O.C. Policy Shift Cuts Number in Children’s Home

The county’s home for abused and neglected children--so overcrowded three years ago that some wards had to sleep in the gym foyer--has seen a dramatic population drop because of new policies aimed at keeping children out of such institutions.

The average number of children living at the Orangewood Children’s Home was 110 last year, compared to 234 in 1998, according to data compiled by the Orange County Grand Jury. The average stay of a child at Orangewood declined from 30 days to 15 days.

Given the falling population, the grand jury report concluded that the facility is overstaffed--a point officials strongly dispute.

The turnaround comes in the wake of a significant shift in the way the county Social Services Agency handles children in troubled homes.

Social workers who find children in distress are increasingly placing them with relatives or in foster homes rather than the shelter, believing such home-like settings will be far less traumatizing than big institutions. Moreover, recent changes in state and federal law have reduced the amount of time children must stay in emergency shelters before being reunited with parents.

“Over the past two years, we’ve started looking at other avenues we could use to safely place kids besides having to bring them into Orangewood,” Children’s Services Director Michael Riley said.

Officials stressed that the decline doesn’t mean that they are dealing with less child abuse and neglect. In fact, Riley said, the number of children removed from homes has remained relatively steady for the last five years--roughly 195 a month.

A report prepared last year by the group Prevent Child Abuse Orange County found a 19% drop in reports of child abuse, mirroring a national trend. The group attributed the decline to several factors including the strong economy and better counseling and “training” programs for parents. More recent data weren’t immediately available.

Experts said cultural attitudes about child abuse are slowly changing, and Orangewood’s population drop reflects a new--and potentially promising--approach to dealing with children in need.

“Places like Orangewood were overflowing because we were in crisis management,” said Jorja Prover, a professor of social welfare at UCLA.

“Now there is an emphasis to get kids into permanent situations,” Prover said. “These group homes are being used less. We look more to the extended family.”

Overcrowding at Orangewood has been a source of hand-wringing for years at the county’s Hall of Administration. The crisis reached a head in the spring of 1997, when Orangewood’s daily population surged above 300. The facility is designed to house as many as 236 children. At the time, officials expressed worry for the children’s welfare inside such cramped quarters.

With the population now shrinking, children are getting better care than ever, said Gene Howard, president of the private foundation that raises money for the emergency shelter. The staff has recently tried to start new projects, Howard said, including a sibling cottage that allows brothers and sisters to stay together.

With More Attention, ‘Kids Are Flourishing’

“You see kids being given a tremendous amount of individual attention,” he said. “The kids are flourishing.

The grand jury report found that the biggest population decline came in preschool-age children. A daily average of 78 very young children stayed at the facility in September 1998 compared to 24 last September. As a result, older children now make up a larger percentage of the home’s populace, according to the report.

The panel concluded that the facility is now “overstaffed with counselors and support personnel” and recommended that the county form a task force to examine the issue. It also called on the Social Services Agency to consider creating an inventory control system to better track donated clothing items.

The prospect of cutting Orangewood staff doesn’t sit well with top Social Services Agency officials, who said the population of child wards will rise again.

“Our business is quite volatile--it’s as volatile as Wall Street,” Riley said. “Ten years ago, when Orangewood averaged 100 to 150 kids, we thought things were going well. Then, lo and behold, we were up to 300 kids.”

Howard, head of the Orange County Children’s Foundation, agreed. “I’d sure hate to see anything happen that would reduce the amount of attention given to” children, he said.

Earlier this week, the Social Services Agency presented the Board of Supervisors with a plan outlining its changing philosophy on providing children’s services, Riley said. The report highlighted efforts to offer more culturally sensitive, community-based programs for families. It also discussed the county’s effort to provide services to the entire family and not focus only on the victimized child.

* DANA PARSONS

Orangewood’s falling numbers suggest parents’ complaints weren’t so crazy after all. B3

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Kids at Orangewood

The average number of children staying at the Orangewood Children’s Home has declined signifcantly over the last two years. Here is a breakdown.

1994: 243

1995: 231

1996: 236

1997: 241

1998: 234

1999: 110

Source: Social Services Agency; Orange County Grand Jury