PORTLAND — When news broke that Oregon was sending foster care children to out-of-state facilities at an increasing rate, Child Welfare director Marilyn Jones responded by writing an opinion piece assuring members of the public: “We know where they are every day, we know how they are doing.”
Jones also promised the state was working with independent, third-party professionals “to monitor the child’s well-being and conduct, in-person meetings every 30 days.”
That’s not true.
First, reports surfaced of a 9-year-old Oregon girl who was dropped off at a facility in Montana and then did not received a visit from a third-party contractor or Child Welfare official for six months. She was also repeatedly injected with drugs to make her lethargic.
Now, the agency has reported another 9-year-old, with an intellectual disability, was in a facility in Illinois from August 2018 until February 2019 without being visited by an Oregon caseworker or any other caseworker.
More than 80 Oregon children in foster care are placed out of state.
“Two children is too many children to fall through the cracks,” Jones told OPB in an interview Wednesday. “I can tell you we are immediately reacting to that. … We are trying our best to do right by every child.”
In a heated legislative hearing this week, Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, the chair of the Senate Human Services Committee, grilled Child Welfare officials.
“How do you protect an intellectually disabled 9-year-old child sent thousands of miles away in a locked facility with no one assigned to that child to have safe eyes on them?” Gelser asked.
It was also revealed there are seven Oregon children with intellectual or developmental disabilities in locked institutions out of state.
One is a 15-year-old who was placed out of state last month, after reports of abuse happening at the facilities surfaced. Another is a 17-year-old who has been in a facility in Arkansas for one year and seven months.
Oregon stopped institutionalizing children and adults with disabilities years ago.
Sara Fox, who oversees the out-of-state program, said the agency goes through the same process for each child before they are sent out of state. She said a committee meets twice a month with representatives from Child Welfare, the Oregon Health Authority and members of the Office of Developmental Disabilities who determine where a child will be placed.
Child Welfare officials said they are in the midst of creating a centralized “tracker” to document when the children are seen by a state caseworker or a third-party contractor.
