Kids deserve better

There are hundreds of foster children in Massachusetts living not in the protective care of a foster family but in a group setting that — regardless of how nurturing the staff might be — will never take the place of a loving family. That is hard enough.

The fact that some of the state’s 101 licensed group homes aren’t always meeting basic standards of safety or cleanliness is simply shameful.

A federal audit of group homes that house foster children in Massachusetts finds they did not always comply with the state’s own health and safety requirements. The Department of Early Education and Care, which licenses group homes, conducted the required monitoring, according to the audit, but they missed plenty.

Some issues flagged by the feds were minor (a plate of food in a resident’s bureau drawer, for example). Some were far more serious — including a failure to ensure that every employee had undergone all of the required criminal background checks.

EEC is responsible for monitoring compliance, and fell short in that regard. The compliance problems, of course, are the fault of the contractors, who are identified in the audit only by number. The state so far hasn’t identified them, either.

But if we were the relatives of a child living in, say, group home #10 — which had nine facility and equipment violations, and 51 employees missing at least one of the several required background checks, we’d darn sure like to know it. The taxpayers who are responsible for paying the contractors ought to know it, too.

EEC and the Department of Children and Families say they have taken corrective action, and agreed with the main recommendations in the audit — including, in the future, unannounced facility inspections, and tighter deadlines for making repairs. In that regard we hope the feds continue to monitor the monitors.

But for the sake of these kids, and as much as any outfit that contracts with the state, the operators of group homes should not be shielded from public scrutiny.