Judge Finds County Visits to Foster Children Inadequate

The presiding judge of Los Angeles County’s Juvenile Court has ruled that the Department of Children and Family Services does not visit some foster children frequently enough to ensure their well-being.

The decision comes in a case involving the county’s use of waivers to avoid state requirements that social workers visit 6,800 foster children every month.

The Alliance for Children’s Rights, a child advocacy group, sued the county in April to forbid social workers from obtaining waivers. In a decision issued last week, Judge Terry Friedman did not go quite that far. He did rule, however, that the county must obtain judicial approval for each use of a visitation waiver; waivers now are approved internally.

Friedman found that there was no evidence that the county determined whether the waivers complied with state law. He also noted that dependency judges rely upon reports from social workers to inform them of a child’s welfare.

“In the absence of monthly, or if necessary, more frequent visits by DCFS social workers with each dependent foster child . . . court reports may not be current, accurate and complete,” Friedman wrote.

County officials are appealing the decision, which would add to the already crushing duties of caseworkers. Officials say they mainly obtain waivers, which are permitted under state law, for children who have been placed with relatives or have spent a long time with one foster family.

“It’s not intended as a workload reduction,” said Anita Bock, director of child services. “It’s intended to minimize government intrusion into the lives of children and family.”

Bock said the judge overstepped his authority because his order sets department policy. If outside entities continually direct the department on how to allocate its resources to protect children, she said, “our ability to do everything gets compromised.”

But Andrew Bridge, head of the Alliance for Children’s Rights and also an attorney, said the ruling is a vindication of his agency’s case.

“If the county is going to take the children away from parents,” Bridge said, “it ought to go out and visit them and make sure they’re safe.”

A blue-ribbon task force on foster care, led by Bridge and created by supervisors after a spate of foster children deaths last year, urged limiting waivers. So did a blistering grand jury report on foster care this year. Both bodies criticized the department for not adequately tracking the well-being of children in its care.

Department officials say that in a study of their computer system begun at Bock’s request last week they identified about 6,800 children among the 54,000 in foster care who are under visitation waivers.

Friedman’s order includes a direction that the department provide a list of all children on waivers.

Bock said the department does have a process in place to ensure that waivers are granted only in appropriate cases. And she said no child has been harmed because that child was not visited monthly.

But Bridge retorted that the county knows of numerous cases in which foster children were injured while in care.