Oregon SB 1515

“Oregon’s foster care officials would have to produce public reports listing confirmed findings of abuse and neglect every three months under proposed legislation that emerged from a Senate panel Wednesday.

Senate Bill 1515, shepherded by Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, cleared the Senate’s human services committee in a unanimous vote that came with praise and promises of urgency — offering a flash of bipartisanship in a legislative session that’s otherwise been off to a tense start.

Gelser spent months drafting the bill amid outcry over the Department of Human Services’ handling of a provider named Give Us This Day. The provider closed last year amid accusations that it misspent more than $2 million in state money and tolerated more than a decade of child abuse.

Beyond compelling officials to produce quarterly reports on abuse findings, the bill would add licensing inspectors for child-care facilities, give officials more power to shut down or take over troubled agencies, and treat the failure to pull children from unlicensed facilities as a crime.

Oregon has nearly 8,000 children in foster care on any given day, many of them already victims of abuse or facing behavioral and emotional issues before coming into state care.

“Could we hold off? We could,” said Rep. Duane Stark, R-Grants Pass, one of three House members who testified in support of the bill.

He noted the difficulty in vetting such complicated legislation in a 35-day session, a major concern for Republicans this month in light of other that would increase the minimum wage and make changes to housing policy.

“But the problem is children need that attention right now,” he said. “I really hope we move that bill right now, so we get the positions in place right now, to get the licensing we need right now, to protect children right now. So they’re not waiting.”

Gelser’s bill joins an outside investigation of the Department of Human Services’ child welfare system, ordered by Gov. Kate Brown. The review could take up to six months. Brown’s policy adviser for human services, Dani Ledezma, joined Brown’s interim human services director, Clyde Saiki, to show support for the bill.

“Our caseworkers have some of the toughest jobs in the state,” Saiki said. “We also have many caring and compete providers. But that being said, we still have the responsibility to provide the safest environment we can for our foster children, and we have to do better.””

Foster care scandal: Bill requiring public reports on abuse clears Senate panel [My Informs.com 2/4/16]

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