The Duty of Child Welfare Agencies to Disclose

Hat tip to a reader for forwarding on this review of honest representation in foster care placements in Illinois. It also mentions the case of Kenny Bryan.

Excerpts: “Historical information about a child’s background, inclusive of his or her social, medical, familial, placement and behavioral history do not make it into the hands of his or her foster or putative adoptive parents.  Unbelievably, potential adoptive parents are left in the dark about whether a child they are bringing into their home has a history of being sexually abused or was a sexual abuser.  Yet this happens all too frequently.  Current disclosure and investigation laws pertaining to adoption procedures for public and private agencies across the states have low thresholds to meet when it comes to disclosing the placement backgrounds and health histories of adoptive children.  The consequences of not providing the adoptive or foster parents with adequate and full disclosure are grave.  Not only does it threaten the well-being of children by not equipping parents and medical professionals with necessary background information for diagnosing medical and mental health conditions, but also it does not equip families to best support these children.”

Their six suggestions for reform include the following:

“1. “For profit” companies must not be allowed to place children in Illinois.  When a child’s welfare is at stake, there quite simply can be no competing interests.  A “for profit” company, by its very terms, is more concerned about its bottom line than the interests of the children it places.  Presently, only tax-exempt agencies may contract with DCFS; however, there are no limits on the ability of the tax-exempt agencies to sub-contract with for-profit agencies.³⁹   Thus, for-profit companies can and do still make profits from placing Illinois children into temporary or permanent homes through sub-contracting arrangements.  This dangerous loophole is problematic because when profits are placed ahead of children, dollars dictate what information is disclosed;

2. The statutory language that refers to disclosure of information, “if known,” needs to be amended to more closely reflect the case law, which is trending toward a duty to fully disclose psychological and medical histories of the child. The statute should not give an agency an excuse to claim that they “did not know.”  Any putative adoptive parent or foster parent must be given the psychological and medical records of the child, and the duty of the agency is to locate that information and provide it to the potential new family.  It is certainly not especially onerous for the agency to get authorizations and request medical and psychological records of the child, and then provide to the adoptive parents.

3. The agency should and must ask the biological parent to list all physicians and medical providers and then request the records.

4. The agency should and must disclose the sexual, social, medical, and psychological histories to the putative foster parents.

5. The agency should and must disclose the placement history of the child.

6. The agency must be barred from placing a child with a either a sexually aggressive history or a violent history in a home with younger children.”

Read the entire article at Eyes Wide Open: The Duty of Child Welfare Agencies in Illinois to Disclose

[Illinois Trial Lawyers Association by Jay Paul Deratany & Megan S. O’Connor]

 

REFORM Puzzle Piece