$156 Million for Foster Care Goes Unclaimed

At a time when budget cutbacks are crippling services for abused and neglected children, state officials have failed over the last three years to claim an estimated $156 million in federal money for foster care, according to a report to be released today by the state auditor general.

A summary of the auditor’s report, which focused primarily on foster care in Los Angeles County, was made public Tuesday by state Sen. Charles M. Calderon, who requested the examination 18 months ago. The Whittier Democrat, who is running for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said the study reflected a foster care system that is “in chaos.”

For the most part, the report confirmed the results of an earlier audit that prompted a state-ordered overhaul of the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services. However, it also found that the state had failed to take advantage of a 3-year-old federal rule that allows California additional money for its foster care programs.

The state faces a $55-million cutback in its child welfare budget this year. At a news conference at MacLaren Children’s Center, Calderon said: “How can we continue to face the people in this state, the people in this county and ask them to help us raise the revenues that we need when . . . we can’t even tell them that we’re exhausting all other possible sources of revenue?”

State officials said Tuesday that they have since applied for the $156 million cited in the report, and expect to receive at least $80 million of it. But they also said that the money is not as simple to obtain as Calderon implied.

The state has been working for the last three years to change its record-keeping system so that it would be able to prove to the federal government that it is eligible for the money, according to Bob Garcia, deputy director of administration for the state Department of Social Services.

“We’ve done everything we can to claim as much federal money as we can,” Garcia said. “In this particular case, it did take us a long time to find a way to change our system to get these funds and not jeopardize the funds that we were already getting.”

The report also discussed several issues that have received extensive public attention during the last six months. It found that county foster homes are being overloaded with too many children and that social workers routinely fail to make required monthly visits to the children they supervise.

In addition, the report criticized the state Department of Social Services for failing to adequately monitor the county. However, in recent months, state officials have taken over the county’s job of licensing foster homes and have ordered a major reorganization of the county Department of Children’s Services.