Lawsuit: Rhode Island Foster Care UPDATED

“[Name removed per subject’s request], now 23, alleges that during a 15-month period beginning in March 2002, he was placed in a series of “night-to-night placements” at temporary shelters around the state where he was repeatedly assaulted, physically and sexually, by employees and clients. He was 14 at the time and worked as a page and a legislative aide for the state House of Representatives. (At the time, his legal name was [Name removed per subject’s request]. He has since changed his last name to [Name removed per subject’s request], that of his biological father.”

“The DCYF subsequently transferred [Name removed per subject’s request]to residential facilities in Florida and Nebraska, the suit says, where he claims that he was further abused and neglected, and prohibited from communicating with the media, lawyers, the state child advocate and his caseworker. He was eventually returned to Rhode Island in 2005 and treated for two weeks at Bradley Hospital, the suit says, before being released to an independent living program.

[Name removed per subject’s request], who is representing himself in the suit, says he suffered flashbacks, nightmares and chronic anxiety as a result of the time he spent at the facilities in Florida and Nebraska.”

“Defendants named in the suit, filed Feb. 25 and amended on April 4, include the states of Rhode Island, Florida and Nebraska, six residential facilities and 18 individuals, including state administrators, lawyers, doctors and social workers.

[Name removed per subject’s request]recently formed a nonprofit group, NexusGovernment, and has been lobbying for legislation to protect children in DCYF care.”

Ex-state ward sues DCYF for child abuse
[The Providence Journal 4/8/11 by Lynn Arditi]

Update: “Now 24, [Name removed per subject’s request]blames officials in Rhode Island for moving him hundreds of miles from his home, school and friends. The state is failing its foster children when it places them far from its oversight, he said.

“It’s an inhumane approach to a human problem,” [Name removed per subject’s request]told The Associated Press. “These are the most vulnerable people in Rhode Island. We have the ability to provide for them here. And we’re spending all this money to ship them across the country.”

Statistics on Rhode Island Out Of State Placements

“Each year, Rhode Island sends dozens of children to facilities elsewhere, at a cost to taxpayers that has averaged $14 million over the past decade, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request. In fiscal year 2010, for instance, 117 foster children were placed out of state, most in neighboring Massachusetts but some in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
Rhode Island plans to spend $88 million this year on foster care programs.”

Officials at the Department of Children, Youth and Families said Rhode Island has made great strides in reducing the number of children sent out of state. As of Aug. 1, there were 1,700 children in state custody. Fifty-four are in out-of-state facilities. That’s down sharply from just a few years ago, when more than 200 children were sent out of state. In fiscal year 2008, for instance, the state spent $19.8 million housing 231 children in 13 states.

In several cases, children were sent to facilities with troubling records of employee misconduct, abuse and even death.

Misconduct and Deaths in RTCs

“The Stonington Institute in Connecticut came under fire in 2008 after teen boys were forcibly injected with medications designed to restrain them. In 2006, Connecticut officials temporarily halted new admissions at the facility after inspectors reported insufficient staffing and poor employee training. Yet Rhode Island sent children to the facility from 2007 to 2010.

Officials in Virginia this year temporarily halted admissions at the Pines Residential Treatment Center’s facilities in Norfolk and Portsmouth after reporting “significant problems” over several years, including the mishandling of a sexual abuse complaint. North Carolina removed many of its children from the Pines after a parent reported that their child had been sexually abused by two other residents. Rhode Island sent children to the Pines facilities in five of the past 10 years.

Two Texas facilities that have received Rhode Island children were part of The Brown Schools, a chain of treatment centers criticized for the deaths of five residents since 1988. In each case the children died after being restrained. In 2003, Texas investigators determined that a 17-year-old boy who asphyxiated at one of the company’s wilderness camps in 2002 after being restrained. The Brown Schools later sold the facilities. Rhode Island sent children to the facilities from 2002-2005.

The officials who oversee Rhode Island’s foster care system said they only send children to facilities in other states as a last resort, when a child’s physical or mental health needs require treatment no facility within the state can provide.”

New Proposed Legislation to Bar Sending Kids Out of State

“Some lawmakers want to go further and prohibit the state from sending foster children out of the state at all. Rep. Roberto DaSilva, D-East Providence, introduced legislation this year that would bar the practice unless authorities can show it’s not possible to keep the child in Rhode Island. He proposed the legislation after meeting with [Name removed per subject’s request].

“The amount of money we’re spending here is huge,” DaSilva said. “There are facilities here in Rhode Island that could provide these services. And who does the oversight on these out-of-state facilities? Are they being watched as closely as the ones right here?”

DaSilva’s bill didn’t get a vote, but he plans to try again next year.”

RI pays millions to send foster kids out of state
[The Houston Chronicle 8/14/11 by David Klepper/Associated Press]

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