Foster Care: Basics First

The Los Angeles County agency charged with protecting endangered children has a good idea--a community-based care system that would keep many foster children in their own neighborhoods, so their removal from abusive parents wouldn’t also tear them away from teachers, ministers, coaches and friends. The problem is that although the Department of Children and Family Services and its director, Peter Digre, are full of good ideas, in practice the county is plagued by lapses in its care of children in foster homes and institutions.

The latest evidence is new audits of the department and of the children’s services unit in the L.A. County counsel’s office, which represents social workers in foster care cases. Both audits found depressed morale, largely caused by “dangerously high caseloads” of deeply troubled families.

Similar problems afflict Orange County, which was sued earlier this year for the overcrowding at its only children’s shelter, and Ventura County, whose children’s shelter was found so deficient last year that the state recommended revoking its license. All three counties have come under particular criticism for shrouding the decisions of their social workers in secrecy. Last week in Los Angeles, for instance, county lawyers tried to seal the lawsuit of Rafael Lopez, who accused county social workers of contributing to the deaths of his two children by placing them in the custody of his emotionally disturbed wife, who killed them soon afterward.

Overruling its own lawyers, the county Board of Supervisors rightly supported unsealing the lawsuit. That issue is now up to the courts, but the supervisors can take other actions to reduce secrecy. The mistakes that destroy children’s lives must not be hidden.

The supervisors should require public disclosure of findings by their two foster care watchdogs: the supervisor-appointed inspector general and the county’s Interagency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, known as ICAN. Supervisors should also examine the management of the children’s agency and find ways to make it less authoritarian, which could improve caseworker morale.

The Legislature also has a role. Watchdogs like ICAN are often hindered by confidentiality restrictions. Such restrictions would have been lifted by a bill introduced last year by Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach). Karnette’s bill was vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson after county foster care agencies objected; it deserves another chance.

California should also consider what’s happening in Michigan, which a decade ago pioneered the radical notion of making child custody hearings public. Several other states have since taken similar steps toward greater public access.

Advocates of private hearings contend that allowing publicity would result in irreparable harm to juveniles, such as limiting their future educational and job opportunities. Michigan officials, however, say most of their worries about throwing open the doors never materialized. Meanwhile, many of their hopes have: More children are removed more quickly from dangerous homes, more social workers have been hired and the public has a better understanding of the pressures both social workers and families face.

Ideas like keeping foster children in their neighborhoods won’t help if they aren’t kept safe from old dangers--everything from an abusive parent to the lure of drugs and old pals in gangs. So in making their reforms, Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties should establish that they can fulfill their basic mandate to protect children from abusive situations.