Foster Kids: Vital Checkup

For 550 local foster children, last month marked the end of a long, painful struggle to regain childhoods lost to abuse or neglect. In another “Adoption Saturday,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Nash presided over a room full of giddy parents and youngsters at the Children’s Court in Monterey Court, finalizing the legalities that create new families.

These are the luckiest kids in the county foster care system, because they’re finally getting out of it. But for every child adopted at the July 28 ceremony, there may be as many as 10 more in the county’s care who are legally eligible for adoption but have been stuck in an administrative limbo for as long as four years: The legal rights of their biological parents were terminated long ago, willing adoptive parents have stepped forward and federal and state funds are set aside to help move the process along, but county social workers can’t seem to finish the paperwork freeing these children for adoption. Meanwhile the kids often bounce from foster home to foster home.

Adoption planning is just one of the big bottlenecks in the county’s foster care system and just one of the reasons that state Controller Kathleen Connell late last month announced an audit of child welfare agencies in L.A. and Sacramento counties.

Some 39,000 foster children, more than a third of all those in California, are under the care of Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services. These are all children who child welfare officials determined were so imperiled in their own homes that they had to be removed. Once in foster care, county officials are responsible for addressing the special medical, psychological and educational needs of these kids. At the same time, social workers are required to work toward reunifying children with their biological parents, if that’s the best option, or to find adoptive families.

The county receives more than $446 million in state and federal funds annually for these purposes. Connell has concerns that this money is not being spent as required and that the county may not even be able to account for all the children who are supposed to be in its care. Are all foster children getting the medical and educational help they require? Are foster parents and adoptive families receiving the assistance and training they need to help these fragile youngsters?

State and federal funds allow social workers to target extra payments for a child’s needs. But the county’s huge foster caseload may leave social workers too overwhelmed to do the comprehensive evaluations and treatment plans required.

State auditors will arrive Monday to start reviewing the county’s payment system and trace money intended for foster families and children. They expect to conclude their work by November. A final report will go to county agencies and the state Department of Social Services by Dec. 1. But years of blue-ribbon inquiries, grand jury reports and other probes have detailed the continuing failures of the county’s foster care system. The real measure of Connell’s audit will be if her findings move county supervisors and state child welfare officials to demand lasting improvements in the lives of the vulnerable children under its care.