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March 7th 07, 06:08 AM
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/NEWS03/70306086/1001/NEWS
DCS faulted for moving kids
Advocacy group also determines agency has improved foster care
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
Children are being shuffled from one foster home to another. Caseworkers
aren’t visiting the kids enough. And about a third of child-welfare
cases “contained significant gaps in documentation.”
But the state, through the Department of Children’s Services, has made
great strides with foster children in other areas.
Those findings by a group that monitors Tennessee’s foster-care program
were filed in a federal court in Nashville on Tuesday. Since 2001,
Tennessee’s foster-care system has been under a court order to reform
its treatment of some of the state’s most vulnerable children.
The report looked at how children are treated in the first six months
after they come into the foster-care system in Tennessee. Most had been
taken from their families because of abuse and neglect.
It found that more than half had moved at least twice during the six
months, and 18 percent had been placed in three or more homes during
that time.
“That level of multiple moves is just unacceptable,” said Ira Lustbader,
an attorney for Children’s Rights, a New-York based advocacy group that
initiated a class-action lawsuit against DCS that was settled with the
court order.
“We’ve got to see more stability for these children.”
DCS agrees.
“Some of the challenges we’ve got are with placement stability,” DCS
spokesman Rob Johnson said. “One of the things we’re working hard to do
is limit the number of times a child moves when a child comes into custody.”
The department is working to get more foster parents, which would help
limit the number of times a child has to move.
The report also faulted DCS because only a little more than half of the
children in foster care received required visits by caseworkers during
their first eight weeks in custody. Seventy-six percent received the
required visits after eight weeks.
The report found that DCS had made conditions better for children,
including moving kids out of orphanage-like institutions and into foster
families and keeping more kids together with their siblings.
The number of children in state custody also has significantly
decreased. There were 10,600 kids in DCS custody in early 2004. There
are now roughly 8,700 in the system.
Contact Sheila Burke at 664-2144 or .
DCS faulted for moving kids
Advocacy group also determines agency has improved foster care
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
Children are being shuffled from one foster home to another. Caseworkers
aren’t visiting the kids enough. And about a third of child-welfare
cases “contained significant gaps in documentation.”
But the state, through the Department of Children’s Services, has made
great strides with foster children in other areas.
Those findings by a group that monitors Tennessee’s foster-care program
were filed in a federal court in Nashville on Tuesday. Since 2001,
Tennessee’s foster-care system has been under a court order to reform
its treatment of some of the state’s most vulnerable children.
The report looked at how children are treated in the first six months
after they come into the foster-care system in Tennessee. Most had been
taken from their families because of abuse and neglect.
It found that more than half had moved at least twice during the six
months, and 18 percent had been placed in three or more homes during
that time.
“That level of multiple moves is just unacceptable,” said Ira Lustbader,
an attorney for Children’s Rights, a New-York based advocacy group that
initiated a class-action lawsuit against DCS that was settled with the
court order.
“We’ve got to see more stability for these children.”
DCS agrees.
“Some of the challenges we’ve got are with placement stability,” DCS
spokesman Rob Johnson said. “One of the things we’re working hard to do
is limit the number of times a child moves when a child comes into custody.”
The department is working to get more foster parents, which would help
limit the number of times a child has to move.
The report also faulted DCS because only a little more than half of the
children in foster care received required visits by caseworkers during
their first eight weeks in custody. Seventy-six percent received the
required visits after eight weeks.
The report found that DCS had made conditions better for children,
including moving kids out of orphanage-like institutions and into foster
families and keeping more kids together with their siblings.
The number of children in state custody also has significantly
decreased. There were 10,600 kids in DCS custody in early 2004. There
are now roughly 8,700 in the system.
Contact Sheila Burke at 664-2144 or .