First Independent Review Documents Failings of Philadelphia Child Welfare System; Need for Strong Mo

PRESS RELEASE

Expert reports released by court detail lives of children at risk due to inadequate health/medical care, unstable foster care placements, and slow-moving adoptions.

(Philadelphia, November 25, 1998) The first independent review of Philadelphia's child welfare system reveals systemwide failings and their affect on the lives of children in foster care. Judge Robert F. Kelley, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ordered public release of reports by child welfare experts as part of a recent settlement agreement in the class action lawsuit Baby Neal v. Ridge. Two nationally recognized child welfare experts studied over 600 children's cases and data produced by the system itself and found high percentages of inadequate health and medical care for children in foster care, unstable placements, incomplete investigations of reports of abuse and neglect and slow-moving adoptions leading to children languishing in the child welfare system.

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This class action lawsuit, Baby Neal v. Ridge, was brought in 1989 by Children's Rights, Inc. (CRI), formerly the Children's Rights Project of the ACLU, the Pennsylvania ACLU, and the law firm of Drinker, Biddle, Reath against the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the court system on behalf of 6,000 children in the city's foster care system or at risk of foster care placement. The suit charged that defendants were violating these children's legal rights by failing to provide them with legally mandated services. The lawsuit's settlement agreement reached in July 1998 provided that information to monitor the agency's progress would be made available to lawyers for plaintiff children, including periodic reviews of children's records.

"The release of these expert reports show the need for public accountability and strong monitoring of Philadelphia's child welfare system." stated Marcia Robinson Lowry, Director of Children's Rights. "The City's attempts at reform are not yet making a difference in the lives of children. The lawsuit and its settlement agreement have given us these tools to measure and monitor the reform effort on an ongoing basis and the legal means to ensure reforms are implemented. We will continue to conduct case record reviews twice a year and monitor statistical data to make sure the children receive the benefits they've been promised."

The Baby Neal lawsuit addressed every aspect of child welfare practice in Philadelphia, including the way abuse and neglect investigations are conducted, the way in which services are provided to children and families, how foster care agencies are supervised, and the manner in which adoptions are processed and finalized.

Key Findings and Case Studies of Expert Reports

Report of Theodore Stein

The report by nationally recognized child welfare expert Theodore Stein, Ph.D., Professor of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Albany, covers the case records of 660 children and uses 15 case studies to illustrate the lives behind the statistics in the various problem areas. Two cases studies and key findings are cited below:

Case Study #11: Sondra Carlson
Sondra Carlson, 15 1/2 years old, was awaiting her 16th foster-care placement at the time of the case reading. Nine months was the longest period of caretaker and residential stability that Sondra had ever experienced in the City's foster care system. From July 1984 to May 1986, she moved every four months; from May 1986 to December 1993, she lived in four homes. Between December 1993 and March 1997, Sondra would move 5 more times from emergency shelters to foster homes to institutions. At the time of the case reading, Sondra was at a hospital, awaiting replacement.

Case Study #14: Edward Gonzales
At age 15 months, Edward came to the attention of DHS when his sister was killed by their parents. He remained in the care of a great aunt for over two years even after numerous reports of physical and sexual abuse and being found floating face down in a bathtub. Finally put in foster care, he changed homes seven times in three years. He received no psychological services for his increasingly severe behavior problems. Now 12 1/2 years old, Edward resides in an institution due to psychiatric problems. DHS's Adoption Review Committee had determined that Edward was not adoptable due to emotional problems.

Inadequate Health and Medical Care:

The review revealed that children's health and medical needs are not being addressed:

22% of children did not receive timely medical examinations;

64% of the children had no indication in their records that recommended medical treatment was actually received;

23% of children did not receive a dental exam within the required 9 month period.

Inappropriate and Unstable Foster Care Placements:

The majority of children in foster care do not experience placement stability:

65% of children have moved at least once;

63% have moved 3 times or more;

One-third of all children have been in 4 or more placements.

Of children in custody with siblings in custody:

71% were not living with all of their siblings;

65% were not living with some of their siblings;

64% were not living with any of their siblings.

Children Languishing in Care:

Pennsylvania regulations provide that long-term foster care is appropriate when a child has "special needs or circumstances." However, no such problems were identified to explain the plan of long-term care for:

60% of children aged one to three;

33% of children aged four to six and seven to nine; · 20% of children aged 10 to 12;

11% of children aged 13 to 16;

22% of children over the age of 16.

Inadequate Investigations of Abuse and Neglect

In 55% of the General Protective Services (GPS) cases and 20% of the Child Protective Services (CPS) cases, it was impossible to determine from the records whether the investigation was completed on time, either because dates for the commencement or the completion of the investigation were not recorded.

For GPS cases there was no in-person contact during the investigation with the child's caretaker in 53% of the cases and no in-person contact with the child in 51% of the cases.

Report of Ira M. Schwartz

The second expert report released by plaintiffs today was prepared by another national expert, Ira M. Schwartz, Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania. Key findings of the Schwartz report include the following:

High Caseloads and Low Standard of Social Worker Practices:

Despite a Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare regulation that prohibits social workers from being responsible for more than 30 cases (families), during the first seven months of 1997, there were at any given time between 57 and 80 DHS social workers with over 30 cases. During this same period, there were between 131 and 238 cases that were not assigned to any DHS workers.
Slow-Moving Adoptions:

Of the children in DHS custody with a goal of adoption on October 29, 1997, 75% had been in care for three-four years, 61% had been in care for more than four years, and 46% had been in care for more than five years.

Of the children in DHS custody on March 29, 1997 who had a goal of return home, 18% had been in foster care for more than 3 years, and 12% had been in foster care for more than 4 years. It is unlikely that these children will, in fact, be returned home.

"These reports, reflecting a system that had failed to live up to its promise to children, clearly had a major influence on the defendants' willingness to settle this case and to agree to make commitments to reform on which they can be held accountable," Lowry said.

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.