Clouds Over Foster Child System

Los Angeles County supervisors are still struggling for a precise explanation of why foster caretakers for more than 8,000 children did not receive payments they were due in June. About $4.6 million in so-called supplemental checks, averaging $500, were withheld for a period ranging from days to three weeks. Supplemental checks are issued in addition to regular foster care stipends when children require special attention for medical or behavioral difficulties.

The county’s child welfare director, Peter Digre, has insisted that the payments were delayed in order to correct a computer software problem that was causing overpayments. If that was the case, then why was Cris Jensen, who oversees the operation of the state’s computerized child welfare system caseload, told by Los Angeles County officials that the June payment delays had “nothing to do” with computer problems?

Now, the county’s auditor-controller is investigating several matters and plans to make a detailed report Oct. 13. One of those matters is whether the payments were deliberately withheld to help offset an unexpected budget deficit.

It’s not enough for child welfare officials to say that they received few complaints about the delays, which is supposed to mean that this was not a significant incident. Was any effort made to warn the foster families that delays were about to occur? If not, why?

Here’s another question that ought to be answered in the auditor-controller’s report or by other inquiries: Why have the county’s projections on its share of child welfare assistance payments been so wildly out of line, rising to $32 million from an initial estimate of $18 million?

And finally, the supervisors need to know a lot more about the “horrendous” and “systematic” computer system problems described by Marilyn Brown, budget director for the Department of Children and Family Services, such as other problems that have resulted in shorter payment delays. Payments to foster care families are too important for there to be any such delays in the future.