Report: Oregon social workers often miss threats to children

PORTLAND (AP) — Oregon’s child welfare system often leaves children in danger because workers miss or ignore threats to a child’s safety, according to an internal state report.

According to the report made public Monday, an analysis of 101 Oregon Department of Human Services cases found that social workers incorrectly determined children were safe in 47 of the cases, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Social workers also didn’t look for safety threats in 27 percent of cases and identified the wrong risk in 20 percent.

State employees “took it at face value that children said they felt safe with their mother,” the report said of one case.

The families whose cases were reviewed in the report were the subjects of 44 subsequent allegations of abuse and neglect.

The study was made public when Senate Human Services Chair Sara Gelser brought it up in a legislative hearing Monday. The Corvallis Democrat has long advocated for reforms to Oregon’s child welfare system. She spoke of one case where children were left in a home where they were bitten by rats.

“Those children are not safe,” she said. “It makes me very worried about the quality of our assessments in general and the lack of safety for our kids.”

Gelser introduced a bill amendment Monday that would require child protective workers to record whether they determine each allegation of abuse or neglect was likely true, false or not able to be determined.

“There are too many kids at risk,” she said.