Washington Releases Severe Abuse of Adopted Children Committee Report

We have 33 posts on Washington to date. They include 10 cases of Bittersweet Justice (in which foster or adopted children have received compensation for abuse) or lawsuits and 13 How Could You? entries . Even the worst CPS FAIL case of all time-Josh Powell– has a connection to Washington.

Major cases have included Hana and Immanuel Williams, Trebilcock children , Weller Children and Scott Hamrick . Other heinous cases include Dr Louis Chao Chen and Mary Mazalic.

The 49-page report is available at Scribd here.

“The report suggests the state should:

– Strengthen Oversight of Child Placing Agencies

– Develop and Distribute “Red Flags” On Troubled Adoptions [Wow, maybe they should read our red flags post  to proactively weed out agencies. Oh silly me…the agencies are ANGELS who do no wrong. ]

– Track Adoption Disruption and Dissolution

– Increase Qualifications for Individuals Conducting Adoption Home Studies and Post-Placement Reports

– Enhance Minimum Requirements for Adoption Home Studies

– Make Sure All Home Studies Are Filed With Courts – Improve Training For Parents

– Create Minimum Requirements for Child Placing Agency Staff

– Train Professionals Involved in Adoption Process

– Enhance Support Services for Adoptive Families
“It did take us a while to step back and say, ‘what’s going on,’” explained Becky Smith from Children’s Administration.
Smith called the report an indictment of the private and public adoption system, giving Washington a “B” grade.[Say what?I would hate to see what a F state looked like then!]

“We should be expecting the same requirements of a private adoption as we do an adoption done by Children’s Administration,” Smith said.
The report offers only vague prescriptions for fixing the sytem. It suggests more resources, money and oversight but no clear idea of how to accomplish or pay for the results.
“Maybe it’s a call to arms,” Meinig said, “This is the launch point.”
One challenge the state faces in executing the recommendations is paying for them. As the report’s authors note, “Almost all recommendations would likely require additional resources for implementation.” Where those resources would come from is up to the legislature and governor.
State lawmakers will receive the report on Tuesday. Gubernatorial candidates Rob McKenna (R) and Jay Inslee (D) have both said they believe improving the adoption oversight system is a top priority.”

Report is ‘call to arms’ on Washington’s adoption system

[King5 10/22/12 by John Langeler]

“In 2011 alone, there were 11 confirmed cases of severe abuse of adopted children around the state.”

“Lack of oversight

Private adoptions lack the oversight that state adoptions have, said Chris Case, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Social and Health Services.

State law requires that the state or an adoption agency do what’s known as a home study prior to an adoption. Ideally, the home study gives a social worker a sense of a family’s everyday life and helps determine whether the prospective parents are suitable. In state adoptions, social workers also do a post-placement assessment, again to ensure the child is in a safe and healthy environment, after an adoption is finalized. That doesn’t always happen in private adoptions.

The Williamses underwent a home study prior to adopting Hana but would not cooperate with attempts by the adoption agency to complete a post-placement assessment, according to the committee’s report. [Hmmmmm…I have never heard of an adoption agency who attempted to do a postplacement assessment. Proactivity in postplacement! uh huh…]

Unlike Oregon, Washington doesn’t have rules that comply with international guidelines known as The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect to Intercountry Adoption. The Hague Convention helps protect adopted children by laying out measures and protections required in each phase of the adoption process. Washington’s laws regulating private (and international) adoption address “minimum requirements for adoption home studies and post-placement reports in a cursory manner,” the report stated.

As a private entity, the adoption agency would have little clout to force parents to submit to the post-placement assessment, and private agencies’ protocol for post-adoption follow-up is inconsistent.

Private adoption agencies also do not uniformly require the same training and qualifications as the state does for its social workers who do home studies.

“The fatal abuse suffered by this child raised questions about whether there were red flags that might have been identified through increased state oversight of child-placing agencies or enhanced requirements for adoption home studies and post-placement services and reports,” the committee’s report stated.

The committee concluded that increasing the required qualification for all social workers who do home studies could help safeguard against abuse. Providing a rubric of required home-study questions could help unearth red flags. For instance, what is the prospective parents’ motivation for adoption? The answer to that simple question could provide crucial insight into whether the home is suitable, but some social workers weren’t asking it, said Mary Meinig, director of the Office of the Family & Children Ombudsman.

The committee also advocated for an internal panel to make adoption decisions for children in state care. Currently, the social worker and his or her supervisor make the decision about whether to approve an adoption. Having a panel and multiple perspectives could help catch warning signs that a home may be unsafe, Meinig said.

About 8,703 Washington children are either in foster care, are waiting for adoption, or both, according to the Children’s Administration. The urgency to give them a permanent home, though with good intentions, may contribute to placement of children or keeping children in unsuitable homes, said Meinig, who read numerous home study reports. In some cases, red flags, even when raised, are ignored.

“In one home study, we had a reference where the person said, ‘No, this (applicant) shouldn’t not be adopting a child,'” Meinig said. “The home study person went back to the (applicant) and said, ‘This reference wasn’t positive. Do you have anyone else?'”

The committee also recommended improving training and preparations for prospective adoptive parents, such as allowing prospective parents to see a child’s full file before adoption, minimum training requirements for all adoption agency staff, and providing more support services for adoptive families. The Children’s Administration is working with Seattle’s Casey Family Programs to explore ways to better support adoptive families.

There were about 1,862 state adoptions in 2011, according to the Children’s Administration, Case said. The state doesn’t track the number of private adoptions, she said.”

Report links rash of abuse, state adoption policy flaws

[Columbian 10/22/12 by Paris Achen]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

 Great ideas, but several seem impractical for the way things currently work. I hope they get implemented. Of course, they don’t have any kind of punishing factor for those agencies involved in the reviewed cases. Agencies get a free pass again.