No simple answer for shelter concerns
THE Department of Human Services plans to close its Tulsa shelter in November as part of a continued effort to end shelter placements. Three experts overseeing Oklahoma’s child welfare reforms say closure needs to happen ASAP. Is a middle ground possible?
The experts, called “co-neutrals,” have been working with DHS since 2012 to monitor the state’s compliance with a federal class-action lawsuit settlement. That includes reforms intended to reduce foster care placements, lower caseloads for DHS workers, eliminate shelter use and make other gains.
The relationship between DHS officials and the coneutrals has been professional and cordial, although the two sides haven’t always seen eye to eye. That’s clearly the case with the Laura Dester Children’s Center in Tulsa.
In a March 5 letter to DHS Director Ed Lake, the co-neutrals called on the agency to immediately stop accepting new placements at Laura Dester, and to develop a plan by April 1 that outlines how those 44 children now at the center will be placed elsewhere by June 30.
The co-neutrals noted that from March 2017 through February 2018, DHS had substantiated seven cases of child maltreatment involving 10 children. Forty-six other cases were investigated and ruled out or couldn’t be substantiated, and 54 other complaints were screened out, the co-neutrals said.
“We are deeply concerned that DHS has not established a safe environment for the children” placed at Laura Dester, they wrote. Despite the agency’s previous or ongoing plans, the shelter “continues to present an unreasonable risk of harm to children placed there.”
Lake wasn’t surprised by the co-neutrals’ findings, as his March 15 response makes clear. He says that for a variety of reasons, including other group homes ending their contracts with DHS (or vice versa), Laura Dester is the only placement option for children in DHS custody who “have profoundly challenging physical and behavioral challenges, cognitive disabilities, or emotional circumstances.”
DHS has turned to out-of-state facilities for a handful of extremely violent children who had been at Laura Dester.
The agency also has taken several steps to improve staffing and supervision at Laura Dester, Lake says. In addition, he says, Laura Dester is often only considered as a placement option after the agency’s director of child welfare has personally gotten involved in the search and believes no other viable options exist.
To try to avoid using Laura Dester, DHS this month began working with a liaison of the Office of Juvenile Affairs to child welfare to help find shelter beds elsewhere, Lake says.
“In the previous 60 days, 36 children have been placed at Laura Dester for the sole reason there was no viable alternative,” Lake wrote.
Financial, safety and other concerns, including providers’ inability to meet the needs of those who wind up at Laura Dester, have made closing the shelter “not only impractical, but unwise.” Lake says DHS hopes to have fewer than 20 children at Laura Dester by the end of June and not be using it at all in November.
He and the co-neutrals each have kids’ well-being at heart. But the co-neutrals can go to court to try to have their edicts enforced. If that happens — we hope it doesn’t — we’ll know they weren’t swayed by Lake’s response to this difficult challenge.