Grand Jury Criticizes Group Home Oversight

The county Department of Children and Family Services still needs to improve its monitoring of group homes where nearly 3,000 foster children are living, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury said in its annual report on government operations Thursday.

Following up on an investigation that led to a scathing attack on the department a year ago, the grand jury found that county social workers do not conduct enough face-to-face visits with children in group homes, that illegal activities at some homes are not being reported promptly to law enforcement authorities and that the department is slow in processing audit reports on the homes.

The grand jury also found that the department’s financial records were at odds with data compiled by the county auditor-controller, making it difficult to determine whether group homes are receiving overpayments.

Genevra Gilden, chief of quality assurance for the department, said many of the grand jury’s criticisms are being addressed. In addition, she said, the department has implemented new contracts with all group homes that establish higher standards of care and fiscal accounting.

There are more than 450 licensed group homes in the county. They function as small orphanages with as few as six residents. Proprietors receive $14,000 to $60,000 a year for each child.

In recent years, the department’s care of foster children has come under heavy attack from children’s rights organizations, the media and government watchdog agencies.

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The grand jury charged in its annual report last year that many children in group homes were physically abused or drugged excessively and received inadequate food, clothing, education and counseling. The report issued Thursday mentioned no such abuses.

Although the grand jury found that the department had implemented many of last year’s recommendations, it said that other recommendations were not being carried out and it identified some new problem areas.

Particularly disturbing, it said, is the department’s failure to comply with critically important state regulations governing how often social workers must meet face to face with foster children living in group homes.

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An analysis of 100 case files selected at random showed that out of 564 required visits, 18% were not made.

Many social workers complain that they are unable to make the required number of visits because their caseloads are too large.

The Department of Children and Family Services operates with a $988-million annual budget, of which $175 million is earmarked for the care of foster children assigned to group homes.

Reviewing other local government activities, the grand jury criticized physical and health conditions at the Compton city jail, urged adoption of a less costly worker’s compensation program for county employees, called for a massive public education program to reduce nonemergency use of the 911 system and proposed a redesign of voter registration forms to give more prominence to the facts that voters must be U.S. citizens, at least 18 years old, residents of Los Angeles County and not imprisoned or on parole for a felony.