Failure to monitor deaths in foster care

Foster child deaths mount
Some 50 children died last year in the state's protective care, say the advocates tracking numbers.
Clea Benson Bee Capitol Bureau. The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, Calif.:Sep 17, 2006. p. A3

Almost 50 abused or neglected California children died last year in foster care after the state took them away from their parents for their own protection, according to child advocates who started counting because the state does not keep track.

The tally by the Children's Advocacy Institute is the first measurement of how many of California's most vulnerable children die while under the state's guardianship.

The institute, based at the University of San Diego School of Law, also found that more than 60 children in foster care died in 2004.

California has about 75,000 foster children, one-fourth of the nation's foster-care population.

Some of the children died accidentally or of natural causes. But others were neglected or abused by caregivers. The causes of death were not included in the study.

The death count includes children such as Dylan James George, 2, whose foster parents have been charged with fatally beating him in their Fremont home in 2004. Anthony Cortez, 15, was choked to death by another child in a Stockton group home in 2003. Four-month-old Christopher Battie died of sudden infant death syndrome in a Fresno foster home in 2003.

Data comparing the death rate for children in foster care to the death rate for children overall were not available because the state has not compiled updated mortality statistics for the general population.

The California Department of Social Services collects data on how many children in foster care statewide are injured, but not on how many die.

Advocates said a failure to monitor deaths in foster care could hamper efforts to improve the system. The state failed a federal review three years ago in part because children were not being kept safe enough after being removed from their homes.

"It just makes common sense that the state should be tracking and aware of how and when their children are dying, and if there's anything they can do to stop that," said Christina Riehl, an attorney at the Children's Advocacy Institute.

Riehl said the institute started its count after a state law went into effect requiring counties to release the name and date of death of each child who dies while in foster care. The group compiled the data by submitting requests to each of California's 58 counties.

Mary Ault, California's deputy director of children and family services, said the state reviews individual death reports and has monitored fatality trends through the Child Death Review Council.

"I believe the more facts we have, the more information we have, the better we're able to manage for better outcomes," Ault said.

The review council, composed of representatives from different state agencies, looks at records of all child deaths in the state and issues periodic reports. But there is a lag time of several years before each report is released, and the council does not specify how many of the children who died were in foster care.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services determined last year that the state was violating federal law by failing to publicly disclose information about deaths and near- deaths of children due to abuse or neglect.

Threatened with the loss of federal child-welfare funds, the state this summer started requiring counties to file reports on such incidents. The reports are supposed to be filed on all children, not just those in foster care.

Ault said the state would be able to use those reports as a tool for improving the system.

So far, one report has been filed. It describes the drowning death of a 2-year-old girl found in a hot tub in Orange County in July.

The report said Orange County social workers had investigated several reports that the girl's parents had neglected her and had placed her with her grandparents for several months while both parents were incarcerated. When the girl died, she was back in her parents' custody.

Meanwhile, the state is continuing efforts to reduce the number of children in foster care, which has dropped since a high of 100,000 in 2000.

In a couple of weeks, the Bush administration will begin allowing California to spend federal foster-care funds on programs that aim to keep children at home with their parents.

The rate at which California removes children from their homes is close to the nationwide average, said Richard Wexler, director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. But Wexler believes the rate should still be lower.

"What you have in foster care is a system where, of course, the majority of foster parents want to do the best that they can for the children in their care," Wexler said. "But the abusive minority is significant, and there are a number of foster children abusing each other. The system is overloaded with children who don't need to be there."

Fast Facts
California has about 75,000 foster children, one-fourth of the nations foster-care population.

The study by the Childrens Advocacy Institute found that:
* Almost 50 California children died last year in foster care.
* More than 60 such children died in 2004.
* The state Department of Social Services collects data on how many children in foster care are injured, but not on how many die.