PORTLAND — New records reveal state officials knew of significant troubles at a Portland foster care provider years earlier than previously reported.
The records show that in 2009, the head of Oregon’s child welfare programs emailed her boss with worries about Give Us This Day. Erinn Kelley-Siel wrote to Department of Human Services Director Bruce Goldberg that every single staff person working for the provider had a criminal record. Kelley-Siel also wrote that Give Us This Day wasn’t licensed.
Other messages sent between 2009 and 2014 show back-and-forth discussions over licensing, abuse complaints, worries about poor care and supervision, problems with cleanliness and hunger, and concerns about financial mismanagement.
The Oregonian reported that hundreds of pages of records were released by Sen. Sara Gelser ahead of a legislative hearing next week. She obtained them through a public records request.
Despite concerns, officials in June 2013 recommended keeping the state’s contract with Give Us This Day. That’s because the provider was known for accepting troubled children other providers turned away.
It wasn’t until last year that the department stopped placing children at Give Us This Day — after allegations emerged that the provider had misspent nearly $2 million in state funding.
Gov. Kate Brown ousted the DHS interim director in November and announced a review of Oregon’s foster care system.
Tougher oversight sought
Gelser is pushing for tougher oversight of Oregon’s child welfare system.
Her bills would give officials more power to investigate abuse claims and close providers accused of neglect.
One bill would tighten licensing requirements and financial rules, and give regulators power to suspend a provider’s license over abuse claims and other safety violations. Currently, providers can keep their license if they’re “substantially” in compliance, even if regulators have repeatedly confirmed abuse and neglect.
Over the past several years, Oregon has paid millions of dollars in settlements involving abuse.
“All of the right things were being said in public. But behind the curtain, decisions were being made to sacrifice the safety of kids,” Gelser told the newspaper.
Give Us This Day’s financial troubles were first reported by Willamette Week in September.
Later that month, a former Give Us This Day employee told the Senate’s human services committee the provider failed to provide food and clean bedding, rewrote reports, tolerated mold and rodents, and let workers use improper force.
The new interim director said he planned to “deeply” investigate the circumstances that allowed Give Us This Day to continue operating despite substantiated claims of abuse.
