2 Supervisors Call for Panel to Scrutinize Foster Care

Two supervisors Tuesday called for a blue-ribbon commission to review Los Angeles County’s foster care system after a spate of child deaths and injuries.

“I know when we look at it, some foster agencies are going to scream, but we can’t tolerate this amount of deaths,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. “This is horrible. This is 19th century. This is 13th century.”

Three children have died in county foster care over the past three months, and two of them were being supervised by a private foster care agency that has links to the county’s child welfare agency. It was founded by a county employee while he was on leave from the Department of Children and Family Services, and is now run by two other former department administrators.

Two of the dead children’s families have said they complained to social workers that the youths were being abused, but to no avail. Now, two foster parents are charged in the children’s deaths.

Yaroslavsky said financial connections between the county and private foster agencies that receive millions in public funds must be probed in the review.

“The foster care system seems to put more of a premium on the economics of foster care than the safety of the kids,” he said.

The full board next week is expected to formally approve the proposal by Yaroslavsky and Supervisor Mike Antonovich to create a commission consisting of representatives from the many agencies and organizations involved in foster care.

It would look to develop a system for tracking complaints at foster homes, review the existing system for monitoring such homes and recommend further improvements, including a possible strengthening of the state’s role in overseeing foster care.

The task force would issue a report within the next four months, before the expected arrival of a new director of the Department of Children and Family Services.

“For too long the state of California has been negligent and the department has also been insensitive in meeting the needs of the children in group homes and foster family agencies,” Antonovich said in an interview. The task force “will bring accountability and sensitivity” to the process.

The task force will add to the turbulence buffeting the nation’s largest child welfare agency. Its longtime director, Peter Digre, abruptly resigned in April, and today is his last day with the county. Two veteran county bureaucrats will steer the department until the Board of Supervisors selects a new director, and they are already initiating an internal review of how the department handles its relationships with foster care agencies.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, a cluster of parents whose children are in the county’s dependency and foster care system called for sweeping reforms after booing Digre as he was handed a farewell county proclamation by Supervisor Gloria Molina.

“The children need this task force now,” said Helen Grunning of Palmdale. “Their very lives depend on it.”