Oregon Foster Kids Removed from County Juvenile Jail

“Oregon child welfare officials are removing foster children from a Klamath Falls residential program located in a county juvenile jail, after lawyers and state lawmakers raised concerns that the girls did not have free access to tampons.

Girls recently were given access to three free tampons at a time, but only if they turned over their used hygiene products to staff.

Four girls in foster care were assigned to the program as of this week, and the state is moving all of them to other locations by April 1, a Department of Human Services spokesman said.

Lawyers who represent children in foster care first sounded the alarm about the hygiene products earlier this month, after one of the teenagers complained that staff would only provide tampons if she earned points for good behavior.

Lawmakers quickly got involved and started looking at passing a law to require more hygiene options at youth residential facilities, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported earlier this month. They are also considering a bill that would give state regulators the authority to license county-run residential programs for foster children, which they already do for private programs.

Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, also asked regulators who oversee the youth residential facilities to look into concerns about Klamath County’s “Youth Inspiration Program.” On Wednesday, she praised them for acting quickly to investigate complaints and for not sending more girls there.

“That’s the way it is supposed to work,” she said.

The program also serves teenagers in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority for committing crimes, and that agency plans to continue sending girls to the program. “One of our community residential program reviewers just returned from a visit,” spokeswoman Sarah Evans wrote in an email. “After the visit, the OYA staff person felt confident that OYA youth were being cared for and were not being abused or neglected in any way.”

It was not clear whether the hygiene products factored into the child welfare agency’s decision to stop assigning girls to the program. Robert Oakes, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Human Services, said the only rule violation he was aware of was Klamath County’s failure to provide a mandated weekly outing outside the facility.

The county ended its longstanding free-pads-only policy and began providing three free tampons at a time, provided the teenage girls turned in their used hygiene products to staff at the facility.

But the new approach was still concerning for Gelser, who emailed Klamath County Juvenile Department Director Dan Golden that requiring the teenagers to hand over used tampons “compromises the dignity and privacy of girls.” Golden explained that the girls’ toilets are in their individual rooms and they are not allowed individual trash cans. Golden could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Gelser also took issue with the use of jail cells as rooms for children who are in state care because they experienced abuse and neglect. Child welfare officials increasingly rely on programs in converted juvenile jails and other institutional settings to care for foster children, in an effort to comply with a 2017 agreement to phase out the use of hotels to house the most vulnerable and traumatized children, The Oregonian/OregonLive has reported.

“Please help me understand the evidence-based program that suggests such practices are trauma informed and designed to support and nurture our vulnerable youth?” Gelser wrote in an email to Golden.

The email chain had started out as a back-and-forth between Golden and lawyer Kathleen Megill Strek, who represents a girl at the facility, but Gelser said Golden added her and House Majority Leader Rep. Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, to the discussion. Golden defended the county program, in part by referring to Strek’s client — who was named in correspondence he shared with the lawmakers and others — and then detailing what he said were her experiences and health challenges before she arrived at the program. Gelser said that move violated a state confidentiality law since the information was sent to lawmakers and others not involved in the girl’s case.

The situation could have a big-dollar backlash for Klamath County. County officials had been pushing lawmakers to award them $12 million to expand the program. Gov. Kate Brown proposed the funding to roughly triple the size of the program in her budget plan back in November.

But on Wednesday, Brown’s spokeswoman Lisa Morawski wrote in an email that the governor expects lawmakers to consider “this new information” as they make budget decisions.

Aaron Fiedler, a spokesman for Williamson, said she is “reserving judgement” until she meets with Golden.

As for Gelser, she is a firm “no” on the expansion project.

“There is no way that program should expand,” Gelser said.”

Oregon foster kids removed from county juvenile jail that limited tampon access

[Oregon Live 3/28/19 by Hillary Borrud]

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