leveled charges of mistreatment.

The investigations came after Moore, a legal secretary who became a foster parent in January, befriended two homeless children and had them placed in Orangewood when their parents allegedly abandoned them. Moore said the children told her that they and other children were harshly treated.

Two former counselors at Orangewood--one of whom was fired after disagreements over how to handle the children--later came forward to support Moore’s charges.

Foster parent Olson, who learned of the allegations as a member of the Foster Care Advisory Board, said that social service officials “leaned over backwards” to verify Moore’s complaints, but found no wrongdoing. She said that Moore’s persistence has not only damaged Orangewood’s reputation but also some foster parents’ trust in the system.

Moore, responding to the foster parents Wednesday, however, said her concerns have nothing to do with them.

“My complaint is with the administrators at Orangewood and how children are treated there,” she said. “I think there are many good people out there who will still want to come forward and care for children, that’s what it’s all about.”