A better future for our foster youth
There is no higher calling for government than protecting abused and neglected kids. Counselors on the front lines in San Joaquin County’s shelter for foster children are committed to providing a safe refuge for traumatized youth.
A recent series in The San Francisco Chronicle reported what we all know to be true — our system is far from perfect. The articles found that, too often, California’s network of shelters rely on law enforcement for help when volatile children act out. But first, some context. Shelters like ours are temporary homes for children removed from their families as a result of abuse or neglect. They range from infancy to age 18 and may stay only a day or, historically, for months. Last year, about 5,400 kids spent time in California’s shelters, which are run directly by county governments or nonprofit organizations.
We acknowledge that our practices at Mary Graham Children’s Shelter near Stockton can improve, and we’re constantly striving to enhance our services to create more hopeful futures for kids. We also agree that keeping foster youth out of the juvenile justice system is a key priority.
Some of the statistics in The Chronicle, however, may have created the wrong impression about the nature and reason for the number of phone calls. Here’s one example.
The article reported that in 2015 and 2016 our shelter housed 1,122 youths and made 5,049 calls to law enforcement. While those numbers are significant, 9 out of 10 of those calls were for youth leaving the shelter and returning later. Under state law, children can leave shelter grounds. However, Mary Graham uses extreme caution to ensure a child’s safety by contacting law enforcement once when youths leave and then again when they return. That’s why the calls are so frequent.
Even so, we’ve been working aggressively to reshape our approach under a state law that took effect Jan. 1. Our goal is to reduce reliance on all congregate-care facilities, including shelters, by expanding homebased placements for kids and ensuring that children who need intensive care receive immediate treatment. Our initiatives include: Increasing staff training with a focus on trauma-related services.
Improving shelter staff-tochild ratios to 1-to-4 instead of 1-to-6.
Improving family-finding services and locating more foster families to host children.
Launching a new licensing system to expand our resource family network.
Expanding the availability of mental health services and ensuring that youth who need intensive care and supervision are accepted into short-term residential treatment programs.
These changes have produced encouraging results. The average daily occupancy at Mary Graham has decreased by half, and law enforcement calls have decreased 73 percent, compared with the same period in 2016. From January to the end of May, only 10 juvenile bookings were reported, or an average of two per month. That compares with the average of more than eight bookings per month cited by The Chronicle for 2015 and 2016.
Our work does not end here. We will remain vigilant to ensure our foster care system provides the best possible protection and support for the children entrusted in our care.